Making a master’s degree work for you

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“With your experience, why would you want a master’s degree?"

When this question comes up in an interview for the MA in International Community Development program I direct, I sense applicants are surprised to be asked. After all, isn’t it obvious that they need an MA? And why would I want to talk them out of it? To be sure, I don’t (usually) want to talk them out of it. But a master’s degree is such a big step that it’s important to nail down the “why” of it and evaluate whether or not it will help one’s career.

The value of master's degrees is somewhat controversial these days. There’s a recurring push for more practical, hands-on careers that don’t require college – and a collective frustration in the U.S. with the student debt crisis, and with some schools’ roles in this crisis. Yet all of that is irrelevant if you're in a sector, or want to be in a sector, where everyone has a grad degree. For example, if you are competing for jobs in the social services sectors, they feel ubiquitous. The trope is that the MA is the new BA: having one may not guarantee a job, but not having one puts you at a disadvantage compared to all the applicants who do have one. True or not, this perceived universal need for graduate degrees has contributed to significant growth in the number of master's programs – especially online master’s programs. This growth can bring up questions of quality when it triggers schools to compete on the cost by scaling back. I’ve seen this “race to the bottom” myself as I’ve made my own grad school choices. For my master’s degree and my doctoral studies, I worked hard to balance the priorities of cost and quality.

So, let’s talk for a second about how we answer that question: why would someone want a master’s degree? Well, it isn’t the right step for everyone. Sometimes, someone’s only motivation to consider graduate school is that they think it will be a golden ticket -- when employers typically want to see real-world experience as well. But if your field is competitive, if you want to study, if you love learning, and if you’re also excited about the potential benefits to your career, graduate school could be a great fit for your career path.

You need to love learning (or the idea of learning, if you’ve been out of school for a while and are nervous about the volume of reading and writing) because we have a high-quality program that will transform your perspective and your skill set. All our staff and faculty love community development and want to see communities empowered to define what thriving and dignity looks like for themselves. We build strong cohort communities because we don’t believe it’s worthwhile to teach international community development without being in community ourselves. Even when we launched our online version of the MAICD eight years ago, we made sure it would not be “cookie-cutter” in style – we keep cohorts small, and we start and end that program with an in-person trip to build that community. We keep the tuition and credit load as reasonable and competitive as possible, but we also spend a lot of time reading, talking to employers, evaluating curricula, and supporting students. We never stop working to ensure that MAICD students are truly equipped for work in the nonprofit sector and beyond.

But even the best master's degree is a tool that must be used. One thing I have learned during my last seven years as a homeowner is the balance between having the right tools and the right skills. I have invested in better tools as I have taken on bigger projects like building a patio, a deck, a pergola, and installing new flooring. Having good tools makes projects much more fun, and the outcomes much better. But I still have to watch lots of YouTube videos, learn from mistakes, and figure out how to use those tools properly. Simply obtaining a good tool and putting it in the garage accomplishes nothing. 

Likewise, simply having a master's degree will only somewhat help your career. It is a tool sitting in the garage. Having a master's degree from a high-quality program and knowing how to use that tool will very much help to develop your career. If you can network, if you are patient with your pursuit of opportunities and thankful for those you receive, if you can articulate your skills and strengths, and if you can tell coherent stories about your accomplishments, then your career will progress just fine. Employers are always looking for workers with a combination of soft and hard skills. The best employers understand that field-specific hard skills can always be taught to low-ego team players who are ready to solve problems and overcome ambiguous challenges. 

So, a master's degree can help you compete for a great job, but might not be of much use if that is your only reason for earning one. But if you love learning, if you want to commit to a program to force yourself to do the reading and writing because you don't have the discipline to do it on your own (I'll raise my hand for that one), if you love or are fascinated by the community development sector, if you want to build your network, if you want to participate in a cohort of like-minded individuals, if you want to build both soft and hard skills, if you want to experience mentorship to better understand how to balance life and career goals, and if you want to put what are learning into practice – then you will find graduate school to be an exciting and rewarding option.