Is it worth doing a Masters? [2021]

Hi guys, I am a 2:1 graduating student and am complacent on proceeding with a postgraduate degree in accounting and finance. I for one do not personally want to do another year of education, but my mindset is that it takes a while for a student to get a job after graduation lets say 4-6 months, then why not do a masters in between a worthless wait? I was fortunate due to COVID and possibly less stricter marking grades for my 2:1, so am not sure if the circumstances change for a Masters. Also, I have not studied an accounting and finance degree but a mere few accounting modules which I did exceptional on and it is my passion moving forward. I am also worried applying to financial grad schemes without a financial grad degree if I do not pursue a Masters.. The options are weighed at the moment of uncertainty. I would like some insightful opinions about this, thanks.

Congrats on the degree.

Getting a job in accounting or finance ironically do not require you to do a degree in accounting and finance (they just ask for any degree so long you have a good grade). A master's in accounting and finance would be a waste of time and money if you just want the job. If you want to go into research, the master's makes sense.
What I see a lot of graduate employers emphasise more on is the right aptitude for the job and any experience you have in the field. Your personality will also be a factor in their selection, unfortunately.

If you have a specific role in mind, then I would recommend signing up for the right professional body with the intention of studying the qualification, as well as doing a lot of networking. It's a ridiculously competitive field, so you will have to be very quick, very prepared, and very good at what you do.

Do you have a specific role in mind? Also, if you intend to go into accounting, don't say accounting, but the specialism you want to go into e.g. audit, financial accounting, management accounting, corporate finance, consulting, tax, etc.

Hi Max, sorry for the late reply. In terms of the experience you mentioned above, I only have job experience in retail that is not relevant to the job field at all in accounting, so I believe that would be a struggle to get employed. I do not want to pursue a research career at all as all I want is a job, but looking at current circumstances of the world with how last year graduates are struggling to find a job and they will also add competition for jobs starting late this year, it can be quite hard to pursue this competition. Don't get me wrong, I have applied to 200 jobs merely with no responses so going towards that route is also not working out.

Regarding the role in mind, I would like to avoid tax and consulting, more so in financial accounting with more preferably into investment analyst roles, but those are hard to find. So, my approach is more so logical with going into masters, by the time I have finished my masters would possibly equal the amount of waiting time it takes to find a graduate role. I have also seen people on other threads saying that a master can boost employment status and pay in the long run so it may not be completely a waste of time.

In terms of financial accounting and investment analysis, they're very different roles and require very different qualifications.
With financial accounting, you're probably looking at either ACCA or ACA (ICAS and CAI are also possibilities, unless you intend to migrate abroad). With investment analysis, you're more looking at CFA. The CFA is significantly more quantitiative than the ACA or ACCA.

I agree with you in getting the jobs. They are very difficult to find. Most people I know got in via networking and being able to do more than the average graduate.

I am not sure about the master's, but that's more because I haven't come across a person who got into either financial accounting or investment analysis just because of their master's. You can try asking around from those who got into the roles, but I think you would find that getting the professional qualification would be more suitable for the roles. I also consider the professional qualifications to be significantly cheaper than the master's, and they are of higher calibre. For example, if you look at the exemptions for accounting qualifications and CFA in master degrees (for those that do provide exemptions), they are usually less than the professional qualification itself. Given the choice, I'd rather spend 1 year doing the professional qualification than the master's if it's strictly for getting the job.

Feel free to get a second opinion on this though.

I see what you mean, well in terms of ACCA and ACA/CIMA and whatnot, they are mandatory in some job roles to be trained at. For example, a lot of the job graduate schemes for accounting may help you further pursue these qualifications alongside the job. I believe the master's route could personally develop my interest in that because of it being so focused on accounting modules in which I have not done before. I will look into this actually, your suggestion of spending 1 year on the qualification compared to the masters does seem like a better idea as even for myself I do not want to continue education. But, at the same time the last 3 years of my business degree I have not learned anything related to the actual career path I want to go in, mostly how to write assignments in non-relevant topics in business. So, there is no interest or skills I have learned and maybe doing a master's can provide those pertaining attributes.

In my opinion, not really. The degree will be geared towards academics, whereas the learning environment and skills you need in the workplace will be a lot more vocational and practical. What happens in the academic classroom has litle resemblance to the work environment. Even if you know the theory and have the necessary skills for the aspect of the job, your manager will only care if you have the experience of doing the task more than anything else. If you take on the master's, it will very likely going to be more academic assignments of hypothetical scenarios, stuff that I guess most employers don't pay attention to.
By the way, in the workplace they expect you to be perfect and make no mistakes. In academics, getting 30% wrong can still land you a high mark. In the workplace, getting 30% wrong is like asking for their equivalent of the death sentence and being pelted by hypothetical rotten veg.

Oh wow, I see, I never actually thought about it that way. What do you recommend I should do if I was to not pursue a master's. How or where should I go about finding experience or finding the right course to secure a grad scheme? I was looking at self-study ACA courses but I'm not sure of that, to be honest. Finding internships or work placement is difficult, so I wouldn't even try to ponder into wasting time searching for it.