GMAT Club Legend
Joined: 05 Apr 2006
Affiliations: HHonors Diamond, BGS Honor Society
Posts: 5916
Given Kudos: 7
Schools: Chicago (Booth) - Class of 2009
WE:Business Development (Consumer Products)
[#permalink]
21 Jun 2007, 06:18
Well, a few weeks ago I was thinking about keeping the job through part of my MBA program - say through December. At that time, I literally only had about one hour of work a week which pretty much guaranteed I could keep my job through at least part of my MBA, especially since my working from home seemed fine. Before anyone slaps some ethics on this stuff, I've been asking for more work for the last six months, there just hasn't been that much to go around. With that in mind, I was pretty happy at the idea of being able to keep my job and my income throughout at least part of Grad school.
It wasn't always like this mind you - last year, I was putting a normal 50 hour work week and leading a team. Things changed suddenly in late December when the project got canned and we were all told to "sit tight" for "a week or two" until we could be re-assigned. Two weeks turned into four, turned into eight. Come two weeks ago, I suddenly get put in charge of a team again.
Normally, that'd be great - this new work is not insanely boring and its providing some good remote team management experience (my entire team is not local). Eight months ago at least... now... things are a bit different - I'm not really looking to sink my teeth into anything when school starts in 2 months.
Since the change, I'm now closer to 5 hours a day and increasing. Thus, there's really no question I'll have to leave when school starts (I don't imagine I'll have a spare 5 or 6 hours a day). The only remaining question is whether or not I bother to work through August.
On the one hand, why not make a little more $$. On the other, why not just leave in July, have a few weeks off in August, spend some time getting to know my classmates as they move to Chicago, maybe take the time to meet up with Career Services, start working on my resume, etc - basically, start focusing my energies towards the "next step" instead of spending my time focusing on what will soon be "the past".
In short, I feel like at this stage the payoff matrix has changed. Giving up my summer in order to keep a well paying job through the entire year (and maybe even up until my internship) is one choice. Thats a pretty big "payoff" to loosing your summer.
2 months of free time vs 9 months of salary ....
Though in reality, back then, there was absolutely no argument to quit (1 hour a week is basically free time anyway).
Now, there is no such large incentive... its just...
2 months of free time vs 2 months of salary
Not quite the same equation.