does having a specialized master's increase chances of getting a job?

Career Opportunities & Internships
1

<p>Pretty much what the title says. After a few days, I'll technically have only 1 year of school left. But I ultimately chose to stay an extra year of school to complete a Specialized Master's in business (Not an MBA). The reason is that I don't have an internship this summer (Even though I'm supposed to; my peers are all laughing at me and I don't know what the hell is up but companies act like they'd rather go bankrupt than accept me as an intern. For the record, I'm extremely passionate about learning through work experience with very hardworking attitude and many of the school faculty are willing to back me up on this).</p>

<p>Anyways, I just want to know if this is a good choice. I can't just start job searching next year because there's no way in hell anyone can get a job today without internship experience. I wanted to pursue a Master's to become more specialized in a particular area and also give myself another chance for an internship. But even with that, would I have better chances, or is this just going to lead to a dead-end?</p>

<p>I'm getting a Master's in Supply Chain Management and my school is ranked #4 in the world (not just country) with a 100% job placement rate. This is growing job field, according to several of our professors and other faculty, where companies are demanding more people to specialize in this area. Though they anticipate this job market is going to become saturated in about 5 years so we should all take this opportunity before it's gone.</p>

2

<p>The more “specialized” you become, the narrower your options typically become. Since I work in HR, I’ll use that as an example… I could specialize in recruiting, benefits, compensation, or any number of subcategories within HR. But then I am essentially limiting my qualifications to those areas. I could certainly cross over into something else, but it can be difficult and often requires successful networking. But if I practice as an HR generalist (e.g., HR coordinator or manager, doing a bit of everything), I can easily look at all these jobs and have qualifications for each of them.</p>

<p>I can’t offer advice as to why you’re not receiving internship offers. It could be lack of relevant skills or training on your resume, or it could be your interview style. Sometimes it’s just luck, or a matter of who you know, as depressing as that sounds. </p>

<p>However, if your program is that good, it could be a good option for you. But don’t expect your school and its reputation to do the work for you - you need to network and build your resume. You need to focus on your goals and create a plan of attack for entering the workforce. I would still keep trying for internships - even with an in-demand degree, you are competing with others who have some (or a lot) of experience in the field.</p>

3

<p>A person thrown in water has no other option than to keep afloat. So is the analogy for getting an internship. </p>

<p>Learn from others what is working for them. Also note what is holding you back & how you plan on overcoming them. It is essential that you write down your own action plan. Use the methodology of SWOT analysis for self assessment (Strengths. Weakness, Opportunities, Threats). Be honest & realistic; be aware of your strengths & weaknesses. Focus on your strengths to eclipse some of your weaknesses. Work with your college career counselors. Practice your interview style, and focus on the value & skills you bring to any organization. You have to believe in yourself first in order for others to refer you. Tap into all of your contacts: friends, family, colleagues, acquaintances, professors, career center etc. Request them to look out for suitable opportunities. Provide them with your resume. Keep them appraised of your situation; don’t let “out of sight, out of mind” hinder your job search. </p>

<p>After exhausting all your options in finding paid internship, sometimes it is better to do free apprenticeship in order to gain marketable skills. Since your school has 100% placement in supply chain management, try leveraging your college placement center in getting an unpaid trainee position. You will not only gain valuable insider information, but (will) develop the means to make the effective transition from being a college student to becoming a productive member of the workplace. More importantly, you will be able to answer the question whether you should pursue a masters degree in supply chain management. </p>

<p>While having a college diploma is mostly necessary in getting a job after graduation, as you already know, nowadays it is not sufficient. </p>

<p>Good luck.</p>

4

<p>I second the notion that the more “specialized” you become the more narrow your opportunities become. A specialized degree typically shows employers that you can do only those skills that are encompassed by that specialization and not much more. Furthermore, it may also show employers that, because you spent the time and effort to obtain that specialization, that you really only want to do that specialization, whether in truth you do or not.</p>

<p>If Supply Chain Management is what you really want to do, and you school has that stellar placement rate, then definitely use them as a resource. Talk to professors about it; maybe they can provide a way to market your skills specific to that industry (i.e. highlighting certain skills/qualities over other skills that are more pertinent to that field). And look into the school’s employment center (the place that typically assists current students and recent alumni in resume writing, interviewing and job searches).</p>

<p>My general emplyment advice: There is a shortage of high skills workers for a myriad of industries. Having the right skills is what gets those jobs. Unfortunately, those skills/qualifications often say the ideal applicant already has 10+ years experience - here’s the crux: most entry level jobs are going away (dissappearing altogether or being offshored, but most are just going away for good).</p>

<p>This is where your internship search comes in. 1-2 years of general experience is better than no experience. Network, always be talking to people about it (including your classmates - even if they can’t put in a good word for you now, they may be able to do so later in your careers), and really seach the type of skills that the industry (or specific position) requires. This might help you narrow your internship search so you are more focused in which ones to apply to, which may yield better results. Again, definitely use the school’s career center for ways to highlight those needed/preferred skills (even for the internships, which hopefully don’t have the “10+ years exp preferred” line) in resumes and interviews. Stay informed on the industry; this is easy when you’re in school because you’re talking about it all the time and generally paying good attention anyway, but also throw in some of your own light research/reading of at least the local industry climate (specific local companies, local things involving the industry like new business laws etc).</p>

<p>A friend of mine received a specialized master’s in a psychology discipline two years ago. It took her about 6 months to find a job, and it wasn’t her ideal one, but pretty much the only decent one at the time. She’s already making plans to put in some time (to get that experience!) and then move on to bigger and better. Keep in mind that you may need to do this as well. Even if the internship isn’t exactly what you’re looking for, as long as you see it provides you the opportunity to get the hands-on experience in some of those key skills needed for your intended industry, then you may consider putting the time in and then moving on when appropriate. Same with paid jobs. I’m not saying to settle for something, but if it’s been an uncomfortable amount of time during your search, then you should take something like my friend did. Unemployment is higher for those who have remained unemployed for longer because often these long-term unemployed do not take the time to keep their skills up-to-date with the industry they are trying to get (back) into. Though, again, with your school’s stated employment placement, this should be no problem.</p>

5

<p>We have an intern right now who is majoring in supply chain management. They are in our resource planning area. That might be an area to broaden your internship search.</p>

<p>Also, it’s probably only a few extra classes to get the MBA as well. Might be worth it to take them.</p>

<p>Good luck.</p>

6

<p>It sounds like you all think getting a Master’s is a bad idea because I’m limiting my employment options. But know that I would also graduate with a BSBA (a general degree) from my school as well. Essentially, I’m enrolled as a BS/MS. </p>

<p>I know I may be making the wrong move, but I accepted this program because I wanted give myself a second chance at an internship. Most people intern first before deciding whether getting a Master’s is suitable, but companies refuse to give me that opportunity. </p>

<p>An internship isn’t just experience, it’s a right to education and to live. And companies not giving me that offer is the same as telling me to go f*** myself.</p>

7

<p>I haven’t read the other posts, but let me make an analogy:</p>

<p>Getting a bachelor’s degree teaches you the fundamental basics of your industry. With that, you can easily dive into any field, but getting the job itself is the hardest. It’s almost like going into battle blindfolded with a machine gun.</p>

<p>Getting a specialized masters lets you easily get a particular job, however, there’s not as many of those job available to begin with. That’s like being a sniper who goes out every once in awhile for that one shot, one kill mission.</p>

<p>So who do you want to be? A blindfolded machine gun guy on the front lines, or a seasonal sniper who always completes the mission?</p>

8

<p>There has been good advice in this thread. </p>

<p>Some of my friends went down your path of getting a master’s degree in order to make themselves more marketable. In many cases, they found themselves struggling because a master’s degree without any experience is scary for potential employers - you should command a higher salary, but without experience to back it up, how do they know? Several of my friends were searching for upwards of six months after getting their master’s degrees.</p>

<p>If I were you, I would plan to do the master’s degree BUT don’t think of it like it is your only option. I never had a single internship in college, but I got myself a pretty decent job after. Things you should consider doing:

  • Have career services destroy your resume and help you rewrite it.
  • Work on your interview skills
  • Apply to companies starting the day you get back to school in the fall of this year. Seriously. There are a LOT of tremendous jobs out there - you get recruited in the fall, accept your offer around Thanksgiving, start in June/July/August of the following year.</p>

<p>If you get a job worth taking, then talk to your school about deferring matriculation into the master’s program (or taking leave) for a year or two. Work for a decent period of time, THEN go back and get your master’s… if you do that (I understand that this is a very difficult proposition), you will be in an excellent position.</p>

9

<p>Also, the point that you can’t get a job without an internship isn’t true at all. Plenty of people don’t get internships.</p>

<p>How about just look for a regular job?</p>

10

<p>But that’s the problem. Education doesn’t replace work experience. Companies won’t hire me without experience, but at the same time, if they never give me a job, where am I even going to get work experience? I need to start someplace.</p>

<p>And again, I’m not graduating from undergrad and then going to a Master’s. I’m dual-enrolling as a BS/MS. </p>

<p>I’m actually not sure about deferring matriculation for work experience, but if I can get a decent internship I’ll take it.</p>

<p>And fendergirl, how do you expect me to get a regular job right now when I’m still in school and never had any work experience?</p>

11

<p>I really don’t understand your responses and no one has answered my initial question. In fact, you all just made it more confusing.</p>

<p>I will graduate with a BSBA too, and that’s a general business degree with almost half of our requirements being liberal arts classes. But I’m choosing the MS/SCM program because I want to become more specialized; I will still be familiar with finance, marketing, accounting, etc. Simply put, if you threw me in any company at any job, I should be able to hold my own. But of course that’s not how it works; I’m the one choosing the job, so I need to decide what I like. In the end, I wouldn’t be working multiple jobs; I’d be working at just one.</p>

<p>Why does it seem that I can make only one choice? Does it have to be either general or narrow? Why can’t I have both?</p>

<p>Also think about it: no one can be studying something general forever. At the end of the day, you all need to choose to specialize in one area. Being general would ultimately mean you’re indecisive and wouldn’t excel in any particular area.</p>

12

<p>You seem to have the wrong idea about how business works in the present economy. Unless you are among the top 1% of college students across the country and/or you happened to study a subject that lends itself to jobs with high employer demand and low employee supply, you don’t get to say where you want to work and make it magically happen.</p>

<p>You are correct that you are choosing one job, but that doesn’t mean you should only be applying to one type of job. What people mean when they say you should be careful about getting too specialized too soon is, while eventually you WILL become skilled in more specific things, at your age now, you shouldn’t be doing that. I am a discovery specialist at a multinational consulting company - I focus on improving clients’ business process - but the relevant skills that I have I learned on the job, not in the classroom.</p>

<p>Nobody is trying to tell you that you should never develop specialized skills, but we are trying to say that the specific program you are talking about may not be the best choice for you in particular.</p>

<p>From the sounds of your posts, you just wanted people to agree that having a master’s will help you get a job. And the general consensus is that it will not.</p>

<p>Oh, and I wanted to point something out…</p>

<p>

</p>

<p>The above statement is false.</p>

<p>Let’s take a step back. Have you had any work experience of any kind? And that can include working at the campus bookstore or at a McDonald’s or a summer camp.</p>

13

<p>Fallenone, </p>

<p>I’ve been working regular jobs since I was 14. So by the time I graduated with my BS I had eight years experience… Without a degree. Obviously most people don’t start working at 14 but just giving an example.</p>

<p>That includes everything from stocking food on shelves to being a manager. I was a manager at two places by age 21. (one was an internship, the other was not).</p>

<p>I think getting a masters degree is a great idea. That being said , I’d find a job with my bachelors and then get the company to pay for the masters. That’s what I’m doing now. However getting the degree first to help you land the job could work as well… My question was: Is it really that many extra classes too dual masters in MBA and Supply chain management? </p>

<p>But if I was doing hiring and I had Ieone with a masters and no work experience vs someone with a bachelors who had work experience, I’d more then likely go with the bachelors… Unless the masters person made an extremely good case for him or herself. Having hands on experience tops anything school can teach you (un less of course your school gives hands on experience as part of the program… Which would help make a good case in my above hiring scenario).</p>

14

<p>Let’s clear up some things:</p>

<p>I cannot also get an MBA because that’s an entirely separate program to apply for. And you NEED work experience to be enrolled as an MBA (This is beyond all reasonable doubt)</p>

<p>Yes the MS/SCM program at my school includes experience. Part of the curriculum is a practicum project where we do a project alongside companies in the surrounding area (That sounds just like an internship). This project is typically done during the school year.</p>

<p>I applied for the MS/SCM program for these reasons:</p>

<ol>
<li><p>I couldn’t land an internship this summer so I need to give myself another chance. If I’m going to stay for more than 4 years, why not get a Master’s? Tuition for it is cheaper than a semester as an undergrad</p></li>
<li><p>Supply Chain Management is different from other areas of business in that it requires more knowledge; basically, how much you know matters more. This is different from, say, investment banking, where as an entry level role, you don’t need to know finance at all.</p></li>
</ol>

<p>Here’s how my professor put it: Supply Chain Management is a job where there’s high demand and low supply of EFFECTIVE WORKERS. Look up “Supply Chain Management” on wikipedia and it clearly states “Organizations increasingly find that they must rely on effective supply chains, or networks, to compete in the global market and networked economy.” My professor also stated people working in these jobs now don’t really understand supply chain management; they’re commonly people who studied economics or engineering. While SCM does seem very engineering-like, it’s still not the same, which is why he said companies are demanding people who studied specifically SCM and not some vaguely similar concept.</p>

<p>Ex. He mentioned Microsoft used to have 2 tracks to climb to corporate hierarchy, business or technical. Basically, climbing the corporate ladder means working in the administrative side or the technical side. Now they offer an operations track, which has fewer levels of position, making it much easier to climb to the top. </p>

<p>He also stated many CEOs today actually have SCM background.</p>

<p>Are these good reasons to pursue a Master’s or should I just give up? Better question is whether my professor is telling the truth or lying (or exaggerating)?</p>

15

<p>Also chrisw, I’ve had plenty of work experience, even in high school. Back then, I was more science-focused so my summer jobs included working at the National Institutes of Health and in R&D at a biotechnology company. I’ve now decided to put that on my resume, but I don’t know if it’s going to be any help.</p>

16

<p>TheFallenOne, I sent you a pm, although I’m not sure it went through.</p>

17

<p>I am all for masters degrees so if its something you love I’d say go for it. I don’t need to wiki it to know what it is.</p>

<p>Definitely list that work experience.places want to see the fact that you had a position in the past that you showed up for, learned team work, etc. even if its not relevant.</p>

18

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</p>

<p>Okay, so I know a few people in supply chain oriented stuff, and my understanding is that the entire industry is moving toward a smaller, more efficient model that utilizes technology to automate much of the process. With that in mind, it seems like your professor is correct but exaggerating a decent bit.</p>

<p>Here is the biggest question: is supply chain what you 100% want to do? If so, then it might be worthwhile to get the master’s degree since it seems so easy to do it. If not, then you need to consider what you are sacrificing to get this degree that will really not help you all that much (remember, beyond what you pay in tuition, you are also losing income from work).</p>

<p>It seems like you have been talking to people who tell you that internships are the only things worth putting on your resume. These people are misinformed. You say you have tons of work experience… that should be front and center on your resume. Do you have experience working with clubs on campus? If so, put on what you’ve done! An internship is just one way of gaining experience, but it is certainly not the only way.</p>

<p>I stand by what I said before, but I will modify it based on what you’ve said… next year, come back to school in the fall with the intent of getting a job. Do career fairs, have people tear up your resume (I am not involved in the kind of business you are interested in, but I know a good resume when I see one, so I can review it for you if you’d like), get interview prep from career services. Apply throughout the fall recruiting process and see what happens. If you start getting serious with a company, it may be worthwhile to talk about your education situation. If you tell them about how you are interested in continuing your education insofar as it can help you to add value, you may stand out a little bit… </p>

<p>This isn’t necessarily an either/or issue. It is POSSIBLE for you to secure a job and take a year off of school, then go back armed with your year of experience to make yourself a more attractive candidate when you come out of school (you could also work it out so that the company you work for takes you back with higher pay after you get your master’s). It is also possible for you to secure a job with a start date deferred until after you graduate. It is also possible for you to say forget the degree and just go for the job, and of course it is also possible for you to say forget the job and go for the degree, worrying about the job later. All four of these options are legitimate as long as you understand how to balance your wants and needs with the wants and needs of the companies you apply to.</p>

19

<p>My reason for liking SCM is that I got A+ in both the general introductory SCM courses and found them to be interesting enough that I picture everything well within my mind. But would you think that’s a legitimate reason? Other people I know decided to pursue MS/SCM because they did an internship first. But the problem is that companies aren’t letting me do that and it is DESTROYING my life…</p>

<p>The thing about SCM is that it is inherently more diverse than other areas of business. The MS/SCM curriculum at my school included Marketing, Finance, and HR courses. Ultimately, an SCM role at a company should know much more than just SCM, and it should allow the employee to be well-rounded and capable of understanding what else is going on throughout the firm. Again, my professor stated many CEOs today came from SCM backgrounds.</p>

<p>I could send you my resume but I’ll have to first figure out how to block out the personal information.</p>

20

<p>The trend is that you keep blaming other companies for “not letting” you get experience through internships. If you don’t have the resume, cover letter, personality, and qualifying skills now, what do you expect a masters degree to do for you? Why will that extra year or two make you more employable? Other than giving you more time to seek internships, do you have a plan of attack to improve your interviewing and relevant job skills to get you an internship? Because keeping yourself in school even longer without gaining truly employable skills isn’t going to do you any good. </p>

<p>Doing it because you were good in the classroom doesn’t mean you’ll get a job just because you keep landing A grades. Your second reason - that it is a diverse program - is a much better reason, but without a plan to improve your brand and market yourself to employers, extra courses aren’t going to magically give you the result (internships, jobs) that you are seeking.</p>