At what amount of salary increase does a Master's become worth its investment? (apply, interviews)
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A Bachelors wasn't even worth it for me. So why go in further in debt with a Masters with no guarantee of a better job or more money?
I agree, unless you have something lined up already, it is too risky, unless you just want to get educated for the purpose of getting educated and you have the money to pay for it.
I know lots of people who got MBAs and it didn't pay off at all for them.
A Bachelors wasn't even worth it for me. So why go in further in debt with a Masters with no guarantee of a better job or more money?
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Originally Posted by High Altitude
I agree, unless you have something lined up already, it is too risky, unless you just want to get educated for the purpose of getting educated and you have the money to pay for it.
I know lots of people who got MBAs and it didn't pay off at all for them.
Yes the cost is scary to me. But I don't want to get pigeon-holed into my current job either. Ideally I wouldn't have to drop tens of thousands for a Master's degree, and instead transfer into the department where this work is going on. But it seems like I cannot do that without a Master's due to the nature of the field.
It's been almost one year exactly since graduating. I got hired right out the gate. To pay for the Master's and work my way up to save will take time, might as well start looking now.
I'm just trying to be realistic, again. I'm not as well-connected. Public Health is mostly in the south (specifically Atlanta) and it's somewhere I don't live, I have to figure out the cost to move and everything it would be very difficult. I'm a single income earner, so I don't have a partner to assist me in housing costs or anything like that. I need to know my options outside of Atlanta.
This is the most field-applicable advice I've seen in the thread so far! Thank you.
I work in environmental health currently, though I'm not sure I want to pursue this field further and specialize in safety. I did a concentration in my Bachelor's of Public Health in EHS and while I was good at it compared to my peers and it was interesting, I don't think I could do it every day. Industrial hygiene pays very well, but it's not for me. It's also a shrinking field last time I checked.
It seems the MPH is inevitable. Especially if I want to get out of my current job, which I will want to eventually. I personally think Epidemiology is a better lineup with my interests and what I want to achieve in my career. I'm fairly good with data analysis, but not good enough for biostatistics. I'm fairly good with the topics of occupational safety, but have very little interest in it. Environmental health I enjoy, but I don't have much options to pursue further without going into safety. I did an internship in community health and didn't enjoy the work, I'm not that social and prefer a bit more analytical roles. My last internship in public health-specific emergency management made me realize it was a lot more administrative duties and less of actual outbreak investigation like I thought it would be.
I know that I want to be in this field. But right now I'm in the wrong specialization and I want to switch. It's just a matter of "how".
I explored the public health, emergency management, and safety fields. I was trying to break into the behavioral health or safety sub-fields because of my background. Most of the positions I see open are research-oriented and focused on epidemiology. They want graduate-level skills in statistics. I have a friend who is struggling to get a public health job because she only has a bachelor's degree. She did complete an internship, but she's still not competitive. So, she's gone into occupational safety.
I don't know why people are talking about MBAs. The MBA is an applied degree that is designed for people looking to move up to executive and management positions. Public health is a research-based, scientifically-oriented field. Most science-based fields require a graduate degree to really go anywhere. It's nothing like earning an MBA.
If you want to become an epidemiologist, a master's is almost required. Almost all the job ads I've seen ask for a master's degree. Even BLS says that a master's is the typical entry-level degree.
The best comparison I think people can understand is nursing. You can become a nurse with just an associate's degree, but your job options will be limited, and it will be nearly impossible for you to move up. You need at least a BSN to be competitive. In science, the standards are higher.
Yes the cost is scary to me. But I don't want to get pigeon-holed into my current job either. Ideally I wouldn't have to drop tens of thousands for a Master's degree, and instead transfer into the department where this work is going on. But it seems like I cannot do that without a Master's due to the nature of the field.
You will probably be pigeon-holed no matter what. Its just the way these horrible employers operate today. Especially if you have value at what you do. They will keep you in the same position forever. Generally whatever the company hired you on today, thats PROBABLY where you will remain until either:
1. Layoffs
2. Company goes belly up
3. You quit.
For whatever reason on the employer's side of things, people are INCAPABLE of learning something new beyond grade school/college
For instance, the last 2 companies I worked at, I was far away the most knowledgeable, with annual raving reviews about my work. If there was an issue, I would be called upon to fix it. I was the ONLY employee there with a 4 year college degree as well outside of the director's position
Well 5 years later at current company... Here I am.. Still doing the same thing. Enjoying continued gross unemployment I can attest to the fact, that education in many cases, not all, is truly USELESS. Sure I can go get 10's thousands $ more in debt, just to remain in the same position and owe more money back to a financial institution. Doesn't sound like a winning deal to me.
If you want to invest time into something. My advice would be more networking with powerful people. Don't waste more money on education. After your 4 year degree, the rest is pretty much useless outside of certain disciplines.
If you dont have powerful connections these days, you'll never go anywhere. Skills/Knowledge/continued education mean NOTHING today. I have a decade in the workforce to prove it
It's been almost one year exactly since graduating. I got hired right out the gate. To pay for the Master's and work my way up to save will take time, might as well start looking now.
I say give yourself another year or two in the job force before jumping back into education. Usually that experience is helpful in propelling your studies, imho.
Yes the cost is scary to me. But I don't want to get pigeon-holed into my current job either. Ideally I wouldn't have to drop tens of thousands for a Master's degree, and instead transfer into the department where this work is going on. But it seems like I cannot do that without a Master's due to the nature of the field.
Let them starve for talent. I'm so glad I didn't go into Biomed for example. I have friends from HS in that field that also went to good colleges, the same student loan debt and half the pay.
55k entry level for MPH does not seem worth it. You'll spend half of your career trying to get to peak salary. Transfer to a similar field where you can make more quicker without the advanced degree. And whatever you do - Do not go to school full time and don't pay out of pocket. Take as long as you need and bill it to the tuition assistance employer funded program.
Worst case scenario you don't get the promotion promised but at least you're $0 out of pocket and no gap in the resume.
I say give yourself another year or two in the job force before jumping back into education. Usually that experience is helpful in propelling your studies, imho.
I would need that time to save up anyway. I put all my money into paying off my student loans when I graduated and started paying rent immediately once I got hired on top of all my other bills so I'm trying to develop safety nets amongst other things. Graduate classes can easily be a couple grand each, since they usually charge a few hundred per credit hour and classes will be 3 credit hours. Tuition reimbursement will cover a class or two a year, assuming I get it. Depending on the program, I may have to do an out-of-state online program, so it could be over 1k per credit hour. The public health programs in my state are mostly in Tucson, U of A being the only accredited program, though they have developed some online and some in-person programs in Phoenix, they are mostly focused on healthcare administration and not necessarily the direction I'm interested in.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Tencent
Let them starve for talent. I'm so glad I didn't go into Biomed for example. I have friends from HS in that field that also went to good colleges, the same student loan debt and half the pay.
55k entry level for MPH does not seem worth it. You'll spend half of your career trying to get to peak salary. Transfer to a similar field where you can make more quicker without the advanced degree. And whatever you do - Do not go to school full time and don't pay out of pocket. Take as long as you need and bill it to the tuition assistance employer funded program.
Worst case scenario you don't get the promotion promised but at least you're $0 out of pocket and no gap in the resume.
Mind you I live in Arizona which isn't all that high paying to begin with. It can go 70k+ in other areas of the country. I just used the same employer to eliminate all possible external variables that can influence pay (COL, benefits, etc.). There are jurisdictions that pay worse and some that pay better. Most pay better, based on what I'm seeing. But then you factor in higher COL metros, etc.
There's a chance I can transfer to occupational safety without advanced degrees and achieve a similar level of pay, and going to the private sector. The advanced degree in occupational safety is industrial hygiene, and that's known to be well paying. But there is Bachelor's-level work in occupational safety that is similar to what I do, and I could probably qualify for a junior position with related work experience (my job is similar and I have the right degree). But that's a big risk, especially since industrial jobs seem to be shrinking, unless something has changed that I haven't heard of.
Give yourself some time to breathe and figure things out. Strategize, plan and execute. You have your whole life ahead of you.
If this is what you want, I say go forward but do not allow yourself to get in so much debt that you cannot enjoy the fruits of your labor. Graduate school is not going anywhere.
I plan to get my Master's and I do not expect a return. It is a bucket list item. I do not have any choice. Hopefully, I will start 1/20.
It's amazing to see old threads come back to me. I have luckily earned a good raise since last time I posted in this thread, but I know I don't want to be where I currently am for too long. The truth is I really don't know what I want to do, and it bugs me seeing this thread and still being in this predicament. I have so many choices. After some evaluation of my skills and interests I don't think I'd be a good epidemiologist and I have since crossed that out. But I don't know where to go next. I know that I want to move up in job responsibilities and pay and I'm not sure where to go and how to get it. There's next to no job advancement in my employer. Especially now that I have transferred into a different division.
I am almost at two years with my current employer. Since starting this job and my current salary, I have increased by over 10k. If my wage increases keep coming like this, then it would be stupid to leave. It's a shame because interesting jobs in my area appear to pay about equal. But I would study for my Master's while still working here, but also I don't want to get a Master's and stay doing this same job either. But there's a recession coming so who knows, last recession my coworkers did not see raises for over 11 years, that could come about again and I'd rather not be stuck in that situation.
I always look on Indeed and LinkedIn to see if any jobs spark my interest and pay decently, so that maybe I can target myself for it (like I did with my current job, and I was successful at that) and then I will see positions but I don't know too much about the day to day. All I know is that I don't want to be a regulator anymore. I currently work in water quality and I enjoy that much more than my old position from when I made this thread.
Master's degree is definitely on my list, regardless of where I end up. It's just a matter of what subject.
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