Ask HN: Graduate school while running a company?

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27819271

by cortezdecoy • 5 years ago

5 2 5 years ago

news.ycombinator.com

Have any founders here simultaneously pursued a higher degree? If so, did you feel each pursuit diminished your experience of the other, or did you find a way to pursue both satisfactorily?

giantg2• 5 years ago

I did night school while employeed full time, but not as a founder. I did start an LLC, during this though.

My general opinion is to be skeptical of grad school. I got a masters and it didn't do anything for me. I feel like it was a waste of time. In our field, hands on experience is more important than degrees. Most of the positions that do require grad degrees are usually requiring PhDs to work with AI models.

chris11• 5 years ago

I haven't done either. I'd imagine it would be extremely difficult though. There was a semester where I was working full time and going to school part time. Overall I thought it was a good decision. I had a well-paying job as a software engineer before I graduated. But I was busy and it would have been a lot worse if the job didn't have good wlb.

I learned a lot, but I definitely didn't get the full experience. One of my classes was during the day, so I didn't go. I made that up with individual tutoring during weeknights.

It might be different if your research has to do with your company. It seem a lot of universities have startups connected to research groups.

Ask HN: Graduate school while running a company?

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