People are relying on Master’s degrees for the wrong things in work and life

Do not believe recent commentary about the pointlessness of Master’s degrees, much as they seem compelling at first glance, in citing the negligible bump in salaries, the ridiculous school fees and the poor returns.

Obviously no one should be taking expensive loans to do a post-graduate degree, or expect your parents to fund the expenses (in fact, a High Court has ruled they are not legally obligated to).

But a key reason why the math doesn’t stack up is because there’s no silver bullet when it comes to navigating this complicated and competitive world of careers. Intangible qualities like charisma, having a wide network and a general ability to make your boss’ life better are more likely to get you ahead than technical competence and mastery of your field – and those are not things you can learn in a degree programme of any sort.?

Much also depends on your field, where certain complex areas like medicine, mental health, and experimental sciences do require specialised knowledge honed at institutions of higher learning as a basic prerequisite. Who would want a surgeon without the paper qualifications to operate on them?

In my view, the biggest challenge is that people seem to rely on a master’s degree for the wrong things—for a giant leap in seniority and remuneration, a new direction in their careers once lacking, or life satisfaction. Those aren’t the correct objectives.

What then should you expect to get out of your Master’s degree? That exact question was posed to me in my lecture to students from the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy’s Masters in International Relations last week.?

Thinking back to my own post-graduate experience in political science, it wasn’t the “know-how” or even the “know-who” gain that became the most valuable take-away. I wouldn’t underestimate the power of those two outcomes, since this was a course that tapped on makers and shakers of the world like Bill Gates and George Sorros to give graduates a stronger understanding of how the real world functions.?

But all considered, and after about 20 years of working, what I truly benefitted most from was the “know-why” acquired – the cast of mind I picked up about what drives critical developments, who’s shaping them and how to discern rhetoric from reality and separate substance from the noise. In retrospect, a Master’s degree was a good investment in myself – something that billionaire Li Ka Shing says everyone should set aside 15 per cent of their income for.

It might have not resulted in a huge pay bump but the acquired instincts do make life easier in my field of foreign affairs and in understanding the driving forces behind the big trends shaping our world like Chinese overcapacity and Singapore’s troubling foreign investment environment. Maybe it is time to ask for that raise…

Until next week, here are my picks of the week to get yours started.

Cheers,

Suling Lin , Senior columnist

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