I was about to leave for my college on a Wednesday when I received a call from my nephew, Arun, saying he was coming over and wanted to have a half hour chat. A level headed boy, I knew he wouldn’t call to just waste my time, so I relented. I am a professor with one of the well-known B-Schools and didn’t want to be late for any of my sessions. I looked at my schedule for the day and well – I could spare the half-hour! My nephew was lucky! My schedule is normally so tight, not a minute to spare.
Arun came and immediately rushed into a conversation. He had just given his final year B.Com examinations and wanted to enrol for a Post-Graduation course. He was eager to know which would be the right course for him and how it would help him up the career ladder.
The first thing that one needs to realize while enrolling for a Post Graduate course, is that it’s a professional degree, and not an academic one. If you have just a Bachelor’s Degree, you could face some hindrance to move up your career path. Rather than this, at one point of time getting a post-graduation is mandatory to move further in one’s career especially in today’s scenario. What exactly is the advantage of a getting a post-graduate degree? Several reasons, and not all of them obvious.
- Some of the subjects required, which is critical and can be used on the job are part of post-graduate courses curriculum, such as social work, geophysics, or international relations
- Secondly many professional courses like mass communication, library sciences, management, and so on are post-graduate courses
- Thirdly, if you have the slightest interest in academics or research, an advanced degree is the only way to go
- Finally, even if your interest is not in academics, a candidate with a post-graduate degree usually is considered more favourably in the job market
Having a post-graduation degree ups the chances of getting a well-paid job faster. Not only this, a post-graduate will obviously be paid more. A post-graduate if he does well, will definitely get the ‘preferable candidate’ status-quo for a job. The reason is, a graduate degree gives a candidate only the book knowledge or theory knowledge, whereas a post-graduate will have theory supported by practical knowledge in the subject that he acquires in the form of participation in a number of on the job facets like project work, case studies, group discussions, benchmarking, international exposure, and so on. Post – Graduation not only adds value to one’s resume but also to the person’s knowledge.
Today, you have post-graduation courses in nearly all fields of education and profession. Be it Finance, Management, Administration, Human Resource, Sales and Marketing, Psychology, Mass Media, Journalism and so on.
A post-graduate qualification is equally important in professional fields such as engineering. If you study the personnel profile of any large engineering or consulting firm, you will find that almost all those who head departments or who hold key senior management positions have Master’s degree, apart from a few who have proven their worth through long years of service. Do not underestimate the value of a Post-graduation in any discipline; the fact that many people take time off from their careers to catch up with higher education is evidence enough that there’s more to it than a string of letters after a name.