Another degree worth the investment?

AnnyHallsal

I've been working in Digital Marketing for the past three years. I was kept on after an internship and am now in a third position earning a very good salary at the upper end of what I could command at this level of experience.

Although I have a first-class degree and PhD in English, I have no business or digital qualifications. I've done two verified coursera modules in marketing. I'm wondering if it would be worth investing in a part-time course - certificate, degree, masters, diploma, MBA - to ensure I don't miss out on attractive positions later in my career? Personally I feel my professional experience is enough. But I'm concerned I may miss out on opportunities if the qualifications box appears unticked.

Manach

There are two main drivers for education. For professional and personal development. For the latter, this is only of minor matter for potential employers and is mostly driven for one's own interests.
For the former, it is a form of a beauty contest, in that it is not what one's thinks is the most important but what others believe is of importance for a business. In that an MBA does seem to have the cachet. It both suggests a commercial oriented mindset, it has universal recognition among employees and allows one to network with other professionals who are doing similar.

AnnyHallsal

Manach wrote: »

There are two main drivers for education. For professional and personal development. For the latter, this is only of minor matter for potential employers and is mostly driven for one's own interests.
For the former, it is a form of a beauty contest, in that it is not what one's thinks is the most important but what others believe is of importance for a business. In that an MBA does seem to have the cachet. It both suggests a commercial oriented mindset, it has universal recognition among employees and allows one to network with other professionals who are doing similar.

Very true. Ideally, I would do an MBA. But the insane costs are prohibitive. I've been thinking about scholarships but with a PhD already, I'm concerned I'll be ineligible.

nukie1978

There are a number of free conversion courses to computing, which may be of interest to you. If you go to www (dot) springboardcourses (dot) ie, click on "Search Courses" and tick the "Show Only ICT Skills Conversion courses" box, this will show 20 courses across the country. These are free courses, regardless of whether you're working or not (unlike most Springboard courses) and there are several starting in January.

This will deal with the "Digital" aspect.

There are alternative, relatively affordable, options to doing an MBA. An MSc in Business & Management in the IPA cost €10 over two years. The IPA also does an honours bachelor in Business Studies in Marketing— about €3k a year for four years. There's also a 1 year Diploma in Marketing— €2,750 for a year. See www (dot) ipa (dot) ie.

This will take care of the "Marketing" side of things.

Personally, having spent the last three years studying part-time while working full time, I would consider the financial cost to be relatively small. The investment of time is the real killer. The financial benefits in the short term are also small, or non-existent. In the longer term, if you're taking on board even a quarter of what you're being taught (as opposed to simply seeking to pass exams) the change in perspective wrought by internalising your course material will bring a broader perspective to both your personal and professional life.

Education is an investment, from which you will reap a reward. But sadly, it is not a simple case of "Insert €10k into university, proceed to extract an extra €5 to €10k annually from employer"— but on average over the long term, this is around the return on investment you'd be looking at.

Tom Dunne

A post-graduate diploma would be the better option, I think.

There are a lot of "top-up" type courses that give a recognised qualification, while acknowledging that students already have an undergraduate/postgraduate degree in a different field.

Tarzana2

nukie1978 wrote: »

There are a number of free conversion courses to computing, which may be of interest to you. If you go to www (dot) springboardcourses (dot) ie, click on "Search Courses" and tick the "Show Only ICT Skills Conversion courses" box, this will show 20 courses across the country. These are free courses, regardless of whether you're working or not (unlike most Springboard courses) and there are several starting in January.

Thanks so much for this!

EDIT: Most of the Dublin Springboard courses are only for the unemployed though. :-/