Working, Learning, and the Path Ahead

My 6 month journey through to Sweden provided much food for thought. Honestly, while I was over there I wasn't thinking so much, but when I returned to Australia the holiday was over and I knew some of those dreaded 'life decisions' would need to be made.

What struck me as bizare about Europe was the social norm that young people are expected to be students until they are in their mid to late twenties. Over there, you have not completed university until you have a postgraduate degree and finding relevant work without one was difficult at best. I believe this is a function of two factors: the poor economic situation (high youth unemployment) causing students to remain in institutions for longer, as well as a stronger cultural demand for a liberal education.

This prompted two distinct reactions from me.

Firstly, I am glad to live in Australia where there is no pressure to receive postgraduate degrees. I can choose to enter the workforce in valued professions and succeed with only an undergraduate degree. This is a freedom that is not as prevalent in Europe. I do not believe that in Australia the barrier to success is lower and further education is not required, just that there are other paths than earning a second piece of paper. I'm young, I shouldn't be thinking about my second degree before the first one is finished.

My second reaction was to contemplate a second degree. Up until that point, my thoughts on the matter were simple: I wanted to work. I, along with nearly all students in the computer science school, want to take advantage of the high demand for graduates in our field and have great lives doing important things for companies in highly demanding, transformative positions. The thought of going back to university never even crossed my mind, except maybe doing it once I am 30 and looking to brush up on business qualifications for more senior managerial positions (how depressing does that sound to 21 year old me). My view was that technical (i.e. non arts / MBA) postgraduate courses straight out of university are the breeding ground for career academics, and that is a path I firmly do not want to head down. I have great respect for the many academics I know, however with the head-strong surety that my youth provides I am certain that it is not the path for me.

But life in Europe began to change my view on secondary degrees. People my age were finishing their undergraduate degrees in preparation for their masters. Combined with this, many things I felt knew to be certain previously were becoming less certain. I feel that I now know less about my industry than I did two years ago. This is not due to knowledge being forgotten or becoming obsolete, but rather due to losing my ignorance about what I don't know.

This diminished sense of knowledge was also accompanied by a blurry sense of direction. In first year this sense of direction was crystal clear:

Them: "So what do you study?"
Me: "I'm in my first year of Software Engineering at UNSW"
Them: "How are you liking it?"
Me: "Pretty good. Courses are easy, job prospects are good. I'll pick up a job as a rockstar ninja developer, and if my projections are correct, with the increased demand for developers and the deteriorating European economy, I should be able to retire in 10 years and buy 1/3 of Greece"

But alas young naivety has been knocked out of me and the conversation has changed now that I am no longer a freshling.

Them: "So what do you study?"
Me: "I'm in my fourth year of Software Engineering at UNSW
Them: "So what are you specialising in and what are your plans for next year?"
Me: "Well I haven't really thought about specialising, I'm a generalist who has put my hand in all the jars but nothing really stuck? As for next year, I don't know, maybe something to do with the web?? I hear that's pretty big in computing?"
Them: "Web dev? Front end or backend? Ops? Architect? Startup or enterprise? Sydney or overseas? Or perhaps more university?"

Postgraduate degrees made their return into the decision tree from which they had previously been banished and now my future now has more options than ever. This is equally liberating and daunting, as I am at the end of the common lines of the opening book. While there are some mainstream variations to know, this is now about midgame tactics and strategy to achieve goals that I have yet to set.

So the question is "what do I do now?" And there is no right or wrong answer, just different shades of grey. My answer to that question is not a constant, but rather a function of time and circumstance that moves in trends. Some paths have been made clear to me, and I am sure others will emerge over time. They range from the academic to the hands on, and here are some of them:

• Join a large non-tech enterprise and deliver solutions for their business needs. Even after removing the jargon this sounds dirty, with all the networking and meetings that come with the territory. This would involve gaining further technical and business qualifications
• Join a large tech focused company and solve complex problems with a deep understanding in a limited domain whilst working with brilliant people. This would involve a postgraduate level of education in a specific field.
• Join a young tech company and relish the breadth of knowledge required and fast iteration that comes with it. No formal training required, but I will be directing my own learning.
• Start my own business, be my own master, conquer the world, be filled with unbridled optimisim and yada yada yada. Experience is the best education.

None of these answers are absolutes, they are merely destinations on a map I am trying to make a little less blurry. If I choose one of these destinations, probability says that I will adjust course halfway through my journey and find myself at other locations. Some of these destinations are in Australia, but others are better reached overseas. I have no intention of making a map that I follow religiously for the next 20 years (believe me, I have seen several people try that and regret it after only 2-3 years), but I would love to at least pick a destination and get on the road rather than sitting at home doing nothing.

With that in mind, I still have been unable to pick a specific destination. However I have picked a direction to head in that leads to several destinations in the hope that I will know which fork to take when I reach it. I have decided to focus in on AI, machine learning, big data, cloud technology, and various other buzzwords. It is a group of general fields that are interesting to me, complementary, yet at the same time definitely a step in a direction. They bring back the proposition of postgraduate education, but it is not a necessity. Now the conversation goes like this:

Them: "So what do you study?"
Me: "I'm in my fourth year of Software Engineering at UNSW
Them: "So what are you specialising in and what are your plans for next year?"
Me: "I am studying machine learning with a focus on cloud and distributed computing, relevant for big data analysis"
Them: "And what sort of role would that lead to"
Me: "It varies. It could be enterprisy, it could be consulting, it could be growth hacking for a startup, it could mean back to university for a few more years. I don't know yet but I'll navigate that fork when I get there"

It doesn't matter that I don't know the destination. What matters is that I made a step in a promising direction, which is something I have wanted to do for several years now.

I used to believe that the destination was what mattered, that when you reach the destination it was game over. Stop doing, stop learning, stop adapting, game over. Now I see the journey as the most important aspect, and the only use of the destination is to know what steps to make on the journey.