JobGrades

Should I go to Graduate School?

2010-05-28T15:11:00.000-07:00

You have to ask yourself: Are interested in research, the money or a little of both?

If you are at interested in research, I strongly recommend applying to grad school for at least a MS degree, but preferably a PhD degree. The amount of learning, interactions and lab access is definitely worth it. Especially if you are interested in Biology, Computer/Mechanical/Electrical Engineering because you simply do not have access to the equipment otherwise.

If you want money, grad school might end up costing more. A short 1 or 2 year MS degree program could be a choice as well. You can also choose to do full-time/part-time work and go to grad school part-time. This is a valid option and will extend an MS degree to roughly 3 years. It will be more relaxing and taking 1 or 2 classes at a time isn't that bad.

To make the most of your time, I recommend researching for grad school by the research you are interested in.

How YOU can help alleviate poverty in third world nations

2008-06-04T16:19:00.000-07:00

I like to help people but I don't believe in hand-outs. You give a free meal to the poverty-stricken, they'll be satisfied for a day and expect to be GIVEN a free meal everyday. You TEACH the poverty-stricken to make money, they will empower themselves earn a meal.

So how can you help without giving out money? Invest in people who are motivated in helping themselves.

There's a concept called microloans. You make small loan amounts to entrepreneurs to help jump start small businesses in 3rd world nations. Most of these entrepreneurs are women trying to earn an honest living for their child's education. Investing in women at the poverty level makes tremendous sense since they have more at stake with their families. Read one real example story in Cambodia

There's this company called microplace.com (owned by Ebay) which makes it REALLY easy to make these investments.

You can invest with as little as $100 and make a difference. You will most likely get a financial return on your investment too. They range from 1% to 3%. It's not much but think about it, what's $100 sitting in your bank account doing? Making the same $3 a year? Might as well help someone who really needs it rather than a bank CEO's paycheck.

The best part is that it doesn't affect you much but it can greatly change another person's life. Everyone deserves a chance at life, right?

So please, at least take the time to learn about the process at http://www.microplace.com/

Top 5 Reasons It's Great to Be an Engineering Student

2008-03-24T19:40:00.000-07:00

A little aside from the world of jobs.

I just read this article on Wired about "Top 5 Reasons It Sucks to Be an Engineering Student. Below are some reasons why it's great to be an engineer.

-----
5. Your textbook(with professor/TA/co-student's help) is actually useful.
Sure, reading "Guns, Germs and Steel" is certainly interesting. But you could have done that at anytime. Who needs college for that? Try learning Electrical Engineering on your own...

4. Engineering professors know their stuff.
Sure they maybe cranky at times, but rest assured, they know their material. Because they had to go through much more rigorous schooling than you had.

3. Quality Counseling?
Ha! Engineers have jobs lined up for them. You don't need counseling. Just search any job site for the number of engineering jobs compared to psychologists. Engineers are smart enough to research into what type of jobs they want. Plus you'll make twice as much as most other majors. Not to mention, you are contributing to the world of science! We need people to be engineers so they can build alternative energy sources; We don't need more lawyers arguing if McDonalds causes obesity.

2. Grades? Who cares!
Engineering teaches you solid principles to build upon.

You can get straight As in college and not learn a thing. But if you really try to learn in your engineering classes, you'll develop some amazing problem solving skills. Even if you drop out anytime, you'll still have a lot useful skills than any social science major.

1. Every assignment is challenging.
You'll never get an assignment like this: "How does an author use metaphors to convey the meaning of life?"

I don't about you, but the majority of my computer engineering projects and homeworks were immensely challenging. Even the smartest kids in college still had to spend night and day learning on the assignments. If you found the majority of your engineering homework easy, quit college and start your own engineering company right away.

JobDud.com is Now JobGrades.com

2008-02-19T20:45:00.000-08:00

After polling a number of our friends and family, we've decided to take their advice and change our name. We wanted to shed the negative connotation that the name "JobDud" brings to mind and rebrand ourselves with the neutral, yet catchy, JobGrades.com.

JobGrades.com - How's Work?

See, it's growing on you already! :)