Top 4 Reasons to Get a Masters Degree and 1 Reason to Reconsider Your Application
Should I Continue Studying After My Bachelors?
If you took pride in your academic work, took a part-time job for extra money or experience and took part in University societies to optimize your CV, you probably were a very busy student. You may have prioritized your degree but perhaps failed to think about life after your degree.
As soon as the degree is coming to an end, there is tension in the lecture room: what will happen now? Unsurprisingly around this time, universities start advertising: “Get a competitive advantage on the job market join us for a specialized Honours/ Masters/ PHD Degree”. Beware: you might be triggered to continue studying because you feel overwhelmed. Don’t do this or you may become infected with the eternal student syndrome. On the other hand, if studying is in line with your long term goals, you can never go wrong with learning.
An Unworthy Reason to Continue Studying
We all have that friend who has two or three degrees and has now signed up to study a completely unrelated degree. They don’t intend on being an academic but they insist this course is key for their future success. They have become a financial liability to the family who instead of saving towards retirement continues to fund the never-ending academic lifestyle of their beneficiary. This is the eternal student syndrome (or ESS), studying for the sake of studying and delaying the hardships of entering into the workforce.
The reasoning behind this behaviour can be explained using Maslow’s hierarchy of needs as depicted in the diagram below. Maslow divides human needs into five different categories, which can be used to motivate an individual.

Whether we have a student loan or we are sponsored by our parents, as a student you usually have food on the table, limited expenses, a secure place to live (home/student accommodation) and a safe place to explore concepts and ideas (university). This means that your basic needs are met (Physiological and safety needs).
In our familiar campus, we are often surrounded by ambitious like-minded individuals with plenty of time and predisposition to interact and socialize. You have the time and space to create and nurture relationships (Love/ Belonging needs). Furthermore, you are in complete control of achieving. If you put in the work, you will achieve good grades and you will be rewarded for it. In our current society earning a degree from a good university will give you prestige (Esteem needs). This means your physiological needs are also met.
Lastly, universities often incorporate challenging projects, collaborations with corporates and competitions which allows you to work on challenging projects where you can use your creativity and have a real impact with little personal risk. This means that your self-fulfilment needs are also met.
As you can see, if you exploit all the opportunities in your campus while you study there is a good chance that you are highly motivated, having the time of your life if you will. Non-surprisingly, when nervous college graduates are given the opportunity to extend their safety net for a little longer, they take it.
By saying no to career procrastination and taking a leap of faith, you face terrifying consequences. If you don’t find a job, you will have no money and you are at risk of having your basic needs unmet. If you find work but it is unfulfilling, a shit position or a terrible work culture, you will forgo your love/belonging and your esteem needs. And if you find a job where you are micromanaged and you are not given room to grow, you will not have your self-actualization needs met. Unfortunately, navigating the job market is not easy and it requires a lot of trial and error, but it is inevitable. No matter how much you delay it, you will face it.
The good news is that you can improve your chances of finding meaningful work by refining your job search and doing a conscientious exploration of your long term goals and desires. (You can read more about this here)
Worthy Reasoning for Studying Further

If you are not suffering from ESS and you are adamant of furthering your formal education, I would recommend first setting your short, medium and long term career goals. If studying further is aligned with these goals, GO FOR IT! You can never go wrong with studying. Below are some of the benefits I experienced in pursuing higher education:
A Meaningful Deep Dive
When you pursue an advanced degree in a niche area you will become a valuable expert. You become aware of leading-edge solutions to complex problems and you will acquire the skills and knowledge to implement these solutions. This will open multiple doors in different organizations and your income potential will increase (as the supply of such experts is lower). Make sure you love the specialization that you choose, as your work prospects will resemble what you studied.
Change of careers
We choose our career when we are eighteen, with a lot of external influence such as advice from our mentors, society expectations and inaccurate perceptions of such a career. There is a high probability that we dislike our degree and our career and we want to expand our horizons. If you want to change your current career or if you feel stagnated in your current role a masters degree or a specialization might help you realign your knowledge to your career goals. You will be exposed to people from different career paths and be exposed to existing roles in career fairs and companies expos.
International Exposure
When you study abroad, you are exposed to different cultures with different value systems and different problems. Your adaptability increases and your emotional intelligence is improved, which makes you a better teammate and employee. You are exposed to solutions that you can bring back to your own country to build your own business or with the knowledge to enrich local corporations. However, you may fall in love with life in this foreign country and wish to stay. Many countries lower the visa requirements for local international graduates and universities have departments that help foreign students secure local jobs.
Increased Professional Network
Masters Degrees Programs have quotas to ensure they have a diverse student body. This means that in your degree you will be exposed to people from different nationalities and backgrounds. The requirements to enter such degrees are often very high, so you will be surrounded by smart and hard-working individuals. Appreciate this opportunity and create meaningful relationships. These people have networks in their country of origin which may be an asset throughout your career.
On the other hand, Universities offer their master students career days, networking events and workshops with industry leaders. This gives you the opportunity to grow your network with amazing people working on incredible projects. According to Linkedin, 85% of the jobs are being filled through networking, which makes prioritizing your professional network a no-brainer. Don’t get me wrong, doing a masters degree doesn’t mean that you will get a job on a silver platter; but increasing your network with high-quality people increases your chances of getting access to high-quality jobs as these often don’t make it to job ads.
I hope this has inspired some thought on the reasoning of pursuing further education. If you would like to read further blog posts please subscribe to make sure you don’t miss out. If you have some questions or feedback please comment below and I will be sure to respond!
Originally published at http://jsdiary.co.za on November 4, 2019.
