When pursuing a graduate degree, students are allowed a wide range of freedom when it comes to choosing their courses. While this prospect appears as an exciting opportunity, it can also be difficult to ensure that the courses you are choosing are the ones that are best for you and your future career goals. This struggle intensifies when the degree you are pursuing does not require a thesis because you do not have a specific area of research around which to center your courses. Therefore, you must take more initiative and find a different way to determine what classes will contribute to your overall goal within your program. As a part-time student in a Masters of Engineering program, I do not conduct research as a part of my requirements to graduate. Since I am pursuing this degree to grow professionally and to expand my knowledge and skills to become more competitive within my industry, I developed my own strategy to narrow down a wide variety of topics to satisfy my graduation requirements.
Once I began working full time, I subscribed to my company’s job alerts to keep up to date on possible positions and determine what roles I aspire to hold in the future. As I am alerted to new job postings, I first determine if that position is one that interests me and aligns with my career goals. For these jobs that interest me, I created a list where I document the skills that the hiring manager requires and take note of the qualities that would make a candidate stand out. For example, as technology becomes integral to the future of so many industries, I have kept an eye out for job postings in this area. Whether or not I apply for a technology focused job in the future, these skills are valuable to gain. Therefore, skills from software engineering and automation product verification roles have landed on my list. These skills include controls design, systems engineering, and tracking efficiency of a team and a system. Each semester, as I plan out my classes, I reference this growing list to determine what courses will contribute to my advancement at work as well as the fulfillment of my graduation requirements.
Being very intentional with the courses I choose is the best way for me to know that I am putting my time, efforts, and funds in the right places. While personal interest should play an important role, choosing courses based solely on this factor might not fully maximize the potential of my degree. It would be possible to look back and question if I made the right choices for my overall goals. Using this strategy to choose my courses, I can be confident that I am using this degree to advance in my career and achieve my goals as I planned when applying for the program.
Once I began working full time, I subscribed to my company’s job alerts to keep up to date on possible positions and determine what roles I aspire to hold in the future. As I am alerted to new job postings, I first determine if that position is one that interests me and aligns with my career goals. For these jobs that interest me, I created a list where I document the skills that the hiring manager requires and take note of the qualities that would make a candidate stand out. For example, as technology becomes integral to the future of so many industries, I have kept an eye out for job postings in this area. Whether or not I apply for a technology focused job in the future, these skills are valuable to gain. Therefore, skills from software engineering and automation product verification roles have landed on my list. These skills include controls design, systems engineering, and tracking efficiency of a team and a system. Each semester, as I plan out my classes, I reference this growing list to determine what courses will contribute to my advancement at work as well as the fulfillment of my graduation requirements.
Being very intentional with the courses I choose is the best way for me to know that I am putting my time, efforts, and funds in the right places. While personal interest should play an important role, choosing courses based solely on this factor might not fully maximize the potential of my degree. It would be possible to look back and question if I made the right choices for my overall goals. Using this strategy to choose my courses, I can be confident that I am using this degree to advance in my career and achieve my goals as I planned when applying for the program.
