How Useful Is Master's Degree?

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  railspider on 18/11/2016 - 10:28

  +9

  I wouldn't waste my time & money with a Master's unless an employer has made it clear they'd like you to get one, and have a promotion/position available for you upon completion.

  Are you not able to ask your boss for some Project management work in a junior role? I think building experience this way would be far more valuable than another degree.

  • 

    [Deactivated] on 18/11/2016 - 10:32

    +3

    I think building experience this way would be far more valuable than another degree

    this can be true.

    My pathway was that I completed the masters degree to compliment my work role after I got hands on experience.

  • 

    THL on 18/11/2016 - 11:44

    My company isn't really a project delivery company, but rather a consulting firm that consults on different aspects of the projects. As a result, we work on many projects but the involvement in each project is mostly short term.

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  dogboy on 18/11/2016 - 10:38

  +2

  It is about as useful as turn indicators on BMWs. About as useful as broccoli flavoured lollipops. The cost/benefit analysis of a Masters degree just doesn't hold water (unless your employer is willing to pay)

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  [Deactivated] on 18/11/2016 - 11:00

  +23

  you should be able to get one cheap now that they're closing down

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  mskeggs on 18/11/2016 - 11:04

  +5

  I disagree a bit.
  I think post graduate qualifications indicate that you are a keen employee looking to do well in your job.
  I have a Master's unrelated to my current field, and have done a few graduate certificates and Cert IV qualifications to show I am still interested in improving my skills and knowledge.

  Having been involved with hiring too, people who have advanced study and experience are well regarded, although experience is more important than just qualifications. Be aware that in something like project management you can gain relevant experience even if your job title is something else.
  Also, in my experience, the extra regard an additional qualification delivers in polish to a resume accrues predominantly at the start.
  So you get nearly all the prestige benefit of the qualification having just enrolled and commenced the course.
  In my industry, almost everyone seems to be part way through an MBA!

  • 

    THL on 18/11/2016 - 11:37

    Thanks for the reply. It sounds like further study is important when hiring but experience is still the key factor.

    The Master's degree that I'm considering also offer units through their MBA school for anyone with working experience (Melbourne Uni). I'll look through their course structure and consider the pros/cons before I decide :)

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  hammo on 18/11/2016 - 11:08

  +1

  I would politely suggest that you explore the world of project management through a different approach - look into the frameworks, standards, approaches that are relevant to your industry and get the basic knowledge that way. Less commitment, less time, less money.

  As an example, are you aware of the Project Management Institute, and their publications such as the Project Management Body of Knowledge? You can get full access to their entire ecosystem for about $120+ per year, and all materials are available as electronic downloads.

  They offer a few levels of certification, which would be cheap, bite-sized building blocks to get your PM career started.

  FWIW - I don't consider degrees to be of any use at all in my industry, however engineering is a field where I believe that they are required/respected/preferred.

  FWIW2 - I hire a lot of PMs, and pay barely any attention to formal education. I can find out through scenario based questions and open discussion whether or not a candidate has the ability to manage something.

  • 

    mskeggs on 18/11/2016 - 11:13

    This is also true. PMBOK or PRINCE2 accreditation is highly useful.

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  marcusv on 18/11/2016 - 11:09

  +2

  I started getting more interviews when I removed any mention of my Master's from my CV.

  • 

    railspider on 18/11/2016 - 11:37

    I find this interesting, do you have any theory as to why? Did they think you'd demand a higher salary because of the Master's? Were you considered "over qualified" (I've seen resumes thrown out in my office because candidates have "too much" education/experience)

  • 

    blitz on 18/11/2016 - 11:55

    +2

    But this doesn't mean that the Masters is working against you. If the effect is real at all, it could just mean that the Masters signals that you are more specialised (and specialist jobs are less frequent). Remove the Masters and you look like everybody else with a Bachelor's degree.

    I've sat on many interview panels. I cannot recall a single time when I've rejected someone because they had a Masters degree. I have rejected people with Masters degrees, usually when the candidate was clearly in a different field (e.g. position is marketing manager, applicant has background in chemical engineering). I have also rejected people because their background showed they lacked an understanding of the complexity of the job.

    This is how I think about it. Many hundreds of thousands of dollars have been put into my brain. It is now a finely tuned analytical weapon. It is like an F-117 fighter. Yes, there are fewer uses for an F-117 than, say, a Boeing 747 and you wouldn't use an F-117 just to ferry people around on holiday. But when you need an F-117, nothing else will do the job.

  • 

    Realsteel on 18/11/2016 - 12:48

    Could it be that having masters made you look over qualified for the role you were applying for? In other words, there are certain roles which specifically has maters such as MBA etc as a minimum criteria and in these cases would definitely be looked upon favorably.

    It all depends on what stage of your career you are, future prospects/plan and skill sets required down the line. For some people its worth investing the time and effort to gain post graduate qualifications. There would also be people who have masters but its just a piece of paper- they are not able to leverage any particular benefits out of it.

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  Mumbles on 18/11/2016 - 12:14

  +3

  I have graduated from uni with Bachelor of Engineering 2 years ago.

  You're a permanent employee on the payroll of a consulting company. This is just the opinion from an outsider but career path and promotions inside a consulting company are very different to the outside real world.

  Good Project Managers are needed everywhere and in all industries. By far the quickest way to become a project manager is to get out of the consulting industry and join ANY business. When the opportunity comes up, raise your hand up and volunteer to take on more responsibilities. Write it into your resume (eg. supervised team of 20 people, for a 12 month long project, provided time/labour estimates, risks, hiring, de-scope, negotiations, etc).

  What separates Project Managers that can do the job from the useless ones is experience. Every employer knows this.

  Adding another masters degree will look nice but that's 2 years full time that you lose out of your life. That's years of full time income and the additional cost of tens of thousands in university fees. Instead you could have volunteered to work for a not for profit charity and learned as a project manager's assistant for 2 years and you'd have more actual experience and outperform a Masters graduate.

  A disclaimer is that I'm not a consultant, project manager, engineer or employer.

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  nomoneynoproblems on 18/11/2016 - 12:43

  +4

  Masters is something you go do when you can't get a job/don't want to emerge to the real world and work.

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  Gronk on 18/11/2016 - 13:09

  +5

  I only say this because you've been specific about the field you're interested in - don't do it.

  The companies I've worked for previously value your real world abilities more than credentials on paper, while a Masters degree will give you a solid grounding in the way in which a project should be managed, it doesn't prepare you for the thinking on your feet that will be required for a project management role.

  For example, my employer recently employed someone with a Phd in Project Management to run the PM department, he lasted 5 months because he was fixated on running things by the book rather than adapting to prevailing conditions at the time.

  As some have already suggested, you'd be far better off completing courses which focus on PRINCE2 and maybe PMBOK certifications.

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  sane on 18/11/2016 - 13:40

  +2

  Wouldn't consider a masters in PM - practical experience and battle scars would always be more important than what an academic said was the way to do it.

  If I were looking down this path I'd be looking at an MBA, and even then I'd be wanting work to pay for at least some of it. Otherwise Prince2 (spit), or PMBok (double spit), or quite probably some qualification in Agile. Personally I think Systems Engineering is pretty key for what you are doing, but most of that hasn't reached Australia yet in a useful form.

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  hashtagbargain on 18/11/2016 - 14:41

  +2

  Nobody cares that you have a Masters in Australia. In the rest of the world maybe, but not here. Its all about who you know and what they owe you.

  Source: personal experience.

  • 

    goodcopbadcop on 20/11/2016 - 09:37

    +1

    I've recently done training needs analysis and gone into a number of professional service firms in Engineering, Architecture, IT, Legal, Accounting, Construction and I was amazed at the number of people in these fields who have Masters. One Architecture firm in Sydney said that all of their Architects go on and do a Masters - but sure, it is mostly related to Architecture. What is missing with graduates when they come out with their degrees is the ability to communicate - with clients; networking; and business development; the ability to Manage Projects from commencement of setting up the contract to signing off on the completed works; and finally Leadership skills. If you can master these skills you will stand out from the average Engineer "like a beacon on a hill".

    The problem with Masters programs is that they are sold to you by Universities who will give you more of the same in regards to theory and academic writing - as what you've received in your degree. They should be changing the undergraduate degree to cover those 3 important skills above. But the Universities refuse - mostly because for instance the Engineering lecturers and Deans lack those very skills themselves and would literally struggle to teach communication or networking or Leading a Project Team. CEO's have told me that they can easily buy software that would do the same job that a lot of engineers will painstakingly sit at a computer for 8 hours a day doing- but he needs people who can call a client and discuss a problem that's appeared and be prepared with a solution to implement it once he/she has persuaded the client.

    Sorry, but those who teach in the VET sector (TAFE & RTO's) in these specialist areas- are way behind the uni's for their industry relevancy. No one is attracted to teach in TAFE for a $60K salary (if such jobs existed because no-one is leaving!) when they can be earning $100K out in the real world. So don't spend $'s and your time (can be up to 18 months for a Diploma) doing irrelevant study that in the industry just doesn't cut it for being leading edge knowledge.

    Consider carefully the Return on Investment (ROI) when you study Post Grad quals. (I didn't…and I have 2 Masters and have not earnt the level of salary that I'd expected. I must be doubly incompetent - as per the comment from Gershom further down)

    A quick search - and at the University of Sydney - one year of the Masters of Project Management, which is a 1.5 years full time course or 3 years part time is priced @ $34K for domestic students for 2017. So you could expect a slight price increase for the other .5 - so maybe another $20K, for a total for the Masters of $54K. And that is without any equipment, uni incidentals etc to add to that figure and or costing your time to do the actual lectures, study and assignments. Two years out of Uni and you possibly still have a HECS debt. Can you be certain that you will receive a large increase in your salary to cover your investment - just because you have a Masters?

    So if your main reason to do a Masters is because you think it will fast track you in your career then you are probably with at least 60% of the people who do it and there is no fast track. I'd question if consulting is what you want to do? But aim to find the niche in Engineering that is "your thing". I'd focus over the next 2 years of getting into the right firm where you can develop your special talent. This is where those networking skills are going to be put to the test! Learn how to use LinkedIn to connect with people in the area and company where you want to work. A smart person will also chose a company that has a generous study benefit so that your Masters is employer funded. And if you are really keen on honing your PM skills - you can do that on your own projects - by applying some of those textbook techniques to see if they work. So many things are mini-projects in reality.

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  altomic on 18/11/2016 - 15:21

  How about taking some smaller bites from the tree of knowledge to gain some greater understanding of project management and its various aspects. E.g. a cert 4 at tafe. Provides for a generalized knowledge, gets you thinking, demonstrates to your employer that you are interested in "more", etc . and would be less taxing on your brain, time and wallet than a masters

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  [Deactivated] on 18/11/2016 - 19:19

  If you really are interested in attaining a masters degree in project management then what are you doing in a firm that only hires consultants? You should gain some experience in the said field and join the master's program side by side. Or just try working in a company/firm that offers a package which includes masters degree as essential and also offer a master's program funding. That would be beneficial for you.

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  Gershom on 19/11/2016 - 08:38

  +1

  I've hired lots of PMs in my life, and experience and common sense at the interview are the main things. Don't buy the BS that people here are selling about it being helpful, it isn't. PM is not that complicated, nobody needs a Masters in it. Higher qualifications often denote an incompetent who is trying to get ahead purely on quals because their track record is not good. I say this as someone who has lectured MBA classes at two Ivy League unis in the US.

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  [Deactivated] on 19/11/2016 - 10:06

  +3

  Don't do it, Masters is closing down

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  jhmtaylor on 19/11/2016 - 12:06

  I would advise you to do some practical study in PM but not the Masters and work on getting the best experience. Be prepared to travel to remote locations, bite off more than you can chew and chew faster.

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  kiitos on 19/11/2016 - 16:15

  As pointed out, the usefulness of a masters degree depends on the discipline, and would probably not be particularly valuable on the PM area.

  However, in IT, it seems that these days every second person has a PhD, whereas my lowly bachelor's degreee used to be enough to set me apart from the people who had done certificates.

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  backpaqer on 22/11/2016 - 10:11

  My sister noted that just being enrolled in a masters course is as good as having a masters degree when it came to landing jobs/promotions. (she has since got the masters degree).