Grad School? What the #$@&?!

In my post back in June I noted that I had applied to grad school at the University of Michigan, and it's WAY past time to give an update:

Turns out I was accepted by the School of Information (SI for short) for Fall '08 admission, and I started classes back at the beginning of September.

Why change careers and why SI? Good questions! Been asking myself those at least twice a day for the last 6 months. As far as career change, this is something I've have thought about for maybe the last five years. I felt like I'd reached a plateau at work, and didn't want to stay on that same horizontal line for the next 20 years. Probably reaching the 20yr mark in my career, and reflecting back, caused me to consider if I wanted to do something different. Sort of the second phase of my mid-life crisis.

I started out by considering what other roles I could play at work. Then thought that I if I was really going to tear things up that I should consider if a completely new career would be attractive, which then led to going back to school for an advanced degree. Didn't really want to do another engineering degree. Thought about teaching K-12 for a little while. Then sat down and listed out what skills/interests I had from my current work, and started hunting around for a program that fit that. Since I'm not 18 any longer, I only looked at schools within commuting distance, and really focused on UofM for obvious reasons (alumni, legacy, location, reputation, etc.). After looking at several programs I hit on the School of Information.

So why SI? Several reasons, really.
- I want to use as much of the knowledge and skill I've acquired over the years, but in a non-engineering role.
- I think this degree will give me more flexibility in choice of employer, as well as location. As the auto industry and Michigan continue to decline this becomes more important.
- Although I'm still trying to resolve this, I have the opportunity to pursue a career that can be focused on the public interest rather than private industry.
- The school aims to have a diverse student body, and makes a point to include folks with backgrounds similar to mine.
- SI is right in my backyard. I can attend one of the finest schools in the country, and walk or ride my bike to class.

I chose to pursue the Archives & Records Management specialization as this seemed to align most closely with my what I could bring from my existing career. Plus, I've always had interests in history, genealogy, photography and some other areas that fall under the archives "umbrella".

So, that's a little of the how and why. Of course there's more. Anyone doing this is bound to be a a rolling psych experiment.

But now on to Fall '08!

- Brian