Bachelor’s Degrees Not Enough

The final interviews have been completed. Two candidates' resumes remain on the table, both exceptionally well-qualified. The first holds a bachelor's degree, and the second, a master's.

As a result of recent company demands for higher education, the employer's decision is easy—the candidate holding the master's degree lands the job.

Despite all the effort undergraduates invest in earning a bachelor's degree, employers are increasingly regarding a master's degree as the new "entry degree" for employability, replacing the role of a bachelor's, according to an article in The New York Times this past summer.

Today, roughly 70 percent of jobs require bachelor's or master's degrees. Businesses look for employees who already have professional skills and require the least amount of internal training, said Marilyn Eckelman, director of Graduate Management Career Strategies for the Carroll School of Management.

"It's becoming more and more important that people have the skills, the education, the experience in order to be able to go into an organization and fulfill the responsibilities of a business role," she said.

With a suffering job market and increased emphasis on higher education, showcasing a master's degree on a resume may not be only an important factor but the essential determining factor of the hiring process.

The number of people earning master's degrees has doubled since the 1980's. Only a generation ago, a bachelor's could sufficiently prove a candidate's credentials for a job, but today employers emphasize obtaining the specialized skill set that a master's degree provides before applying.

Employers identified that the master's degree signifies one's commitment to this requisite skill set. Self-application to a challenging curriculum indicates interest in promotion by proving one's ability to accept additional challenges and responsibility.

Today, graduate degrees are not only a necessity for upper-level management or professional jobs, but also for professions which did not previously require advanced degrees, the article said.

"Employers want to see people with a defined skill set or a certain undergrad degree showing that you have a certain skill set," Eckelman said. "They look at education that says you've had exposure to this, you've had exposure to that."

To help identify what special skill set students would like to focus on for a graduate program, she recommends 3-5 years of working experience, internships, or distinctive experiences to help identify interests and strengths before deciding on a master's program. One unique feature of the CSOM graduate program's structure is that it enables second-year M.B.A. students to have internships during the school year to make them more competitive in the job market.

In addition to pre-master's work experience, Eckelman emphasizes researching possible career fields.

"Look ahead a little bit," she said. "Ask, ‘Where will I be in three years? Would I need to retool and add to my education? What degree do managers in the organization have: master's, bachelor's?'"

Though students need not know specifically where they want to be afterward, having an idea of what skills they will need to strengthen their resume is crucial, Eckelman said.

"It is a commitment. You must really know why you are there," she said. "Before choosing to earn a master's degree many people realize that their growth potential is flattening out."