David Carter ⋅ Saratoga, CA Tesla Motors ⋅ 34 years experience

Hi Chris,
Thank you for your service! Balancing work and school is challenging, even if you’re already sacrificing your personal life.
Here’s what I would do:
• Minimize your commute(s) and avoid other “time sucks” that require lots of maintenance, like needy people or dilapidated equipment (car, computer, etc).
• Find a quiet, well-lit, easily accessible space, and establish a routine, so that you can snap into study mode quickly, and others know to leave you alone (or can’t find you). The world has had smartphones only since 2007. You will survive if you turn yours off for a few hours.
• Look for ways to temporarily lower or minimize cash outflow.
For example, rent a room in a house instead of renting an apartment, or (hold your tongue and) live with relatives, or maybe organize friends who also want to significantly lower expenses and find a place to rent together (as long as it enables a short commute, requires little maintenance, and they respect your study times).
• Look for a job with a boss who doesn’t punish you for having this goal, or a job that can be done over the internet. Ideally, you have a boss who is encouraging, empathetic, and willing to allow flex hours, especially during exam weeks. These bosses are very hard to find, so if you find one, let everyone know!
• Attend an institution with a solid track record of successful graduates, whom you can reach out to for mentoring and/or internships. Many for-profit colleges will leave you holding the bag, with a hooooge student loan and a slim chance of ever paying it off.
• Think hard about which degree you want to earn and why. In my experience (as an itinerant tech writer in Silicon Valley for 30+ years), a degree is still very important for certain careers, but it means far less than it used to for many jobs. Taking a class or two can be enough to show an interviewer that you are qualified. To achieve bliss, you must balance four things: www.harebrained.com/happiness.pdf
• In the same way that the SW industry disrupted the music and movie industries, it is beginning to disrupt education. Colleges will no longer be able to charge $500 per credit, when we can obtain an equivalent education online for free. Check out www.khanacademy.org and www.lynda.com for inexpensive ways to learn what you need to know to land a job. Other sites I've used: www.coursera.org and www.udemy.com
• Create time each day for “me time”, during which you relax in a way that recharges your body and reaffirms your commitment level. And keep a sense of humor, because half of whatever happens is out of your control.

Cheers,
-Dave

George Wilhelmsen ⋅ Rochelle, IL Sargent & Lundy ⋅ 38 years experience

Chris,

There is no magic formula. What I can tell you from my experience is that working a full time job and taking classes - the best I could do is 1 to 2 classes per semester, or around 8 hours maximum. Difficult classes are worse - I was taking Engineering Physics for 2 semesters, and I literally could take nothing else - the class was that intensive.

To make things go better, get someone to study with - I returned to college after a 10 year plus gap, and was studying with someone who was slightly older than my kids. It was odd, but having someone to trade ideas and work problems with really helped leverage my study time.

When I was doing this, my "life" was pretty much on HOLD. Apart from a few classes where I could work at my own pace (for example, the University of Illinois - Urbana / Champaign offered Guided Individual Study classes for electives), this took all my focus. Check with colleges in your area and outside your area for remote study - my son took one from BYU for spanish over the summer for example.

With all this said, you have a few choices. You can either stay in your job, and take the longer road to finish your degree, or go decide to leave your firm, and go full time. If you go full time, you may be able to fit in part-time jobs. My son for example, is working as a Junior in college in the college lab for pay, which is helping to defray his expenses.

I wish you all the best of luck, and I'll say this: Don't Give Up. I pulled myself through a BS - with your background, I know you can do it too!

Warm regards, and thank you for your service,

George Wilhelmsen

Carlos Castillo ⋅ Fort Drum, NY U.S. Army, Private First Class ⋅ 6 years served

Remember that a degree now-a-days doesn't guarantee a job. Make sure you prep yourself for interview environment in order to get the job you want. Network as much as possible, keep your head up, be hungry, humble, and never settle for nothing less. You'll be fine, ... it's very important to network; "It's not only what you know or who you know, it's who is willing to know more about you and give you a chance"

Aleta Anderson ⋅ Silver Spring, MD All Media Linked ⋅ 20 years experience

Good Morning,

I add hours to my day by getting up earlier. My day starts at 5am. Of course organizing and prioritizing your objectives is important. And, determine ways to multi-task.
Technology like your tablet and/or smart phone allows you to work and study on the fly.

Lynette Wright ⋅ Berkeley Heights, NJ AIG ⋅ 10 years experience

There are some hard choices you have to make. From personal experience working full time and going to school full time was very hard and daunting and I'm single with no kids. First you will have schedule your time appropriately. Try online classes, weekend classes or CLEP out. CLEP out is when you feel you are well rounded in a subject due to life experiences. Its a test with 50 to 100 questions if you pass the test you can be granted 1 to 3 credits. This will help you finish quicker.

Becky Kelly ⋅ Staunton, VA Fiduciary Education Center ⋅ 38 years experience

You need to carve out time to study with no interruptions. This is hard when you are at home, but you need to mark the time just for you........and everyone around you needs to know your parameters.
You need to figure out how you best study. Does reading notes or a book do it? Do you need to re-write notes or ideas to get it to sink in. Would a study buddy (who is as serious as you and will not get off track) help you get things done? Which way works best.
Last, but not least, go to your professor and ask for help. They want you to succeed and can suggest areas to target or ideas they have on making it all sink in. So much of your success depends on feeding information back the way they want it! Good luck and don't give up. I remember once I got out of graduate school, I would wake up in the night with this panic feeling of needing to study. I still have the dream occasionally.....nearly 40 years later and it is so good to realize........I have that behind me! :) You can do it.

Patricia Sanderlin ⋅ Hempstead, TX HP ⋅ 20 years experience

Chris,

Thank you for your service and kudos for going to school and working at the same time! At the beginning, I worked up to three jobs to get by. Depending on availability, I took 3 - 4 classes per semester. I can tell you, it can be done! I got my Bachelor's degree with a major in Marketing and a minor in International Business with summa cum laude while working full-time. So, I know you can do it! Tell your teacher what your situation is and ask for understanding, some support and any flexibility they can provide.

Here are my top 10 recommendations:

1. Ask your family members for support and explain that your social life is greatly reduced during the time you are earning your degree. Period. School has priority right now.
2. Try to sign in for classes on the weekends or evenings (I worked full-time 8 - 5) and find a way to get into as many classes as possible that are offered online.
3. Study smart, not hard. Ask your teacher for specifics on homework so you know exactly what you are asked to do and don't waste time on non-value work.
4. Participate actively in class, the more answers you get in class, the easier it is for you to learn and the less you have to re-read.
5. At work, use lunch or breaks to read material and do home work. Ask co-workers for help with homework, like explaining math. I had an amazing math guy I worked with who helped me tons! I even had customers help me when they saw my school books behind the counter.
6. If you have a cool child or a very supportive wife, ask them to record a reading of a chapter of a book for you that you can listen to while driving or commuting.
7. Highlight important lines in a chapter and/or bookmark them, so you can easily find them again when looking something up or cramming last minute for a test.
8. At home, study late at night in a quiet corner before going to bed.
9. Ask your instructor to be available online through email to ask questions about the class, homework or to submit assignments if you need to skip a class. The more flexibility your teacher allows, the easier it will be on you.
10. Keep your goal in mind! The closer you get to graduation, the more motivation you will have!

I don't know what school you go to or what degree you are working on, it may not allow many options if you are going to a technical school with set classes. Otherwise, look for a school that provides more flexibility and lots of online classes (preferably a school with classes tailored for working adults).

Hang in there!

Patricia

Bill Felice ⋅ Springfield, PA SWCA Environmental Consultants ⋅ 25 years experience

Hi Chris,

I finished my degrees while working as well. It is a challenge! The University I went to had weekend courses that met six times a semester, which kept my weeknights free and allowed for time in between classes. Another strategy I used when taking courses during the week was setting time aside on early Saturday and Sunday morning to do course work, leaving the rest of the weekend free. Hope this helps, and thanks for your service.

Heather Gillbanks ⋅ Houston, TX General Electric ⋅ 26 years experience

Hi Chris,

I can't add anything to the above - you had some great advice in here. I just wanted to thank you for your service and say "hang in there" ... the juggling act will end, eventually. And then you will have the rewards of an education. It will be worth it, in the end!

Best of luck!
-heather

Michael Del Vecchio ⋅ Killingworth, CT U.S. Army, Staff Sergeant ⋅ 3 years served

I agree - there is no magic formula, just hard work and focus - exactly what we did as active duty soldiers.

I finished a mechanical engineering bachelors while married, carried enough credits to qualify for GI bill. It is worth it, carry on.

Mary Beth Myford ⋅ Fleetwood, PA Eurofins Lancaster Labs PSS ⋅ 25 years experience

First, Thank you for your service.

Second, going to work at the same time you go to school is rough, so take it easy on yourself. I ate a lot of TV dinners when I did it, I didn't sleep as much as I should, but I took as many breaks as I could (usually I took one summer session off). Take as few credits as you can so that you can get the most out of each class. Get as much help as you can (people who might clean for you, run errands for you, prepackaged meals), and tell yourself that this is a temporary situation. Pace yourself. If it takes you an extra year to get the degree, that is absolutely fine. In ten years that won't matter at all.

Dave Byrnes ⋅ Wolcott, CT UPS ⋅ 10 years experience

It's a tough road your on. I finished my degree while working 12 hour days at UPS. The best advice I can give you is do a little each night. even if you are just reading the material for the assignment. Set aside time each weekend to devote to your studies. Hopefully this helps.

E Y ⋅ Cerritos, CA ⋅ 8 years experience

There are a lot of good advice below. Starting school even without a job and a family is difficult. So, hang in there. Be kind to yourself in the process. I think the main advice I would give is to manage your time the best you can and be disciplined in following your schedule. Also, as a professor, my recommendation is to make your lecture time as efficient as possible. That is, if you have questions during the class period, just raise your hand and ask the professor to clarify. Also, try to get to know the students in your class so that you have several people you can call/text/email if you get stuck on a homework problem.

Paul Trejo ⋅ Austin, TX University of Texas at Austin ⋅ 40 years experience

This is a tough one, Chris. From your picture it appears you're married, so that's more complicated -- a single person can move into a single room, or in with family, and go on to a PhD, but it's not viable for couples.

Also, most of us cannot just choose the boss we want at the drop of a hat. That relationship is sensitive and must be honored.

Here's what I did -- ONLINE COURSES. I was at work more than 40 hours a week, but some of that time I used for my online courses (with my bosses approval).

Also -- I TOOK IT SLOW. I would allow double the time for the same credit.

Also -- I WAS PICKY about the courses I took. What are you training for? Take the MINIMUM. Sometimes we OVER-QUALIFY ourselves -- that's a luxury.

Also -- sometimes a Bachelors degree in ANYTHING, plus a CERTIFICATE in the specialized field you seek is PLENTY. That was true in my case -- Computers.

Good luck with this rugged life you chose, Chris. And thanks for your years of service.

All best,
--Paul

Julie Budzik ⋅ Blue Bell, PA Travelers ⋅ 25 years experience

Hi Chris, I'm sorry to say that there is no magic formula. I completed a bachelors degree, a masters degree and now working on a PhD all while working full time. My advice is to put on your blinders and focus on nothing but work and school with an occassional "day for me" where you allow yourself to do whatever you want to do. I just keep reminding myself that this is a "temporary inconvenience for long term gain".
You will become distanced from some friends and perhaps extended family. Just remember that those that love you and care about you will understand and support you; and will be there to celebrate with you when you complete your degree.
Good Luck!
Thank you for your service
Julie

Al Worthy ⋅ O Fallon, MO UPS ⋅ 30 years experience

Chris, one of the things that was helpful for me while being a student, husband, father, and working 30 plus hours a week, was take weekend classes and classes that I could take on line.

I never worked weekends, I kept weekends open for school and drill.

STEVE SWENERTON ⋅ Boulder, CO SWENERTON CONSULTING, INC ⋅ 43 years experience

Hi Chris,
What you can do to deal with this issue is to realize that life is often like what you are going thru now. Busy people cannot hope to get everything done that you want to do. So, prioritize what is most important, and get those most important things done well, and be comfortable that the rest is okay to ignore or not do. Planning helps. At the start of every day, make a list of what you want to do and then work down the list. And, importantly, be comfortable that you did your best and do not worry about the stuff that did not get done. In other words, focus on what you HAVE DONE, not on WHAT YOU DID NOT DO. Take satisfaction in your accomplishments, and do not sweat the other stuff.

Amit Chaudhary ⋅ San Jose, CA Doordash, Silicon Valley Software Company ⋅ 20 years experience

Atleast two aspects to it.
-It is a tough project that you have picked up. It is like having a baby though for 2-3 years, if not ready or making changes, it is super tough, if making changes, it is still tough. Take care of basics, sleep, eating & drinking, exercise, family.
-Optimize the study approach, see http://calnewport.com/books/how-to-win-at-college/

All the best

Peter Billard ⋅ Glastonbury, CT Peter Billard Photographer ⋅ 34 years experience

Magic Formula For Balancing Work and School
1. Be assertive and decisive: distinguish between what's important, and what's not
2. Self-discipline: not punishment for anything, but willful adherence to your stated goals and beliefs
3. Have a plan, stick to the plan: modify it, edit it, improve it, and expand it as necessary
4. Personal leadership: take responsibility for your choices and their consequences, uphold high standards of performance and conduct
5. Personal mastery: develop your abilities, skills, knowledge, and understanding
6. Rely on other people and resources when appropriate: tap into other knowledge bases, make inquiries, get introductions to the people you know know
7. A secure foundation: your strength and stability are based on solid moral and ethical principles and timeless and universal values, not blind reaction to fear, feelings, circumstances, and other people
8. Work & relaxation: work smart and work hard, then relax, recover, and get reinvigorated to continue the process
9. Measure & evaluate: keep notes, chart progress, compare to the goals & plan, apply mid-course corrections
10. Leave a legacy: give back more than you take, create a lasting impact, make the world and your community a better place for having lived

Emanuel Carpenter ⋅ Alpharetta, GA SDR Master Class ⋅ 20 years experience

Chris:

I'm not sure how benefits have changed over the last decade (got my degree in 2002) but I didn't think you had to go to school full time to get your benefits.

As for me, I took no more than two classes per semester while working full time. I had no problem getting my G.I. Bill benefits.

As far as balancing your time, use weekends and online classes whenever possible. At least with online classes, you save travel time. Plus they tend to be a little easier than in-person classes. And on the weekend, you shouldn't feel as stressed going straight from work to school.

It's tough but it can be done. I started a 4-year college with a 2-year degree. It took 2 more years to get my bachelor's while working full time and attending school part time.

Eric Knode ⋅ Minneapolis, MN Owner BPM Consulting LLC ⋅ 10 years experience

Hello Chris,

No magic formula yet but I will keeo looking. Please note it is very stressful and challenging to try and do both. I'm 2 years into it and still struggle from time to time. Here is what I have tried and seems to work.

- Taking no more than 7-10 credits- If your full time gig pays enough for the bills than don't worry about the 10-20% you may lose in benefits by not taking all 12 credits
- 1 seated course and the rest online- This allows flexibility in completing work
- Organization- I try to set aside specific days/time for each class
- Take time off. I try ensure I have 1 day where I don't work or do school
- Remembering this is only temporary helps when it gets stressful.

Best of luck Chris.
Eric