Whether you are looking for a conversion course or a specialised masters degree, a business qualification can improve your skills and your job prospects.
Choosing postgraduate study in business-related fields is now an established feature of career development for many students. For those looking to work in this area, an extra qualification can add value, specialisation and vocational training to their primary degree and is likely to secure them a better job.
Areas of study
A wide range of courses is available, from both traditional colleges and independent business schools.
If you have a non-business primary degree and are looking for a conversion course, a diploma will give you a business qualification to add to your existing skills. It will also qualify you to go on to a masters programme.
Recent graduates with a business degree might choose a specialised masters programme, such as a master in business studies (MBS) or an MSc or MA. These are aimed at business or economics students wanting to specialise. There are many options, including marketing, IT and management consulting. Many programmes help you to put your studies into practice by building work experience into the course. Experiential degrees such as the MSc in Marketing Practice at UCD give students hands-on training working on real-life projects for smaller companies.
Another development is a masters in accounting, which provides a streamlined route to professional qualification by bringing several professional examinations together into one postgraduate course. This frontloads the training with examinations while backloading with experience, which suits some students better than the traditional method of bringing examinations and experience together in a training contract.
A masters in business administration (MBA) degree is generally designed for graduates who already have substantial experience of the workplace. Traditionally, an ‘executive MBA’ has been aimed at specialists, such as accountants, engineers or marketing people, who are looking for general management skills and who may well progress within their own organisations. These are usually part-time courses. An alternative is now also available, both internationally and here at home, aimed at high flyers who have been in a job for three or four years and students will be actively job seeking following this year out from their careers.
Job prospects
Statistics from university careers services show that your job prospects are improved with a postgraduate business qualification. Irish qualifications travel well and you will be able to compete for top jobs internationally. Remember though that a masters is only the beginning: once you are in that job, you will need to prove that you have the skills.
Sectors recruiting business postgraduates include finance and accounting, industry, consulting, and technology and telecommunications.
A postgraduate degree in economics could lead towards a career as a professional economist, possibly in finance, government, economic research, economic journalism or consultancy.
Issues to consider
While a diploma course is open to graduates from any background, competition to get in can be keen. Business experience can help, as well as being an asset when you are job-hunting. Building an internship into the time between your primary degree and postgraduate degree – whether it is a year or just for the summer – can help. A primary degree plus a postgraduate qualification and business experience can be a great combination when it comes to looking for work.
It is not necessarily a disadvantage if you don’t have a business-related primary degree. You may be able to combine a business qualification with your original discipline. For example, a science graduate could look at marketing in the pharmaceutical industry or an agriculture graduate could work in the agri-business sector.
Many students and recruiting organisations find that an incidental payoff from postgraduate study is that students have developed personal transferable skills to an advanced level. For example, communications skills are enhanced through smaller group work and closer contact with academics and through project work at postgraduate level. Problem solving and team working are also further enhanced. Managing and organisational skills are very often developed through thesis work, case studies and business exercises.
Written by Colm Tobin, Director of Careers, University College Dublin. This article appeared in postgradireland 2007.
