When you apply to graduate school, you have to do all sorts of horrible things like take a three hour test where you do math, SO MUCH MATH, and you you are interviewed and asked about things that happened in your undergrad life 15 years ago, and WHO REMEMBERS THAT!?!
But you also get to write a personal essay, and when that happens the interviewer may tell you that she enjoyed reading your essays, after grilling you about things you did when you were 20, so you don't feel so bad.
This actually stemmed from a former post. (please to enjoy here) but I took it an tweaked it.
Behold, my graduate entrance essay:
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All activities, decisions, and actions involve some level of risk. The company I work for does training and consulting with manufacturers in the life science industry and we offer a training course on Quality Risk Management. Risk Management in this industry is specifically about assessing risk in approaching a manufacturing scenario with the designs, systems, and processes with making their product. The main idea behind Risk Management in manufacturing is to think of EVERY. SINGLE. LITTLE. THING. that could possibly go wrong with your product. On purpose. (If you suffer from severe anxiety, do not become a manufacturing engineer working in the Risk Management department).
One example in the training is selling milkshakes. In this scenario participants are asked to list everything they can foresee going wrong if they worked in a store that sold milkshakes. You can run out of ingredients, you can have the wrong ingredients, you can mix up the ingredients, your cup can break, you can spill on the counter, spill on yourself, spill on a customer - the list goes on and on and on. There are a seemingly infinite numbers of issues that could arise, ranging from bad to worse. The manufacturers in the course will then come up with plans and processes to make sure these potential hazards don’t occur.
In life the most common response to a potential hazard is inaction. If you don’t put yourself in the line of fire, you wont get hit. If don’t make a milkshake, you wont spill.
Up until now, I have stayed out of the line of fire when it comes to an advanced degree. If I don’t apply, I don’t have to worry about the myriad of hazards that come with a graduate education. I will not have to deal with the work, the late nights, the stress, the debt. If I don’t apply I will not deal with the insecurity of being unsure how technology works with the educational experience, knowing that when I graduated from college 13 years ago I didn’t yet own a cell phone. If I don’t apply I’ll never have the stress of the GMAT, or worry that my last math course was over a decade ago. Without applying I don’t have to worry that I’m not quite sure anymore if you are supposed to put one space or two after a period when writing a formal research paper.
But as time has passed, and I gain more experience and move forward in my career, there is a new scenario that has presented itself- the potential risk of NOT pursuing a graduate education. If I don’t apply I lose the opportunity to learn new skills and acquire new information that can help me progress even further in my career. If I don’t apply I will never be able to engage with other young professionals, learning from them and their experiences. If I don’t apply I will never gain new insight on how to help my small company move forward and grow. And if I don’t apply I will never get the definitive answer on how many spaces actually belong after a period when writing a formal research paper.
In the training course, after listing the potential hazards, they discuss how severe the harm would be with each hazard. If you ran out of ingredients to make your milkshake, how severe would the outcome be overall to you or your organization? And so I weigh each of my hazards carefully, and assess the potential harm- to attend or not to attend the University of Utah. How severe would the harm of each of those choices be? What is the projected outcome?
And I have my answer.
The anxiety is still there. The list of potential hazards with actually getting in to the program and starting the coursework to acquire an MBA are stacking up. I am thinking of EVERY. SINGLE. LITTLE. THING. But the potential harm of not doing it is too great. And so I accept the potential risk. I’m pursuing a graduate education.
***
But you also get to write a personal essay, and when that happens the interviewer may tell you that she enjoyed reading your essays, after grilling you about things you did when you were 20, so you don't feel so bad.
This actually stemmed from a former post. (please to enjoy here) but I took it an tweaked it.
Behold, my graduate entrance essay:
***
All activities, decisions, and actions involve some level of risk. The company I work for does training and consulting with manufacturers in the life science industry and we offer a training course on Quality Risk Management. Risk Management in this industry is specifically about assessing risk in approaching a manufacturing scenario with the designs, systems, and processes with making their product. The main idea behind Risk Management in manufacturing is to think of EVERY. SINGLE. LITTLE. THING. that could possibly go wrong with your product. On purpose. (If you suffer from severe anxiety, do not become a manufacturing engineer working in the Risk Management department).
One example in the training is selling milkshakes. In this scenario participants are asked to list everything they can foresee going wrong if they worked in a store that sold milkshakes. You can run out of ingredients, you can have the wrong ingredients, you can mix up the ingredients, your cup can break, you can spill on the counter, spill on yourself, spill on a customer - the list goes on and on and on. There are a seemingly infinite numbers of issues that could arise, ranging from bad to worse. The manufacturers in the course will then come up with plans and processes to make sure these potential hazards don’t occur.
In life the most common response to a potential hazard is inaction. If you don’t put yourself in the line of fire, you wont get hit. If don’t make a milkshake, you wont spill.
Up until now, I have stayed out of the line of fire when it comes to an advanced degree. If I don’t apply, I don’t have to worry about the myriad of hazards that come with a graduate education. I will not have to deal with the work, the late nights, the stress, the debt. If I don’t apply I will not deal with the insecurity of being unsure how technology works with the educational experience, knowing that when I graduated from college 13 years ago I didn’t yet own a cell phone. If I don’t apply I’ll never have the stress of the GMAT, or worry that my last math course was over a decade ago. Without applying I don’t have to worry that I’m not quite sure anymore if you are supposed to put one space or two after a period when writing a formal research paper.
But as time has passed, and I gain more experience and move forward in my career, there is a new scenario that has presented itself- the potential risk of NOT pursuing a graduate education. If I don’t apply I lose the opportunity to learn new skills and acquire new information that can help me progress even further in my career. If I don’t apply I will never be able to engage with other young professionals, learning from them and their experiences. If I don’t apply I will never gain new insight on how to help my small company move forward and grow. And if I don’t apply I will never get the definitive answer on how many spaces actually belong after a period when writing a formal research paper.
In the training course, after listing the potential hazards, they discuss how severe the harm would be with each hazard. If you ran out of ingredients to make your milkshake, how severe would the outcome be overall to you or your organization? And so I weigh each of my hazards carefully, and assess the potential harm- to attend or not to attend the University of Utah. How severe would the harm of each of those choices be? What is the projected outcome?
And I have my answer.
The anxiety is still there. The list of potential hazards with actually getting in to the program and starting the coursework to acquire an MBA are stacking up. I am thinking of EVERY. SINGLE. LITTLE. THING. But the potential harm of not doing it is too great. And so I accept the potential risk. I’m pursuing a graduate education.
***
2 comments:
Maybe I should hire you to write my essays one day! That was great.
Love it! I haven't been on Facebook in forever and missed all of these new ones. So excited to catch up on your writing!
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