Balance Work and App?

[LoC2019]

It's my first app cycle and even though I still have yet to hear from two programs, I am 80% positive that they are IR...

I just got an job offer and will start next week. I know that a lot of you have been working and preparing apps at the same time, and my question is do you find it easy/hard to balance both sides? It will be my first time working full-time and I'm a little scared that I might get too involved to leave as my heart is still set in the academics. What are your thoughts? (by "too involved" I mean too busy to do school/POI research, prep for tests, writings, AND yes, too involved for some inexplicable work reasons to leave)

I only recently found out about this forum, and I'm really glad that I did. It's such a supportive environment. Congrats to those who have been accepted!! and for people like me, don't lose hope and best of luck!!

Edited February 26, 2019 by LoC2019

[jadeisokay]

hey, good luck! i found it hard managing both class and work, but doable. my job has some downtime, but it's in hospitality where at any given moment i'm either doing five things at once or nothing. i still managed to do a lot of my app work on overnight shift, though, and made it a point to carve out some time each day to recharge and not think about school/work/apps to reset my mind a little. if your heart is really set, you'll make the time for it somehow. i'm feeling the same with acceptances, but fingers crossed for us. and congrats on the new job! 

[LoC2019]

3 hours ago, jadeisokay said:

hey, good luck! i found it hard managing both class and work, but doable. my job has some downtime, but it's in hospitality where at any given moment i'm either doing five things at once or nothing. i still managed to do a lot of my app work on overnight shift, though, and made it a point to carve out some time each day to recharge and not think about school/work/apps to reset my mind a little. if your heart is really set, you'll make the time for it somehow. i'm feeling the same with acceptances, but fingers crossed for us. and congrats on the new job! 

Thank you for the advice! I get it that it really depends on my determination.

I feel like I'm in such a weird place in life rn, in terms of phase and mentality...but I guess that's normal right...? That's why I've been having very mixed feelings about this job offer.

Hope it goes well and yes fingers crossed for us!!

[dreid]

I was working full-time on top of running a freelance gig throughout this application cycle, and I'll be honest with you...it's tough. After a 9-hour stint in an office, the last thing you really want to do is sit in front of another screen and start a different kind of work. It is certainly possible to pursue work and graduate apps simultaneously, but I would say it can end up taking a toll on you both physically and mentally if you don't allow yourself enough time to rest and recharge (preach @jadeisokay!).

Everyone is different, of course, but what really helped me to strike a balance between the two was allocating different environments to different tasks. For example, I never work at home if I can help it. That's my space for eating, watching Netflix, hanging out with my housemate, hosting dinners, sleeping - and if I try to work there, I inevitably end up being lethargic and getting frustrated with myself. Instead, I go straight from the office to the library and do app things there for a few hours. Then I go home and relax. It just keeps everything compartmentalised in my mind, and stops it from becoming too overwhelming. There's an iPhone app called Life Cycle that actually tracks how long you spend on certain activities/in certain places, and I used that a lot to make sure I wasn't overdoing it and burning out (13 hours' total working today? Time to GO HOME).

Further advice: screen glasses are your friends. They cost like 10 dollars and stop you from getting those screen-glare headaches if you're putting in long hours.  Also, exercising, eating/sleeping properly, and - I cannot emphasise this enough - seeing your friends. Go for dinner or coffee or to a bar or a party. It might seem unproductive when deadlines are looming, but it will clear your head and put you in an infinitely better frame of mind.

So, in short: yeah, it's not easy. But it is absolutely doable if you are determined enough to take on the extra work, and mindful enough to recognise when your body and mind need to relax. Personally, I love my job (and oh my I love that sweet sweet financial security) - but I don't want to do it forever. And being at that job gives me a daily reminder of why I want to pursue academia. So don't lose that fire in your belly, be mindful of your mental state, and very best of luck!!

[Anxiously Hopeful]

The very fact that you are determined to balance your work-life and the whole application process is a brave endeavor and you certainly deserve a pat on your back. Even though I have never been in such a situation, my friends have been and I have seen many of them give up on their dreams of getting a higher education while others going ahead to pursue it. Do all you can to keep higher studies in your mind. Think about it every day and how much intellectual satisfaction it would give you which a mundane job wouldn't. I hope the best for you.   

[breemartini]

Hello! I started my first full-time job in August of last year, and my application season felt impossibly overwhelming at times. That being said - I felt like I absolutely covered all of my bases by the time I hit 'submit.' My biggest advice (especially if you are applying to more than a few programs): create your own handwritten chart/checklist for deadlines and program requirements, as early as possible. This really helped me feel grounded/organized, and prevented me from feeling frantic. I can share my layout if that would help!

[jillcicle]

9 hours ago, LoC2019 said:

It's my first app cycle and even though I still have yet to hear from two programs, I am 80% positive that they are IR...

I just got an job offer and will start next week. I know that a lot of you have been working and preparing apps at the same time, and my question is do you find it easy/hard to balance both sides? It will be my first time working full-time and I'm a little scared that I might get too involved to leave as my heart is still set in the academics. What are your thoughts? (by "too involved" I mean too busy to do school/POI research, prep for tests, writings, AND yes, too involved for some inexplicable work reasons to leave)

I only recently found out about this forum, and I'm really glad that I did. It's such a supportive environment. Congrats to those who have been accepted!! and for people like me, don't lose hope and best of luck!!

I didn't find it all that hard, but I'm a substitute teacher who was able to really utilize Thanksgiving Break etc. I had to be okay with doing my app stuff in bursts - there were crisis points at work where I had to dedicate everything to lesson plans/grading etc and then just table app work for a while. Seconding the handwritten chart/checklist - I carried a bullet journal everywhere with me, so I could do POI research/read an article etc. and jot down a few notes on my break and lunch when it felt manageable. I also set up a Google Sheet with deadlines, POIs, subfields, waiver possible, etc. and that was a good sort of home base to work from. Overall, I didn't find the applications as time-consuming as I'd worried about - it wasn't the equivalent of another job, just maybe a side gig like picking up a weekend contract or something. Good luck!

[The Wordsworthian]

When I applied, I was working 30-40 hours a week while balancing a full-time course load.  I won't sugarcoat this experience at all--it was extremely overwhelming and stressful, and I had to make a lot of sacrifices for it.  I did not get much sleep, which definitely wore me out by the time I finally submitted my applications, and my social life was nonexistent.  My advice to you would be to take advantage of weekends, as Friday/Saturday/Sunday were the days where I got the most work done.  Not sure what your summer is like, but I was lucky to be only taking classes part-time and I worked about 35 hours a week so I had a bit more "wiggle room" to get ahead on my apps.  

I also made a schedule for myself with deadlines based on where I wanted to be with my WS and SoP, and started opening my actual applications about 3-4 weeks before they were due, and tried to have them submitted a 1-2 weeks before deadlines in case something went wrong.  It's not easy but you will get through it if you want it bad enough.  Best of luck to you!

[BeachBum]

I think the "balance" in "work/life/(PhD apps!) balance" can be a a smidge misleading.

When I hear "balance," I think of a three-legged stool -- perfectly stationary with evenly distributed weight. That kind of balance might work for some PhD applicants (and I'll admit, it sounds pretty attractive), but I don't think it can (or should) work for everyone. It definitely wasn't how I ended up balancing things.

My job, my mental+physical+spiritual health, my partner, family, friends, etc. -- the amount of attention these things demanded fluctuated wildly in the two years that I spent working on my PhD apps. I took all of my paid vacation at once and spent two straight weeks doing nothing but working on my writing sample. There was a week where all I did was work and sleep because the all-important-job-thing HAD to get done. There were also weeks (multiple contiguous weeks) where I avoided everything PhD-related like the plague and gave all my energy to my friends, my family, and myself. 

If I had anything resembling balance (and I think I did!), then it was a kind of "global" balance where everything sort of... netted out in the end to a happy and healthy human. I sometimes (read: often) got off-balance, and it didn't feel great. But I was never more than a couple of weeks of dedicated effort away from righting the ship.

All of this is to say, the particular brand of balance that works for you might end up looking like chaos to someone else. What's important is figuring out what your balance looks like, and then regularly scheduling (not "setting aside," scheduling) time to determine if you need to conduct some re-balancing. Balancing, funny enough, is a bit of a balancing act.

[amphilanthus]

I can speak to this! I’ve been thinking about this subject a lot, mostly because I’m in absolute awe of everyone on here who’s managed to apply while currently in school. this will depend on your job, of course, but I found applying while working full-time to be much easier than if I had tried to apply while in undergrad. I decided against applying then for a handful of reasons, but one was time. I was in class, working part-time, staying up late or spending a weekend writing essays... nothing out of the ordinary, but I felt like I was always working. when I started my first 9-5 job, it blew my mind how much time I suddenly had: my evenings and weekends were entirely my own. I’ve had a lot of friends express similar surprise when they started their first full-time jobs. it seems like it will be more intense, but it’s really just more structured.

I mostly worked on applications on weekends, because I come home wiped at the end of the work day, but a few hours working on your applications in a coffee shop on a nice saturday with no other work hanging over your head is an amazing thing. depending on your circumstances, there may be other benefits: if you’re commuting via public transit, that’s the best time for GRE prep! if it’s a desk job, you can likely listen to podcasts or audio books – aka subject test prep, if that’s something you’re thinking about. PTO means I’m a lot less worried about pulling off school visits than I would have been if I’d needed to miss class near the end of the year. and, honestly… if you’re sitting at a computer all day, you may be surprised at how much time you have for things other than work. this is terrible but I outlined personal statements, scanned transcripts and other docs, and ultimately hit submit on most of my applications in the office.

much of this will be situational, and I don’t want to sound overly optimistic because applying to graduate school will always suck. it’s still going to be exhausting and all-consuming a lot of the time. but in my experience, a full-time job can provide a really valuable structure when working on your applications, as long as you’re committed to making it happen – and it sounds like you definitely are.

last note: as a student, I thought I wanted to go to grad school, but working a full-time job brought that desire to a new level. I had a few crummy jobs right after graduation but my current job is great – it’s mission-driven work, everyone is wonderful, there’s loads of research and writing to do, etc. it was exactly the kind of job that I thought might make me change my mind about grad school. and every day, part of me still dreaded coming in. that continued dissatisfaction became the driving force that got me through this process. all the reasons I felt overwhelmed or like I couldn’t do it became secondary to the new knowledge that I had to do it. you’ve got this. it’ll be different, it’ll definitely be hard, but you’ve got this. happy to discuss further any time (if this horrifyingly-long comment wasn’t already Too Much). rooting for you!

[LoC2019]

I really can’t thank you all enough for sharing your experiences and tips. I clicked with a number of points—financial security (about time, right?), schedule and organization (mentally, too), having a more structured life after working, and trying to get a sense of what works best for me.

dreid’s suggestion of doing different things at different places really struck me. I worked the past few months as a freelancer and did almost everything at home: work (online), app prep, meals, even working out (I bought a yoga mat). I did go out of course. At first it felt convenient, but later this doing everything at one place became chaotic boring and depressing. I even started to feel annoyed at the sight of my desk, i.e. my dining table, library, work station and entertainment platform.

I didn’t want to take this full-time job at first. Actually I cried pretty bad after I accepted the offer (but partly because I’m already too sentimental lol), as I thought by saying yes I’m officially stepping farther away from my dream. Yet something tells me that you are not going anywhere either if you don’t. I really do need a more structured life, and to return to my normal self.

The past year has been…but the worst thing happened to me is that I became timid and lost faith. I was a scrappy kid telling myself and people around me you can do it if you work hard/if you really want it/if you have enough motivation. I never thought I was being idealistic, I simply had enough courage and inherent incentive. God I miss that.

All of that are still true, I just need to rebuild myself, and I will. I really appreciate your support, and sorry for my disorganized thoughts. ~

“Hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things, and no good thing ever dies.” Wish everyone well.

[havemybloodchild]

I prepared my materials for my first cycle while taking 18 credits and working 3 jobs. If it’s where your heart is, you find time!

Good luck! I think you will find that your heartbreak this year, and probably even your work experience over the next, will help your application and your confidence going into a program. I know that accruing new skills and managing new relationships always makes me more confident about going into another new situation.