why go for a master's
I had once stumbled into
the office of a friend of mine who was an HR in a company that I was
working in. I saw him sifting through resumes. He had around a hundred
of them on his table. He further mentioned that he had several hundred
more in his hard drive. I instantly framed the opinion that probably he
was on some kind of a mass recruitment drive. He proved me wrong in a
few seconds by mentioning that this was a part of his daily job.
This is unfortunately true about private sector in India, and to a
lesser extent in other corners of the world. There is a massive amount
of competition for jobs. For some of the good jobs in top MNC
companies, the competition is even more fierce. Consequently, the need
to differentiate and distinguish oneself is rather important. Ideally
speaking you want to be the first to be hired, and the last to be
fired.
Consequently, it is always beneficial to have that little bit "extra".
A Master's degree is one modest effort to gain that little bit "extra".
It's effect is not as pronounced as a Ph.D. Nonetheless, it does help
to differentiate a resume. It is not a resume that a HR manager will
throw out at the first glance.
Furthermore, in a Master's program students can typically specialize in
a certain discipline. They can take a few advanced research oriented
courses, and do two to three semesters of advanced research. This will
help them get a firm grasp on their area of interest, and will bring
them in touch with state of the art technology. Instead of targeting
generic companies, they can look at companies that specialize in their
area of interest. Their chances of entry into such companies will be
significantly higher.
Master's is also a very good stepping stone to doing a Ph.D. A lot of
candidates are not sure if they want to pursue a Ph.D. A Master's can
give a candidate some amount of exposure to research. The candidate can
then make up his mind if he wants to carry on with a Ph.D immediately
or return to academia several years later.
