Benefits to a masters degree?

longhalloween

Just a quick question to find out people's views on M.Eng or other masters degrees.

Is there any benefit to holding such a degree if you're already employed? Is it a case where your employer might look more favourably on you, or give you a raise to reflect your education, or will they just say "That's nice, now get back to work".

Also is it the case that it's more beneficial to do a MBA or other business course, to advance into a management role (which are presumably better paid)

I'm going into my final year and weighing up my options as to whether I should be looking for a masters when I finish or get a job.

2011

It can't hurt but in my opinion it is your experience and the relationship that you develp with clients that matters most with your employer. I know that others will disagree, but that is the conclusion that I have arrived at having worked for a large well known engineering consultancy for a number of years.

annfield1978

I have the MEng and agree with 2011 that it is experience that counts

godtabh

Depends on what you want. If you want to get chartered a MSc is now needed. It will also be a base line for many graduate roles.

An MBA wont be on the cards for a recent graduate. You'll need a few years management experience first before any MBA would even consider you. Maybe worth looking into a business masters for non business graduates.

enda1

godtabh wrote: »

Depends on what you want. If you want to get chartered a MSc is now needed. It will also be a base line for many graduate roles.

An MBA wont be on the cards for a recent graduate. You'll need a few years management experience first before any MBA would even consider you. Maybe worth looking into a business masters for non business graduates.

Just about the MBA thing. It's not really management experience that's needed, its leadership. Some MBA courses, even top ones such as Harvard and Stanford I believe will take a very few graduates. These must of course be exceptional people and I think will still want to have shown leadership through societies and extra-curricular work.

But yeah in general I wouldn't be looking at an MBA for a few years at least.

con1982

2011 wrote: »

It can't hurt but in my opinion it is your experience and the relationship that you develp with clients that matters most with your employer. I know that others will disagree, but that is the conclusion that I have arrived at having worked for a large well known engineering consultancy for a number of years.

I fully agree with the above.

nogoodnamesleft

As other said it is required to get CEng status now. The company I work for taking a case of two engineers with the same amount of experience will pay the engineer with the Masters more.

nogoodnamesleft

nogoodnamesleft wrote: »

As other said it is required to get CEng status now. The company I work for taking a case of two engineers with the same amount of experience will pay the engineer with the Masters more.

The corollary to this is I've heard from a few engineers where I work that don't put their Masters on their CVs as they found they were seen as too expensive to be hired.

Turbulent Bill

longhalloween wrote: »

Just a quick question to find out people's views on M.Eng or other masters degrees.

Is there any benefit to holding such a degree if you're already employed? Is it a case where your employer might look more favourably on you, or give you a raise to reflect your education, or will they just say "That's nice, now get back to work".

Also is it the case that it's more beneficial to do a MBA or other business course, to advance into a management role (which are presumably better paid)

I'm going into my final year and weighing up my options as to whether I should be looking for a masters when I finish or get a job.

Given the state of the economy and the fact that you're (presumably) early 20s, I'd do a masters sooner rather than later if you're genuinely interested in one. Once you start work and other commitments come along, it's much more difficult to return to study.

An eng masters isn't a direct route to a better job ; only consider one if you'd actually like the idea of further study.

bradyle

I did one when I finished 2 years ago for the following reasons in this order:

1) Hadn't gotten a job offer
2) Grad jobs pay more when you have a masters
3) I knew that universities were changing so that having a masters after your course would be more typical (because of the E.I.change) so I figured my future competition for jobs would have one so I should
4) I didn't feel like I knew enough to be an engineer so thought doing another year would be a help
5) It was free for me to do it.

Honestly I'm really happy I did it just because it really gave me confidence in myself coming our of my undergrad I doubted I could ever be an engineer by the time I was finished my masters I was fairly sure I could be. I'm not saying the masters thought me anything super relevant to my job now but everything we did was more practical and real life than undergrad and I was able to do all my assignments and projects with little hardship so it gave me a lot more belief in my skills.

Just to point out I did a taught masters so subjects and classes was worth 2/3 of your degree and your research topic was the other 1/3