Starting work early

[Guest]

Has anyone ever heard of a participant not finishing their degree but still going to work for their SF doing the same job?

[guest]

Has anyone ever heard of a participant not finishing their degree but still going to work for their SF doing the same job?

This. This is the stupidest thing I've heard all day. I thought it was when one of my engineers wanted to send out a half-finished document for review (reviewer specifically asked for the final draft), but no, this takes it. You're saying you want to know if you can not finish your degree (a violation of your contract with SMART and your SF), then go work for said SF, doing a job that requires the degree that you failed to finish. Where in the ever living shit would you ever get that idea. If you showed up at my unit, you'd get stuck in motor T for the rest of your life.

May Saint Mattis of Quantico deliver us from you and your kind.

[guest]

Actually, this is what I'd do to you. https://i.imgur.com/lwARWbS.jpg

[guest]

Actually this is not so stupid. Particularly if you are a retention participant. Retention participants get a degree and go right back to their previous position; no promotion. So if you are retention, and feel that you can't finish your degree I can't see them firing you over it. They would probably ask you to stay for a pro-rated period of your commitment.

Has anyone ever heard of a participant not finishing their degree but still going to work for their SF doing the same job?

This. This is the stupidest thing I've heard all day. I thought it was when one of my engineers wanted to send out a half-finished document for review (reviewer specifically asked for the final draft), but no, this takes it. You're saying you want to know if you can not finish your degree (a violation of your contract with SMART and your SF), then go work for said SF, doing a job that requires the degree that you failed to finish. Where in the ever living shit would you ever get that idea. If you showed up at my unit, you'd get stuck in motor T for the rest of your life.

May Saint Mattis of Quantico deliver us from you and your kind.

[guest]

Actually this is not so stupid. Particularly if you are a retention participant. Retention participants get a degree and go right back to their previous position; no promotion. So if you are retention, and feel that you can't finish your degree I can't see them firing you over it. They would probably ask you to stay for a pro-rated period of your commitment.

True, but from the way it's worded, it sure doesn't sound like retention based on "going to work" instead of "staying with" or something like that.

[Guest]

I don't think it's a stupid question. Many people who have posted here have stated that the job that they end up doing at their SF does not require the Ph.D or MS. that they earned. If that person has a MS, is pursuing a PhD and is being asked to to a job that a kid out of college or someone with a MS can do, I can see why they would ask this if there is trouble in their program...especially if they have done well at internships.
Also, this is supposed to be a safe sauce to ask questions. Your comment was extremely smug, a bit rude and uncalled for. I can see some people being hesitant to even post after that.

[Guest_2]

Has anyone ever heard of a participant not finishing their degree but still going to work for their SF doing the same job?

This. This is the stupidest thing I've heard all day. I thought it was when one of my engineers wanted to send out a half-finished document for review (reviewer specifically asked for the final draft), but no, this takes it. You're saying you want to know if you can not finish your degree (a violation of your contract with SMART and your SF), then go work for said SF, doing a job that requires the degree that you failed to finish. Where in the ever living shit would you ever get that idea. If you showed up at my unit, you'd get stuck in motor T for the rest of your life.

May Saint Mattis of Quantico deliver us from you and your kind.

You sir, are the biggest pussy I've came across all WEEK. Fuck you. There are several scenarios that exist in which OP may want to work for his/her SF early. You don't know OPs situation, and even if you did, it wouldn't warrant being a total fuckwad. Get that shitty attitude out of here.

[Guest_3]

Has anyone ever heard of a participant not finishing their degree but still going to work for their SF doing the same job?

This. This is the stupidest thing I've heard all day. I thought it was when one of my engineers wanted to send out a half-finished document for review (reviewer specifically asked for the final draft), but no, this takes it. You're saying you want to know if you can not finish your degree (a violation of your contract with SMART and your SF), then go work for said SF, doing a job that requires the degree that you failed to finish. Where in the ever living shit would you ever get that idea. If you showed up at my unit, you'd get stuck in motor T for the rest of your life.

May Saint Mattis of Quantico deliver us from you and your kind.

You sir, are the biggest pussy I've came across all WEEK. Fuck you. There are several scenarios that exist in which OP may want to work for his/her SF early. You don't know OPs situation, and even if you did, it wouldn't warrant being a total fuckwad. Get that shitty attitude out of here.

Agreed. Unfortunately, you run into people like this all the time working for the DoD. Judging by the imgur link, he probably sees himself as an officer. More likely, he's a civilian piss-on that surfs the internet all day like the rest of us. Talking about "his engineers". Piece of shit.

I ran into this type of attitude a lot. I remember one time I was talking about traveling home from my SF to see my family. Another intern asked me if I could do that. I said yeah, why not? And he goes, "Isn't that considered going AWOL?" I said WTF are you talking about? He goes, "You can't just leave on the weekend without permission, can you?" Holy shit I thought I was gonna lose it.

A lot of people buy into this DoD thing so much that they don't even think they own themselves anymore. They don't think you can question something that's clearly wrong, because somehow you're disregarding orders. They don't think you can request a change of terms because you'll get a court martial or some shit. It's fucking retarded. People, this is a job - that's it. A shitty one at that. If there's something that's going to make your time more bearable, I say go ahead and ask (if you can get in touch with them). They'll probably say no, but what the hell?

[mmHmmSure]

This. This is the stupidest thing I've heard all day. I thought it was when one of my engineers wanted to send out a half-finished document for review (reviewer specifically asked for the final draft)...

If turning in a half-finished document is the stupidest thing you've ever seen an engineer do, you haven't been doing this very long.

[Guest]

How about the OP just clarify what his situation is, then we can pick a winner and move on with our lives.

[GUEST]

How about the OP just clarify what his situation is, then we can pick a winner and move on with our lives.

To me, this isn't even about OP's question anymore. It's about an unnecessary, condescending response that served no purpose other than making a complete douchebag forget the abject failure that is his life - just for one sweet moment - before snapping back into reality and retreating to his room to cut himself while listening to Avril Lavigne.

[PhaseIGuest]

Has anyone ever heard of a participant not finishing their degree but still going to work for their SF doing the same job?

To answer the question you asked - with my SF, I haven't heard of anybody leaving their degree early. Best case scenario, you finish your program and continue your contract as you planned. Worst case scenario, you are in a situation where you need to leave your program, and then run into some kind of issue with the program office and/or with your SF.

In order to prevent that worst case scenario, you will want to start a fantastic paper trail - track every payment from the program since the beginning, and every correspondence. I will touch on both graduate student and undergraduate student specifics below, because there are some differences in what resources are most useful. No matter where you are in your degree, assuming you absolutely must leave your degree early, being in good standing with your SF would be valuable. If you have a point of contact there, you could ask them what the hiring process will look like for you (if you're not sure already). If you've already had an internship, what is the degree make-up of the team, and have you attained at least the baseline for hiring? If not, what skillset would be useful for you in getting hired? It sounds like you want to go work for your SF more than being in school, so a good start professionally would be to let them know you enjoyed working there and are curious about what the early professional hiring process will look like. Be brief, professional, and to the point - I'm sure you're stressed by school stuff right now, but SMART and your SF are not good avenues for seeking academic support.

If you are a graduate student - I will tell you that people either master out or leave programs early fairly often, and for a variety of practical reasons. The reddit community for graduate students, r/gradschool, is a supportive community if you are encountering any issues in your program that are making you feel like you need to quit at this time. The SMART Scholarship service amendment form has a variety of options for degree changes (extensions, absences) that you can pursue if that would work for your situation. For your own sake, I'd play it safe and put in the appropriate request, whatever you end up doing. There is another thread in this forum about delayed response to these, so you will probably not get a reply very fast. It does start a paper trail, and shows that you've made an effort to communicate. If you are a PhD student, your adviser is your best resource for navigating this. If you are having issues with your adviser, or do not have an adviser at this time, a dean of students might be an appropriate choice. They have almost certainly dealt with this situation before. If you have no idea who to talk to, a senior student in your department can probably direct you to an appropriate point of contact.

If you are an undergraduate student, I'd speculate that leaving a program entirely to work is unusual. However, transferring institutions or taking a leave of absence is accounted for in the SMART rules (or was, when I applied). A professor in your department or an academic adviser are great people to talk to in this situation, and they can help you find the best solution for you. Most STEM workplaces will expect a Bachelor's degree, and I believe that is the minimum degree SMART will fund, so I would aim to achieve that. There have been a few questions here about summer school and summer funding, so if you need to stretch out your degree progress to finish, requesting the extension for your fellowship program is a reasonable choice.