Would a Bachelor's Degree Guarantee You a High Paying Job?

In the not so distant past, a college degree made you a professional. A Bachelor's degree opened every door you would ever need to have a fruitful career. This is not the case anymore. In the present day, you need a Bachelor's degree to be a manager at Target. The necessity of education to succeed in a career in America is increasing rapidly. No longer can a person simply come out of college with a four year degree and have the privilege of turning down several jobs and getting the perfect one. More and more employers are requiring that you have a Master's degree or a PhD in order to work in a professional setting for them.


More and more a Bachelor's degree is becoming less valuable in the workplace. Quite simply when you put that you have a 4 year college degree on a resume it's not even that much of an asset any more. When you go to apply for an entry-level job a lot of the people applying for that job will be in the same place you are and have the same degree. Some will even have a Masters Degree. The key to getting a good job is not just having a degree; in this day and age everyone has a degree. Simply having stellar grades wont guarantee you anything either. When applying for a job you have to have some unique talent, quality, or experience that you gained while at school in the process of obtaining your Bachelor's degree. This can be in a range of things, from research to starting some kind of club in college or having held any other type of leadership position. You have to show to your employer that you have the skills to complete the job. Some of these skills were obtained in getting your degree. But it isn't enough any more to have the degree you have to show you have the skills by obtaining your Bachelor's degree and then you have to show you have applied them to some meaningful activity or project.


I believe that a master's degree is necessary not only for the future but also for today. How much longer will individuals be able to compete in the job market with just a Bachelor's degree? Or is it too late now? Do Bachelor degree graduates develop the knowledge and the skills needed to compete in today's workplace? Should curriculums be developed based on a five or six year program, instead of an expected four years and a separate two more years? Maybe we should do away with Bachelor degrees altogether?


Interesting questions or overreacting? To find the answer all you have to do is look at the Sunday newspaper in the Classified Ad section under Help Wanted. With each generation, we have gone through an 'increase in academic requirement for jobs, from the pre-1960's jobs that required some high school education but preferred a high school graduate, to today's jobs where a Bachelor's degree is required but a Master's degree is preferred.


With job opportunities scarce these days, it is in the best interest of most students to consider future education plans even before they begin their undergraduate studies. Graduate studies seem to be the way of the future.
"They [employers] like you to have a master's degree because you've got that additional training". So it's no secret that a bachelor's degree is no longer worth as much as it once was. More people with bachelor’s degree = more job competition among fresh graduates.


Completion of undergraduate studies may not be all a student needs to ensure prosperous career opportunities. In fact, it is only the beginning.
A bachelor's degree will get you into an entry level position where you will do some degree of repetitive work, although a bachelor's degree requires hard work to complete, it simply does not prepare a student for some of the best positions today.



Conclusion


The amount of technical information needed by today's businessperson continues to grow, not only in breadth, but also depth. College and university faculty are realizing that instead of trying to "force feed" all this technical information to their students, it is better to provide students some exposure to many different areas of business and teach students how to learn so they can learn the amount of technical data they need when they are in the work force. Besides learning about business, students need to take courses that increase their skills in oral and written communication, computer applications, critical thinking, group dynamics, and unstructured problem solving. Today’s businesspersons must be familiar with many areas within the business world, more so than ever before, and an ever increasing part of this knowledge has to be in global business.


Right now, I’m torn on what and where to get a master’s degree…Options in Cebu are limited but they’re Good (For MS/ME in Engineering Management and ME in Industrial Engineering) like University of San Jose-Recoletos, University of San Carlos and University of the Visayas. But I have more options in Manila, with a wider degree of specialties (Eng’g Mgt., MSIE major in Operations Research, Human Factors & Ergonomics, Information Systems and the like), Mapua Institute of Technology, De la salle, UP DIliman, but the Cost of living there is higher compared here in cebu. I also have the option later, if I can save some money to go for an MM and/or MBA at Asian Institute of Management but my Instructor said that a Master’s degree taken outside the country is given more weight (Which makes me all the more confused – Financial Problems for outside Philippines). And the factor of having a Love life has not yet even been integrated in this plan of mine yet!

I am not really in a hurry, I’m still a 4th year ½ pre-senior IE – student and I still have one more school year to finish, Just need some comments and thoughts on this post, please do share your wisdom, It would be most Appreciated!

Would a Bachelor's Degree Guarantee You a High Paying Job? Would a Bachelor's Degree Guarantee You a High Paying Job? Reviewed by Vernon Joseph Go on Wednesday, February 27, 2008 Rating: 5

3 comments

  1. A degree is nothing. Not because it's not 'high' enough but because your degree can't really tell if you'll do well in the working world. I don't know about the system in your place but where I'm staying, where education focuses on academic achievements, I have to say I don't quite believe in college education.

    Not to say that someone who gets a string of As will do badly at work, but it also doesn't guarantee that he'll do good.

    I totally disagree with the norm's rigid thinking where a scroll is everything.

    P.S: I didn't read the whole post, it's too long, so I'm not sure about your views.

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  2. no, it would not.

    after grad school, it's still not.

    unless you're, as they say, "maabilidad". ^_^

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  3. I think yes, depending on what course you take.

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