Vent: My Disillusionment and Resentment with Graduate Education
I’ve spent the last few days or so thinking about my current career path, especially after this post where I noted my lack of a commitment to my career at this point in time. This brought about a slew of conflicting thoughts and feelings and I spent some time processing them because I’d never really given them much power, but the frustration is eating away at me daily, the closer I get to graduation.
As some of you know I am in graduate school finishing up a Masters in Counseling Psychology and Forensic Psychology, this is a dual degree program. The program had become a challenge of sorts over the last year due to the hoops I have to jump through in order to make sure that I’m on the right track to graduation which includes Internship and as you get closer to graduation, the classes you take require more self-disclosure which has always been an issue for me, none of which I will discuss here.
Current Resentments: Internship and Salary Prospects
Internship, not because of the place, but more so the the setup of it all. I love my placement, my supervisor and professor are awesome, mindful of boundaries, maintain a professional image and demeanor and are knowledgeable in their fields. I really really appreciate them because they are few and far between in this field. That said, I detest having to pay almost $2000 for a class AND work for a company for a year while getting nothing back in the ways of a stipend or hourly compensation. Some of us have had to quit our jobs just to make space in the day be able to do this and it has become utterly frustrating and I wish there was a way to change this, especially given the fact that we lose earning power while in graduate school since we can’t work FT, well most of us.
Speaking of earning power, this is my biggest bone to pick with the field. The type of work that we do helps people put their lives back together. This can be in the areas of family issues, substance abuse, supervisory conflicts, grief and loss etc etc. So when I see a large and successful organization with multiple contracts paying its counselors between $30-40k I am pissed. Those of us who are in this field, while we don’t do it for the money, we put our heart and minds into helping clients piece their lives back together. So, to see that the field after 3-5 years still hasn’t changed how much they pay counselors especially in light of the recession burns me up! I left a job as a Clinical Counselor paying $38k because I thought that with a graduate degree I could get paid much more than that. Well, come to find out I was getting paid as much as the other counselors with graduate degrees. Talk about a let down!
Decisions To Make: Passion, Purpose or Career?
I have some decisions to make regarding my pursuing my passion/purpose, or pursuing a career. There’s a difference and while some are blessed to be able to have both, I am still in limbo when it comes to answering this question.
My passion lies in working with women empower themselves towards self actualization. This is what I was meant to do in life and I have no questions about that. Where did this fit in with my career? Well I’ve spent the last 3-5 years working with female populations in the counseling field doing trauma work, counseling and financial empowerment.
This was the impetus behind Girls Just Wanna Have Funds when I bought the domain name a few years back. I wanted to dedicate my life to helping other women like me increase their feelings of self worth through financial empowerment. And, at the time I really enjoyed the counseling field and the work I did with the trauma population.
But now I question whether or not my intentions were financially motivated or purely for the love of the work. I don”t know but with my student loan payments hovering around $700 when I graduate $30-$40k won’t cut it.
So I plan to go back to school for the degree that I came to DC for in the first place. I won’t get into the specifics of why I left that program but it was stupid on my part and I should have checked things out before making a rash decision about my future. Am I making a rash decision about my future before even testing the waters? No, I’m just making plans just in case salary expectations are not fulfilled because the mortgage needs to be paid and I don’t plan on being broke after 2 Masters degrees.
Objectives
Talk to more people in intended career field
I’ve already started doing this and was invited my a local company in the field to do a paid internship with them but that would need to be towards the end of the summer as with my current internship, I don’t have the time. I plan to follow up with the contact there later this week.
Network with other companies and ascertain the value of my intended degree
I’ve already done this and have been told that this degree is potentially lucrative as I gain more experience. With my current degree I will hit a ceiling unless I am licensed and that will take 3-4 years and then I will still need to build a practice.
Research Flexibility and Corporate Culture
I’ve talked to one person so far and need to do a bit more of this as the application deadline nears. Flexibility and corporate culture are important because I don’t thrive well in cut throat situations, but I shouldn’t let that bother me because there will always be challenges in the office. I just need to make sure that wherever I end up after the completion of this new degree program I will be able to have some flexibility as I do have other interests and plan on having children. This is an issue I will expound upon in another post.
That’s it for now. Writing this post was therapeutic as I was able to get all my feelings down and potentially gain some feedback from others. I have been boiling for the last few days especially with my best friend making more than the counselors at my internship and she doesn’t have a Bachelor’s degree. I’m salty, I know. All of this has made me really question the value of a college and graduation, specific to my field, the behavioral sciences. I really am questioning the point of getting an education when it doesn’t really pay off more than if I’d just stayed home and worked. Then I question whether or not I would have met my husband and I wouldn’t change that for all the money in the world. So there are reasons why this is happening. At least I can say that I met the love of my life while on this journey, and I can still get into the career field that I originally planned for. Anyhoo, I’m rambling, thanks for reading as this wasn’t a scheduled post, but I wanted to share and receive feedback.
Have you changed careers? How old were you when you made the decision? Are you happy with the decision you made? Did you make the decision for the money or love of the field?
About the Author: Girls Just Wanna Have Funds is for the woman that wants to take charge of her personal finances. We value budgeting, investing, frugality and remain mindful of our spending habits. Move over and make way for women who are in control of their financial destinies and not afraid to say it. We're armed with a positive net worth and not afraid to flaunt it while breaking financial ceilings one stiletto at a time!
Madcel Bourne | Mar 12, 2008 | Reply
Great Post! I understand your frustration but I am happy that you understand that this is a journey and things happen the way they do for a reason. You might just change career paths but also know that the journey that has taken place was not for naught. You have gained valuable insight that is transferable to many different industries.
I consider myself a life learner and the experience no matter how mundane is beneficial.
My greatest advice to individuals when deciding a course of action is to strongly analyze the end picture and see whether you really want to be there. If so, then work backwards and make sure that you are taking the steps to make that end a reality. When times get tough, as they surely will, the vision of that end will guide you through.
Ivy | Mar 12, 2008 | Reply
I completely understand your frustrations as I am kind of going through the same thing right now too. There might be some other options to look at when you look for a job post graduate; for example, you could look for a company that offers a loan repayment program, or join a university that has a program that works with the population you want to work with and will offer a little bit of a higher salary than a non-profit, public sector company. Although I’m only in my first year of the program, I am often looking through craigslist, etc to see what the salary ranges are and am often surprised that so many are a lot lower than what I expected. But for me, I think that as long as the work I’m doing is helping the people that I am passionate about, I can be ok with taking the pay cut, although I’m sure I’ll be a little pissed about it =). Good luck with your decision and career!
Sennait (1 comments.) | Mar 12, 2008 | Reply
I found your site via the mommymillionairnextdoor.blogspot.com blog. I can understand your predicament. I love school, yet my passions are not paid well in the market, so I have turned to entrepreneurship that is semi-passive to make up the shortfall (i.e real estate, boarding students). I think an education (B.A at least) is very important, but I think it is unfortunate that people go to school and assume that all will be well because they have a degree. I look forward to looking through your other posts.
God’s Blessings,
Sennait
c2a (7 comments.) | Mar 12, 2008 | Reply
My sister did a Master in Counseling Psychology. We’re in CA so I’m not sure how other states work. After graduation she had to get a certain number of hours working under licensed counselors before she could work for herself.
In addition to her post graduate job, one of her gf’s with a license had a business providing counseling to group homes and other facilities. My sis worked for her and earned hours and pretty decent pay. Now she has her regular job, plus she works for group homes, the work is flexible and she teaches online. She was making 6 figures a couple years ago but again she was doing 3 or 4 things related to her field.
In CA you have to have a counselor like her as administrator to run certain group and care homes. Its not many hours a week. These homes get about $5000 per child per month with max 6 kids, so they do pay and its extra pay if you operate as counselor in addition to administrator.
Ginger | Mar 12, 2008 | Reply
@ Madcel- Thanks babes *kiss*
@ IVy-Real Talk, all that idealistic stuff goes out of the door once graduation nears and you check with Sallie MAe about your monthly tuition payments. Sure, this is my fault because no one forced me to get into this field but I just feel let down. I thought salaries would have increased but I find they are lower than I expected.
@Sennait-That’s crap if I have an opinion about it. People who go to school and spend time and money accruing debt and knowledge SHOULD expect to be WELL when they graduate. Why should they not? What would be the purpose of a graduate education or at all? So they can HOPE to get a good job? No. MBAs don’t amass $100k in debt just to sit on their tail HOPING they get a good job, they expect it.
@C2A-I know the setup you’re talking about and that is direction I am leaning towards if I choose to stay in the field. Here in DC metro companies contract with the federal and local govts to provide behavioral services to group homes and behaviorally challenged children. I worked for one last year and the pay was great. When I graduate I would consider working as a contract counselor at a higher hourly rate without benefits. This would be a viable option.
Luke @ realworldreally.com (2 comments.) | Mar 13, 2008 | Reply
No problem, I owed you one
Good luck with everything!
Ginger | Mar 13, 2008 | Reply
Thanks Luke
Kara | Mar 13, 2008 | Reply
I am also going for a masters in counseling but specializing in trauma. I don’t start my internship until next year (if I can find one! jeez) but I already know I’ll have to give up my full time job. In the entire city of Boston and outlying areas I have heard of ONE internship that offers a stipened. However, it’s only 1000$ a semester! really now, does anyone expect a person to live off that little amount in a city? It wouldn’t even cover two months rent for me!
ugh, but yeah, I’ve been feeling very resentful towards gradschool lately. I’m contemplating continuing on to PhD and then maybe teaching, but who knows. It feels like there are practically no viable choices these days.
Ginger (16 comments.) | Mar 13, 2008 | Reply
Kara you and I are —>HERE<—-
I dont know of any places that offer a stipend for interns here in DC. Im sure there are some but they are few and far between. I decided against the PHD because honestly if I spend 7-8 years getting a PHD then I need to be making at least 100k. No questions about it. As I understand they are lucky to make 60k.
MY classmates and I were talking this evening about our plans after grad school and its grim. Im not sure how long this feeling will last but Im willing to ride it out until December.
Feel free to email me if you have any questions.
citygirl (1 comments.) | Mar 14, 2008 | Reply
I understand the dilemma, especially with regards to passion/purpose. I have a bachelor’s in photojournalism, that I realized I didn’t want to directly use while in my last year of college. I then spent almost 10 years working as a recptionist and admin for a company with crazy office politics while I took acting and film classes on nights and weekends.
I want to make movies, really bad. But now I’m faced with needing to find a job to make ends meet. And though I desperately want to do something creative if I have to be stuck in an office from 9-5 again, the only opportunities that I’ve come close to in my 8 weeks of searching are boring cubicle-bound and soul-sucking.
So, I totally get it. Good luck to you!
MC | Apr 10, 2008 | Reply
So glad I found this post, I really needed to read someone voicing some of the things I’ve been thinking about. I’m also a grad student in a mental health program (not at the practicum point yet), and I’m discouraged by some of the income I see in job ads I will be qualified for when I finish. At 40, I have been in a different field all my working life, and have very little paid experience in the psychology/social work field. In order for me to get any, I will have to take a $12K-$15K/year pay cut, and with 2 children of my own and a family, I just cannot. So I continue to work in a dead end job I detest, while I go to school for a subject I love. When the day comes that I graduate, and am interning, I imagine I will revisit this and feel very much like you do. I console myself in knowing that I will at least have done something toward the dream I’ve always had of helping people…something I am not doing in the clerical position I currently hold (and got with a high school diploma).
I think the job market is getting saturated with BA’s now…it’s the new AA degree. In the general job market, a BA used to mean management, and $50K, now it means maybe an interview, and possibly entry-level. So more people are going the graduate route, and the MBAs will be the next BAs, and so on and so on. I fear it will get worse before it gets better….all these ‘get your MBA in 13 months’ programs…
I sympathize. Thank you again for the wonderful post.