Coffee chat with Jason

 Yesterday, I had a coffee chat with Jason, a Software Engineer 2 with Microsoft Excel. My manager recommended talking to Jason after requesting my manager for different Microsoft employees I could reach out to about having a great internship experience, work-life balance at Microsoft, and graduate studies at Microsoft. Going into the coffee chat, I was excited to learn about Microsoft during a one-on-one experience, and I had very many questions ranging from the projects that Jason has worked on to the ways Microsoft has supported his career trajectory.

I was curious to learn about Jason's experience as a software engineer pursuing his Graduate studies alongside full-time employment. "What did you consider before deciding to do Graduate school after gathering work experience," I asked Jason. I was particularly interested in learning about how he decided when to pursue his Graduate education because I am constantly battling whether it is good to pursue Graduate school immediately after my undergraduate degree or during work. Furthermore, I always wonder what the practical advantages of going to graduate school immediately after college or after working in the industry are. And during my conversation with Jason, I learned that it is essential to have more significant reasons for such life decisions beyond what people say worked for them or not. Jason emphasized that one reason to attend graduate school should be to study something that I am passionate about and curious to explore more. He noted that it might be hard to tell what this field might be since college courses cover many different software engineering topics. 


After that discussion, I noticed that it is still too early to determine whether I should attend Graduate school immediately after Berea. However, it might be an excellent opportunity to first work in software engineering to discover what I might be passionate about fully. Another interesting fact I found out is that Microsoft supports its employees for graduate school, which is an exciting opportunity.

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