What Master's degree will give you a desirable skill-set for jobs?

[fleetiebelle]

Originally Posted by gizmo980

You're speaking in anecdotes and studies - I'm speaking from 10+ years of experience on the job, and two prior generations (in my family) of librarians. As I said, you might not get RICH in this field, but most MLIS holders can get nice, steady employment FOR LIFE. I found a job (actually two offers) immediately out of grad school, and even with job hopping for the first 5ish years, have never been without work for long. Maybe your friends have other issues holding them back, because everyone I know with the MLIS is gainfully employed. And the thing is, even if it takes a while to find that first job, you're pretty set once you do. It's not like business or law, where you can be fired or have a company fold at any moment. Oh, and I make over $80K full time, but that's also adjusted for Bay Area COL.

Anyway, it was just a suggestion! If the OP is looking for a job that they'll ENJOY, is fulfilling, and has a good chance of long-term/stable employment, I still wholeheartedly recommend the MLIS.

Maybe it's different in the BAy Area, but I've worked in an academic library for 15 years. Perhaps the job market isn't as dire as it was five or six years ago, but I still know many, many people with MLIS degrees (and the loans that go with them) who are working a series of temporary jobs or who have to get part time jobs or who have left the field altogether. I live in a town with a university that grinds out new librarians every year, and there just aren't enough FT positions to employ them all.

As for the OP, I don't think he's come back to say exactly what kind of work he'd like to be doing. As he's found out, a university isn't a trade school, where you necessarily come out with exactly the skill set you need to do a specific kind of job. I don't know that an advanced degree is going to help him as much as networking and targeting his current job search to the kind of work he wants to do.

[grad_student200]

Originally Posted by York40

My Bachelor's degree didn't give me any real skill-set for jobs. What Master's degree would?

I currently have a BBA and it's not very helpful.

I would recommend business intelligence and data mining. This field overlaps with marketing, eCommerce, online business transactions, web-based programming, database skills, technical writing, and general business applications to that field. The demand is high and skills can get put to use right away. The field is called "data science", "business intelligence", "data warehousing", etc.

It's not easy though. Database programming requires discrete math and SQL. Some projects also require SAS, Amazon AWS, Java Microservices, Cloud Computing, Java REST, etc.

But you don't have to learn everything. I would recommend checking it out to see if your business math skills can handle it. But the demand is very, very high.

The 10 Best Online Masters in Business Intelligence Programs of 2017

Jobs:

Business Systems Analyst
Data Warehousing
eCommercie
Testing
Project Management
Customer Relations - IT Department and eCommerce
Data Mining
"Big Data"
Requirements Analyst

Check "dice.com" or "indeed.com" and type in the terms above. Start with "business intelligence".

[Vasily]

Originally Posted by grad_student200

It's not easy though. Database programming requires discrete math and SQL. Some projects also require SAS, Amazon AWS, Java Microservices, Cloud Computing, Java REST, etc.

I have a Master's in computer science, and I would say logical and analytical thinking are more important in doing something like database design than mathematics skills. In most programming fields, it's nothing like the math needed to do something like physics - no differential equations or calculus or more esoteric maths.

The exceptions are highly specialized areas like: analytical trading; advanced computer graphics; developing algorithms to model things like probabilistic behaviors. But very few jobs out there call for those kind of specialized skills.

[Sigequinox]

Originally Posted by tnff

You're going the wrong path. A Master's doesn't give skill sets. You should have those already. A Master's provides greater knowledge or expands on what you already have.


So instead of asking a blanket statement and not trying to find anything specific, you need to do the exact opposite -- figure out something specific you want to do and then study that. Which may mean a different Bachelors or trade school or something else.


You have a BBA -- what part of business do you like: finance, accounting, marketing, sales, secretarial? Let's just say it's accounting. Rather than look for a general Masters, you need to get training and certifications in accounting. Master's will come later as you move up.


If you don't like business, then what? Teaching? Engineering? House painting? Figure out what you want to do and then ask what degree/training gets you there.

Spot on.

OP, it is in your best interest to find yourself before embarking on another 40k+ educational path with no direction. Not only will you take on more debt, you will likely exclude yourself from the job market until you graduate. As a hiring manager, I would be very skeptical and/or weary depending on the rest of your resume. If you dropped out I would question long term commitment in absence of employment history to demonstrate otherwise. If you were in school, I wouldn’t risk hiring a person who may not be able to handle work/grad school combo (I went this route and know how much sacrifice is involved). The best place for you to be is excelling at an entry level job in your field. This will get you the credibility, network, professional maturity and industry experience needed for better jobs or better grad school programs in the future.

They say when the zombie apocalypse comes you only need to run faster than the slowest among your group to survive....well, in the labor force, you need to work harder than the hardest working person competing against you to survive. That makes kicking butt in a sluggish economy is...well, more effort than surviving zombie hordes in all seriousness, distract yourself with jobs, not more schooling

[JenniferNYC]

Originally Posted by York40

My Bachelor's degree didn't give me any real skill-set for jobs. What Master's degree would?

I currently have a BBA and it's not very helpful.

To be honest, now finding jobs with just a bachelor degree is a horrendous task. Not going for Masters after graduation can no longer be considered as an option, it is more of an obligation now. Also, you might have heard people saying that degrees are useless, this and that. But the truth is if you really want a good job by yourself (and, not the one your relative offered) you need to have the degree as a ticket to enter the job world.

The professional skill-set you are seeking can be only gained through practicing and applying what you have learned to get the degrees. The masters will widen your knowledge but practical experience and skill-set come with practice.

Also, I have observed a trend towards certifications, Entry to Mid-level professionals now get certifications from international councils to increase the number and the quality of opportunities they get. These certifications are globally accepted validation of the professional's skills and knowledge with respect to their area of expertise. For employers, the certification acts as an advanced level professional qualification, therefore, I would first recommend you to understand your area of interest get a Master's degree related to that and after getting some experience (1 to 1.5 years) you boost your career with entry-level certifications under your practice area.

[goodlife36]

Nurse, OT, PT... Everything else is really a gamble. Monitor your debt.