# Does having a Masters degree still impress employers? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [February 22, 2010, 12:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-having-a-masters-degree-still-impress-employers/529924 "2010-02-22T00:26:11Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Diamonds02](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b5a626/32.png) [@Diamonds02](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diamonds02)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2010, 12:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-having-a-masters-degree-still-impress-employers/529924/1 "2010-02-22T00:26:11Z")
Putting GPAs, previous work experience (or lack there of), where you attended school, and past achievements (awards, etc.) aside…does having a Masters alone impress employers when they look at a resume? I’m talking about professional entry level job positions. ---
**Author:** ![Khadaji](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Khadaji](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khadaji)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2010, 1:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-having-a-masters-degree-still-impress-employers/529924/2 "2010-02-22T01:21:44Z")
IMO it depends on the profession. As a hiring manager in software development a masters would not have made a difference to me - we would have preferred experience. ---
**Author:** ![Diamonds02](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b5a626/32.png) [@Diamonds02](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diamonds02)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2010, 1:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-having-a-masters-degree-still-impress-employers/529924/3 "2010-02-22T01:28:25Z")
> [@Khadaji](#): > > IMO it depends on the profession. As a hiring manager in software development a masters would not have made a difference to me - we would have preferred experience. Sigh, I understand, that’s what’s kicking me in the ass, I have a master’s degree in education, but no work experience…related to education. I would like to apply to training or sales jobs. ---
**Author:** ![TimeWinder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bcef8e/32.png) [@TimeWinder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TimeWinder)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2010, 1:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-having-a-masters-degree-still-impress-employers/529924/4 "2010-02-22T01:30:05Z")
And as a counter-example: a software developer looking for a near-entry-level position from me would get a substantial boost from a Master’s degree. I’d want demonstrated skill, too, but a graduate degree indicates that they’re able to learn, reason, and commit to a task over a relatively long period of time. And ideally, it would mean they’re able to write and explain things, too, although that’s more of a mixed bag. Unfortunately for the Master’s-toting software engineers out there, I’m not in a hiring position at my current job. ---
**Author:** ![Sonnenstrahl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/82dd89/32.png) [@Sonnenstrahl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sonnenstrahl)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2010, 2:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-having-a-masters-degree-still-impress-employers/529924/5 "2010-02-22T02:13:52Z")
Can I piggy-back on this question? I don’t know if I want to know the answer, but if anyone here works in a field where liberal arts majors can be hired (I know, haha, liberal arts majors are never hired!), is having an MA any kind of advantage? I’m assuming the answer is very different than in software design or engineering. I had always planned to do a PhD or alternately become a librarian, but I’m completely burnt out and want to just get a job when I finish my thesis. So I didn’t go into a master’s program in Obscure and Irrelevant Studies ever thinking that it would lead to a job, but it would be nice if I could get a job paying more than minimum wage and not requiring a hairnet. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Real\_Regency\_Elf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/d9b06d/32.png) [@The\_Real\_Regency\_Elf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Real_Regency_Elf)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2010, 2:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-having-a-masters-degree-still-impress-employers/529924/6 "2010-02-22T02:19:09Z")
Instructional Designer, Master’s in Info Sciences/Org Management and yes, it’s helped me a lot. My current employer hired me to bring in an fresher, more academic approach to what had previously been a very insular team with no structured methods of creating courses. ---
**Author:** ![HazelNutCoffee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/ac91a4/32.png) [@HazelNutCoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HazelNutCoffee)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2010, 2:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-having-a-masters-degree-still-impress-employers/529924/7 "2010-02-22T02:21:13Z")
I got my MA in Humanities (which meant most of us focused on literature, history, film, philosophy, or classical studies) and most of us either went on to get a PhD or started working in the following fields: Adjuncting (some are on tenure track now) Teaching at a high school Working in publishing Working for a small magazine or newspaper Working in a museum Working for a non-profit Working in educational admin Most of the above jobs want an MA minimum, or at least that was the case in Chicago. ---
**Author:** ![steadierfooting](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/43a26b/32.png) [@steadierfooting](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/steadierfooting)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2010, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-having-a-masters-degree-still-impress-employers/529924/8 "2010-02-22T16:04:31Z")
It seems like everybody has a masters degree these days. I’d be less interested in someone having a Bachelors in masters in the same field. BS/MS Computer Science, whatever… BS in Computer Science, Masters in Economics, MBA, etc… More interested. Basically if you are an computer programmer for a healthcare company, I’d be very interested if you had a BS in Computer Science and a Masters in Public Health. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2010, 5:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-having-a-masters-degree-still-impress-employers/529924/9 "2010-02-22T17:36:36Z")
> [@Diamonds02](#): > > Sigh, I understand, that’s what’s kicking me in the ass, I have a master’s degree in education, but no work experience…related to education. I would like to apply to training or sales jobs. Given that you can write, have you considered looking into corporate training jobs? I’ve worked in several corporations that had in-house Training Teams (developing courses and training the trainers, rather than the “students”); pretty much everybody had a Master’s in Education or Journalism and many of them were in the no-previous-experience or “had a teaching job for a year and ran away screaming” boats.