58. In-Person vs. Online Classes, and Jobs vs. Internships (Q&A)

Episode 58

It’s time for our monthly Q&A episode! Tune in as I answer two questions submitted by Learn and Work Smarter listeners.

Question 1: A working professional headed to graduate school asks about choosing online grad programs vs. in-person grad programs.

Question 2: A college student asks whether they should explore internships or go back to their standard summer job this summer.

🎙️Other Episodes + Resources Mentioned

• ⭐Episode 22: Tips for Student Internships and Working with ADHD

• ⭐Episode Website (with the transcript and all the helpful things)

✏️Enroll in SchoolHabits University (Curious? Check it out!)

• Get the Transcription

  The following transcript was autogenerated and may contain some interesting and silly errors. But in the name of efficiency and productivity, I am choosing not to spend my time fixing them 😉

  
  58 In-Person vs. Online Classes, and Jobs vs. Internships (Q&A)

  ===

  [00:00:00] Hello, and welcome to episode 58 of the Learn and Work Smarter podcast. This is one of our monthly Q&A episodes where I answer questions submitted by you, the listener. If you're wondering how to submit questions, there is a simple form on the homepage of learnandworksmarter.com. You scroll down just a little bit and the form is right there.

  
  This week I am answering two questions. One is submitted by a professional headed back to graduate school. And they're asking about online courses versus in-person courses. 

  And then our second question is from a college student asking about jobs versus internships. 

  As a reminder, if these are not your specific questions, I still encourage you to listen all the way through because sometimes other people ask questions that we didn't even know we had ourselves. 

  And of course, if there is anyone in your life who you think would benefit from this conversation, I'd love if you shared the podcast with them, a simple tap on the arrow, in whatever. Platform you are listening to whether that's YouTube or a [00:01:00] podcast app tapping on that little arrow allows you to text this link to anyone. And with that, I think we're ready to get started. 

  All right. 

  
  So I'm going to start with our first question, which I have right here. I'm going to read it. The listener writes: 

  
  Hi, Katie. I'm stuck on a decision about getting a master's degree. I noticed ultimately my decision, but I'm hoping you might be able to weigh in with some advice to get me unstuck. Here's my situation. 

  I work full-time and have a four-year-old. I'm planning to go back to school to get my master's degree because my company is helping to pay for it. Lucky you. [00:02:00] And it's something I always want to do personally too. I currently have two options that I'm stuck on. First, I could get my degree online through one university, or I can take in-person classes at my state university that is close to my home. I know there are pros and cons to online programs and in-person programs, but this is where I'm stuck. Do you have any advice to help me make this decision? 

  Thank you so much. I've really been loving the podcast. I watch them on YouTube. 

  Well, hello there. And thank you so much for your feedback about the podcast hearing that people are enjoying the show is certainly what helps keep me going. And this is a great question. And one that I actually had to ask myself back in the day when I was getting my master's degree and working full time and starting a business, and I had small children back then. It was a lot. Don't recommend. And yes, ultimately the decision is yours, as you said, but [00:03:00] let me give you some categories or criteria is maybe about a word to think about as you make your way toward a decision. 

  These are sort of the criteria that I used to make my own decision. I think the two criteria to explore here is one is logistics. And we'll talk about each of these. And two is learning potential. 

  
  So, and I'll explain what that means. So let's start with logistics. As a working parent going back to school, logistics is probably the most significant wrench in your day. 

  Taking courses in person on a campus has pros and cons logistically. 

  
  And the same can be said for online courses. So let's start with in-person, um, in-person on-campus classes. To see if this is truly a feasible option for you, I suggest going online to the course catalog and digging into what classes that you're going to need to take and what days and times they're offered. [00:04:00] Many masters classes are offered in the evening or on the weekends. 

  
  And if this information is not available to non-matriculated students, like you can usually find the course catalog, but the specific days and times that they're offered isn't always available unless you're like, you know, a matriculated student, then you can call the college admissions office. I call the college admissions offices all the time on behalf of my students and clients. 

  
  And I honestly always get a human who is so lovely and helpful. And it is never as scary as it might seem. 

  And then take a look at your calendar as it currently exists, look at your work hours and your childcare obligations and the other sort of non-moving parts of your life. Consider your commuting times and whether they are during rush hour traffic or not. 

  Basically the question you want to ask yourself is can you physically get to a college campus at a [00:05:00] set time on set days without dropping all of the other things that you're juggling? Also keep in mind that you might want to take only one or two courses at a time- that might be more feasible than trying to cram in a full-time graduate course load. 

  If you find that you can not fit college courses at the days and times that they're being offered into your current existing life schedule, then that's kind of your answer right there. Now let's talk about the logistics of an online program. Many online programs are still synchronous, which means that you still need to log in and show up online on a certain day at a certain time. Yes, this does remove the commuting factor. 

  Right. But it adds in other potential obstacles, such as making sure that you have a quiet place to work and also making sure that you have time in your schedule to show up to these classes whenever they are. 

  All right. So you would still go through the whole, [00:06:00] you know, um, making your time visible activity of, you know, front-loading a calendar looking at your current obligations and asking yourself, okay, minus the commute time, can on Tuesday nights, I find a quiet place to sit and have no distractions from six 30 to eight 30 or whenever the course is? 

  And if you're like, oh my gosh, that is dinner time. That is bath time for my child. That is just too much. Well then maybe that synchronous online program wouldn't work for this season of your life. Right? 

  But other online graduate courses are asynchronous, which means that the professor posts assignments and lessons to the portal and you complete and submit them according to their deadline. 

  But there's no sort of show up at six o'clock component to the course. For as, you know, as an example. For graduate students, with jobs and families and other obligations, you know, your situation, this can be the easier route to [00:07:00] go. You didn't say in your question, whether your program was synchronous or asynchronous, but that's something to consider too. 

  Okay. And then the second criteria I mentioned was learning potential. 

  So how much we learn from any given experience is not just about the material itself. I'm not sure if that makes sense, but I'm going to try here. My whole goal is to make it make sense. But if you, you have to consider the broader experience, okay. The environment, the other students in the classroom, or if you're doing this asynchronously asynchronously, the other students who are not in the classroom. Are you the type of learner who benefits from class discussions and hearing things explained by your peers Well then maybe an in-person environment is more optimal for you. Are you the type of person who likes to ask questions in real time? 

  So as the professor is explaining something, and maybe you're confused, confused about something, do you like to raise your hand and seek clarification on the spot? That's something that looks different when you're [00:08:00] taking an online course. Of course with, of course, with online courses, professors are still available for you, but you just have to be a little bit more strategic about how you ask your questions. 

  It might have to be in an email or maybe during office hours on zoom or whatever it is. 

  And then one last thing to think about for this learning potential category, I guess- I could've come up with a better name, but whatever -is your own learner learner habits. If you were ha! Your own school habits, right. 

  If you were taking an asynchronous online program, for example, do you have the work habits to work at a reasonable pace and complete assignments independently without the accountability of showing up to class? How are your focus skills? Can you lock it in when there's no one else around you locking it in? If yes, then maybe that online program is going to work out just great. But if you really benefit from accountability and peer modeling and things like that, then maybe I would [00:09:00] consider the in-person program. 

  I know, I didn't just make your decision for you and that's because I can't and neither should I, but hopefully this answer gave you some things to think about. 

  To sum it up in a nutshell, I want you to get nitty gritty when thinking about the logistics and the timing and the calendars, right. 

  To determine if you actually do have time in your schedule to get to campus. And then of course, if you don't, then that's your answer right there. 

  But also consider what type of environment is going to help you get the most out of this program? And what do you want to get out of this program? Right. Do you just want to get the work done and get the degree? 

  All right. And bump your salary up. Are you looking for more of an immersive learning experience. Do you really, truly want to, you know, immerse yourself in new knowledge and understanding and get the absolute greatest content knowledge you can from this program to [00:10:00] improve how you do your job? Well, then, then you really need to consider what type of learner you have learner habits you have and how you learn best. 

  And for many people, that's an in-person experience. Okay. 

  Good luck with your decision. And honestly, the hardest decision you already made. Right, which is to go back to grad school at a season in your life where you could easily have chosen not to. 

  All right. So we are going to move onto the second question, which is from a student, a college student. And again, I have it right here. 

  Of course it closed on my phone.

  Okay. They wrote in, hello. I am writing in with a question about job vs internship. I'm hoping you can settle a debate. We'll see. I'm currently a sophomore in college and I'm looking ahead to next summer. I can return to the summer job I've had for five years in my town, but I'm also being told I need to start looking at internships too. 

  I don't think I can handle both, but I'm not sure. In your opinion, is it better to get a [00:11:00] job or an internship during the summer? 

  Excellent question. Before I dive into my answer, I want to make sure that you know that back in episode 22, I know it was 22 because I looked it up. Someone else wrote in with a kind of similar question. 

  They were a junior in college and they had asked about internships and I gave a very thorough answer that I think you might find helpful. I'm going to leave the link to episode 22 in the show notes or in the description box. If you're watching this on YouTube also, here's my little reminder that if you go to learnandworksmarter.com/podcast/58. 

  This is episode 58. And you will find all of the links that I mentioned here today. 

  Including episode 22. All right. And like so many of my answers, I'm going to say it depends. What are your goals? Like, what do you want to do? What do you need to do? So let's start with, what do you need to do? 

  If you need to work [00:12:00] because financially that's something you have to do to support yourself or others and that's the reality, then I would say, go work a job. All right. That could be your summer job. 

  In your question, you didn't say what your summer job is, but let's say that it's something not even, you know, career focused or academic or whatever. Let's just say it's something like working as a lifeguard. Or maybe a waiter, right? 

  That can still give you super valuable experience and expose you to opportunities to build skills that will serve you in your future career, whatever it ends up being. 

  But if working for compensation isn't a financial necessity, it's more of a financial nicety, then I would stay start exploring internships. Yes, you can certainly find paid internships, but those are hard to come by and you're highly competitive and you would have to have started the searching process a little bit before now. Unpaid internships are more abundant for obvious reasons. 

  And on your resume though, no one knows whether it was unpaid or a paid internship. So both of them on your [00:13:00] resume are going to have equal value. But the job market is competitive out there. I just read an article recently that, um, people graduating from Harvard business school with MBAs are waiting jobless for months at a time. 

  I forget, I think it was like, I'm kind of making this up, but if something like five or six months without a job, right. And that's from Harvard business school. So the more you can do to build your resume while you're in college, the better your chances for getting a job in your desired industry after you graduate. 

  Now back in episode 22, which I really want you to listen to you, I dive deep into the idea of getting an internship, ideally in the industry that you're interested in. 

  But at the end of the day in internship, in any industry it's going to give you material for your resume and give you incredible exposure to working environments. 

  Now, one thing that I should say is something that many of my own one-to-one clients do is work internships and a job at the same time. 

  This is possible. I know you said in your question, you're not sure you can handle [00:14:00] both. But it's possible. Not all internships are 40 hours a week, right? Some of them are 20 hours and on top of a 20 hour part-time job, that's something that you could balance. 

  That could look like something like maybe working an internship in a lab during the day or in an office setting during the day, and then maybe waiting tables or scooping ice cream or whatever, something for paid work in the evening or even the weekends. This is very doable as long as you dial in your time management strategies. 

  Now another thing about internships. 

  I already said this, but there's super competitive and many of them are already filled by early spring. Meaning if you are looking for an internship in the summer, the upcoming summer right now, it's winter, many of them are already filled by March or even earlier, right. So if you're thinking about the internship route and you've got to get started now. 

  Always start with your personal network first, your friends and family, your uncle, someone, your uncle knows, people your parents know your parents, friends. You [00:15:00] can ask your professors if there's any internships on campus. And then of course, reach out to your career center, the student resource center at school, because they have so many connections and networks that can connect you with available internships in the community. My bottom line here is whatever you decide, don't delay your decision and get moving on it. 

  All right. My friends. That wraps up today's episode. Remember if you have your own questions that you want me to answer here on the podcast, you can head to learn and work smarter.com. Right there in the homepage is a very simple form where you can submit your questions and I will add them to the queue to be answered on a future episode. 

  I appreciate you. 

  I'm grateful for you coming on this journey with me and remember, never stop learning.