Too Educated For Entry Level? Why Having A Master’s Degree May Be To Your Detriment
The Washington Post published the article Too Educated For Entry Level, and I was actually excited to see that they’d taken on this issue, especially here in the DC Metro area. With more women going to college and then going on to obtain master’s degrees, this is a relevant article for so many of us. Here in DC Metro, most of the women here in my circle are advanced degree holders, quite a few with multiple advanced degrees. Some are satisfied with their career paths, some are not. I am in the midst of my own career development in making the choices to set the path for the next 5 years so this article hit home for me.
Check out some of the more interesting quotes from the article:
“I can say there is some real truth to having a master’s or above hurting you in the job search — but only if you have less than three to five years’ experience,” said Kate Warren, a recruiter in the international development industry.
Warren said that many of her clients frown upon hiring candidates with graduate degrees for junior-level positions. “Those with the graduate degrees always expected higher compensation and had a higher sense of entitlement to the kind of projects and level of work they should be doing. Most of the junior-level positions tend to be very administrative — thus the day-to-day tasks do not require a master’s degree to perform well, but rather an organized, motivated individual.”
In some cases, it comes down to money. “Why hire a grad student for 40K-plus when you can hire a recent undergrad for 30K?” Warren said.
The real question that should be asked: why are masters level graduates competing with early career BAs for the same positions. Especially positions that are administrative in nature and do not require an advanced degree. I wish that graduate programs did a better job of giving students a realistic idea about what to expect with regards to ob prospects upon graduation.
“And it goes beyond just the salary. The recent undergrads actually tend to perform better, and stay in their job longer, than the master’s holders will. Obviously there are exceptions, but generally the B.A.-level employee will be much more eager to tackle the admin-level tasks . . . often required in this level of position. Generally speaking, master’s students come in with a somewhat inflated sense of abilities or just end up generally frustrated with the ‘mundane’ tasks they are asked to do.
There’s a common refrain among these workers, Warren said: “I went to graduate school, got myself into XX amount of dollars of debt to do this?”
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This is a valid feeling by masters level graduates. They went to school in order to be engaged in a career that challenges their skill sets and abilities, not to be entrenched in a day job with menial and mundane tasks which have no relation to their advanced studies. Color me entitled.
So what do you do if you are willing to do the grunt work? How do you get employers to give your overeducated self a chance?
“I don’t advocate for leaving off their degree,” Warren said, “but I think it is important that they get across in a cover letter, and if it gets to this point, an interview that they are more than eager to roll up their sleeves. When hiring, I always appreciated when candidates were upfront that while they realized the day-to-day wouldn’t be the most glamorous of tasks, they were motivated by the fact that these are necessary steps in reaching the overall goals and missions of the organization.”
Here, Warren also sees a case for working a few years before pursuing a graduate degree. “If you go straight from undergrad to grad, you will be competing for jobs with recent undergrads — jobs [in] which your master’s will give you no edge and could actually be to your detriment.”
However, she said, people who take entry-level jobs out of college, work their way up and then head back to school will find that their graduate degree will be more valued.
I agree with these statements. I didn’t understand this at first, but it makes total sense now to work for a few years in order to decide what you want to do and get some experience under your belt. Good advice!
What do you think? Does having a Masters degree exclude you from certain entry level positions? From where I sit, the reality is that it does and I believe that graduate programs should do more in the way of helping students gain practical experience throughout their program so that when they graduate, they are a notch above the rest in terms of education and experience.
[image credit: CSU]
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