6 ms·

use your free time to learn to program http://www.codecademy.com/ http://www.codecademy.com/

by slosh 14y ago

albacore 14y ago
I actually do know how to program (I have an MS and BS in Computer Science as well)
- sjg007 14y ago
  You can code so start writing iPhone apps, pick something, iterate.. Find some freelance jobs while unemployed. Apply to finance companies as a quant. You can even find QA or dev jobs at around 100k to relieve pressure. QA is easier and if you can code you are a very valuable QA person. Why? Because you are breaking the code and turning it into a viable product. Any company that ships values QA. Treat the job search as a full-time job. Since you have flexibility living at home, you can afford to wait for a good job in some sense. Otherwise find a larger company that hires MBAs into training programs. Use your school MBA network. If you don't know many people, but live close, reconnect to the program, go to all the events you may have missed. Find an internship at the very least. Some of the bigger businesses will repay your MBA loans over time. Once you get in somewhere with a high upside, solve their problems for them. Find a mentor. Maybe your MBA school will hire you? Go into public service, work for the government or teach (in those cases your income based repayment loans are wiped after 10 years). Work for a nonprofit as an MBA. They always want such folks, usually pay well, and also qualify for the 10 year program. Join the Peace Core for a year, go abroad, see the world, the problems, come back and apply for exclusive service related Federal jobs. They also have the 10 year loan forgiveness program. Find a smaller company that has a hard time getting top MBAs but needs them. The MBA has some value, it can be just a scam as everyone makes it out to be. Hell, go work for Yahoo, they are all about change right now. In your application pitch ideas about how to turn the organization around. Your wife needs to write since she is a writer. If you are a coder you need to code. If you want to solve business problems, go solve business problems. The GPA is meaningless long term. Use your strengths, acknowledge your weaknesses, work around them, and above all stay hungry. It's hard, I have a high debt load as well. What you cannot do is sit around and worry about it. You have to move forward. If you want, declare bankruptcy, learn from it and keep moving forward. But you can make it work. Pick tasks that make you better: code, write, solve. Don't expect a lump sum salvation. Work at it, chip it away... Call your credit card companies and negotiate. You have the power. They want to be repaid. You are not alone in your struggles.
  - jholman 14y ago
    > Any company that ships values QA. This is factually untrue. I have worked at three companies that ship, and watched close friends at a dozen others. A few didn't value QA at all, and allocate zero resources. A few genuinely value QA and allocate significant resources. The great majority purport to value it, but spend as little as they can, and treat QA staff very poorly (poor respect, poor tools to do their job, and poor pay).
    - sjg007 14y ago
      Sure, I should rewrite that as: Great companies value QA.

use your free time to learn to program http://www.codecademy.com/ http://www.codecademy.com/

by slosh 14y ago

use your free time to learn to program http://www.codecademy.com/ http://www.codecademy.com/

albacore 14y ago

I actually do know how to program (I have an MS and BS in Computer Science as well)

sjg007 14y ago
You can code so start writing iPhone apps, pick something, iterate.. Find some freelance jobs while unemployed. Apply to finance companies as a quant. You can even find QA or dev jobs at around 100k to relieve pressure. QA is easier and if you can code you are a very valuable QA person. Why? Because you are breaking the code and turning it into a viable product. Any company that ships values QA. Treat the job search as a full-time job. Since you have flexibility living at home, you can afford to wait for a good job in some sense. Otherwise find a larger company that hires MBAs into training programs. Use your school MBA network. If you don't know many people, but live close, reconnect to the program, go to all the events you may have missed. Find an internship at the very least. Some of the bigger businesses will repay your MBA loans over time. Once you get in somewhere with a high upside, solve their problems for them. Find a mentor. Maybe your MBA school will hire you? Go into public service, work for the government or teach (in those cases your income based repayment loans are wiped after 10 years). Work for a nonprofit as an MBA. They always want such folks, usually pay well, and also qualify for the 10 year program. Join the Peace Core for a year, go abroad, see the world, the problems, come back and apply for exclusive service related Federal jobs. They also have the 10 year loan forgiveness program. Find a smaller company that has a hard time getting top MBAs but needs them. The MBA has some value, it can be just a scam as everyone makes it out to be. Hell, go work for Yahoo, they are all about change right now. In your application pitch ideas about how to turn the organization around. Your wife needs to write since she is a writer. If you are a coder you need to code. If you want to solve business problems, go solve business problems. The GPA is meaningless long term. Use your strengths, acknowledge your weaknesses, work around them, and above all stay hungry. It's hard, I have a high debt load as well. What you cannot do is sit around and worry about it. You have to move forward. If you want, declare bankruptcy, learn from it and keep moving forward. But you can make it work. Pick tasks that make you better: code, write, solve. Don't expect a lump sum salvation. Work at it, chip it away... Call your credit card companies and negotiate. You have the power. They want to be repaid. You are not alone in your struggles.
- jholman 14y ago
  > Any company that ships values QA. This is factually untrue. I have worked at three companies that ship, and watched close friends at a dozen others. A few didn't value QA at all, and allocate zero resources. A few genuinely value QA and allocate significant resources. The great majority purport to value it, but spend as little as they can, and treat QA staff very poorly (poor respect, poor tools to do their job, and poor pay).
  - sjg007 14y ago
    Sure, I should rewrite that as: Great companies value QA.