<p>I’m having trouble finding out info to decide on which to do. On one hand, I’d be a PM on Bing which is exactly what I wanted and I find to be really cool. On the other hand, I know a graduate school degree is important, but I may not be happy if I go to any schools if I even get into good ones.</p>
<p>Anyone have opinions or insight?</p>
<p>You “may not be happy”. Sounds like you know yourself best.</p>
<p>Graduate school is always an option later. Are you feeling burned out? I say go with your gut and try working for a year. Worst case scenario, it’s only a year and now you have real world experience.</p>
<p>I think you answered your own question with “I’d be a PM on Bing which is exactly what I wanted”.</p>
<p>If it truly is “exactly what you wanted”, why would you be looking at another option?</p>
<p>Hmm, I should clarify. I meant that the PM of Bing was my ideal position at Microsoft. I still am not lucid enough as to which path I think I should take. I’m not burnt out from school work yet, but I wasn’t sure if jumping straight into graduate school without a crystal clear idea of what I wanted to research was a better idea than working at Microsoft. What I want to do is learn, and that is mainly it. However, I don’t know which path will help me learn more.</p>
<p>I’ll be a PM working at MSN starting in February. Like you, I’m still being plagued about whether this was a good decision to make instead of going to grad school. I think you’re on the right track. For me, I decided that I didn’t want to go to grad school unless I had a very clear understanding of what I wanted to get out of it, including what I wanted to research (probably computer architecture). Working as an intern this past summer, there were several people on my team who left to go back to school to get graduate degrees. This is fairly normal.</p>
<p>Having a good job at a great, cutting-edge company can only help you. You can earn some money, get real, practical experience, learn a lot of tech, too, and most importantly develop a much more focused idea of what you want to become an expert in, and how (and where) people go about doing that. You may decide you never want to go to graduate school, and that will be fine. But more likely you will apply to graduate school in a couple of years and be a much stronger candidate, with a better idea of what you want to accomplish and a lot more confidence in your own decision. It’s hard for me to understand your hesitation, honestly.</p>
<p>My parents have worked at Microsoft for 10+ years.
DONT be seduced by the prestige of your new job. Its not all its cracked up to be and most new hires end up being vastly disappointed within the first 6 months. Go to grad-school and develop real skills, so you won’t be stuck at any position. </p>
<p>Microsoft is not going anywhere in two years.
And if you have further questions, feel free to PM me.</p>