Well I guess for me personally, there were a lot of factors.
I have always been interested in advancing computer science but got side tracked for various reasons initially. My first internship was very interesting, and I was basically working on stuff that had not been done before (or at least no one had tried the approach I was using when I researched it). So basically, I had a lot of independence to investigate an interesting problem, and the results quickly had an impact on the bottom line of the company. This was very exciting to me.
As I was finishing my undergrad degree I believed alot of the innovative work was being done by small companies in industry. After 11 years, it does not feel like there is much innovation from a technical standpoint. Most of the innovation is more along the lines of business models. This is not to say that I did not work on some interesting things. I was able to work on operating systems for PDA and Smart Phones, develop an ISP and database backed web site, and data mining for interactive television. For the most part however, I was applying things I already knew how to do, or were well understood by other people.
I decided I wanted to work for smaller companies based on dismal experience interning at IBM. I quickly learned that at smaller companies, < 200, engineering management often plays a significant architectural and technical leadership role. So I went into managment and during the boom years, I worked as director of engineering at several companies. This was interesting for a time, and I learned a lot about project and people management, but got bored.
When I first started to lose interest, I was about 5 years out of college, and my wife was in medical school. So, I was somewhat interested in going back to school, but paying for medical school, a mortgage, etc. meant that it would require painful sacrifices for both of us. In the end I decided to stick with it, at least till she finished her residency.
The next six years helped me realize more and more that what I enjoy most is research. I love diving deep into a problem, arguing about it with others, and trying to find a new approach to a problem, or a new way to understand a problem. This is not what I was doing at work, and I saw no way to morph my position at work to do this.
Now my wife has finished her residency, and I am going to back to school to pursue what I love.
That was more than you probably care to know about my situation, but you asked :-)
Quote:
Originally posted by jaideep
Hey ,
Thats nice. CONGRATULATIONS !!! I wanted to apply to UCSD but my AGRE score was bad enough to take me to the negative side of the admission decision so I dropped UCSD. I am curious about one thing though. We are seeing couple of people on this group with substantial work experience and who are coming back to school. Can I ask what is the motivation factor for coming back to school since I am a fresher and if I get admitted would be starting my PhD directly after acquiring my MS in CS from UTD.
Any comments.
Jaideep
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