Info: Postgraduate Studies - Whatever For?

[henry_yew]

I think the matter of job opportunities and the ability to keep your job even after you have obtained your postgraduate degree should be analysed on a case-by-case basis.

First of all, nobody can guarantee that you will be able to resume your current job after you have obtained your postgraduate degree. The company may permit you to go on a study leave so that you could pursue your postgraduate studies and return to work with a new degree - presumably with new responsibilities as well. However, if you choose to resign from your job just to pursue postgraduate studies, then you do so at your own risk. It depends on whether you want the job, or you want the degree. Getting a study leave is a different thing altogether.

Next, regarding companies preferring to hire people with a Bachelor's degree but with work experience rather than a fresh postgraduate, it's really quite limited to the financial, banking, economic sectors and the like. There are opportunities for postgraduates in, say, the engineering field, and there are opportunities for fresh postgraduates (i.e. with little or no work experience). The requirements for each field differ and before you opt for postgraduate studies, you should analyse the opportunities and the demand well.

Then again, one should also think that postgraduate studies is another avenue to a wider range of opportunities. Postgraduate studies require a lot of motivation and hard work, not to mention the understanding of the advantages and challenges that may come in the future. If you want to just get a job that requires only a Bachelor's degree and you think that a postgraduate degree gives you no extra leverage, then you needn't go for a postgraduate degree at all. It's really up to the individual.

If you want to do postgraduate studies for the knowledge, OK, go for it. If you want to do postgraduate studies because you know you can make use of the advanced knowledge to carry out a great plan that necessitates the possession of a postgraduate degree, go ahead!

But if you want to go for postgraduate studies just to get that extra "MSc", "MBA", or "PhD" suffix in your business card, then don't. The added degrees don't just carry extra suffixes; they carry added responsibilities, too.

[Jagermeister]

Catch-22 situation for me here.
The only motivation for me to pursue my postgrad is to land me a job once I'm done, but with the economy of the US in its worst, same goes for UK, I'm having doubts. Despite being admitted to a good school, but that itself won't guarantee me a job there. Then if I come back here to Malaysia, I would have left the job market for 1 year.

So to play safe, my plan is to get a non-paid leave and pursue my postgrad. In the event if I don't land myself a job, I can come home and get my old job back.

The MBA game is always to move up the ladder, that's a given. MBA also provides a 360' career change. There was this figher pilot from India Airforce who went to INSEAD and now is a corporate banker in London.

For me, I've been in IT for a decade and for the last 2 years move on to Corporate Strategy Planning. So, my predicament apart from to go postgrad or not, if I do, do I go deeper in my field which means Msc, or do I go MBA. It's already December, I managed to postphone my enrollment to Summer & Fall 2012.

At this point, getting into a school or a good school for that matter is no longer a problem, its deciding whether to go ahead.

[henry_yew]

As I said, it's really something to consider on a case-by-case basis. The motivation to do postgraduate studies can be different for people pursuing different fields. Your motivation for your MBA is valid - you want to land into a better job. If you can get a leave to do your postgraduate studies and resume your job after that, that's not a too-bad deal.

There are other fields, however, that requires advanced knowledge (mainly for research or standardization purposes) that necessitate the applicant to possess a postgraduate degree above other things, e.g. work experience. As farfetched as it may sound, it's not something unusual in the engineering field, for example.

Hence the emphasis on "consideration on a case-by-case basis". We can't come up with a source of motivation and apply it as a blanket on all fields. For instance, I'm motivated to do postgraduate studies for the advanced knowledge and the advantage that it can give me in the industry, and also because I desire to go into the academia one day.