Relevence/Significance of Masters Qualifications

Clseeper

I'm out of college nearly three years and looking to do a masters to help with beefing up my CV and also keeping my mind academically active. I'm very interested in peoples' opinions of Msc's and master level qualifications in general. I had personally never seen the point to people doing a masters straight after their undergraduate course as they still exit college with no real experience. Which is rated higher; experience or qualifications?

I'm not in a position to quit my job to do this, nor do I think I want to, so I’d be looking for a part time course. Should I pick a very broad, vague course just to have on my CV or one which is much more specialist and directly related to my field?

Any thoughts, opinions and especially personal examples would be greatly appreciated. Also particularly how people went about picking a course and tools/resources they used.

Thanks in advance.

AARRRGH

The MSc in Computing in Griffith College is great. Only 12 months part-time.

RedXIV

Just so you know, most employers would rate experience WELL above qualifications. A qualification is not hard to get these days (For example i spent last weekend writing up an essay for a friend of mine in her 3rd year of Child Development Theories. I know NOTHING of this and she reckons i'm a natural born mother :rolleyes:).

My uncle once told me that he blatenly lied on his cv about his experience because he knew it would get him a job and he's living a VERY comfortable life. Get experience. thats the best move in my opinion

helimachoptor

Experience for sure. I've learned more in my first year working that in my years in college. All of the interviews I have I've been asked "so you have a degree... How was that??"


Where as I usually get grilled on my experience to see if I actually know how to do the job!

Tom Dunne

Yeah, I really think my MSc was pretty worthless. Sure, it looks good, but as the others have said, it's all down to experience.

AARRRGH

I think MSc's are useful in the sense that they get your brain working again, which rubs off on everything around you, including being smarter in work...

ixus

Clseeper wrote: »

Should I pick a very broad, vague course just to have on my CV or one which is much more specialist and directly related to my field?

And your field is? It would help along with your interests and where you want to go. Be self-employed/ management/specialist in your field?

Masters for the sake of a masters is pointless.

I worked in financial company last year. Nearly all my team had a masters in Finance. None of them really used it. They all seemed to be striving for supervisor. This could be achieved without a masters.

After two years of work, I've gone back to college and am completing an MSc in Finance full-time. Am glad I took this route (even if the job markets a bit suss at the moment). I didn't do it to become a "supervisor" but to kick on from that level altogether.

A specialist MSc can be worth its weight in gold if the occupation is in demand. Going to college part-time can indicate you're a hard worker & motivated which may be all an employer takes from it.

You want more opinions, you should really give a bit more detail.
Is your field IT/Engineering/Finance/bread making or what?

GoneShootin

I was listening to some fella on TodayFM a few weeks back and he was speaking about a trend amongst Degree graduates, that a fair bulk of them are staying on to do a Masters purely because they seem to think that they are in competition with other like minded folk.

I did a Masters in Software Engineering - much of which I have never used and at this stage I don't think I'll get to use, but it was still worthwhile because I wanted to do it - not because I felt pressured or forced.

Plus I couldn't get a bleedin' job in Cork so I had to do something

How Strange

I did a fulltime arts masters because I wanted to and it was a personal achievement for me but professionally it is worthless. Employers don't know even know what it's about and it hasn't helped me in my career.

Having said I don't regret doing it.

cornbb

I did a B.Sc. in Computer Systems and started an M.Sc. in Music Technology a year after I finished the undergraduate degree. I'm now working in a job that allows me to make the best of both degrees. Its definitely a niche area, so in a way I'm lucky that I got work that suited me so well. I wouldn't have gotten it without the masters though, and I'm very passionate about the subject matter, so from that point of view the masters was an excellent career move for me.

So from a personal POV I'd recommend doing a masters if you have a specific career direction in mind and you think a masters might give you an edge, or if the subject matter is of personal interest to you. The goal of getting back to college to keep your mind sharp is also a worthy one. I wouldn't go back just with the goal of "beefing up your CV" - in many circumstances a year or two's experience in a certain job/field could mean much more than having a masters' degree in an arbirtary field.

Clseeper

Firstly, thanks for all your replies so far.

I did my degree in Applied Physics and have just recently gotten my dream job in new technology development. Basically working in a very small team where we are given a free rein to develop new products and future technology. It’s physical and surface science stuff, not IT.

Now while I love what I’m doing, I’m now starting to look forward in my career. Currently I have no massive commitments or financial constraints so now would probably be the optimum time to do further study. At the moment I have no interest in a progressing to a managerial role but maybe a technical leadership role in the distant future, it’s more the immediate future I’m looking at now. I’m thinking the masters could help me with my career progression, within my technical role, on top of the experience I’m building up.

Also the small team I’m in, nearly all the members are experts in their field and hold Phd’s or similar. While I have no problem with my technical abilities I sort of feel I need to measure up to these and not get forgotten.

I’m leaning towards a one year, specialist, part-time technical Msc, just to have it on the CV, and hold off on a longer commitment broad qualification until later. There is also the chance that the job would help pay some of the costs with the qualification if it was somewhat related to work.

Feedback? How have people gone about choosing their masters degrees? Also as it part-time [on-line] I could get a qualification from a reputable college abroad which widens the scope even more.