Im in my early 30s and I am looking for a more senior job that can pay me 6 figures. Most of the ads mention that advanced degree is highly desirable. Gone are the days you can get a handsome paying job without even a degree. Should I consider doing master? I saw that masters are mostly full fee paying, $33k per year, imagine how many eneloops I can buy with that money :(. How useful is master degree? Should I invest that money in getting a master that may be relevant to my job or master is all but title and just settle with random master that has subsidy (CSP)?
How Important Is Advanced Degree?
mokorusmania on 04/07/2023 - 19:26
Comments
pharmaceutical
"pharmaceutical" = Breaking Bad?
legal drugs :)). im in the admin support function, not the fun making part :(
@mokorusmania: What kind of job is there that builds off pharma admin support and a masters? Genuine question, because that's what you should be looking at.
I have completely mixed set of qualifications and experience, while it means I get paid very well for the niche I'm in it doesn't just magically open doors to other places.
@mokorusmania: Admin/support might have a ceiling in terms of pay. How large is the company, is there scope to apply for higher positions, e.g., leadership, project, development?
If not, can do a sideways move to a larger company with more opportunity for career progression.
What was your undergrad? I guess it also depends on what you are interested in. It might sound like a luxury, but it really helps if you have a genuine interest in the work that you are doing.
post-grad / apprenticeship can be helpful if it gives you a qualification and only people with that qualification can do the work (e.g., psychologist, electrician) in which case theirs a higher ceiling in pay relative to non-qualified roles (e.g., admin).
@mokorusmania: So you’re a paper shuffler. Blowing 70k on postgrad won’t do shit for your career. Short term proposition while spending minimal $$$ is to volunteer to help out with a project management at work while studying for sone kind of certification. Alternatively you could just learn how to sell.
Better to invest in going to the pub with the boss/ senior staff.
bootlicking at its finest
How Important Is Advanced Degree?
Very
not sure how much i would trust jv :p
Does jv have an advanced degree?
YES, commenting and text styling and so on.
Masters won't help you if you're already on the career ladder. It's only useful to differentiate you from others when getting your first job and/or if you decide to change careers to something completely different.
Experience, personal attributes, charterships & CPD are far more important once you're already working for a few years.
The only exception to that is if you're doing an MBA. Provided it's from a proper prestigious recognisable Uni and not the me-too certificate selling mills. But in that case, you'll be self-driven and know exactly what you want already.
Yeah I already couple of years experience so I suppose masters wont help much in this case. Time to save money for that MBA! It is even more expensive than masters :o.
Look for opportunities to train on-the-job and advance to different roles within the organisation and/or do not be afraid to jump ship. It's still largely an employees market right now and a competitor would be willing to offer you more to exploit your knowledge and experience. Reach out to a few and test the waters.
MBAs not what they used to be, plenty of junk ones getting round to lure people to pay $$$ who think they’ll suddenly be on the succession pipeline for CEO
DO you want to stay in pharma admin or were you looking at branching out? You could look at OH&S, public health, R&D etc where a masters or grad dip would upskill you into those areas.
Isn’t MBA also a Masters degree? Masters of Business Administration right? Why would that cost more then any other Masters?
MBAs are a specific different class of Masters. They're more of a curated program to specifically prepare you for senior management roles rather than just being a theoretical degree certificate.
It involves a lot more around soft skills, networking, a couple months stint abroad with access to wider contacts and exclusive industry experience you do not get with regular Masters.
You need a specific mentality and preparedness to undertake this which is assessed prior to acceptance.
It used to be offered by only a very small elite of Business Universities (think: Harvard, London Business School, HEC Paris, Stanford etc). It has since been copied and capitalised by everyone else, but there's no point going to me-too institution to do one.
MBA’s are mostly shoulder rubbing/connection factories with a side of education.
If you’re not going to do it in person, at a prestigious uni I wouldn’t waste your cash.As someone in a similar position, I’m only looking at a masters for my own knowledge and because I never got an undergrad. The price is what scares me off.
I would say that is entirely field dependent- social work for example, having an MSW can bump you into higher paying and more complex case manager roles. Upskilling or side skilling with a Masters can open doors as well. OP is in pharmacy admin, taking a masters of public health could open them up to health planning, OH&S, inspection etc roles as well.
ive had 6 figures since like mid 20's without a uni degree.
i just manage peopleGone are the days you can get a handsome paying job without even a degree.
Information/Education became accessible through outside of universities. Paying high tuition fees in a high interest rate economy would mean your break even from the lower rate of pay rise would come later than everyone before you. Something to consider.
Masters degree in what? Do you have a UNI degree? If yes what type, undergrad or honours ? If honours was it 1 or 2:1 or 2:2?
I don't think so. Your attitude, capabilities, experience and social connections are more important in my opinion.
Really depends. My partner has no university qualifications and still out performs me and my 4 degrees.
I'd recommend:
Talk to leaders and mentors. Ask them their thoughts. Job ads are bs - they always ask for more in the hopes someone is dumb enough to give it.
Look at govt subsidised short courses. Do a grad cert for $1800, pay upfront, claim it on your tax.
Look at govt subsidised short courses. Do a grad cert for $1800, pay upfront, claim it on your tax.
Where about as in open university or such? (serious question)
Use https://postgradaustralia.com.au/ to search. Most universities have moved online in some form.
Check to see if what you're after has a CSP option or is on the job ready list. This keeps getting extended depending on the course.
Alternatively search 'short couses Australia grad cert' and virtually every aussie uni that is running the program will come up.
Legend!
Unless you are doing a technical degree then it will mostly teach you how to learn, change how you think. If you don't have an interest in that then you may not really get a lot of value out of it. Also don't really do just want interests you. Biology interested me a lot so I studied that, but I don't want to be a biologist, I don't want to work for the state either. I should have studied art or computer science instead. But never mind, there's more to life than just min/maxing your career and income.
I saw that masters are mostly full fee paying
There is master by research pathway, which is usually free.
Gone are the days you can get a handsome paying job without even a degree.
Most tradie jobs are still handsome paying and no degree is required?
Your ability to network and sell yourself is more important than an advanced degree.
Education does not equal competence and some employers are smart enough to realise this*.
Competence = competence.(*as long as you are educated enough to do the job)
No degree for me and earning 6 figures. I have 20+ years of work experience and it did take me a while to get to this level.
I've worked with lots of people with Masters (including a rocket scientist) that were going nowhere because they thought that was all they needed.
What is equally or more important is networking skills, interview skills, being able to get on with work mates, fitting in to the company culture,thinking for yourself and having a track record of completing tasks on time.
The other folk treading water is those that are waiting for the boss to tap them on the shoulder and invite them to apply for a promotion.
I've applied for (and got) so many well paid jobs that I was under-qualified or lacked experience in.
I have to concur. An advanced degree is not really something that unlocks better paying career paths. In the end it may be a prerequisite for a technical (or in some cases a consulting role e.g. with a MBA), but then its up to your ability to problem solve and work with people that gets you ahead.
I never understand the purpose of Master degree unless you are going for the academic route. I met a few Mastee degree people during my careers. Honestly, they cant seem work as agile as the same undergrads with 2-3 year experience. But most of them were international students and couldnt get a job in their field so they decided to study instead
What field are you in?