How To Go Back To School After Being Laid Off
Should You Go Back To School?
You've got it all – a Bachelor's degree from a prestigious college or university, a great job that you landed right out of college because of that amazing degree, helpful friendly coworkers, a boss that allows you to think outside of the box and a big corner office overlooking the beautiful city. Perhaps the details are a bit skewed, but all in all, you can relate. Until you can't, when it's all gone...
In the blink of an eye, you lose the job, the coworkers, the boss, the corner office, and the bi-weekly paychecks that allow you to live the life you've always dreamed, or at least the life you were living. You've done nothing wrong, your work is impeccable, the reason for the lay off stems from those two dreaded words every American cringes at when uttered... Economic Recession.
Five years ago, holding a Bachelors degree from an accredited college or university meant acquiring and sustaining the position of your choice at a company you admire. Today, most job seekers are hard pressed to obtain a desirable position without continuing their education to obtain a Masters or Doctorate degree.
Going back to school after being laid off, whether it is to obtain another Bachelor's degree, a Master's degree or even a PhD, is time-consuming and costly. Even state schools, such as the University of Texas and UCLA, two once-affordable yet prestigious schools, have recently raised the cost of tuition for the 2010 school year. Attending a graduate program can cost upwards of $1500 per credit with most programs requiring 18 plus credits to graduate. That's a whooping $27k, and doesn't include the uni fees, books, materials and your cost of living.
Most programs require the student's full attention and one would be hard-pressed to maintain a decent paying position while attending classes. It is no wonder that graduate students often are in tens of thousands of dollars of debt, this all on top of the loans they have yet to pay off from their undergraduate education.
So why would one want to put forth the time, effort and money to go back to school after being laid off? Unfortunately, the current job market leaves few other options. Many current job seekers can either choose to put forth the time and effort to search for a job that pays less and simply may not exist, or take this time of economic recession to go forward with the process of obtaining a Master's degree or PhD in a field that brings us happiness and hopefully, future success. What better time than the present, when your time may be "wasted" searching for lackluster employment opportunities, to work towards a dream that can only come true with time, which is currently plentiful, and effort.
Five years from today, the economy will hopefully be flourishing once again. When more employment opportunities become available, there will be hundreds of thousands of candidates just like you that were laid off during the recession, many of whom probably went back to school to further their education and obtain the skills necessary to land any job they'd like. In addition to these candidates, there will be hundreds of thousands of recent graduates ready to compete for what may be your dream job. It's a competitive job market, and always will be. What do the next five years have in store for your resume?
