How I Got Here - More College Years

If memory serves me correctly, I started my Masters in Computer Science prerequisites in January 2001.  Originally, I had intended to attend class part-time and continue working.  Then I found out that my employer wasn't going to reimburse me for any of my classes.  

In retrospect, I find this odd - the parent company was all in on becoming a software provider, and programming as a skill almost always adds value to an existing job due to its ability to increase automation potential, and, thus, productivity.  

At the time, though, I thought "Well, I'm a mechanical engineer and computer science is different enough that I guess I can see the company's point."

Since I wasn't getting any financial assistance from my employer, I made the decision to quit and return to school full-time at the start of the fall quarter.  By this point, the Dotcom Bubble had burst spectacularly, but I had accounted for the ups and downs of the market, and had assumed that when I graduated 2 years hence, I'd be in a good position.  

We'd obviously faced the worst of the situation, so there was no further reason to fret.  I was excited to attend my first full-time, in-person class on September 10.  Needless to say, 24 hours later, my uncertainty about the future was sky-high along with everyone else in the world.  

But, I'd already made my decision and cut my ties, so I had no option but to move ahead.  I was also dedicated to correcting what I perceived to be my past academic errors - namely that I would quite literally give every graduate class the old college try.

For the most part, I succeeded.  While computer architecture and operating systems were challenging, I was able to do well by putting in the work.  

The only class that I consistently struggled with was Theoretical Computer Science.  My woes were compounded by the fact that there were 5 of us in the class, and everyone else seemed to instantly comprehend the material.  That, plus, after a particularly harrowing session during office hours, I told the professor that I was trying as hard as I could, and his response was "Sometimes trying isn't enough."

If that isn't a slogan for the ages like "Hang in there, baby!" I don't know what is.  

Luckily, my disappointment in that class was countered by my success in my thesis.  When contemplating going back to grad school, a friend of mine lent me a book on the ins and outs of the whole process.  The book was well-written and had several helpful bits of advice.  Sadly, the title has been lost to history, but I remember one particular section on choosing a thesis.

The author encouraged the would-be grad student (me) to choose the first topic that seemed somewhat interesting.  Don't get bogged down by finding the perfect topic because humans have a knack for delving into the details of a seemingly minuscule or boring topic and bringing fresh perspectives and insights into it with enough dedication.

So, with that in mind, after my first class in finite automata, I thought "Gee, this is kind of interesting," walked up to my professor afterward and asked what research she was pursuing.  From there, I became deeply engrossed in cellular automata for the next 18 months.

I'm even proud to say I had a Doc Brown revelatory moment while trying to figure out the crux of the proof for my particular problem.  I was lying on the couch mid-afternoon drifting in and out of consciousness when I realized I could solve the problem by running everything from the proof backward!  

A year later - and with constant rewrites to make sure the language lived up to the exacting standards a peer-reviewed mathematical paper demands - I was a published author!  As much as I still find the topic fascinating, I can guarantee that I couldn't tell you the intricacies of the solution without a lot of serious remedial work.

A scant 1.5 years later I was graduating (with honors) after successfully defending my thesis.  I had a BS in Mechanical Engineering and, now, an MS in Computer Science (with a concentration in software engineering), so I was feeling good.

Now, all I needed was a job.  This wasn't like matriculating from undergrad, when companies were handing out offers like candy.  Though there was a brief recession in 2001 that had come and gone, hiring was still fairly sluggish in most sectors in 2003, and I was prepared for a long job hunt through the summer.  

Luckily though, fate intervened, and I got a job with a former professor before I even graduated.  Well, maybe it wasn't so lucky.  That wound up being one of the most stressful 6 month periods of my life and I was fired shortly before Christmas.  

If you're keeping score, I'd worked in aggregate for 5 years, had 4 jobs, and been fired from 2 of them.  Horatio Alger couldn't have been more proud!

Things finally began to stabilize with my next job, but that's a tale for our next installment.

Until next time, my human and robot friends.