Master's Degree: Yay or Nay??

I graduate this winter with a degree in econ and can't decide whether I should go on to get master's degree or not.

I work at the library and was considering going for a master's in library science, but am undecided. There is a chance that the library will pay for my classes, I just have to apply after I complete my courses each semester to request a refund. I wouldn't mind working at the library because it was be a "regular" 40 hour a week job which is becoming rare these days. There also wouldn't be very much stress to deal with. I could then still reasonably do my part in the clothing business...

Another benefit I can see with any master's degree is that I could always teach at a community college over a summer...

Any help would be appreciated...

Yes, do it. A master's is the best bang for your buck in terms of $/time... A PhD on the other hand...

Do you enjoy school? If you do, then a master's is a fine idea. I probably could not have hacked grad school right after undergrad as I was so unmotivated.

One other thing though, library work seems so utterly opposite of what I would have guessed you enjoy, that being clothing/design and business. Do you have any interest in going to design school or business school?

You probably have 2-3 semesters left for a Master's. Do it. If I was motivated when I graduate from undergrad, I would've just stick it out and get a M.A. in Econ. The classes aren't much harder than your senior year classes.

I don't particularly like school at all. I did enjoy one of my last econ classes though (4000 level). We got to do an empirical research paper over what ever we wanted...

If this clothing business doesn't quite pan out, I will always be working on other businesses to start, it is in my nature. The library job would just be some study income if/when I get married and have a family...

I think you should go ahead and do it. You dont want to take this job and settle down or anything so why not...
Its a steady income but you should also do somehthing to further yourself even if your married or not and have a family and theres probably no better time to start then now

Originally Posted by Tarmac

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One other thing though, library work seems so utterly opposite of what I would have guessed you enjoy, that being clothing/design and business. Do you have any interest in going to design school or business school?

The thing about a library science degree is that its actually a lot more portable than it sounds. It is, in essence, just a degree in database management (that's why the fancy name is "information science and metadata") or a kind of grand-scale inventory control where your inventory is books. As such, instead of inventorying "10 boxes of socks", you are analysing each item (title, author, publisher, content) and sorting it accordingly. You can do a lot with such a degree, and certainly not only in libraries. There's also the administrative subfield, the curatorial aspect, etc.

At least, this is what I'm told by my bosses at Harvard who are telling me to get the degree

Personally, I'm skeptical. For all the talk of opportunities in library careers (librarianship's workforce is graying at a staggering rate, even moreso than most fields), I don't know how many vacated positions will really be refilled. Because cataloging is, in essence, data entry, its eminently outsourceable. There's no reason the library couldn't just ship their books to India and have them cataloged there by lower-paid catalogers who are hooked into said library's database. Then the books would be shipped back. The only thing that needs to happen on site is for someone to unpack the boxes and shelf the books in the right order. That's a $12/hr job. Many libraries already do this for "low priority" books (meaning ones that nobody's gonna be checking out for the next few years).

Corporate librarians were in Parade magazine as one of the fastest growing jobs(take it for what it's worth)

My boss said that if I wanted to work with kids or work at a school library, there should be a lot of opportunity for me out there because it is such a female dominated position.

My interest as a librarian would be more as a child's librarian or a young adult librarian as opposed to a catologing position.

That $12 an hour position you talk about Joel is a $6 position in our library system...

I would personally go for the master's. I'm going to be in a similar situation this coming year, and i think it's best to go for the master's right afterwards, when you're still in an academic mindset. I have older friends who tried working for a few years and then getting the master's while working their other job, and they just didn't have the motivation for academics anymore.

I think that having a master's degree would give you more flexibility and oppurtunities down the line as well. Switching jobs within your own career path, or even the chance to find something different would all benefit from you having your degree. My grad school friends say most of their classes aren't that much more difficult from their 4000 level senior classes, but with longer papers and stuff.

Quick question: are you married to the girl you've posted your picture with or is she just your girlfriend? Just curious. Good luck.

Hey you should write an insider's account of working in a library a la Kitchen Confidential. I bet it's a pretty murky world underneath the surface, isn't it?

The girl I posted a pic is my girlfriend, but I would like to marry her someday...

You have no idea about how crazy the library is. I could be a stand up comedien and just tell true stories that happen in the library. The partons that come in, all the internal politics involved etc. Most people have no idea...

If your employer will pay for it, and if you feel that you can carry on studying for another 1.5 or 2 years, then I would urge you to go for it.

It's a sad fact that as more and more people are tertiary educated, it is becoming increasingly necessary to get postgraduate qualifications to separate yourself from people with a BA, BSc, BEcon etc.

I know that economists are in great demand in Australia at present as just about everyone who would previously have done a BEcon has done a B.Business instead and has gone to work for a merchant bank or as a stockbroker. The more traditional banks, as well as the public sector, are crying out for qualified economists and are paying quite a premium, too. However, this applies to people who specialised in micro- and macro-economics, not in the management of library information systems.

Get your Masters degree now, would be my suggestion. If you can figure out a way to afford it, I think it would be beneficial when you want to pursue a career.

I really think you need a masters degree these days to distinguish yourself.

Thanks for the advice guys. I guess I will pursue my master's degree, but I don't know in what. I don't want to be an economist( I majored in it because it was the degree I could get the quickest. You could take most of the upper level classes with just intro to micro and macro as prereqs.

I am talking tomorrow with the top small business professor in town about our clothing business, and I will ask him what field he thinks I should pursue...

Economics often mix well with Finance or Business. If strictly Econ is not your thing, why not go for a MBA?