Career opportunities with a Masters degree

For many study destinations around Europe, recent statistics show that the number of enrolled university students – both national and international, has in fact rapidly increased. The German higher education system, for example, had welcomed almost 2 million students back in 2004. Ten years later, this number was increased nearly by a million more. And it is not only Germany, as in the Netherlands, solely for 2018, there was a 5% increase in the total number of students peaking 290,000 people!

But the important point is, more and more students have gone through the Bachelor level and logically, the Masters as well. And in this article, we will look to explain more about one of the reasons why a Masters degree is gaining popularity, and that is career opportunities.

Improving your career opportunities with a Masters

In today’s job market, a large percentage of offered positions ultimately require the possession of a Masters degree – for almost every field from Architecture to Science. Furthermore, many companies now advise students to carefully plan their career path with the degree level they are looking to acquire. As according to a survey in Germany, no more than 20% of German companies consider job applicants with a Bachelor as suitable for the current labor market. By contrast, the remaining 80% stated that holders of a Masters would be seen as potentially qualified.

Additionally, many modern businesses believe that students with a Masters degree are more likely to take up management positions at a given company. This would mean that these same students have a much higher chance of being offered a CEO, CFO or CCO position earlier during their professional development – resulting in a big leap on the career ladder. It is not a rare sight for companies supporting this process and even allowing chosen candidates to completely skip certain training programmes in order to be directly integrated into the professional environment of the business.

Lastly, excluding the enhanced career possibilities, a graduate with a given Masters degree is in many cases already familiar with the practical aspect of their study – as they have most probably had an internship included in their course. Not only that, but many internships offer the golden opportunity of travelling abroad for the gathering of practical experience.

Financial benefits of studying for a Masters

Currently, the typical duration of a Masters programme is between 1 year and 2 years - or in specific scenarios, even 3 years. However, your additionally invested resources, especially time – are also rewarded with a higher starting salary. Surveys in this area show that the initial income of Masters graduates is on average 13% higher than that of Bachelors. But much like wine, it becomes better and better after some time. Data indicates, that holders of a Masters degree earn salaries about 30% higher than those of Bachelor graduates after 10 years of work. And, you guessed it, this is mainly because of faster career development and opportunity for management positions. It is worth noting that the majority of offered Masters courses in Europe is labeled as internationally recognised – which significantly increases career prospects abroad as well.