A full-time worker studying for a master’s degree has very little free time.
David Ahern, a project management professional at Woonsocket-based Unicom, received his master’s last May, while working full-time at the then Providence-based technology consulting company. It took Ahern four years to complete the program at Babson College in Wellesley, Mass.
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Ahern said the program took twice as long as it would have were he not working full-time, but it was worth it.
“Is a master’s degree completely necessary?” he asked. “No, but do they help a great deal? Yes.”
Jon Van Warner, assistant controller at DB Companies in Pawtucket has found that advancing his education leads to promotions, but education takes time.
“I would say keeping up with the assignments is the most time-consuming,” element, he said. “They take roughly six to twelve hours per class.”
Van Warner completed his bachelor’s degree at Bryant while employed with DB Companies, which specializes in the distribution of petroleum products and the operation of convenience stores. And now he is taking courses toward his master’s, non-matriculating, at the University of Rhode Island.
“Continuing education allows me to move up within the company,” said Van Warner, who was promoted to staff accountant when he completed his associate’s degree and to his current position when he received his bachelor’s degree.
Van Warner said it took him eight years to earn the bachelor’s and he hopes to sit for his Certified Public Accountant exam in May of 2003.
“Hopefully I’ll be marketable enough to take on the position of controller,” he said.
Ahern was three years into his master’s program when he began at Unicom. He thinks the fact that he was going for the degree was part of the reason he was hired.
“It certainly played a role,” he said. “Our department is the project management department and most of the people in this department do have their master’s degrees.”
He said the degree is not a matter of status for peers as much as it is for customers.
“It certainly means a lot to our customers, the fact that we have degrees,” he said. “It’s a source of credibility.”
He said the contacts he made in the program were the most valuable part of the experience.
He said, “It afforded me the opportunity to meet some very influential business people as students and instructors. I had one professor who was the CEO of a Fortune 500 company, and fellow students who were fund managers.”
Not only did Ahern and Van Werner have to juggle class work and their careers, but also their families. Ahern has a child and Van Werner has two.
Ahern said family life is sometimes the hardest thing to squeeze into the schedule.
“There really was not a lot of free time,” he said. “And it was more demanding on my personal life than on my work, because at work you’re there for a certain amount of time, no matter what. And then it became even more difficult when my son was born.”
Kristopher Sullivan, director of graduate studies for Bryant College, said roughly 90 percent of the students he sees are working full-time while going for their master’s degrees. Some students try to lighten their load a little, said Sullivan.
“All courses are offered in the evenings and the average course load is split,” he said. Half of the full time workers take one class per semester and the other half take two.
“Our program is designed for the working professional who wants to come back,” he said. “Career advancement is the biggest thing on people’s minds.”
Although Ahern is glad for advancing his career, he is also glad to have some time for his family and for himself.
“As far as going part-time to school, the one real obstacle I do not miss since getting out is that while you’re there, just about every moment of your time is spoken for,” he said. “If I was sitting on the couch watching TV or playing with my son, there was always something else I could have been doing as far as school work. But now I can sit and watch a baseball game if I want.”
