Wait… NBA? No no… MBA!

Those of you that have known me awhile know that I never intended on ending my educational career with just a bachelor’s degree. I’ve always been planning on going for at least a Masters in Computer Science.

Hopefully starting this fall, I’ll be back at the UNLV campus for a Masters… In Business Administration. Yes, you read that right. Not Computer Science. Not Management Information Systems. Business Administration.

My financial advisor recommended for me to get the ball rolling this fall on a masters because my work will reimburse me 50% of course expenses up to $1000 per year if approved and I pass the course. I’ve spoken with HR here and it’s very likely that pursuing a Masters degree will qualify.

Like I said, I originally intended to pursue a Masters in CS. But my former coworker Jordan helped me to see I’m not cut out for that. I love programming and software development, don’t get me wrong. Computer Science is still a very interesting subject for me. But he was really good at the theory. He could use his mathematical background really well in applying high-level CS theories to his programming. While I could learn and understand everything he did, I was never near as good at being able to generate that kind of stuff.

It hit me that maybe I’m not really cut out for high-level CS. I started considering a Masters in Management Information Systems instead because it provides some of the business side logic to information technology. That ended quickly however, because three different people whose opinions I respect all suggested to go the MBA route instead, saying that the MIS won’t help me near as much.

Thus, I decided to go the MBA route. I’m in the process of getting my application materials together and am hoping that I can get things together in time to start officially this fall. I have to take the GMAT and I know I’m going to need to study for that, and I’ve got to get two recommendations ASAP as well. But I think I can cut it. I have a good GPA that will help out and I’m usually pretty good at taking tests, so… We’ll see.

Thus begins another chapter in my life. Pursuing an MBA while working as a software engineer. Should be interesting!

Yes, the title is ominous, as it should be. But no, this has nothing to do with religion.

Very recently, a good friend of mine lost faith in their profession. At least, this is the best way I can put this. And it’s not me, so this whole “friend of mine” is not a euphemism for myself. I haven’t lost faith in my profession.

In any case, I had a long discussion with them regarding this. They’ve been a pretty idealistic person for much of their life, as they try to see the good in things and always give people the benefit of the doubt. They believe(d) in their profession and all the good that it could do.

Unfortunately, all of that recently came crashing down. For a lot of their life they’ve had somebody to look up to either personally or professionally. For example, there are plenty of people that IT people look up to, and they’re not named Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, Steve Ballmer or Michael Dell. People like Miguel de Icaza come to mind there.

Sadly, pretty much everybody that outranks my friend has come crashing down to Earth. At least ethically. The high standards and ideals that my friend has set for their profession haven’t been met by anybody but themselves. They’ve reached the point where they are the only person to achieve that pinnacle of hard work, dedication, ethical conduct and excellent production and output. There’s nobody else. Just them.

That really hit my friend hard, and it shocked me too. I always thought that their profession was just chuck-filled with people worth of being looked up to. But maybe not. Apparently not, given how things are shaking out.

I mean, what do you do? What do you do when you’re the hardest worker? When nobody else is as ethical about your job as you? When nobody else cares, when you want guidance and there’s nobody else better than you to give you that guidance? What do you do if you’re in that position and you’re not the top dog? When everybody above you is either incompetent or just doesn’t care?

I can honestly say I’m very happy this has not happened to me. It’s got to be a total system shock, having your faith in your profession crushed and wondering where to go with your career and life. Sure, I’ve dealt with dumbasses and idiots in my career, but there have always been people I’ve been around that hold themselves to that higher standard and actually achieve, rather than fall. I sure hope that if I ever reach the pinnacle and find myself alone, that I’ve reached the top and don’t ever need guidance again. I can’t imagine that feeling.

I’ve decided I’m not satisfied with where I am at in life. This decision I’ve come to isn’t some huge revelation or anything. I mean, everybody should strive to improve their situation, be it financially, emotionally, socially or something else (politically?). But I’ve just come to the conclusion that I’m nowhere near satisfied with my life.

This has nothing to do with my married life. I’m totally 100% happy with Laura. There’s absolutely no question there. Home life is really good, I get along with my family very, very well, I feel I’ve got a really good set of friends…

I’m talking about lifetime accomplishments here. My career. Things I want to do in life. It’s tough to keep things in perspective because I’m only 24 years old. I’ve got a long life ahead of me, plenty of time to do things and advance my career. But I’m still dissatisfied with where I’m at right now. There’s so much I want to do that I wonder if I have enough time in my life to do it all, unless somehow I achieve immediate success in some of these areas.

I named this post Wikipedia because I want to do something big enough to have my own Wikipedia article. Yeah, I know that being on Wikipedia doesn’t mean a whole lot, but it does have its standards on the level of importance and relevance to society in order for something to be posted on there. My video game website, OMGN, is listed as a source on quite a few articles, but still nothing major.

It’s kind-of like when artists say they feel they’ve arrived when Weird Al Yankovic parodies their style or a particular song. I think that having my own Wikipedia article listing some cool accomplishment of mine, I’d feel that I’m important enough to society to slake my thirst for, well, importance.

In any case, besides having a Wikipedia article to boost my ego (haha), there’s just a lot that I want to do in life.

OMGN

I really want to be able to get OMGN running as well as it was in the summer of 2006 during E3 coverage. The traffic OMGN is receiving these days isn’t way below what it was getting then, but it isn’t as high. I really want to improve the quality of the site and actually have enough of a monetary flow to pay a couple writers and an editor. Unfortunately, that’s a long ways away and I don’t have enough time to dedicate to OMGN to build it up that big.

Lead Development

I’d like to become a lead developer in the near future at my work, and then continue moving upward into more managerial positions. Not a lot of software engineers / web developers / whatever the hell you want to call me make it that far, nor do they even want to. But I do. I want to see more of the business side of my profession because I want to learn both sides to it. Knowledge is power.

Master’s Degree

I’d love to get my master’s degree in Computer Science. I know I can do it, I’ve taken the undergraduate equivalents to a few of them at UNLV, the only difference from the graduate-level course being I didn’t have to write up a big report.

Teach

I want to teach some day, preferably in the high school grade levels. The only way that will work, of course, is if Laura and I are in a financial position for me to make that little money. Otherwise, it’s collegiate teaching for me. Either way, this one has to wait until we have more money for a) me to not need a high-paying job, or b) me to get my master’s degree then likely a PhD.

Work For Myself

This could be accomplished via OMGN getting really big, but I eventually want to end my “working career” by working for myself. I want to run my own business, have employees, all that jazz. If that happens, it means I will have achieved a nice success in building something that is truly mine to offer.

Those are just a few things I want to do in life… I have a feeling I won’t get to them all, but for now, I’d really like to not feel like a tiny, tiny fish in a universe full of monstrous sea life. I mean, what quantifiable positive impact do I have on society as a whole? Not much… Not much.

Really, I’d just love to find funding for OMGN. That’s my top choice right now. Well, funding, or for some inexplicable reason it takes off and funds itself.

On a side note: Don’t go galavanting off thinking you’re going to write a Wikipedia article about me that is meaningless! I’ve already seen Wikipedia remove articles that didn’t offer any useful information. :p