• We’re currently investigating an issue related to the forum theme and styling that is impacting page layout and visual formatting. The problem has been identified, and we are actively working on a resolution. There is no impact to user data or functionality, this is strictly a front-end display issue. We’ll post an update once the fix has been deployed. Thanks for your patience while we get this sorted.

Masters vs going into workplace

  • Thread starter Thread starter Q
  • Start date Start date
Q

Q

Lifer
I'm having a small debate with my good friend.

We're both graduating with business degrees pretty soon. I'm looking into getting a job, he's looking into grad school. I think it's pointless to go into grad school without job experience. He thinks not. I say nobody wants to hire you with a Masters a no job experience vs BS degree and 2-4 years job experience.

If I go into grad school, I want a few years work under my belt, then pursue something higher. (Though admittedly, I'd like to delay the real world as much as possible, finding jobs is tough)

He will not be going for an MBA, by the way.

What do you all think is the best path, based on personal experience and what you have heard from others?
 
For business, I'm pretty sure you are expected to have job experience before going for an MBA. This isn't true for other fields, though. In engineering, for example, it's not uncommon to get a MS directly after the BS (and there is no problem getting hired when going this route).
 
esun said:
For business, I'm pretty sure you are expected to have job experience before going for an MBA. This isn't true for other fields, though. In engineering, for example, it's not uncommon to get a MS directly after the BS (and there is no problem getting hired when going this route).
Click to expand...

Yes, I do understand that. But let's pretend we (I) would go for something other than MBA.
 
Yeah, it all depends. I can't speak for business but for engineering it seems fine to me. As an engineer, you can get work experience in internships and the research that you conduct towards your thesis can certainly count for work experience. Not to mention that many engineering graduate students can get assistantships and thus they do not need to pay tuition or may not even need to take out loans to pay for their living costs. So I feel in general a Master's for engineers is a good investment.

But from what I have garnered from my colleagues, business is different. One of my friends is looking to go back to school for his MBA and for the most part he expects to pay for the degree in full. That is a lot of financial burden to take on if you have not put away a nest egg from working. Plus the business graduate programs seem to be more theoretical; not having as much hands on research like in say engineering.
 
The best bet is 3-5 yrs work experience, then an MBA.

If it's a different master's, well why is he doing it? I would say a master's in engineering is worth it, but my guess is the business undergrad won't get him into a master's in engineering program.

A master's in econ would be interesting, but you'd be going into the workforce only slightly above someone with just a bachelor's, and probably wouldn't get paid more for it. Could be a good option if you have no job prospects and want to sit in a holding pattern in school. It is definitely looking better if you can get a scholarship so it doesn't cost much money.
 
From what I've seen this only works for engineering majors. M.S. engineering, MBA, law, grad school seems to help even without experience.

It would help to know what he was actually pursuing. But if its business-related I think at some point people expect you to have some success in business before they care what your education is.
 
I can't speak for IT/engineer/science fields but I did have a business grad degree while working full time and went to grad school part time at night. The company I worked at paid for the whole thing but I did have to earn it (B or higher).

I would not take a student loan and go to grad school full time.
 
Last edited:
Well, from personal experience I can say that I went directly for a M.S. and was hired immediately upon graduating (actually transitioned from an internship to full-time literally the Monday after I graduated).

Most individuals I know that were in the M.S. program with me were also hired (though there were exceptions). However, the same was true directly out of undergrad. A M.S. does open up more job opportunities, though (going directly into research versus starting in lower level work, like testing). But this only applies to engineering, I cannot comment on other fields.
 
silverpig said:
The best bet is 3-5 yrs work experience, then an MBA.

If it's a different master's, well why is he doing it? I would say a master's in engineering is worth it, but my guess is the business undergrad won't get him into a master's in engineering program.

A master's in econ would be interesting, but you'd be going into the workforce only slightly above someone with just a bachelor's, and probably wouldn't get paid more for it. Could be a good option if you have no job prospects and want to sit in a holding pattern in school. It is definitely looking better if you can get a scholarship so it doesn't cost much money.
Click to expand...


Yeah, I guess working then hoping the company will pay for some type of grad school would be my best bet, it's just tough to do that since you have no way of knowing if that's something the company is willing to do, or typically does for some employees.
 
I went back to get my MBA after several years of working. I found the individuals that were in my classes straight from Undergrad did not have much to add to the classes. However, still plenty of consulting and investment firms were hiring them.
 
Quintox said:
Yeah, I guess working then hoping the company will pay for some type of grad school would be my best bet, it's just tough to do that since you have no way of knowing if that's something the company is willing to do, or typically does for some employees.
Click to expand...

Perfect question to ask during the interview. I know my company will pay up to a certain amount for continuing education costs each year and they advertise that fact freely (although my company values further education heavily).
 
silverpig said:
The best bet is 3-5 yrs work experience, then an MBA.

If it's a different master's, well why is he doing it? I would say a master's in engineering is worth it, but my guess is the business undergrad won't get him into a master's in engineering program.

A master's in econ would be interesting, but you'd be going into the workforce only slightly above someone with just a bachelor's, and probably wouldn't get paid more for it. Could be a good option if you have no job prospects and want to sit in a holding pattern in school. It is definitely looking better if you can get a scholarship so it doesn't cost much money.
Click to expand...

a lot of people also get their non-MBA master's to make up for their poor undergraduate grades and brand name

as an example, a guy with a 3.0 gpa from arizona state has to be unbelievable with amazing recs and rare work experience to get into a school like wharton

but, let's say the same guy gets his non-mba master's in engineering or econ in between from a top 25 school with a high gpa 3.8-4.0, his chance of admission for MBA does improve quite a bit in my opinion
 
an MBA is different because it is suppose to teach you leadership/business skills provided that you've advanced to a point where you'll be leading. Nobody hires someone into management without any experience in that field.

The only real job you can get with just an MBA and no experience is consulting, but then again, you can be a consultant straight out of undergrad, and am starting at pretty much the same plane regardless.
 
A couple of questions that I have:

How much do the average jobs in your field pay?
Is there a real wage difference between a masters degree and what you already have?
How much is a master degree going to cost?


If I were in your shoes, I would look at getting some work experience.

I dont know about the kind of work your in, but my careers want you to have at least 4 years work experience before your considered qualified. If you have any less then 4 years, you start out at the bottom. But when you hit that 4 year mark, things start to look up.
 
Last edited:
Texashiker said:
I dont know about the kind of work your in, but my careers want you to have at least 4 years work experience before your considered qualified. If you have any less then 4 years, you start out at the bottom. But when you hit that 4 year mark, things start to look up.
Click to expand...

Are you in engineering, or a business degree?

And with your points, I think it is best for me to find a job first, and see where that takes me. Starting pay is low, but I am lucky enough to be able to stay at home for a year or so to have a nice safety net while I gain experience.

And for the question of how much an MS would benefit me/add to $, I really don't know because there are a wide variety of degrees I could get, vs. other programs like engineering where you get an ME, for example.

Thanks for the replies so far.
 
I was in this position about a year ago.

I graduated and the outlook for work wasn't looking good. I ended up getting into an MIS master's program and didn't start until January 2011. I have worked internships since 2007 and am still at it, but I'm making connections and furthering my education. I'm paying for my graduate degree out of pocket, as well.

I may or may not continue this route, if something else presents itself.
 
It all falls under the big "it depends".

For me, if I went to work right after I got my BS degree, I doubt I would be where I am today with an MS degree. The problem comes around to the fact that you're getting hired based on what you know from your BS and unless the work you do will give you the same knowledge that an MS degree would, you will not be able to make the jump.

So for my example, with my MS I'm doing design work. My Ph'D friends are doing research work at the same firm. The fact that my work doesn't involve any research, it's difficult for me to make that jump into a research position.
 
I would get a job first, if you can, just so you can experience what you plan on doing for the next 30 years. There's a chance you'll say "fuck this, I hate it, FML" and do something else, so why invest another $10k+?

I'm doing a Master of Engineering right now part-time. Stressful, but school is so much easier 1-2 courses at a time. Instead of using it to help me where I'm currently workign though, I'm using it to help me get where I want to be.

And the MBA thing. Ya. Everyone and their mother wants to or plans on getting on now. At some point we're going to have a few too many "managers", especially ones that have no managerial experience, or just should never lead people to begin with...
 
I think most undergrads don't really know what they want to do yet. From my experience a many decide to move in a completely different direction after 1-2 years of work experience.

So, it is better to get some work experience first and determine if you are even happy in the field that you were pursuing before committing even more time and resources into something that you may not even like doing eventually.
 
Quintox said:
Are you in engineering, or a business degree?
Click to expand...

My first career was building ASME Section 8 certified pressure vessels and heat exchangers. I do not have a degree in engineering, I just built the things.

The first 3 years was an apprenticeship where you learned from an experienced craftsman.

It was fun watching the noob engineers see a pressure vessel or heat exchanger for the first time. And they say "oh, that is what they look like in real life".

Regardless of what you learn in school, real life can be a lot different.

My second career is working with computers.
 
Last edited:
Quintox said:
Yeah, I guess working then hoping the company will pay for some type of grad school would be my best bet, it's just tough to do that since you have no way of knowing if that's something the company is willing to do, or typically does for some employees.
Click to expand...

You can try checking online. Some companies have it in their recruiting pages.
 
skim milk said:
a lot of people also get their non-MBA master's to make up for their poor undergraduate grades and brand name

as an example, a guy with a 3.0 gpa from arizona state has to be unbelievable with amazing recs and rare work experience to get into a school like wharton

but, let's say the same guy gets his non-mba master's in engineering or econ in between from a top 25 school with a high gpa 3.8-4.0, his chance of admission for MBA does improve quite a bit in my opinion
Click to expand...

That's true, although it'd probably be a lot better getting some awesome work experience instead of the master's at that point.

I'd take a guy from Arizona State with a 3.0 undergrad who spent 4 years designing shit for the mars rover and now has stuff roaming around mars over a guy who has a 3.8 from Berkeley but spent 2 years post-grad flipping burgers.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

TRENDING THREADS

Back
Top