I graduated almost a year ago with a degree in Industrial Engineering. Since then I’ve had a job that requires a business casual dress code (no surprise with my degree). Since my childhood I’ve had a severe subconscious aversion/anxiety disorder with formal clothing fabrics, buttons and collars. Conditioning/systematic desensitization did not help. I estimate that my discomfort caused by business casual dress codes is equivalent to a annual monetary loss of about $10,000 to $30,000 post-tax; it’s about equivalent to half the typical discomfort of constantly hearing/watching fingernails scratching a chalkboard.
Because there are a lot of software engineer/developer jobs out there that enable you to come to work in casual attire, I want to change my career path.
The following options present themselves to me (ranked according quick judgment):
1. Master’s Degree in Computational Science and Engineering from the Berkeley - Specialization in Simulation/Modeling with data analysis and some scientific algorithms: Difficulty: Hard, Opportunity Cost: -$80,000, Starting Salary: $77,000
2. Bachelor’s Degree in Computer Science from CalTech: Difficulty: Medium, Opportunity Cost: -$115,000, Starting Salary: $60,000
4. Distance Learning Degree from Baker College (web development or CS or DBA) or other distance learning +certifications for various technologies: Difficulty: Easy, Opportunity cost: -$35000 (plus -$80000 if not working), Starting salary: no idea
Opportunity cost refers to the cost of the studies (including potential living expenses) and the lost salary during years of study.
I’m frugal: I invest almost everything that doesn’t go into living expenses.
The objective is: maximize
profit. The constraint is: have a very high chance of getting a job that allows casual attire when applying to a random sample of relevant jobs.
Please state factors that I ignored, a general recommendation, or a pointer for a forum/professional-group/organization that has more relevant information. The key question to hone into is probably: Will a graduate degree in Computational Science & Engineering (Specialization in Simulation/Modeling with data analysis and some scientific algorithms) offer close to the same odds of a casual dress code job as a generic CS degree?
I posted this
thread in another forum. Please do not judge it as spamming - I simply want to maximize my chances of getting a good answer. Furthermore, I know there are people who simply can’t understand how severe an anxiety disorder to something so trivial can be - please refrain from that short and banal post.