OK, so... WTF, right? How the fuck am I considering grad school now? I'm in the 2nd half of my 40's, I'll be at the footsteps of my 50's by the time I finished grad school. I mean, really... WTF?

No, no, I get it... it's dumb as fuck. But you know what, so am I. 🙂 So that's OK.

Honestly though, let's check out the landscape.

Like I mentioned in that other post (fuck... I can't link to past posts yet...), after quitting Intel I spent another year doing EE work as a consultant, and then another 2(ish) years as an entrepeneur (HA!). All-in-all, I've been working within the electrical engineering world for 26 years now. Twenty, Six, Fucking, Years.

I think I'm ready for a change.

I'm honestly bored with most of EE work at this point. I may going into it more in some future post, but in the last little bit, I have been job hunting and I have been fortunate enough to get a few offers along the way. Unfortunately, pretty much everything I have been offered has been very uninteresting to me. A lot of shit I've already done a million times before.

I think, at a high level, the largest problem within the EE field is, at this point, I have too much experience for doing the basic shit again, but not enough of the right experience to have gotten myself into a position I should be at at this point in my life/career (HA!). If I had been more successful, and I was running something of substance by now, I'm sure I'd stick to the EE shit to the end. But as it is, I didn't get there, so I have one of two options really... keep at it, or move on. I'm happy to move on.

You may be asking, so why grad school? And why Data Science? And why now?

Maybe I should be asking, "Why the 3rd degree?!". Shiiiit. But OK... first off, why grad school. Honestly... I don't know of any better option at this point. I can go and get another EE job, like I said, I just haven't been feeling it. Unless something changes, that chapter is done.

Well, then what?

Well, then, I don't know.

I could find some other random job that just requires any sort of degree. My neighbor was a Computer Science dude who got sick of being one and instead became a manager at an ax-throwing place. No joke. So maybe I can do something like that right? I thought of it. Maybe that'll come next. 🙂 But for now, I think I still want to do something technical. But also, I think I still want tech-industry sized paychecks... I have a lot of catching up to do if I'm ever going to retire.

And wouldn't you know it, just as I'm trying to figure out what to do next... boom.... ChatGPT comes out. Have you used it? If you haven't, you should. That, and DALL-E. Or really, any other of the new "generative AI" models that have become so popular this past year. ChatGPT changed my views of AI, as it did for so many others. Before that class of AI (known as "Large Language Models") came out, most of what was happening with AI was pretty understandable, even to stupid shmucks likes me. Then the LLMs showed up and... honestly... it's like fucking magic! The jump from specific AI, like object detection, to LLMs blows my mind.

So, for the first time in a while, my curiousity is piqued.

+1 for Data Science.

Another thing that's changed in recent years, is the rise of remote work. I have several software friends who have taken on fully-remote jobs and according to them, it's the bee's knees. As an EE who's historically been focused on hardware, remote work isn't really an option as we usually need to be where the thing is being built. Software folks have an advantange there, and Data Science would be a purely software endeavor (most likely).

I like the idea of a remote jobs for several reasons: I want to be able to move around a bit which I could do with a remote job; and I want to be to find some place I like enough to stop moving around a bit and know I won't have to worry about whether the right jobs is co-located at the right place to live, you know? I also want a job that's enough of a high skillset that I still have the opportunity to leave the country on a work visa. I'll cover it in more depth in the future, but I think leaving the U.S. has become a much more likely option in recent years.

+1 for Data Science.

Finally, Data Science is still very much a tech job. And I'm counting on my extensive experience with computers, programming, networking and databases to pay big dividends. Even if I do start off entry-level (which I'm hoping to avoid) I think I could get to a comfortable spot without too much work.

+1 for Data Science.

So... I think that's where things sit for now. I've glossed over a lot of the personal shit, so we'll have to revisit this topic again pretty soon. We'll have to revisit quite a few things I'm sure. That's OK... we've got time.

Well, I think we do. Grad school still isn't definite yet I guess. I've got lots to figure out still, I'll try and keep you posted along the way. 🙂

For now: grad school.