Rampid Byter

The one important thing i'll take away from managerial economics is this.

Marginal Revenue = Marginal Costs

I just saved you $2,000 and 10 weeks of your time.

I hate to say it but I announce I officially quit graduate school.

I can’t help but consider the overwhelming cost that would be out of pocket to complete the degrees. I’m looking at another 56,000 to complete another two years of the degree. My current employer doesn’t find any value in continuing education, and puts more emphasis on internal groups/communities than continuing education. For that matter my company doesn’t even count gaining certifications towards my contribution towards the company.

I’ve taken a relatively staunch stance on the subject. The company wants to use my Microsoft certifications towards the Microsoft Gold partnership, yet won’t count them towards my internal contributions for the year. For that matter the company never paid for them in the first place while working there. I don’t think I should be required to provide my ID for association to the company for something the company did not count to my benefit on the review. Perhaps I’m being too hard line on the subject. I’d be open to hear other opinions on the subject.

I have another certification coming soon that I’ve taken on my shoulders. It sometimes feels like all the years I’ve gone to school/college have conditioned me so that learning doesn’t amount to anything until I’ve taken a standardized test to validate my having learned the subject. It’s strange how we can look at our own behavior after such a long period of formal education. I sometimes compare myself with another associate who went an entirely different education route. The contrasts are sharp, but at least we’ve both the bandwidth to understand one another.

The end of school also carries with it a beginning to something new. There has been a new company formed that I’ll be putting my energy into getting off the ground. I’ve devoted all my spare time, my weekends, and anything in-between in order to help. If it takes 100 hours a week I’ll gladly give it up to support the new venture. That is the one good thing I can say I’ve gained from having been a consultant. While working as a consultant you tend to lose focus on exactly what company you’re working for, you can develop an attachment to clients, and it’s too easy to become vested. I can see a lot of older consultants in the field have managed to master the idea that a consultant is just a wrench that works on many different machines. The wrench may belong to many different toolboxes during the period they’re useful, and eventually the consultant knows they are belong to nothing. Silly pun intended.

It should be an eventful summer what with having the client, parent company, and new venture all going together. I’m going to be very tired but I can say I’m energized by the prospects. If it works it works, if it doesn’t work, I can always try again, but either way it will be more income coming in. I think we’ll be able to do a lot of neat new things, no attachments, and there is so much opportunity it’s incredible. I’m looking forward to this new step. I’m a little sad to see school leaving my life, maybe if I get enough money in the future I’ll take a PhD program for fun, but until then I’m walking away with my two degrees.

Some of you may know this, and some of you may not. I guess it depends on who actually reads this blog other than me. I tell you, whoever is writing this blog has no concept of proof-reading or verifying the correct use of grammar. I will say in my defense that on my GRE I scored higher than 78% of all graduate students in the writing portion of the test. So of all doctors, lawyers, and English professors I beat the majority of you. We won’t discuss my math score because that has no relevance in my industry of computer technology. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.

Anyway, I just want to tell you that operation make it happen has happened. In the matter of a month it’s gone into full swing, in two weeks it will be registered in the state, and there is the beginning of a list of people to use the service. In addition there is a full list of potential people whom I’ll be hitting up shortly. It’s fantastic, it’s starting quickly, and hopefully in the next few months it’ll be self-sustaining. I’m excited, heck we’re all excited, and I’m sure this will be a very profitable venture.

So cheers pickle it’s begun. To all who thought it couldn’t/wouldn’t happen jog off mates.

Anxiety is growing over the upcoming beginning of graduate school. I remember when I first started the bachelors degree about three and a half years ago and how nervous I was. I’m getting that whole nervous feeling all over again except this time I’m getting it mixed with feelings of not wanting to go back. I suppose it’s good in a way that I’m going back because if the feeling is this strong only eight months after graduating, then I can only imagine what it would be like after waiting five years like everyone keeps telling me. Even at work some of the managers warning me against going were saying they too wish they could go back, but don’t seem to have the time.

The problem is I’m taking this program and I’m not really sure whether this is what I want to do. I suppose the discipline that I’m taking gets me geared up for management, but I want to learn how and why electronics work. I have a robot kit that I’ve been playing with, books on embedded programming, and I’ve been in a constant state of study of programming languages. However, I’m going to school to learn business concepts such as economics, finance, and enterprise level information systems. There are 22 classes required for the degree, and while they seem to be informative I just am not interested. I think I’ll give graduate school a chance as I may come around. I hate to start something and not finish it. I started two degrees and carried each through, but this one may be the exception. Time will tell.