How important is a masters

I have 15 months of internship experience in design engineering and software engineering at Siemens, a mechanical engineering bachelors from Durham University and plenty of extra experience including leadership, volunteering, academic awards etc. I have been applying to countless jobs but I am getting many rejections although I have heard this is common. Checking on LinkedIn premium, I found that many applicants had a masters while I only have a bachelors. I am very worried that I am getting rejected purely because of this. I could do a masters but financial situation would make it extremely difficult and also I don't think my mental wellbeing could endure academia again. Is the masters really that important?

Many large or well known companies that receive lots of applications may use it as a filter to help reduce the number of candidates. What kind of companies are you applying to, and in the job description or profile, what do they state education wise?

I’m applying for some large engineering companies but also technology roles at any company: BA, mclaren, Arup, Jp Morgan, EY, BAE for examples. They will all state of a bachelors 2.1 minimum. I would have thought in cases experience is better than 1 more year of university but I’m looking for these cases

I’m applying for some large engineering companies but also technology roles at any company: BA, mclaren, Arup, Jp Morgan, EY, BAE for examples. They will all state of a bachelors 2.1 minimum. I would have thought in cases experience is better than 1 more year of university but I’m looking for these cases

Non engineering roles won't care about an engineering masters, but as @mnot says the more competitive engineering companies may filter out non-masters candidates. However, given your profile I'd expect you to be able to land interviews for non engineering jobs, and also some engineering roles too, as not all care that much about a masters. Have you had your CV checked?

I also would suggest a scatter gun approach tends to be ineffective. Name brand & times top 100 employers are (inevitably) competitive. It is better to research a specific industry & look at what they target. Here you’ve listed manufacturers, transport operators, consultancies, financial services & banking. Almost every company you have listed off has fundamentally different business models.

Your job applications need to be very specific & refined for every company (with lots of research that extends past beyond the ‘about us’ section on a website).

sounds like a good approach although it is for the most part only the cover letter that can be catered. The main problem for me is that I still don’t know exactly what I want to do so I don’t think I could target a specific industry.

It starts with cover letter, but the knowledge becomes far more important when you undertake the hirevue assessment, virtual interview & when you make it through to final round interviews/AC.

However it also helps with finding competitors to apply to, often boutique can be as great to work at but far less competitive- when you apply for just brand names you completely lose these companies.

Yes that is a good point. I was wondering if you could advise how to actually find these companies as I use bright network for example which will only really show the well known companies.

Yes that is a good point. I was wondering if you could advise how to actually find these companies as I use bright network for example which will only really show the well known companies.