Job Hunt Or Go For A Master’s Degree?

Getting a job or a Master’s Degree are both good things, each bringing into your life its own pros and cons. It then comes down to; what is it that you really want to do with your life? What are your goals in this life? Is it making lots of money? Is it impacting knowledge?

This has always been a difficult question for a fresh graduate who has just returned from the one-year compulsory National Youth Service Corps (NYSC).

Though when nearing completion he begins to remind his uncles and his aunties about their promises to receive his C.V and begin processing a job for him, but how often does that work out? It hardly works out.

So after NYSC should we proceed in the Job hunt or proceed in the award hunt?  Certain careers definitely require an advanced degree — doctors and lawyers are amongst a few which an advanced degree would build them up in their field, a Lawyer after spending four/five years in the University wants to go to Law school as he would certainly benefit from it.

For other areas, We need to have a clear understanding of what we want to do with our career,  and how earning a master’s degree will help us achieve our goal in life. If we are doubting our professional goals then I think we should consider not doing our master’s degree and instead place our focus on self assessment, skill  developing.

If we go for advanced study without clear understanding, or due to pressure from families and friends then we would probably end up wasting both time, money and resources.

Statistics has shown that graduates with advanced degrees are paid more than an average person with a bachelor’s degree, though it could be slightly higher. A colleague in the university once said that before she gets married she must have gotten her Ph.D.

I was shocked hearing that, because she was probably 26 years of age and she was very old facially already, this could be a serious problem for her when she is done with it. Yes she could be financially stable by then but the remaining areas of her life might not be.

When I graduated from the University, I got a job a month to me going for NYSC. The job paid me far better than NYSC could so I snubbed my service till the next batch and it was the one of the best decisions I ever took.

I served in a company which pays their staffs’ master’s degree tuition fee, they actually sponsor staffs master’s degree programme which would be part-time.

They would earn salaries and would do their masters degree pushing them, ahead of those who would just do masters degree first, so only get a Masters that has real world implications learn useful skills to apply, and not just spend a lot of money and time researching.