You might be wondering: Why apply for postgraduate studies when there are success stories like Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, and Mark Zuckerberg, who are all college dropouts? Well, they’re the exception rather than the rule. Plenty of CEOs have postgraduate degrees in various fields. You have people like Mary Barra of General Motors with an MBA, Randall Stephenson of AT&T with an MA in accounting, and Warren Buffett of Berkshire Hathaway with an MA in economics.
If you need a little convincing, we’ll be laying out five advantages of pursuing postgraduate studies in this article.
1. Increased potential for career advancement
A postgraduate degree can help you move up the corporate ladder to higher-ranking positions. This includes managerial positions and leadership roles, where you’ll have to handle a team and delegate tasks. In a highly competitive job market, a postgraduate degree, especially an MBA, could be what separates you from others who aspire to climb the ranks of the corporate ladder. To recruiters, it’s proof that you’re equipped with the necessary skills to lead others — and the company — to success.
2. Network-building opportunities
Regardless of what postgraduate degree you choose to pursue, you’ll be surrounding yourself with like-minded people. It’s the perfect time to make connections, especially since you’ll be interacting with professionals in the field. It goes without saying that networking is a valuable tool in the business world — you can open up doors to partnerships, mentorships, and get an ‘in’ with industry leaders.
3. Improved communication skills
In the academe, you’ll be communicating with your lecturers and course mates on various projects. Postgraduate degrees are the time to showcase your knowledge and experience in your respective field, so this will be an excellent opportunity to put your speaking, listening, and collaborative skills to the test.
But that’s not all. You can also choose to take up a track designed specifically for communication, and pursue a master’s degree in the subject. After all, the abilities to effectively communicate a message and persuade an audience are sought after in any field. With this postgraduate degree, you can become a communications specialist, PR manager, or even a marketing director.
4. Specialized tech knowledge
Many professionals also pursue further studies to build specialized skills, specifically ones that are pertaining to tech. We are living in a data-driven world and anyone with advanced tech skills in analytics is primed to succeed and lead. Every business collects and stores data, and it’s up to data professionals to make sense of that information so it becomes usable. That’s why earning a master’s degree in this field could open you up to the many viable careers in data analytics. Whether as a data engineer, digital marketer, or management analyst, you’ll have an in-demand skillset that’s applicable to a wide range of industries, from healthcare to finance and all the way to marketing.
Plus, there are plenty of data scientists who became CEOs, like Sebastian Thrun of Udacity and Thomas Thurston of Growth Science. With data-driven thinking, leaders can zero in on the facts and data, making for more objective solutions.
5. Problem-solving and risk management training
Every business is bound to run into problems, and solving them takes skill. Pursuing a postgraduate degree can help you hone your critical and creative thinking skills, which, in turn, can improve your problem-solving and risk management capabilities.
Entrepreneurs looking to build on this particular skillset can choose to pursue an MBA. This course tackles a broad range of topics that fall under business fundamentals and provides its students with the knowledge they need to take on managerial roles. However, it is different from other business-related courses in that it is more general in scope. For instance, a master’s in finance focuses less on the business aspect and more on theoretical concepts in finance. As such, it would be a better choice for entrepreneurs who want to focus more on providing finance-related solutions. In today’s job market, you need to take every opportunity you can to get ahead of the competition. And one guaranteed way to set yourself apart is to enroll in a postgraduate course. Whether it’s a course in marketing, communications, or finance, a postgraduate diploma can make you a more appealing candidate in the business world.
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