Most useful grad degrees or certificates in Seattle? (student loan, tech jobs)

[skidamarink]

Or are they useless? I know employers will always want experience over education, but I don't have that (not in the field I want to go into). I never had an internship. I am specifically asking about programs for the business field (which is very broad, I know). Possibly an MBA, but I keep hearing that MBAs are so useless today. I feel kinda stuck where I am right now and I don't want to be in this position for the next 5 years.

I have a BA in a very specific field of social sciences that is not very desirable by employers and I don't have an IT or medical background so something like Software Development or med school would obviously be off the table for me.

Do most of the colleges here have some kind of career advisors who will talk to non-students to figure out what programs would fit and get them jobs?

[Hemlock140]

Other than IT degrees (Advanced degrees) engineering is still big here. Boeing is talking about laying off some machinists, but they still need engineers. Business degrees are still useful, but without experience won't get you far. I recently hired someone that just came from another state for our lowest paying position at $24/hour and he had an MBA and 3 years related experience.

[tobester]

An advanced degree (MS, PhD) in any engineering discipline is a good guarantee of a job, but also requires you have a BS in engineering (or math or physics) to get into grad school

[Tallahatchie]

I've been wondering about graduate degrees in Seattle too. If I may ask on this thread, what do y'all think about advanced degrees in biology? I'm currently almost done with a BS in biology (evolutionary and ecology to be specific). I'm planning a move to seattle once I'm finished but I'm not sure if applying for jobs with a bachelors and then move or applying to grad school to pursue a Phd in conservation bio would be the better choice.

[Blondebaerde]

Paraphrasing Animal Farm: "All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others!"

MBAs from the Moo-U schools in Washington State have limited clout outside PacNW (WA, ID, OR). Name recognition thing, presumably. Big exception being Foster (UW) which is Top-40 based on several rankings (US News, Businessweek. Source: Wikipedia).

In fact a Foster MBA in the Seattle area is a competitive advantage in business and tech, for sure. Other industries, I don't know. Of equal or perhaps greater importance is networking with fellow students. Never underestimate the advantage there, which is life-long.

The Ivys, plus MIT, Stanford, U Mich, Duke, U VA, Northwestern, and several others are Top-20 or Top-10. That changes things in employer's eyes. National, and international recognition and world-class instruction, all the way along. Graduating an Ivy program, there is lifetime networking with alumni (worldwide), attachment to the institution which has probably stood for a hundred or hundreds of years (various alumni resources available, life-long).

You'll really have to dive into the subject carefully and make your own cost-benefit assessment, based on your particulars. Entering an MBA program with vague goals is a setup for failure, and the better programs won't even let you in without a pretty solid record of achievement and potential: most students enter with 3-5 years of business experience, last I checked.

I am a Johnson (Cornell) man and it paid off (and will continue to pay off) handsomely over the remainder of my career. Measurably, based on employer feedback (always great to collect). To do over again, I'd look very closely at Foster but I wasn't sure I was staying in Seattle area (never say never, but life is great here and no particular reason to leave).

Best of luck.

[TwoByFour]

You might have noticed that Seattle has a tremendously strong hi tech industry, both software and bio-tech. I have been in the software biz for 20 years and I can tell you good people are in very high demand. Experience trumps education, but a Comp Sci degree is worth a lot. What I see happening is that a BS in Comp Sci gets you in the door but a MS or even a PhD in Comp Sci is not going to add that much. But if you want to climb a corporate ladder the you will really benefit from an MBA. This is true not only in software but any engineering or hi-tech field.

If you really want to get an advanced degree in biology or another hard science, the jobs that will open up for you are going to be more on the research side of things rather than production. Those will be harder to come by unless you are a rock star in your field.

BTW - I have a PhD in physics and sort of went through what you are pondering. Never really ended up making use of my PhD except for a 5 year stint of academic research. Ended up jumping ship for the private sector and more $$.

[BellevueNative]

Here's my question: Why are you asking us what you want to do? Before you think about grad school, I recommend you apply for some internships in fields that interest you. Especially if you have any student loan debt following your undergrad career. There ARE good non-tech jobs in Seattle (I've got one of 'em), but I would imagine it is hard to get a job without an internship these days. If you're lucky enough to land a job after interning, I would advise you to hold off on grad school. Contrary to what young people are led to believe these days, you don't need a grad degree in most fields. But I guess it depends on what you want to do with your life, and only YOU can decide that.

[Rob702]

May I chime in here? What's it like for someone who as a PhD in the biomedical sciences? I know, there is UW, but I don't want to stay at a university.