The Decision

There is no gray area in making a decision, you either make the decision or you don’t. However, you can spend time gathering information and determining if the decision you are making is the right fit for you. From 2015 to 2020, I was in the gathering information stage in deciding to attend graduate school. In 2020, I decided to commit to graduate school at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU).

In 2014, I graduated from the University of California, Riverside with a Bachelors of Science in Electrical Engineering. After graduation, I was hired to be a IT Support Engineer and was headed to Dallas, TX. I had no IT experience, and I was going to be supporting some of the largest companies in the world. When their internal support failed, they would call us, and I would have to solve the issue. Being transparent, I was not yet sure if IT was for me during 2014 since I did not know the field. The uncertainty led to my first step in going to graduate school. In 2015, I started to write down life goals, and one of those goals was to graduate with a masters degree by 30 years old.

After writing the goal, nothing changed. I am sharing this because people think that writing a goal down means it will come true. That is 25% of the goal, the other 75% is the work. The work, did not come as easy to me. While I had written the goal, I had no clue what I wanted to get a masters degree in. Fortunately, in 2016 I was able to get a new role as a Field Engineer based out of California, which allowed me to travel all over the US and peak behind the curtain of different companies. I talked with Chief Technology Officers (CTOs), Managers, Directors, and Engineers. Engaging in conversations with them, I learned a lot about the IT industry, its processes, its problems, and its day-to-day work flow. Over the 4 years I was a Field Engineer, this showed me I want to make an impact in IT. I wanted to increase diversity, I wanted to grow talented people, I wanted to help companies integrate technology easier, and more. I realized from my role, while I could do that I only had a limited scope. About 3 years into the role, I knew I wanted to become an IT manager. This was my next step in making the decision to go back to graduate school.

In 2019, every few months I would find myself looking up Masters of Science IT Management programs. It would be an hour or 2 searching for programs, and then moving on to something else. In the back of my mind I had this, “How can I do graduate school when I am always traveling as a Field Engineer?” Enter 2020. I had been grounded, I was not able to travel as much so the idea of graduate school became more of a reality. I also was fortunate enough to be around someone getting their Masters of Social Work degree. I saw her work, manage her schedule, and still shine in everything she did. It showed me the workload was possible while working. With these experiences, it caused me to be more serious in my efforts.

I remember reading school programs, websites, and their course plans. CMU immediately stood out to me, but I picked two other programs as backups. Indiana University Bloomington and George Washington University were the other universities. I quickly got into George Washington University, then shortly after the Indiana University Bloomington. Then for 2 weeks, I was waiting on CMU. The deadline for the 2 schools acceptance was coming up the following week. I reached out to the Program Director with the following message:

“I wanted to reach out to see if there was any other information needed for my application.  I have received my acceptance into another university’s program and I would have until June 30th to make a decision on that program.

Carnegie Mellon University is my top choice and I want to make sure that I have everything needed to get my application evaluated for admissions.“

Demetri (June 16th)

She provided me with a name to reach out to, and I reached out to him about my application. He asked if I could extend the deadline out for the other 2 programs and he would see if he could expedite the review of my application. I responded saying I would check and within the next 2 hours he responded saying I would receive good news the following Monday & Tuesday. On June 29th, 2020, I accepted admission into CMU. My decision was complete, I would be starting at CMU in August 2020. This is how my journey started. This was how my decision was made. This was me going back to grad school, to attain my Masters of Science in Information Technology with a focus of Information Technology Management.