I'm planning on starting that Masters program next fall. What do you think about it?
Whats your major, first job ect.
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I'm planning on starting that Masters program next fall. What do you think about it?
ME 1997. First job was for $36,000 (I had another offer for $42,000 but in bad environment). Slow raises the first 5 years or so and nice raises that last 5. Just switched jobs from that first job and that gave me a big bump as well. 2008 will be my first 6 figure year.
MIS degree from UNI in 2001... Started @ CDS in Des Moines making $43K. Worked for a couple other companies and now work @ UNI and actually make less than when I left CDS in 2004. Oh well, that's what you get when you work for the government... However, the benefits are off the hook so it's all good 
Right now it seems pretty easy. I am only taking 3-6 credits a semester and the most work I have had to due for classes is writeups on readings, group projects, etc.
Biggest pain is the work you have to do to get in. Apply, write 3 essays, take the GMAT, get 3 professional references. Seemed to take more work to get in then I currently do in classses.
If you graduated from ISU and do the MSIS program there are several classes that are waived. I only have to take 27 credits (9 classes) to graduate. Of course there is the whole creative component/thesis thing I need to start, but haven't come up with a good idea yet.
Yah, I've got the info and I also would only need to take 27 credits. Are you on campus? I know they dont have the classes available online yet but I talked to the department head recently and he mentioned it was in the works. I suppose I could drive to Ames once a night or so.
Started as a payables clerk using an Industrial Administration degree with minors in Accounting and Statistics (1966). Starting pay was $8,340.....a year. Worked for the same company (Ford Motor) for 36 years in Accounting/Finance and retired with a six figure pension.
Communication Arts at Wartburg with an emphasis in Electronic Media, history minor. People told me all along you don't get into broadcasting for the money. And I did love it until looking for a job and realizing I was getting married right out of school. I applied at many small-to-medium Iowa town radio stations. Had no fewer than 6 offers with the lowest being 13,500, the highest being 19,000 with sales included that could bump my pay to 24,000. SOunds exciting huh?
I got on with Qwest in inside sales and was on pace to make just shy of 90k my first year when I left to get on with an insurance agent. Expanded into financial advising shortly after that and absolutely love self-employment and the financial services industry.
I got on with Qwest in inside sales and was on pace to make just shy of 90k my first year when I left to get on with an insurance agent. Expanded into financial advising shortly after that and absolutely love self-employment and the financial services industry.
I live in Ames, so going to night classes isn't much of an issue. They do offer 2 MIS grad classes online, I took MIS 533 and 537 online.
Also, look into setting up your commitee early. The commitee is your 3 professors that you have help you/guide you with your cc/thesis. I have not done this yet, but need to. Your commitee is who can approve alternate classes for you. I have taken a class now that I should have switched for alternates becuase I do at work what we studied in class and I was very bored. It made for an easy class, but hard to sit through a semester on intro to database design when your a DBA.
sorry ...
variable "x" was meant to designate any female in my college years ... upon further review, that's probably pretty "engineer" of me isn't it?
I have a question about that. Are pensions something your are entitled to no matter what happens? Or could Ford just decide tomorrow that they aren't going to pay you your pension? If it is something they could pull to cut costs, does that worry you with the state Detroit is in at the moment?
I think companies have ways of getting out of pensions. And the big american car companies are crumbling under the costs of their pensions. That is why pensions are a thing of the past, and very few companies do that anymore. You just cannot compete when you have that large cost over your head.
sorry ...
variable "x" was meant to designate any female in my college years ... upon further review, that's probably pretty "engineer" of me isn't it?
Thats ok last night I was thinking of lining my cooler with aluminum foil to help it hold dry ice longer... then decided that to maximize the benefit putting something between the foil and the bottom of the cooler (so that the foil was touching as little as possible) would be best.
Essentially I was contemplating making a dewer on a college budget (those things are freak'n sweet but freak'n expensive!)
I have two parts to my pension. The larger portion was funded by Ford and is not subject to their ongoing operating results. This one is controlled by an outside agency and could fail only if the entire market went under. The smaller portion was a sweetner and is paid out of current operating results. If Ford fails, this would fail also. I was fortunate enough to have these pensions plus a 401k. Now I believe that these types of pensions have been replaced with enhanced 401ks.
I don't think that Ford will pull any pension benefits but they did discontinue the regular annual increases that they used to give (which were not a part of the retirement agreement anyway) and they did modify the salaried retiree medical benefits so that I pay $80 a month for my wife's and my coverage.
Regarding Detroit's economic condition, I think what you are seeing is Detroit's willingness to concede volume to protect profits. It is very hard to control quality and costs at extremely high volumes. Toyota has done the best job so far but, if you look closely at the most recent data, Toyota's quality has started to sag and Ford's continues to improve. It will be very interesting over the next few years.
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I graduated with a BSME in spring of '06. Started at Old Castle Materials a month before I graduated making $50,000 and wound up getting a $2000 bonus that first year along with a $2000 raise. I just moved with my wife because she just started with John Deere. My new job is in Waverly got me quite a bit of a raise up to $60,000 and my first raise is going to be around July sometime. Not a bad deal really.
Not to threadjack but:
Many of the problems out of Detroit is a "perception" issue. Ford, GM, and Chrysler's quality may be on par with the Japanese brands but it is hard to get over the perception that the American brands have poor quality. At one time, the Japanese brands had the same issue. They sold econo-boxes with no substance. They had to make a paradox shift and they were able to do it successfully. The same needs to now happen with the US brands. How do they do that? I'm not sure.
It wasn't as much the pensions as it was the medical benefits. The pensions were a bit like an annuity and the problem there was that people were living longer than was expected when the pension was funded. It was more the medical benefits that caused the problem as the cost of medical insurance skyrocketed combined with the longer life expentency.
The reason why it is such a major deal for the automotive companies is that they were some of the, if not the, largest employers after World War II. Now both better technology and reduced volume have reduced the required manpower.
English Education. Student Teaching this spring. Looking for that "killer" paycheck of 24K a year when I graduate.
You should come to Houston and check out the CyFair school district as the starting Teacher pay is like $42,000. Cost of living here is not bad either....
Here is their website: Cypress-Fairbanks Independent School District
I acutally saw a commercial for an american car I liked the look of the other day, the new Malibu looks a lot like it had some volvo design guys in those meetings.
When we were car shopping last month, the new Malibu is based off the same frame as the Saturn Aura.
