How to Choose the Right Master's Degree to Further Your Career

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Investing in further education can be complicated. If your dream career is to work within academia, it's an easy answer. If you want to work in a regulated field, then it's a no-brainer. However, if you want to work anywhere else, there is a fine line between further education being valuable and a waste of effort. 

The short answer to whether or not a master's degree or higher is worthwhile for your career is it depends. A career-focused degree can give you the knowledge, skillset, and expertise necessary to spearhead your career ambitions and to blow the competition out of the water. In addition, it can give you the credentials to be heard and give you the options to direct your career in whichever direction you see fit. 

In other instances, it will not be worth more than work experience. 

Essentially, to get what you want out of a degree, you need to know your goals, what you want, and most importantly, what degree will help you prepare best for the working world. 

Some degrees are suited for academics. Others that are suited to help you reach the next stage of your career. To choose the latter type, use this guide: 

Know What Tasks You Want to Do in Your Dream Role 

While it's great to have a dream job, you need to know the specifics to find a degree that will help you achieve it. For example, if you want to work in policy, then the information and education you will need will differ if you want to become an executive-level manager. 

Job roles that require you to have a level of authority over a certain topic are almost always helped with the right degree. For example, if you want to work in education and dream of improving accessibility tools to learn at your own pace, you need to have the right credentials. In the case of policymakers, work experience alone is not enough. You need to have the theoretical understanding to back up your claims and to inform your suggestions. 

Knowing what is expected of you in the role you want to work in can help you choose the right degree. After all, there are many, many options for each subject. Try to find a degree that covers topics that you need to be covered and even touches on new subjects that you did not consider, but it would undoubtedly become a boon for your career. 

This method should give you a checklist of what to look for from your options. Once you have this checklist, you will then want to make sure that the degree in question is suitable. 

What to Look for From Your Degree

Your degree should cover the topics you want to focus on in your career, and it should also include:  

A Diverse Faculty 

You are here to further your career in the private and public sectors, which means you need faculty from more than just an academic background. For example, a Master's in education aims to teach its students informed teaching methodologies and how to shape the future of education. In addition, graduates can work in so many different fields, from schools to museums to curriculum development to education policy. With such a wide range of fields, you can go into, and it only makes sense that the faculty themselves should come from a diverse range of backgrounds. 

This applies to all career-advancing degrees. If there are members of faculty that have worked in your dream job before moving on to teach, then you can get the insight and information that you need to follow in their footsteps. 

100% Online Education 

It is entirely possible to pursue a 100% distance master degree UK and continue your work out in the field. Rather than your degree taking a year, however, it will take two. This small trade-off means you can continue to make leaps and gains and start to use the connections in your career department to make significant leaps forward for your career all at the same time. 

It certainly isn't easy, but with the right routine and with an emphasis on maintaining good health, you can absolutely juggle both endeavors and see massive gains for your career. 

Strong Careers Department 

Every university has a careers department, but you need to investigate and even get in touch before you enroll to see if they have connections in the field or even with the businesses that you want to work for. Again, do this in advance, and there is the chance that the careers department can reach out and forge those connections before you enroll. 

Your careers department can help in several ways. They are not just there to help you with interview techniques or with improving your resume. Many times, internships and job opportunities are passed their way that are only advertised to your university. While you may not have the time nor the inclination to take on an internship, you can definitely use your career department and alumni network to build up your network for the sake of career progression. 

Read Reviews and Ask for Feedback 

Everything so far should help you narrow down a shortlist of options that you can and should apply for. When it comes to choosing which option to accept, you'll want to dig into reviews, feedback and even consider getting in touch directly with previous graduates. This last option, in particular, can help you prepare for the degree and can even help you get the most out of it by letting you in on insider secrets from what certain professors or lecturers like, which courses were good, and which weren't more. 

Not only that but getting in touch with previous graduates like this is a natural way to network. The alumnus that you speak to may even be interested in mentoring you or may have job opportunities in the future. So, keep track of them and stay in touch using LinkedIn so that you can truly get the most out of your master's degree.