Should You Go Back to School for a Professional or Advanced Degree?

Instead of giving you facts and statistics that may be meaningless to you, I’d like to share a story.

When I spend too much time at the computer, and my upper back begins to hurt a bit, I go to my local office of physical therapy where they fix me back up. One of their therapists is an acupuncturist.

He’s an 83-year old immigrant, and his skills are superb. Needless to say, he is licensed. He loves his job and never wants to retire.

Now, there is another gentleman at the same office who acts as an advisor to the other therapists. He used to be a very skilled acupuncturist in his own country, but unfortunately he never got his license in the United States and now can’t practice his labor of love. He makes much less money than the licensed acupuncturist and, frankly, his position in the office is shaky because he doesn’t bring in any income, unlike the other doctors.

Both of these gentlemen came to the United States in their sixties. Both had families to take care of, limited finances, and rather poor English.

However, one of them went ahead and paid his acupuncture school tuition, got his license, and is now a very happy man at a tender age of 83.

The other is in his late seventies but you could tell he’s not very happy with his life. He can’t do the work he enjoys and faces an inevitable threat of being let go.

So, what are your takeaways here?

1. Don’t let age, the lack of money, and even poor language skills stop you.

2. If you feel you want to change or advance your career, you might want to weigh the consequences of pursuing your dream versus not doing so.

3. Make sure your degree is practical so that you could rely on it to do the work you would enjoy.

Now, what’s YOUR story? I’d love to hear it, so feel free to share it in the comments below.

Cheers…

TP