Balancing A Full-time Engineering Job & Being A Graduate Student (Advice & Tips)

Hello! In this video, I interview Larry Zhao, a classmate and friend of mine who went straight from undergrad into industry. While he was working a full-time job, he started pursuing a Master's, and while he was a graduate student, he switched jobs twice! We discuss his mindset around going back to graduate school, how he balanced both school and work, and how he used grad school to make pivots in his career.

Check out his Instagram: @larrylzhao

Timestamps:
1:50 - why did you want to be an engineer, and particularly, an electrical engineer?
2:56 - did majoring in EE meet your expectations? did you enjoy the courses?
3:30 - how did you choose your specialization within electrical engineering?
4:22 - when you were in college, did you know you wanted to work in industry first and return to graduate school later?
4:59 - how did you decide which job offer to accept after college?
5:47 - do you think EE programming courses prepared you to work in software?
7:34 - preferences for working for slower- vs. faster-paced companies?
8:09 - what made you consider making a pivot in your career?
8:52 - how did you know the time was right to go to graduate school?
9:32 - how do company-sponsored graduate degrees work? how did you find a company that would support you?
10:03 - when a company gives you monetary support, what control do they have over your degree?
10:48 - what are common terms/conditions of doing a company-supported graduate degree?
11:38 - how do you find a good graduate school that offers remote learning options?
12:49 - with monetary support from your company, how did you consider the financial cost of going to graduate school?
13:29 - did you have a timeline in mind for how long graduate school would take?
13:59 - how long did you think graduate school would take? how long did it ultimately take?
14:41 - what preconceived ideas did you have about what your graduate school workload would be like?
15:20 - how did you successfully manage your graduate school workload?
15:53 - why did you choose to switch companies while in graduate school?
17:17 - when hunting for new jobs while in graduate school, did you tell companies that you were pursuing a graduate degree?
17:42 - how was balancing working full-time at a startup and being a graduate student?
19:09 - what did you consider when planning your career path?
20:06 - what are pros and cons of working at a start-up?
20:54 - did you have a research project/thesis in graduate school?
21:24 - did you prefer working at a startup or large corporation?
22:19 - finding mentors and being an IC at a start-up
23:26 - what do you think people should consider when deciding whether to go to graduate school?
24:42 - anything you would have done differently?
25:54 - could you have transitioned to software, ML, or data science without going to graduate school?
28:04 - have you noticed whether engineers who do bootcamps (vs. getting a BS) lack any skill or fundamental knowledge?
29:12 - what are your career aspirations?
31:38 - anything unexpected after you made your career pivots?
32:46 - what excites you most about the tech industry? about crypto?
34:07 - how have you witnessed the impact your company has had on the world?
34:56 - what does a world in which people have economic freedom look like?
36:19 - are there any other technologies you'd like to work on?
36:48 - what kind of an impact do you envision/hope to have as an engineer?
38:15 - mental health in grad school and industry
42:25 - do you think how you are working now is sustainable?
43:04 - can you describe the impact/importance of doing retrospectives?44:13 - being an on-call engineer
45:55 - pressure of being on-call vs. being a grad student
46:52 - closing

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xo janpancake