Many technology professionals learn their trade from the school of hard knocks. However, formal higher education is an important ingredient in any career growth plan. Education is Rule #4 in my Rules for Advancement blog series. I touched on the subject there, but will expound on it here. There are many approaches. I’m personally fond of the path I took, as it is a bit unique. I’ll share my educational journey in this article with the goal that you can apply these nuggets to your journey.

The start of my educational journey had a very traditional start. Immediately after finishing high school, I enrolled in a four-year college and moved into the dorms. I went to Crown College, which is not particularly well-known, but it’s a great Bible college nestled in the countryside just west of Lake Minnetonka, 30 miles from downtown Minneapolis. Little-known fact about me: My initial major was Youth Ministry. After a year getting my generals done, I decided to switch majors and pursue an Associate’s Degree in Computer Networking. That’s a dramatic switch and there’s a long story there, but it’s not particularly relevant to this article, so I’ll summarize the switch as “a clarification of vocational calling.” The promise of one more year of schooling to get marketable skills in a high-demand field sounded great. I dove in.

The academic program followed the Microsoft curriculum for the Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer (MCSE). I finished the program with both an Associate’s Degree and an industry certification. Crown College no longer offers a Computer Networking program, but there are a whole bunch of other institutions that do.  Halfway through the program, I arranged my schedule so I could complete the rest of my requirements in night school. That freed up my days to go to work and get some experience. I had just turned 20 years old. I had 3 semesters of college under my belt, and I landed my first full-time tech job. I previously wrote about that experience in this blog article: Hawaiian Shirts & Y2K – Memoirs From My First Tech Job.

Finishing my traditional college experience with a degree, a certification, and six months of professional experience was a fantastic way to leave the dorms and head into the real world. Very few college graduates have that kind of advantage after four years, and I got it in two.

Over the next two years, I turned myself into an adult. I got a full-time job at a big company, got married, drove a respectable car, bought a house, and paid off my student loan. The next logical thing for me to do was take advantage of my company’s tuition reimbursement program and go back to school. While I hadn’t experienced it yet, I knew that someday in my future, not having a Bachelor’s degree would hold me back, and I didn’t want to be told I didn’t get a job or a promotion due to my lack of a degree. I re-enrolled at Crown College and knocked out my B.S. degree in two years at night while working full-time during the day.

I loved night school. It was so much better than traditional college. One of the reasons why I cut my traditional college experience short was because I was ready to be an adult. Night school is college for adults. All of the students are motivated and no one is just coasting. The professors are mostly adjunct vs. tenured staff, meaning they have real world experience, success, and failure to bring to the classroom. The students mostly have real jobs where they can immediately and directly apply their learning. Most of my classmates were mid-career looking for a change. I was early in my career looking to accelerate with some practical skills, and that’s exactly what I got. I simply do not believe I could be who and where I am today had I taken the traditional 4-year route. The way I did it gave me more job experience, more practical real-world education that I could immediately apply, and much less college debt.

Nine years passed before the next leg of the journey. I thought about getting my Master’s degree off and on. A familiar fear crept up in my mind. I don’t want to get passed-up for a job or a promotion just because I don’t have a Master’s degree, but that wasn’t enough to get me moving. I had been out of school for a long time by then. I had a bunch of kids and really couldn’t fathom signing up for the multi-year nighttime commitment that I had previously completed with ease (and no kids). Off and on, I looked at MBA curriculums and honestly nothing excited me. If I was going to sacrifice my family time, then it really had to be worth it. It had to be much more than a piece of paper or a line on a resume.

I came across a different kind of Master’s program than the typical MBA. It was the Master of Arts in Organizational Leadership at Bethel University. That program is now called the Master of Arts in Strategic Leadership. When I looked at the curriculum, I got excited. There were courses on ethics, change leadership, organizational design, cultivating followership, creating mission and vision, conflict management, and many more. By that point, I had been in formal leadership positions for about 5 years, but I had a lot to learn. I realized that these were the skills I needed to develop for me to grow my leadership capability. Not only did I need it, I was passionate about it. I can get excited about these topics a lot easier than sales, marketing, finance, and accounting. All of that was necessary for me to ask my family to do without me for large chunks of most nights and weekends for three and a half years. And of course, I got my employer to pay for most of it with tuition reimbursement.

At Bethel, I attended a mix of in-person and online classes. Both were fine, and I learned plenty in both formats. However, I strongly preferred the in-person classroom format. At first glance, the online seems easier, but it isn’t. To make up for the lack of classroom and commute time, they load-up the coursework. Also, it just takes more effort to collaborate with classmates in online forums vs. in-person. It can be done, just not as easily. Also, the in-person classes all had a presentation component. This was a skill I needed to develop. Online wasn’t as challenging or helpful for building confidence in public speaking.

I intentionally waited to start my Master’s degree until I was at the place in my career where it would accelerate my growth. In my line of work, I do a lot of interviewing. I’ve interviewed highly educated people with entry-level experience looking to advance. I get frustrated when someone like that expects to get a management job just because they got a Master’s degree when they were a college kid.

Picking the right institution is also important. For me personally, integrating faith and education strongly enhances the meaningfulness and richness of the educational experience and impact on my life. That’s why I chose Crown College and Bethel University. Both of those institutions do a great job of integrating faith without sacrificing academic rigor.

So, I got my Master’s. What’s next, a Doctorate? No. I can’t imagine that being helpful to my career. I graduated with my Master’s degree nearly two years ago. When I was in the program, I read at least a book a week, and wrote 8-10 pages of papers per week.  When I finished school, I initially committed myself to keep reading. During the previous gap between my B.S. and M.A. I did very little non-fiction reading. Now I plow through a non-fiction audio book about every two weeks on my commute. However, that wasn’t enough. I missed writing. That’s one of the reasons I started this blog. Both reading and writing are major components of how I continue to learn. While it may seem like I’m writing this blog for you, I am also writing it for me.

In conclusion, I will summarize the key takeaways:

1. Educate as you progress in your career. Front-loading education isn’t as useful.
2. There’s no shame in starting your career with a two-year degree or certificate, but don’t stop there.
3. Pick a program that excites you. You are going to spend a ton of time on it, so you better like the subject matter.
4. Don’t let a lack of degree hold you back from your next opportunity.
5. Have your company pick up the tab with tuition reimbursement.
6. Do night school. It’s more relevant to the real world than traditional college.
7. Do in-person instead of online if you can. You’ll get more out of it.
8. Pick an institution that you connect with personally. Make sure the educational mission fits.
9. Never stop learning. Find a way to continue your education informally after formal education.