Luck in Education - Part 2

The summer of that eventful year first saw me choose field work ahead of a post-PhD continuation in engineering academia, following a month long trip back to India. In that trip, I had spoken to a couple of IAS officers and had started to seriously consider civil services as a career. That trip was my first back home after a gap of two years from the time I initially landed in the US for graduate studies. Those intervening two years seemed more like five. I had hit the research ground, so to speak, not just running but accelerating. Little did I realize then that those years had formed the start of a new phase of life in more ways than one - in particular, it had been the start of a period of slogging that was to continue for a long time after. Big decisions in life dont announce themselves with dramatic music or a climactic buildup. They pass by without as much as a whimper.

Earlier that year, one of my roommates was applying to get his Masters degree. I too applied to get that piece of paper without much more thought. In fact, I didnt even attend the graduation event.

On my return from India mid-summer, I noticed a few petty acts of my research advisor. Her subsequent immature justifications coupled with my own desire to not prolong my graduate studies beyond my estimate of 2-3 years made my choice to quit grad school easy. Thank goodness, I had applied and gotten my Masters degree to have something to show for those years of slogging.

My next task was to try to get a job. At that time, I had heard from others that I had to start my job in October only since I had just one year of extension period post-graduation (called OPT) and a work visa would not be valid until the October of the subsequent year. But then, I found out that I wasnt eligible for OPT as it had been more than 3 months since the Masters degree conferral. My hopes were dashed. Fortunately, a really friendly student counselor I happened to consult with told me that the only way out was for my advisor to give the school in writing that I needed to take a job as part of my research and hence pass it off as being part of the curriculum. So, I lied. I lied to my advisor that I needed to stave off some financial hardships and hence needed to take up a job immediately. I lied to avoid the injustice of pretending I liked to work with her and finish my Ph.D. I lied to avoid returning to India immediately without giving myself a chance to work in the US and gain some experience and money. I lied. My advisor relented. She even went as far as to say that she always knew that I never wanted to do a Ph.D. That wasnt true. My work ethic should have suggested the exact opposite. I wanted a Ph.D. as much for my intellectual happiness, my ego and my future as she wanted it for her tenure.

While the above drama was unfolding at school, I started to look for jobs mainly in small companies. Two of the companies I had contacted called me for interviews but the third didn't even get back after the initial interactions. Within a week, one of them rejected me and the other made me an offer. As I found out later, that company was seeking to make its final hire for a while to come (the next hire after me was 7 months after and was for an administrative role). Funnily enough, I saw their job ad on Craigslist.

My research collaborators hated to see their hard working student leave. So, they started making arrangements for me to work with them in a salaried position. I of course wanted nothing to do with large companies. Having a job offer in hand made it easy for me to stand my ground. Either from having resigned to her perceived truth in her early opinions of me or because she partly believed in my lies, my advisor allowed me my freedom with the choice of job. That was the best I could ask from her at that stage, and she didnt let me down one more time.

I started my job in October that year. In October the following year, I officially received a work permit. With that, I officially severed ties with my grad school and my advisor. Incidentally, she finally replied back to that severance mail after nearly three years with "I meant to send you an email a long time back, but somehow didn't send it".

My decision to quit grad school was right, and luck dealt me the perfect cards to play with.

But, the slogging was to continue for three more years. That was at least many months too late for creating the right conditions for capitalizing on more luck coming my way later.