Make your master's sparkle- impressing employers with your postgraduate studies

I'm a careers consultant supporting Business School master's students at the University of Exeter. I often get asked to explain the best way to "pitch" a master's degree to employers. Here are my thoughts.

My Masters from the University of Exeter puts me at the front of the job queue (or does it?)

Type “benefits of doing a masters” into Google and you will get countless hits (about 208,000,000!) Mostly aimed at persuading people to begin postgraduate studies, they promise high salaries, boosted career prospects and a plethora of new skills that will have employers fighting to employ you. So you listed your master's on your CV and added it to your LinkedIn profile, then you sat back to watch the stampede of job offers heading your way…but nothing happened. What’s gone wrong?

In the UK, most employers don’t seek out or target PGTs in their recruitment. Of course, they are very happy to employ a master's student, but you won’t usually be treated any differently from a bachelors graduate in the recruitment process or in terms of salary. Some countries do have a distinct job market for postgraduates, but it is not the case in the UK, (except for a few professions, which are mostly in science and technology).

Sometimes the added benefit of your master's is clear for an employer, usually when your degree is directly related to the job or industry. Your MSc in Money, Banking and Finance for instance, will have a strong appeal for a bank. But what about your MSc in International Business? Will employers be able to tell what you have to offer, simply from the title of your master's degree?

If we go back to our bank example, we know from regular research with employers, that they would be equally impressed by graduate without a master's who did a placement year with Santander, or a graduate without a master's who was president of the Women in Business Society or a graduate without a master's who part funded their studies through trading cryptocurrency...

What I’m saying is:

1. Employers like master's degrees but they don't automatically catapult you to the front of the queue
2. Employers won't usually understand what you have to offer just from the title of your degree
3. You will have to make it very clear why your master's sets you apart from candidates who do not have one

A lot of employers simply won’t understand the difference between a graduate and a postgraduate, so don’t assume they will. Could you explain how your master's has changed you? Why you are different from someone who hasn’t studied at an advanced level? If you don’t know, and you’ve been immersed in a master's for the last year, how do you expect them to? Don’t forget that many employers, recruiters and interviewers won’t have done master's themselves- so the only way they can understand what you bring, is if you can clearly explain it to them.

What makes a master's student stand out?

The first thing that’s worth saying is that UK employers love skills. Research has shown that academic grades and institution attended don’t always create the perfect employee. Grades can’t show how emotionally intelligent you are, whether your future colleagues will enjoy working with you or how well you can cope with change. I talk quite a bit about this in my workshops (University of Exeter students only) which you can find on Handshake. UK employers instead focus on skills, and want to hear how your skills will allow you to perform in the job they are advertising.

Master's students develop many of the same skills that bachelors students develop, but to a higher level. Let’s think about what you’ve been through:

You crammed 30 assignments and 11 modules into 1 year, studying at an intensity and level you’d never experienced before, and you did it in a second language. You had classes of course, but most of your study was independent without much guidance and you also squeezed in a weekly shift at Marks and Spencer's. *

How this benefits the employer:

• You’ll be able to jump straight into a job, learning as you go without having anyone to spoon-feed you.
• Whether you’ve studied finance or marketing, you’re also a project manager and a capable communicator.
• You know how to work intensively and over a sustained period.
• You’re responsible and flexible enough to produce results against deadlines without being continually chased. All that stress and balancing assignments means your planning and organising skills are through the roof.
• You can research a topic or problem, analyse your findings, condense them into something meaningful and report back in writing or a presentation.
• You can argue your point confidently.
• You know how to use knowledge to solve problems creatively
• ?You’ve spent time working collaboratively with people from different disciplines and cultures- did you know 93 different nationalities are represented in the student body in the Business School at Exeter? If that’s not cultural awareness, I don’t know what is!

*Also- WOW btw. PGTs never cease to amaze me - you're incredible!

What do you know that you didn’t know before?

Many of the students I speak to find it hard to tell me what they’ve actually learned during their master's. I think this is probably just because your courses are so frantic that there’s no time to stop and think before moving onto the next topic! I really want you to stop and think though, because you need to be able to describe your learning to an employer for them to understand why your master's makes you worth hiring.

Remember that only your course mates and lecturers know what’s in your master's and even then, the modules or topics may have influenced them differently from you. Unless an employer has studied your exact course at Exeter, they won’t know what your studies taught you unless you tell them. The title of a master's doesn’t tell much about the content, even though it might seem obvious to you. Let's look at a master's that you probably don't know much about- the Master’s in Food Studies. What do you think it contains? We could guess – food hygiene? Recipe design? Nutrition? We’d definitely need someone to give us more detail. Once we know that it includes political economics, food chains, sustainable agriculture, tourism and zooarchaeology we're starting to feel more impressed. The same goes for your master's- don’t undersell yourself by letting the employers guess what you’ve learned.

But don’t just list your modules! Remember that module titles are really only for use inside a university. Look at this module title: The Art of Science. What do you think it is? Any guesses? It’s actually a module that looks at data and communication including CV writing, but the title is hard for an outsider to decipher. Your job is to interpret your modules in ways that are understandable to employers.

Once you’ve worked out what you’ve been learning, be sure to point out to employers that your learning is cutting edge and that you have been taught to bring your own perspectives- this is very attractive to employers. Be prepared to elaborate and give examples!

What have you learned about yourself?

• Did your commitment to learning spark curiosity in new areas?
• Balancing your studies with part-time work showed you that you can cope with conflicting demands?
• At first you thought you couldn’t cope, but then, somehow, you found a new level of resilience?
• Did your confidence grow from speaking out in class and giving presentations?
• Did your writing skills improve?
• Do you look at the world in a more critical way now?

I could go on with listing ways in which you’ve grown and changed, but actually I’d be doing you a disservice, because it’s not enough for you to simply present these skills to employers, you’re going to need to back them up with examples.. And to do that you’re going to need to put some of your super skills to use – your ability to analyse information, think critically and reflect!

Ask yourself the following questions:

• What skills have I been using?
• What knowledge have I gained or improved?
• What new things have I learned to do?
• What have I learned about myself?

Now create some stories which bring these to life by talking about what, when, where and how you have developed from your master's. These stories are just the details that help an employer to understand and appreciate what you have to offer. You will find STAR a great framework to help you construct these stories, which can be used in your applications and interviews.

Tell them what they want to hear!

Now, the final piece of the puzzle. There’s no point telling an employer about a bunch of skills that they don’t care about or want in a candidate. You’ve got to tell them what they need to hear to convince them that you fit the specific role they are advertising. So if they’re asking for a problem solver- tell them all about your team assignment looking at data from Lego, which involved not only solving data problems, but also interpersonal problems within the team. If they’re asking for communication skills, tell them about the 5 presentations you gave which you communicated complex ideas and data, using Powerpoint, delivering both in person and virtually, as well as the business reports, reflective accounts and blog pieces that you wrote. Don’t waste time telling them all about your research skills and your ability to use Excel if they haven’t asked for those in the job description. ??

A little research into the culture of the company and the industry will help you to frame your skills in a way that clearly demonstrates how they will be beneficial to the employer. Think about your module content, assignments, guest lectures and anything else you’ve been involved in- what pieces of your master's can you pick out that would be relevant? Did you do some research into consumer behaviour? Create a business proposal for a new product? Simulate a marketing campaign? These- work-related (or authentic) assignments are closely linked to what you would be doing in certain professions- so search for the details of your master's that will convince an employer of your worth.

Mention any extra training?– have you been taught a programming language? Used ?advanced IT equipment? ?Completed a professional qualification? Think how these could be useful in the job you’re applying to.

Remember that there’s more to studying a master's than just studying a master's. What else have you been involved with at Exeter? Student societies? Sports? Business competitions? ?Make sure to mention these to employers. It may not seem relevant that you helped train other students in accounting. Or that you were the treasurer for a sports society. Or that you helped on the welcome desk for an open day. Until you realise you’ve gained some experience of team training, administration and event management.

I hope these tips help! You have spent a lot of time, energy and money on your master's. Make sure you create as much impact with it as possible, by understanding how it makes you different and by communicating that clearly in your job applications and interviews.

Remember there's lots of help available for PGTs in the Business School at Exeter- you can book onto our workshops or book an individual appointment with us on Handshake.