Should I Drop Out of the Workforce and Go Back to School During the Pandemic?

iStockphoto.com | kzenon

In our recent past, deciding whether or not to go back to school was a big, life-altering, decision (“Do I Need to Go Back to College to Change Careers?” / “5 Pieces of Good News for Online Students”). Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, this already difficult decision is even more complex.

It’s no secret that COVID has fundamentally altered every aspect of life, transforming business, labor, and education. There is no reliable way to predict how deep the changes will be and how long they will last.

Thus, it may be tempting to ditch this horrific job market (with a national US unemployment rate of 8.6%, and much higher in places), and go back to school full time to earn another degree. Is that a good idea right now? There’s no easy answer.

Pandemic or not, the first and primary step, is an objective assessment of your personal circumstances and an informed projection of the Return on Investment (ROI) you can realistically expect under the best circumstances. According to U.S. News, “tuition and fees for the 2020–2021 school year was $41,411 at private colleges, $11,171 for state residents at public colleges and $26,809 for out-of-state students at state schools.” When you consider that colleges have been consistent in raising tuition on a regular basis, the above numbers are starting points. 

Ask yourself:

• How much will it cost to earn the degree I want?

• How long will it take?

• What is the average market salary for professionals with the degree I wish to obtain?

• If I do not have the resources, how does a student loan alter my calculations?

• How long will it take to pay back, and what kind of salary will I need to pay it back?

Really run the numbers, then add 10% for good measure. And keep in mind, an MBA, law degree, or other advanced diploma doesn’t come cheap, and can be more expensive per credit than other programs. But with COVID-19, we’re in uncharted territory and even the questions above might not provide a complete picture.

Let’s look at the arguments for returning to school:

• The labor market is crowded and uncertain. By returning to school you are taking yourself out of a hyper competitive and uncertain labor market. In traditional downturns, economists are able to make reasonable projections about the course a recession will take and steps that can be taken to alleviate the crisis. In our current situation, there is no reliable historical data to make predictions with any kind of certainty.

• When you return to the workforce, it may be less competitive in an improved overall economy. Consider the normal time frames required to earn  bachelor and advanced degrees – four years for most bachelor degrees, four years (+ residency) for an M.D., four years to become an RN, three years for a law degree, three years for many Master’s degrees, and two years for an MBA. There are intensive one-year diploma programs and Associate degrees of various types that may take less time, but you get the idea – the economy may or may not be better by the time you earn a degree, but you know for a fact that right now it’s terrible. This might be a good time to take a break.

• When you return to the workforce, certain degrees should put you in a better position. Depending upon your starting point, if you’ve earned an MBA, or a J.D., or a specialized Master’s Degree from a highly ranked program, it could potentially make you a stronger candidate for more types of positions at higher salaries than you historically earned.

• If you are in an industry that’s becoming obsolete there may be no better time to return to school than right now. For example, brick and mortal retail was a rapidly shrinking sector before COVID-19, and now its troubles have accelerated. However, virtual retail is booming. A shiny new degree in Digital Marketing or E-Commerce may an intelligent path forward.

Let’s look at some of the unique challenges of returning to school:

• Schools are operating on the fly, already demonstrating a start/stop pattern and operational uncertainty when outbreaks hit. This could be the standard for a while; if you return to school now, you should expect an uncertain first year, at minimum.

• Many schools and programs are going all virtual. You must determine for yourself how you believe virtual learning affects the quality and value of the education you receive; however, collective in-person learning can have a great amount of value through interactions with peers and professors. In addition, virtual learning requires a different level of personal discipline than showing up to class. Do you have the discipline?

• One of the great assets of earning a degree are the connections you make while you do it. Some of the people you meet in school will become the foundation of your new professional network. Are the connections as strong and actionable in a virtual environment? Just as interaction with one’s peers is important from a scholarly perspective, establishing long-lasting professional connections requires it. In the current environment, new students may find these connections lacking.

• COVID-19 has curtailed campus recruiting. Many colleges maintain regular relationships with corporate recruiters, serving an important nexus for graduates launching new careers. Much of these relationships is based on personal visits and interaction with both students and staff that have now been disrupted by the pandemic. While both schools and employers are working hard to maintain these relationships, it’s stressful for everyone.

• Internship programs can be a bedrock component of a particular degree. For example, MBA candidates often use their summers for internships, and law students perform clerkships or summer associate roles. These not only provide the student with experience; they also make them more valuable upon graduation. Many of these programs have been scaled back, eliminated, or made all-virtual.

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Philip Roufail contributed to this article.

Scott Singer is the President and Founder of Insider Career Strategies Resume Writing & Career Coaching, a firm dedicated to guiding job seekers and companies through the job search and hiring process. Insider Career Strategies provides resume writing, LinkedIn profile development, career coaching services, and outplacement services. You can email Scott Singer at scott.singer@insidercs.com, or via the website, www.insidercs.com.

I Just Started A Horrible Job! Now What?

We need this completed in the next ten minutes! (iStockphoto.com/shironosov)

Great news! You know that company you've been interviewing with? The recruiter just called and extended you the offer!

The pay they're offering is great – in fact, the salary is 20% higher than what you're currently making. The job title's better, too - you were a manager in your last job, this company's going to make you a director, and with an even bigger team and more responsibility. And they really seem to want you - the company's even offering a $10,000 signing bonus to send you the message that they value you. It's a dream come true!

Or is it? You've spoken with a headhunter who is intimately familiar with the company, and she tells you to run the other way - the company's a madhouse. There was an exposé in the newspaper recently about the gaping deficiencies in the company culture, which detailed massive amounts of unpaid overtime, endless piles of work, and a backstabbing culture compounded by massive turnover and attrition. Oh – by the way, the employer reviews on Glassdoor are overwhelmingly negative.

But how bad can the company be? The people who interviewed you all seemed engaged and happy. You ask the recruiter about the article in the paper and the Glassdoor reviews, and she tells you things have improved substantially since then.

You accept the job. The money's just too good to pass up, and besides – when are you going to get this opportunity again anytime soon?

Day one arrives. You show up to work, and you realize all that negative feedback you heard about the company is true. Absolutely true.

Those people you interviewed with who seemed really happy at the time? They bark at you. Your boss dumps you off in your cubicle, and you find a gigantic pile of work with your name on it. It needs to be dealt with. Now. And that team of people they told you you would have to help you deal with this workload? Only one of those employees still works in the department, there are five open positions, and there's enough work to keep more than twenty people busy for six months. You're expected to make a serious dent in the pile within two weeks – it's all labeled top priority, and the situation is completely unrealistic. Your stomach sinks. You've never been on blood pressure or ulcer medications before, but now seems like a good time to start.

Now what?

Although you may not have much time to think about yourself while facing this insurmountable work situation, you need to make some decisions, and prepare for the future.

Meet With Your Manager To Gain Alignment. It may be beneficial to speak with your manager about the job that was presented to you during the interviews, the actual conditions you walked into, and what can be done to remedy the situation so that you can determine if things are fixable. This isn't without risk, however; your manager may quickly decide that you're a discontent and it would be easier to part ways with you, effective now. Decide whether such a conversation would make sense, or if the risk outweighs the reward.

Decide Whether Stay Or Split. Take a deep breath, then consider the consequences of staying or cutting your losses. The old rule of thumb used to be that it's best to tough it out for two years into a job before heading for the door. Truthfully, people aren't staying in jobs as long as they used to. Likewise, volatile organizations can spit people out who don't meet their perceived performance criteria increasingly quickly. Make a decision about what you want to do. Potential employers are often willing to hire somebody who decides to leave a job quickly shortly after starting if it's clearly not a match, with little ill effect – so long as it's not a pattern in their work history. Then again, you may decide you have too much invested in the situation and you need to make it work. If you're a specialist in a specific industry and the company made you sign a non-competition agreement, your options outside the company may be limited.

If You Decide To Leave, Get Your Financial House In Order. Bank that sign-on bonus and forget about it – under your employment agreement you may be required to pay it back if you leave within a year or two; ditto for any sort of relocation expenses. Consider delaying any major purchases including that tempting move up to a larger house paid for with that increased salary. Leverage your financial freedom - if your finances allow you to take a step back to your prior pay level, you'll have much more flexibility in the job opportunities you consider.

Get Your Resume And LinkedIn Profile Ready, and Work Your Network. These are your best marketing tools, ensure that they are current and properly show your the value you've demonstrated throughout your career. And make sure they're modulated for the appropriate level you're seeking. In order to make a quick exit, it may be required that you step back to your previous job title and level.

Maybe You CAN Go Home Again. It's highly likely that the job you left hasn't been filled yet. Presuming you left your last employer on pleasant terms, it's possible that they may be willing to consider taking you back into your old job. It's not unheard of. Reach out to your old manager, and ask if the door might still be open for your return. Just don't expect them to meet your current salary and title. If the door is in fact still open, you'll likely come back at your old rank and salary – and it's possible, depending upon company policy, that you'll miss the next raise or bonus cycle due to the fact that you weren't there the full year and would be treated like a new employee.

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Scott Singer is the President and Founder of Insider Career Strategies Resume Writing & Career Coaching, a firm dedicated to guiding job seekers and companies through the job search and hiring process. Insider Career Strategies provides resume writing, LinkedIn profile development, and career coaching services, including a free resume review. You can email Scott Singer at scott.singer@insidercs.com, or via the website, www.insidercs.com.

Career Burn Notice: Circumventing A Recruiter

Heh, heh, heh... FIRE! FIRE! (iStockphoto.com/Freer Law)

How would you like to kill your reputation with every staffing firm in town – in one easy step?

The scenario. You get an unexpected call from a headhunter at a staffing firm. He's pitching a job opportunity in town with a hot technology company that's engaged him to find somebody for the position, and if you're interested, he'd like to present your resume to them. Based upon the conversation, it sounds like the job is a great match for you, and would be an interesting step forward for your career. Once you've made it abundantly clear to the recruiter that you're interested in the job, he tells you the name of the company.

"Sure sounds interesting," you say to the recruiter. "Let me think about it and get back to you."

Then, in a moment of supposed clarity you decide that you've got a better chance of representing yourself to the employer, than you do if you have the staffing firm representing you. So, you go online to the company's website, ascertain which position the recruiter was selling you, and apply. Then you go on LinkedIn and send a note to the company's human resources department.

You've cut the staffing firm out of the equation. Pretty clever, right?

Wrong. You've just earned yourself a burn notice within the staffing world.

In case you're not familiar with the term "burn notice," it's a reference to a television show in which a CIA agent is disavowed and disowned by the agency. In essence, he's been labelled unreliable, and nobody wants anything to do with him.

Here's how this applies to you. Recruiters at staffing firms earn their paycheck by placing job seekers at companies. They get paid a fee - typically in the neighborhood of 25% of the first year's salary - to find a qualified candidate and get them hired. By cutting the staffing firm who presented you the job out of the loop, you've demonstrated that you're a liability. So let's say the job paid $100,000 annually; the staffing firm was due to get a cool $25k out the deal by placing you.

You cost the recruiter 25 big ones. At minimum, you've muddied the waters in terms of how you were made aware of the job and how your resume made it into the employer's hands. At most, you've shown both the staffing agency recruiter and the employer you can't be trusted – they'll talk about your application at length, and it's pretty likely that no matter how qualified you are for the job, both parties will decide that you're a bad player and not worth pursuing. It's the end of the road for your candidacy in this particular job.

And you'll have earned a flag on your application at both the staffing firm and the employer, telling anybody who's considering you for a job to avoid you like the plague.

Think it stops there? Think again. Recruiters can change firms, and trust me - when your name comes up in conversation as a potential candidate, they'll remember how you cost them their payday. You'll be persona non grata with their new firm, too.

I'm not saying that there aren't exceptions to this situation. There are always exceptions; but you are taking a substantial risk to your reputation by circumventing the recruiter. However, if you've already applied for the job with the company, that's another story. Let the recruiter know.

Bottom Line: You may have an "in" at the potential company, or simply feel that your chances are better if you apply on your own. Fight the urge to act outside the process. The recruiter is simply doing his or her job, and by identifying you for the role they've staked their claim on you for the position. Going around them at that point will be perceived as high treason, and may hurt your cause in the short and the long term than any gains you may realize.

• Want to boost your chances of getting noticed when applying for jobs online? Follow this link!
• What should you do if your employer finds out you're looking for a new job? Find out here.

Scott Singer is the President and Founder of Insider Career Strategies Resume Writing & Career Coaching, a firm dedicated to guiding job seekers and companies through the job search and hiring process. Insider Career Strategies provides resume writing, LinkedIn profile development, and career coaching services, including a free resume review. You can email Scott Singer at scott.singer@insidercs.com, or via the website, www.insidercs.com.