A Masters in Engineering-Worth the Hassle and Work?

daveshere

Hi all,

I have 1 year left in Biomedical Engineering and I was (sort of) looking at doing a masters in the equivalent field. However, I read a few testimonials about people finishing their masters and being over the moon in getting a graduate job......that would be the minimum I would expect from my Level 8 anyway!

Anyone who has done one do you think it was worth it?

Did you get paid anything significantly more in your first and subsequent years?

Did you feel you had a leg up on people who had not done a masters?

Would you do it again?

How much did it all roughly cost you, the course itself living etc (if you don't me asking!)

Thanks!

Dave

dominatinMC

I would think that any graduate should be "over the moon" in getting a graduate job. You have to consider that the job market is very competitive right now and that a lot of graduate programmes in multinationals stipulate a Masters as a minimum, or at least that it would be desired/preferred. Although, I don't agree with this attitude, that is the current situation. The job market has evolved to the stage where an undergraduate degree is sometimes not seen as enough - particularly for R&D positions. The Universities are happy for this to continue as Master's courses bring in additional fees for them.

As someone who is working in academia, I cannot comment on your questions regarding pay, etc. but I can offer some general advice. I would say that doing a Masters, or not, probably depends on the kind of role/career you invisage yourself in after University. So if going for R&D, I would say that having a Masters would be a definite advantage. Generally, R&D roles tend to pay better than standard engineering jobs, so you can probably equate that to a better salary for having done a Masters. For less technical roles, I'm not so sure that a Masters would be of any real benefit. One thing to bear in mind though is that, post 2010 graduates, a Masters degree is a requirement to become a chartered engineer.

I didn't really explicitly answer any of your questions there but, nevertheless, hope it was helpful!

daveshere

Thank you very much for your reply and it was interesting seeing your point of view coming from the academia side of things.

Yes, I would be happy with a Graduate Position. However, this is significantly less pay than a full time or even contracted position. Also, there are 2 people who started working in the place I had my placement (and who have brought me back for the summer thankfully) who have a Level 6 and a Level 7 degree respectively in R&D roles. One of whom is actually working on very serious projects with great travel opportunities! I am good friends with him and yes....he is HAPPY (and rightly) with his pay. That is 1 of the main reasons I question further education straight after college.

In some fields I would completely agree with your argument over a masters is needed, but Ireland (at the moment anyway) is 1 of the core countries for medical device companies in Europe for a number of reasons and thus has quite a few job opportunities. I am also aware of the Chartered Engineer scenario which adds to my decision definitely.

Still though, nothing has convinced me to fork out another few thousand yoyo's for another piece of paper for another year of being poor and the feeling of becoming institutionalised....although I could be easily swayed!