To MFA or Not to MFA?

To get my masters or not to get my masters? That is the question.

See, here’s my dilemma. Right now I’m sitting here blogging after spending a lot of time looking for a job. I have some promising leads but nothing is guaranteed. So I’m sitting here wondering, should I go back to school like when the groundhog sees his shadow on groundhogs day. I’m worried my current unemployment may mean six more weeks of winter.

But is this a good idea? An MBA would be great, that would do nothing but help. But what do I gain with a MFA or a MA in English Lit or creative writing? I already have skills in analyzing various medias, and applying them to other medias. I can already write well. I don’t think a MFA or MA will really help me much. To quote a post from An English Major’s Money

“The average salary for full professors in general English lit fields clocks in at $73,673. For associate professors, that figure drops to $56,868, and for assistant professors, $47,405. We won't even talk about adjunct jobs, i.e., the job you do not want but might take anyway.”

Teaching English in a university setting would be awesome, something along the lines of a dream job. And you can always subsidize your income with other things. I know all of my teachers had books some were journalists as well. One teacher owned a high-class restaurant. I could blog and teach. That’d be fun.

But still, $70k for a tenured professor position is enough. It’s more than most people make. Even the assistant professor position is enough to live on. More than twice what I make now (which when you boil it down is a little more than $16 an hour, but it’s doing something you want to do…so that counts for something). But I’m selfish; I’d like to make more. If I teach at a top university, I could make low six figures, but those jobs are crazy hard to get into because well the jobs are static. There aren’t many new universities, and most of the universities that are around aren’t hiring more professors, much less English ones. (It could be worse, it could be an Art position >.<)

The idea of being a professor is awesome, and I’d really like to do it, but at the same time it’s not my dream job and I don’t know if I have the drive to get my MFA, my PhD and battle through people to get that professor position.

Some days I wish I had kept with Comp-Sci. Maybe I could be programming cool new videogames.