Professional Development Blog post #13: Academia and graduate school
So for the past three days I have been in Kansas City, Missouri attending the Agricultural Communicators of Tomorrow Professional Development Conference. It was so refreshing seeing other students so passionate about agriculture and communications.
One topic that was brought up was grad school, and every time someone mentions graduate school, my stomach is in knots.
See, my dad has his Master's degree and stresses how important it is to him. In some ways, I would really like to further my education and earn a higher degree, but on the flip side the question still remains: do I really need it?
Well, I still don't know! But... I'm figuring it out.
At PDC, we listened to a panel of communications specialists for breed associations. My literal dream job. They talked about what all they did within their cattle breed associations. Simmental, Red Angus, Certified Hereford Beef, the Hereford World Journal and Certified Angus Beef were in attendance.
Four out of the five had their master's degree, and I was kind of surprised because I thought a job like that would not necessarily require one. When it comes down to it, they said a master's degree only really helped them in maturity and just growing up, critical thinking and meeting deadlines.
Okay listen, I'm ready to work and put my skills to the test. I understand those are all great things, but I am pretty sure that if I work hard at achieving those while working on my bachelor's, I will be just fine.
There are pros and cons to getting my master's degree or going straight to work after my bachelor's. All I know it that I have time to decide. Another thing is that I can make all the plans I want and be as prepared as I can for the future, but at the end of the day, God has control of my life and He is the one that makes the plans. I just have to listen and trust Him. He knows what is best for my life, and hey, maybe He will send me to Texas Tech for grad school, or maybe He will present me with an awesome job when I graduate next December. We will see.
One topic that was brought up was grad school, and every time someone mentions graduate school, my stomach is in knots.
See, my dad has his Master's degree and stresses how important it is to him. In some ways, I would really like to further my education and earn a higher degree, but on the flip side the question still remains: do I really need it?
Well, I still don't know! But... I'm figuring it out.
At PDC, we listened to a panel of communications specialists for breed associations. My literal dream job. They talked about what all they did within their cattle breed associations. Simmental, Red Angus, Certified Hereford Beef, the Hereford World Journal and Certified Angus Beef were in attendance.
Four out of the five had their master's degree, and I was kind of surprised because I thought a job like that would not necessarily require one. When it comes down to it, they said a master's degree only really helped them in maturity and just growing up, critical thinking and meeting deadlines.
Okay listen, I'm ready to work and put my skills to the test. I understand those are all great things, but I am pretty sure that if I work hard at achieving those while working on my bachelor's, I will be just fine.
There are pros and cons to getting my master's degree or going straight to work after my bachelor's. All I know it that I have time to decide. Another thing is that I can make all the plans I want and be as prepared as I can for the future, but at the end of the day, God has control of my life and He is the one that makes the plans. I just have to listen and trust Him. He knows what is best for my life, and hey, maybe He will send me to Texas Tech for grad school, or maybe He will present me with an awesome job when I graduate next December. We will see.
Comments
Post a Comment