Higher education vs Work experience

Forums: Life At Work
Email this Topic • Print this Page

Hi everyone. I've just finished my honours degree in construction project management/project engineering. I now have the incredibly difficult decision of starting work or doing my masters. I have a bursary from a construction company so getting work is not an issue as I can start whenever I'm done studying. I really want to go high places in this field and am doing as much research as possible as to whether a masters or work experince will be more beneficial to me......

Topic Stats
Top Replies
Link to this Topic

Type: Question • Score: 10 • Views: 2,853 • Replies: 25

No top replies

@Mattcuz,

Since you have a job waiting for you, I think you should meet with them and discuss what benefits additional schooling would mean for you. If there is a big difference between what you would be paid and the type of work you'd be doing then you should stay in school. If not, go to work.

You can always go back to school.

1 Reply

@Mattcuz,

Mattcuz wrote:

Hi everyone. I've just finished my honours degree in construction project management/project engineering. I now have the incredibly difficult decision of starting work or doing my masters. I have a bursary from a construction company so getting work is not an issue as I can start whenever I'm done studying. I really want to go high places in this field and am doing as much research as possible as to whether a masters or work experince will be more beneficial to me......

Just my opinion, but experience in a field is even valuable when getting an advanced degree in a field. The other advanced degree students are oftentimes without experience, while the person with job experience is not. By standing out as a student in that way, one's ultimate career might take more interesting turns? The problem is time, and one's personal life goals being possibly put on hold during the entire process, in my opinion.

1 Reply

@boomerang,

I have met with them a few days ago. they said its completely up to me. They explained how crucial experience in the construction industry is. If I did my masters I would be specialising in green building. well my pay to start wouldnt be any different. but in the long run it may differ quite a bit. Im really just trying to get as much info on both sides. one thing I can say is that once I start working I will never go back and do my masters

2 Replies

@Foofie,

Thanks for the reply. Ok so in your opinion do you think a masters could take me higher up the ladder or the work experience? I am only 22

0 Replies

I think you should take up the job before that make sure if the company allows you to carry on the studies. I am sure they will as now a days this is the trend going on and while doing masters you need not have to attend all the classes. But if you find it difficult this way at least find a part time job.

1 Reply

@Karenl,

ok thanks. ya iv spoken to my bursary company. they said its completely up to me whether I do masters or start working. the masters would have to be full time coz its 1 year so its quite intense and then its done....

0 Replies

Since you say you won't go back to school once you've started working, your company say it's up to you and you're only 22, plus the fact that a Master's is much more respected and higher paid than a Bachelor's, I'd say go for your Master's now. JMO. I used to work at several engineering, mining, and geotech companies and they always paid their higher educated people A LOT more.

2 Replies

@Mattcuz,

Mattcuz wrote:

Hi everyone. I've just finished my honours degree in construction project management/project engineering. I now have the incredibly difficult decision of starting work or doing my masters. I have a bursary from a construction company so getting work is not an issue as I can start whenever I'm done studying. I really want to go high places in this field and am doing as much research as possible as to whether a masters or work experince will be more beneficial to me......

Get the effin experience now... You could not ever possibly understand conditions short of fighting them... You never understand the human element without dealing with them, and making a deal now and again... You never know from a book how dangerous it is, and what a price people pay in lost profit and wages from badly engineered buildings... I wish I could only count on one hand how often I have run accross connections that could not be bolted up, and if bolted up, could not be tightened up... We used to say: Yesterday I could not spell in ga neer, and now I are one... You think about errors, how much, for example, that a building may diviate from plumb before no one can lay a brick on it, and it is ready to tumble... You consider the use of every building, and who may be erecting it, and what skills they bring to the job, and what sense of honor... You consider how many lives may be contained in what you erect under what conditions, and ask why they build hospitals with many moment connections and why schools have no better standards than a gas station canopy...

Engineering is a wonderful thing... Don't get me wrong... I admire the ability, and the people who do it.. But having the skill is only a part of being good at the job; and there is nothing like the experience of it... Are you prepared to be an ass... Are you prepared to trust in God when your engineering book says it will not withstand a stiff wind??? Are you prepared to stick your neck out one way or the other, knowing that your future may be at stake against the welfare and health of thousands??? Only time, life and experience will tell...

0 Replies

@Mame,

Mame wrote:

Since you say you won't go back to school once you've started working, your company say it's up to you and you're only 22, plus the fact that a Master's is much more respected and higher paid than a Bachelor's, I'd say go for your Master's now. JMO. I used to work at several engineering, mining, and geotech companies and they always paid their higher educated people A LOT more.

Experience is the only way to put education in perspective.. It is part of an education, and not apart from it... If I were doing the hiring I would seek both education and experience and that would be worth some money...

1 Reply

I agree strongly with Mame - do the Masters now.

0 Replies

@Fido,

Not in all things - it has no bearing on say a Masters in English or History.

Anyway, one more year out of the workforce is nothing at his age. It'll fly by and then he'll have his Masters.

1 Reply

@Mame,

Mame wrote:

Not in all things - it has no bearing on say a Masters in English or History.

Anyway, one more year out of the workforce is nothing at his age. It'll fly by and then he'll have his Masters.

I may never have a masters degree of any sort, but when I went to college it was as an English Major, and I may well have declared a history minor... Life experience has driven my education, which is to say, the lack of education... Since most of what I know is from reading I am practically uneducated... From my experience as an ironworker, nothing was more funny or foolish than an engineer with little practical experience...

If an expert on English were to ever discourse on love having never suffered a broken heart, or the most well researched historian even to write of battle without the stench of death being too long in his nose, or never having tramped around a battle field, then I would say as much; that experience puts all education in perspective... Knowledge may be taken from any book, but it is sooner learned in reality, in a real situation... For example: I read a how to manual before first rebuilding an automatic transmission... With parts in hand I read the book again; and learned much more...

1 Reply

@Fido,

Fido wrote:

... From my experience as an ironworker, nothing was more funny or foolish than an engineer with little practical experience...

Truer words were never spoken, but it's not a choice between advanced degree and experience. The choice is between degree/experience OR just experience. Once you've got wife, kids, mortgage, and well paying job, it is darn hard to put it all on hold and go back to school.

0 Replies

@Mattcuz,

Mattcuz wrote:

. . . one thing I can say is that once I start working I will never go back and do my masters

Why is that? I worked for a while before going back to school and found it
really helpful.

1 Reply

@George,

I think life just gets the better of most people hey. You get caught up and its extremely difficult to just put it all on hold, take a year off from work and go back to study. especially in construction. coz once you on a project its almost impossible to just get up and leave. Furthermore I think once iv got a taste of work I won't want to go back to studying

1 Reply

@Mame,

Hi mame. Thnaks for the response. Ok so in the civils field a masters is very beneficial? Do you think it will help me to promote higher and quicker into management positions as well as increasing pay? U say ALOT more, what exactly does that mean?

1 Reply

@Mattcuz,

Good reasons, Matt.
Here's wishing you good luck in you career.

0 Replies

@Mattcuz,

I think a masters will pay off in the long run, but at some point you are going to have the experience to get the high pay. I know several companies here who prefer technical college students over solely university trained because the have the hands on experience, but... they will probably never make the huge bucks you will with your advanced degree.
I'd say go to school, spend the year and get your masters, at 22 you've got nothing to waste. Since you have a job lined up, you will obviously get the experience and the money will come in good time.

1 Reply

@Ceili,

Thanks ceili. Very very valid points. Really makes a lot of sense.

0 Replies

Higher education vs Work experience

Related Topics

Quick Links

My Account

able2know