Should I go back to school?
June 24, 2015 10:29 AM Subscribe
I never really had a career, so to speak--I fell into non-profit fundraising about 5 years ago. It's OKAY. But I recently took a higher-level job and I can tell that long term, this is not what I want to do for the next 30 years (I'm 34.) Should I go back to school for something else? (More inside.)
I've always been fascinated by transit and urban planning, and I recently moved right next to a university with a fantastic graduate program in that very field. I'd be eligible for in-state tuition next April, so the earliest I would start would be September 2016, which gives me enough time to settle into this new job and see what happens. Caveats:
1) I went to library school in the middle of last decade, and, while it got me on this path, indirectly, I never really used it. I don't want to repeat that.
2) In-state tuition is about $5000 a semester, so total cost would be about $20,000.
3) I already have over $100K of student loan debt, which I have no real hope of ever paying off, and I'm loathe to add to it.
4) Maybe there's another way to get into this field? Or see if I really do want to do this as a career? I don't mind taking a pay cut.
Any advice appreciated!
I've always been fascinated by transit and urban planning, and I recently moved right next to a university with a fantastic graduate program in that very field. I'd be eligible for in-state tuition next April, so the earliest I would start would be September 2016, which gives me enough time to settle into this new job and see what happens. Caveats:
1) I went to library school in the middle of last decade, and, while it got me on this path, indirectly, I never really used it. I don't want to repeat that.
2) In-state tuition is about $5000 a semester, so total cost would be about $20,000.
3) I already have over $100K of student loan debt, which I have no real hope of ever paying off, and I'm loathe to add to it.
4) Maybe there's another way to get into this field? Or see if I really do want to do this as a career? I don't mind taking a pay cut.
Any advice appreciated!
So you've been in nonprofit fundraising for five years? If so, you have five years to go until your undergrad student loans can be forgiven, if you've been paying them all this time. I know it sounds like a long time, but can you hold out until you hit that mark? Starting school again with zero debt is probably preferable to taking out more. Just stay in public service until you can write off the loans, then your whole world opens up. If you just got a higher-level job, save your money aggressively during this time and you might be able to pay for grad school out of pocket, which is what I did. No regrets.
posted by juniperesque at 11:27 AM on June 24, 2015
posted by juniperesque at 11:27 AM on June 24, 2015
I'm with you. I was a fundraiser for 5+ years and woke up one morning and thought, "Oh God, I can't spend the rest of my life asking people for money." I went back to school for my MPA with the intention of moving into government or something urban policy-related.
And then about halfway through my degree, a fundraiser friend who had moved to a company that makes tech for nonprofits got in touch and offered me a job. I now use a lot of my fundraising skills to share best practices with nonprofits and train them on how to use technology to run their nonprofit. It's kind of perfect, since it lets me use my skills without actually working in a nonprofit and asking people for money.
Anyway, that's my experience. Nonprofits have gotten to be a bigger industry, and there are lots of consulting jobs out there, specifically related to tech. If you want to keep working with these kinds of organizations, that might be a good place to look.
posted by anotheraccount at 11:27 AM on June 24, 2015 [1 favorite]
And then about halfway through my degree, a fundraiser friend who had moved to a company that makes tech for nonprofits got in touch and offered me a job. I now use a lot of my fundraising skills to share best practices with nonprofits and train them on how to use technology to run their nonprofit. It's kind of perfect, since it lets me use my skills without actually working in a nonprofit and asking people for money.
Anyway, that's my experience. Nonprofits have gotten to be a bigger industry, and there are lots of consulting jobs out there, specifically related to tech. If you want to keep working with these kinds of organizations, that might be a good place to look.
posted by anotheraccount at 11:27 AM on June 24, 2015 [1 favorite]
I would try to leverage your nonprofit experience to work in development for something bigger, like a college or a hospital. These jobs will pay a lot better and give you a chance to pay down your loans and save to go back to school. I agree with juniperesque about public service student loan forgiveness, too.
posted by chaiminda at 11:40 AM on June 24, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by chaiminda at 11:40 AM on June 24, 2015 [1 favorite]
I'd pass. Your rationale for applying to planning school sounds a lot like mine at the time: I was generally interested in the subject, there was a decent, convenient program available to me, and I was seeking something proactive I could "do" for my career. (Sound like anyone at library school?) But I didn't really have any idea of what kind of job in the field I wanted (few are glamorous or pay well) and my (unrelated) work experience was a far more useful background than the credential. In the end, little harm was done because I worked full-time and could pay the tuition without incurring debt, but that doesn't sound like your situation.
Whether or not you pursue a professional program like this, you're going to have to be creative and entrepreneurial about how you leverage that experience and your background into your next job. (Your local transit agency is not going to throw money to recruit you as soon as you graduate.) If you can't quantify an advantage that a planning degree would give you for particular jobs, skip the headache and bank the cash.
posted by ndg at 11:51 AM on June 24, 2015 [4 favorites]
Whether or not you pursue a professional program like this, you're going to have to be creative and entrepreneurial about how you leverage that experience and your background into your next job. (Your local transit agency is not going to throw money to recruit you as soon as you graduate.) If you can't quantify an advantage that a planning degree would give you for particular jobs, skip the headache and bank the cash.
posted by ndg at 11:51 AM on June 24, 2015 [4 favorites]
Your loans can only be forgiven after ten years of working in public or non-profit jobs if they're the right kind of loans, so don't get too excited about that until you check.
posted by mareli at 12:26 PM on June 24, 2015
posted by mareli at 12:26 PM on June 24, 2015
I worked in non-profit fundraising for five years and understand your feeling of trepidation. I would recommend that before you take the leap into a masters that you try to develop something in urban planning and or transit purely as an activist involving the skills you've got. That way you'll get a good feeling for whether it's for you.
posted by parmanparman at 1:49 PM on June 24, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by parmanparman at 1:49 PM on June 24, 2015 [1 favorite]
Revision of answer. Could you formulate a business plan for paying down the debt? I see that your radio show is essentially based on ad hoc to-handedness, the symptom of worrying about how disruption may affect other creators. That is a normal fear, but it plays into the hand of fear of rejection. Look at Upright Citizens Brigade or New York's Love Yourself as potential partnership building places to explore creative production endeavours which could transform your worth. You obviously are a good hand at production and you do well at being a humanising expert, which is rare.
A while ago my dad made the comment to me I was an impresario. When I changed from journalism to fundraising in 2008, I had to accept I had come over the wall between these two departments and being creatively involved would forever be complicated by my ability to find backers and seal deals mainly in the eyes of those who considered this activity to be offensive or worse, a form of prostitution.
In graduate school I discovered a very interesting theory based on a personal development pathway called role as resource capitalism: there are people whose interest in a position is enough to effectively enable temporary entrepreneurship to attain the role. However, when I looked at role as resource and its returns on investment in creative industry, I found that typically founders felt encumbered with administration and a sense of wariness or wear due to forces outside of their control challenging their position. Essentially, those who use role as resource are especially indispensable but are never properly able to make role as resource as critical to those around them enough to buoy the enterprise long-term.
There are now ways of finding funding which essentially test entrepreneurship in the art business through tiered fast-turnaround timed and untimed exercises. Crowdfunding, 1,000 True Fans, etc. But it helps to be able to promote and book venues to expand your audience.
Having worked in fundraising for so many groups over the last nine years I look at how fundraisers I work with are developing. 80% of the people I worked with as colleagues have simply found another way to make a living that involves finding $40,000-$100,000 per year in work income. Most look for a regular paying role having nothing to do with their former career. Those who remain either work at a place they always loved, or are doing it for fringe benefits, such as better schooling for selves or children, social life, etc. No one I know has followed through with starting a business, a charity, or a social enterprise except one person, now a life coach.
When I merged the charity I started with a larger group in January it felt like a big achievement. I had to deal with the consequences of having a business while also holding down jobs in an industry I knew nothing about, because I needed to support my family.
Still, I learned a lot at work and in how I could best work as an entrepreneur in the charity and social enterprise sectors. My role as resource is human and organisational development for creative industry.
I am sure that you can find a role as resource for yourself which you will be able to do effectively while still employed and in grad school. The best way to get started is to identify three things that take up 7 hours of your time every month you would be willing to earn up to $1,000 a month from, giving yourself only a budget of $300 to get started. Please be in touch, from one Trekkie to another.
The toughest part is the first two clients. I highly recommend doing all of your calls on the same day, buffering each sales call with a call to a friend, supporter, or a new person. Avoid email like the plague. Stay off the computer. Put on a radio station you like. Don't stop until you've earned $1,000 from whatever you are selling. Then deliver those products at the time agreed, sell again, plan a new target, repeat.
posted by parmanparman at 7:07 AM on July 5, 2015
A while ago my dad made the comment to me I was an impresario. When I changed from journalism to fundraising in 2008, I had to accept I had come over the wall between these two departments and being creatively involved would forever be complicated by my ability to find backers and seal deals mainly in the eyes of those who considered this activity to be offensive or worse, a form of prostitution.
In graduate school I discovered a very interesting theory based on a personal development pathway called role as resource capitalism: there are people whose interest in a position is enough to effectively enable temporary entrepreneurship to attain the role. However, when I looked at role as resource and its returns on investment in creative industry, I found that typically founders felt encumbered with administration and a sense of wariness or wear due to forces outside of their control challenging their position. Essentially, those who use role as resource are especially indispensable but are never properly able to make role as resource as critical to those around them enough to buoy the enterprise long-term.
There are now ways of finding funding which essentially test entrepreneurship in the art business through tiered fast-turnaround timed and untimed exercises. Crowdfunding, 1,000 True Fans, etc. But it helps to be able to promote and book venues to expand your audience.
Having worked in fundraising for so many groups over the last nine years I look at how fundraisers I work with are developing. 80% of the people I worked with as colleagues have simply found another way to make a living that involves finding $40,000-$100,000 per year in work income. Most look for a regular paying role having nothing to do with their former career. Those who remain either work at a place they always loved, or are doing it for fringe benefits, such as better schooling for selves or children, social life, etc. No one I know has followed through with starting a business, a charity, or a social enterprise except one person, now a life coach.
When I merged the charity I started with a larger group in January it felt like a big achievement. I had to deal with the consequences of having a business while also holding down jobs in an industry I knew nothing about, because I needed to support my family.
Still, I learned a lot at work and in how I could best work as an entrepreneur in the charity and social enterprise sectors. My role as resource is human and organisational development for creative industry.
I am sure that you can find a role as resource for yourself which you will be able to do effectively while still employed and in grad school. The best way to get started is to identify three things that take up 7 hours of your time every month you would be willing to earn up to $1,000 a month from, giving yourself only a budget of $300 to get started. Please be in touch, from one Trekkie to another.
The toughest part is the first two clients. I highly recommend doing all of your calls on the same day, buffering each sales call with a call to a friend, supporter, or a new person. Avoid email like the plague. Stay off the computer. Put on a radio station you like. Don't stop until you've earned $1,000 from whatever you are selling. Then deliver those products at the time agreed, sell again, plan a new target, repeat.
posted by parmanparman at 7:07 AM on July 5, 2015
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posted by batbat at 10:53 AM on June 24, 2015