will masters be looked favourably by employers?

even if your masters is really specialized and not very related to your job?

eg : you did Msc biomedical science but ended up working for bioinformatics firm

or more radical

you did msc environmental biology but end up working for a hedge fund?

not really

not hugely although it depends on the skills you learned - a highly mathematical MSc will be respected for most math related jobs for example, even if it isnt directly relevant.

Also people can use masters degrees to get into more prestigious universities than they did at undergrad, since a generic 2:1/first from almost anywhere gives you a decent shot at being admitted into an MSc even at very respected places. And a MSc in environmental biology from Cambridge would make you more competitive for investment banking because it says 'Cambridge' on your CV, rather than because it says 'Biology".

(edited 9 years ago)

Reply 3

El Salvador

It depends on the employer and the specific industry. I think your former example would be one who cares more about academic qualifications, so they would like someone with a postgraduate degree, but in a relevant field. Your latter is difficult to tell - in the business world, it is about branding yourself. I agree with the previous poster on the point on going to a top-tier school for the name, but having a master's degree also will probably be beneficial if everybody in your company basically has one. Your clients are human too with children and things like that so the more life experience you have in general, the more you can potentially get a closer relationship with your clients.