November 2006

Should I go Back to School?

by Terrance Malkinson

A Thought to Chew On

At this time of the year, many restless individuals are asking themselves the question: Should I go back to school? The answer is not a simple yes or no. In today's business environment, many individuals are returning to school to upgrade their skills, pursue their passions, or obtain the education not pursued when they were younger. Bored and wanting to apply their skills in new ways, they are re-assessing their careers and their current employers. An upgraded education does not necessarily guarantee success. Sometimes, higher credentials matter more to younger workers than to older workers, for whom experience and demonstrated accomplishments are more important. For some, the pursuit of further education is a piece of "unfinished business" and one that they intend to redress. For others, it is their greatest source of pride. Many factors enter into this important decision. Some factors to consider might include:

• Have a clear vision of your goals. Discuss them with family, business associates and your mentors. Know what you want to accomplish. Be prepared for naysayers who will try and discourage you from achieving your goals. Are you being held back by a lack of education?

• Be realistic. Consider your age, interests and abilities, in relation to your goals and skills. Analyze what the futurists have to say about where the jobs are going to be and what skills are necessary. Do your co-workers have better credentials? Will you have regrets for the rest of your life if you do not take the opportunity and pursue further education?

• Consider the costs. Include, but look beyond, wages that you might be sacrificing while pursuing further education. Consider the financial aspects, including impact on retirement plans, and other comforts you might have to give up with a return to school.

• Evaluate alternative education delivery channels. Some providers have a reputation for catering well to both the educational and the social support needs of adult learners, while others do not.

• Can you sell your current employer on assistance? Going back to school does not necessarily mean leaving your current employment. If you present a good business case, your employer might be willing to support you.

• Research suggests that most people who returned to school feel that the investment had paid off financially or otherwise. In the end the decision to return the school depends on how you view the potential rewards.
  

Other Bytes

Here are some of the things going on in and around the engineering community:

• A new approach to innovation called design thinking is opening up new business opportunities and attracting the attention of corporations around the world. In "The Talent Hunt: Best Design Schools" (BusinessWeek; #4004, pp. 64-72, 2006, www.businessweek.com) Jessi Hempel and Aili McConnon discuss this approach and provide a listing of the top design programs in the United States; and a second listing of top European and Asian design programs. Hempel and McConnon view this approach as a new source of competitive advantage, and that many corporations "are looking beyond traditional sources of leadership to a new set of schools and programs to find innovative managers."

• Eleven innovations that could reorder industries and span new entrepreneurial opportunities are discussed in "The Next Disruptors" (Business 2.0, 7(9), pp. 80-96, 2006; www.business2.0.com). Erick Schonfeld and Jeanette Borzo have identified eleven businesses with the potential to become tomorrows "disruptors." These include such technologies as radical new ways to power electric cars, fight traffic congestion, highly customizable Web start pages, and easy-to-use tools for building customized business applications, to name but a few.

• In today's competitive business environment employees work long hours. "Sleep Deficit: The Performance Killer" (Harvard Business Review; 84(10), pp. 53-59, 2006, www.hbr.com) reports on a conversation with Harvard Medical School Professor Charles A. Czeisler. Czeisler believes that the corporate behavior of encouraging people to work long hours is the "antithesis of high performance." In fact, he says it endangers employees and puts their companies at risk. Czeisler describes four neurobiological functions that affect sleep duration and quality as well as individual performance. He recommends that companies institute corporate sleep policies.

• A six year study of "emerging giants" by Tarum Khanna and Krishna Palepuhree yields three strategies that businesses use to become effective global competitors, as reported in "Emerging Giants: Building World Class Companies in Developing Countries" (Harvard Business Review; 84(10), pp. 60-69, 2006, www.hbr.com). Many corporations in developing countries have been able to achieve success in spite of substantial challenges through restructuring their businesses and exploiting new opportunities.

• It is often difficult to get people to alter the way they do things. In "The New Science of Change" (CIO, 19(23), pp. 55-66, 2006, www.cio.com) Christopher Koch describes research that is helping to reveal why it is so hard to affect change and suggests strategies to make implementing change easier. He provides ten change management rules.

• Robert Reich, Secretary of Labor under President Bill Clinton, was a prominent public figure who argued that an investment in employee learning paid off in improved performance. His leadership helped launch job-training programs, career centers and school-to-work initiatives. In "Preparing the Workforce" (Training and Development, 60(9), pp. 30-35, 2006, www.astd.org), Tony Bigham and Pat Galagan interviewed Reich to see how he feels about the state of employee development today, and found that he believes "at least a third of the current workforce continues to be unprepared."

• In "The Perceived Value and Potential Contribution of Project Management Practices to Project Success" (Project Management Journal, 37(3), pp. 37-48, 2006, www.pmi.org) Claude Besner and Brian Hobbs discuss the results of their investigations on practitioner perceptions on the relative value of different project management practices and their potential to contribute to improved project performance. The investigation is based on a large-scale survey of 753 project management practitioners. Valuable strategies are provided that can facilitate project success.

• The meshing of different cultures in the workplace is of great importance to career success and extremely important for the success of mergers and acquisitions. In "Why is Cultural Harmony so Elusive?" (Mergers and Acquisitions, 41(9), pp. 59-61, 2006) Jean-Francois Orsini discusses some of the factors considered important for merger integration that will help identify cultural differences, and ensure that the differences will be resolved in the best possible manner.

Terrance Malkinson is a proposal manager/documentation specialist, an elected Senator of the University of Calgary, a Governor of the Engineering Management Society, international correspondent for IEEE-USA Today's Engineer Online, editor-in-chief of IEEE-USA Today's Engineer Digest, and editor of IEEE Engineering Management. The author is grateful to the Haskayne School of Business Library at the University of Calgary. He can be reached at todaysengineer@ieee.org.