I Aced My Final Grad School Exam on Wednesday!

I'm almost done with my master's degree.

In May 2023, I shared that I was going back to school and changing careers. By that summer, I had started my Master of Science in IT Management at Western Governors University. At the time, I set a goal to finish my degree in 6-12 months. I had a three-day workweek back then, so I thought I’d have plenty of time to speed through my classes.

But…one month into my master’s degree, a recruiter invited me to join Google’s Project Magi. That prompted the question:

Could I still complete my degree in 12 months or less?

So far, it looks like the answer is yes.

I passed my last grad school exam on Wednesday.

I studied for and sat two exams while completing a Capstone from April 1st to May 1st:

• April 15: Aced my internal project management exam for WGU.

• April 21: Completed the Google Project Management capstone to get Google-certified in Project Management (I’ve been working on the Google PM cert since October 2023).

• May 1: Aced my external Certified Associate in Project Management (CAPM) exam—an optional addition to the MSITM degree.

It hasn’t been easy working 45-50-hour weeks and then doing double the credit hours of other students taking my degree. The recommended completion time is within two years as a full-time student, and I’m still hell-bent on completing it all in one.

I’ve had to make a lot of sacrifices to get here.

Some friends didn’t take well to my new schedule or the boundaries I set to keep up with school. At least three people have stopped talking to me since I started grad school. Once my availability or level of investment was inconvenient for them, they jumped ship—and that’s ok.

Grad school also required me to leave Mexico after living there for two years. I recognized that my internet connection in Baja would never be good enough for online exams, so I moved back to the US.

Then, instead of wandering around the American Southwest for the winter, I mostly stayed put for seven months. Traveling takes time. Every day lost to breaking camp, driving for hours, and then setting up again is a unit of coursework I could have finished.

Everywhere I go, my neighbors ask why I don’t go out, why I don’t date, why I keep to myself. People and relationships take time. My time belongs to WGU, with Google right behind it because it pays for school.

I’ve also been incredibly lucky to have team leads who don’t hesitate to approve last-minute requests for time off. For example, I booked my CAPM exam after clocking out on Friday evening. The following Monday morning, I requested Wednesday off for my exam, and they approved it immediately.

The end is in sight.

Sitting my last exam doesn’t mean the end of grad school. I still have three courses left to complete by August 31. However, none of these require an exam-based assessment, so I no longer need to stay put.

Consequently, it’s my last weekend in Arizona. I say goodbye to the Colorado River this Sunday and move on to the next destination.

Next week, I’ll tell paid subscribers exactly where I’ve been camping in Arizona, where I’ve run off to next, and how long I plan to be there. But if you have access to my paid posts, you likely have a pretty good idea of where I’m headed…

See you next time!