After worked in a small company in Pasadena for 4 years as software engineer, the question came to my mind. How could I break to the next level? Am I gonna stuck on this for the rest of my life? I believe for quite a few oversea Chinese, it is one common quest. I saw the same question asked on mitbbs again and again. Once you have this question in your mind, you will not be settled on current position. I decided to step out of the comfortable zone, and recharge myself a little bit. The decision and investment varies - study overseas, go for MBA, immigrate, or study something new. MBA, my 3rd master degree? No. Since I wasn't quite sure what should I do, I studied during office hours and got a bunch of certificates - MCSE , MCAD , MCP , SJCP , SJWCD , CCNP , and PMP . I even got full reimbursement for all the expense. After several weeks, the phone calls from recruiters such as MS and Google came in. Through these phone calls, I realized how difficult to switch to other roles such