My Grad Degree Didn’t Improve My Career or Earning Potential

I remember my father telling me that the best career decision he ever made was getting his PhD. He said it had given him endless opportunities and it had increased his earning potential in a way that nothing else could have. Unfortunately, I cannot say the same thing about my master’s degree.  

While I’m glad I earned a graduate degree and I don’t regret it, it has not had a significant impact on my career or my quality of life. I haven’t found additional job opportunities and I haven’t earned any more money than my colleagues without master’s degrees.

It’s been almost six years since I graduated from Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. The school is considered one of the most prestigious and competitive—if not the most—in the nation for journalism. The work is beyond rigorous, the curriculum is comprehensive, and the professors are truly inspiring.

It was one of the most exhausting, yet fascinating years of my life. It was also a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity because I had earned a major scholarship and the timing was perfect since I was in my twenties, unmarried, and without children.

Deciding to go to graduate school is a huge decision that has the potential to affect the rest of your life. After all, you could find a fulfilling new profession, enhance your existing career, or end up unemployed with tens of thousands of dollars in debt. Okay, the last one probably isn’t likely, but it was especially scary job-searching just months after 9/11 in a rocky economy for a few of my classmates who were saddled with massive student loans.

Graduate school can be a great opportunity to shift gears, and many people use it to change careers completely. I remember my class at Columbia had people who had been doctors, lawyers, teachers, and even a ballerina.

I wasn’t switching careers entirely. I had already been working as a newspaper reporter for several years, including a stint at a small-town daily, a couple years at a big-city business paper, and an internship at a newspaper in Asia.