Why You Should Work Few Years Before Studying Abroad
Following Article was written by Ashish Arora.
Well I don’t agree with the views of above person about giving priority to MS over experience. The reason being that above stated points like dreams and salary in US are based on simple assumption that he will land up with the job the moment his education will complete. Now please think over these points.
1. Getting admission to Top ranking Universities
I know that most of the people here wants to get into top ranking universities because of few important reason like it’s quality of education, placements and value of degree globally and there are many universities who considers experience to be a very important criteria.
Perhaps if you apply for MBA, then you would go mad if you will even look at the applications.
I gave GMAT and TOEFL and scored 600 and 7 band score respectively.
I applied for
- Melbourne Business School(Aus)
- Australian National University(Aus)
- Johns Hopkins University Carey Business School(US)
- Australian Graduate School of Management(Aus)
- Cranfield School of Management(UK)
- Lancaster University Management School(UK)
I still remember most of this management schools wants you to answer series of questions and write essay where you have to demonstrate your leadership skills, experience, extra curricular activities and god knows what and same applies while writing SOP.
Have you ever thought an experience can do a miracle to writing a great SOP and it’s presence can change the face of your application at good university over other candidates.
2. Money
Dude if you have money take a flight and go now but an experience for some years can fetch you some money for at least doing a down payment for student loan of around 10-15 lakhs which is like 1 or 2 lakhs saving that is pretty much manageable maybe after 3 or 4 years of experience.
Don’t be a pain for your parents especially when they are growing old.
3. Part-time Jobs
When you are abroad, there is a great need of a part time job for survival no matter how much savings you have.
Sometimes these experience can fetch you a part time job of IT support professional, a sales representative at a small store like Mac Store or game store, a system admin job at some division in University, A TA or RA job at University itself.
May be a casual job as a management consultant, a casual developer profile.
Don’t go and regret there when you don’t land up a job and some experienced guy fetches a job over you and survive lavishly enjoying beaches every month and you working hard at some place like a restaurant not even close to your profession.
4. Full time jobs after degree
You can simply apply for full time jobs after university and you would be give priority over others.
I don’t know why HSB disagrees with that. (answer to this at end of this post)
I being an employer will always look for someone who has experience in that field earlier, only reason I will hire a fresher over experienced professional will be if I have to pay him less but I don’t think that is a big problem.
Many employer hire people at very negotiated salaries because my experience says that abroad IT jobs are very competitive these days so negotiations are done easy.
Yup I do agree that graduate, intern job etc are especially for fresh students but experienced professional always have more opportunities than a fresher.
5. Getting good grades in Universities
Your IT experience will surely reflect to your performance in universities abroad.
For example, if you choose an IT program after working in an organization for few years or so then knowledge about IT work culture and technical training may help you in getting good grades.
Also it will surely help you in management courses like IT project management, information security, software engineering systems, IT professional practices and many others.
I got really good grades in project management because of my past IT experience.
6. Social Networking
I don’t know how many people here understand the value of social networking today in job world.
Social Networking has come up as a tool to fetch you job when you have a good experience in certain organization, for example, I have few years of experience in company A and my friend has few years of experience in some company B.
Both A and B say work in the same IT domain say Java or .NET.
A refers B in his organization, A get referral money and B get a good job and vice-verse.
Now with few years of experience you BUILD UP THIS SOCIAL NETWORKING in India before leaving to any other country.
Tomorrow if you lose your job or plan to come back to India, you can use this social networking links to apply for very good position in the same organization where you just started as a fresher one fine day.
7. No Experience
If you don’t have any experience you are applying to all organizations with just your degree, now if you end up scoring not so good grade and choose not so good university, it is very likely that you end up coming back because at certain point of time, you won’t be able to financially support yourself in the foreign land or your visa will expire.
8. Permanent Residency
In countries like Canada, Australia and Singapore, chances for getting a permanent residency is more if you have overseas experience on skills which are in demand in the country. That will fetch you points which can lead you to gain PR and further help you securing job.
I am sure H1B must have something related to your past experience. (answer below)
9. Fake Experience
One of my friend tried putting up fake experience and he was applying to many companies here.
I don’t know if he land up with job or not but I will never encourage people to do that because if caught your entire career can be jeopardize.
Why you want to show fake experience when you can get real experience? Remember there are no short cuts to success!
10. Research Career
One of my collegue has just completed her PHD from a good university from Belgium. She did her MS in networking and wrote some publications too. Her interest was into networking because of the reason that she got a job with me in an organization manufacturing and dealing with networking and internet technologies.
Her paper proudly mentions name of the organization like Symantec and D-Link where she worked and I am sure when she got 100% scholarship for PHD, experience may have surely contributed to it.
Summary
Lastly, I would just like to say that balance is really necessary and there must be future planning associated to your studies.
Like you can’t run from your other responsibilities and simply look after your dreams.
Try working sometime in India and simultaneously give yourself appropriate time to score good for GRE, GMAT, TOEFL and also application.
Try some universities of top order, middle order and bottom order.
Top order because of ranking, middle order to save yourself and bottom order to get good scholarship(I know many of your won’t mind doing MS from a average university if scholarship is more than 50% or sometimes 100%).
But you should complete your education with a target that you should settle down in late twenties, if you start up in early twenties. Think over again how you can benefit yourself through experience.
Exception: Well I agree to you only if you get a job which is not worth enough, like they make you sit on bench not making you work on any project Or you land up with some job you are not very interested and you have to work just for money(maybe call center) etc. I don’t think it is wise to delay further education plans because of such jobs.
Best of Luck!!!
*****
Another great article from Ashish.
4. Full Time Job After Degree
I’m not sure how Hiring works in Australia. But here in USA, if employer is looking for an Entry Level Position with certain Salary Range, they are going to hire someone who is Fresh out of College or someone with 0 to 2 years experience.
They will consider applicants with 3 to 5 years experience, provided they are willing to take the salary that will be paid to Entry Level grads.
Typically they will tend to find out how much Salary are you willing to accept for the position.
If range approved for position is $50,000 to $65,000 and your expectation is $75,000 to $85,000 and you are firm on that salary range, they are not going to spend time interviewing you.
There are experienced folks who take pay cut, but if I can get $75,000 for my experience, then I’m going to find a job that pays 75k.
8.Permanent Residency
That’s the drawback of US immigration System, work experience helps to certain extent, but employer is the one who controls the Green Card Process.
US Immigration process should be changed to reflect countries like New Zealand and Australia.
Work Experience or Masters
Here’s my take on work experience or Maters as Fresher.
If you are going to have motivation and drive to study Masters in Technical Field (not Management), then work couple of years then apply for higher education.
In 2 years with Rs 15,000 to Rs.30,000 salary per month, I’m not sure how much you can really save for education.
Work experience will certainly come in handy during job search, but again it depends on the company. 2 Years work experience in USA would have more value than 2 years work experience in India.
But, folks who will work for 2 years in IT services company will see a huge difference while working for an US based firm.
Hi Raghu,
I have 5years of experience in software profession (DevOps). I’m greatly confused whether I should go abroad for studies or look forward for job at abroad. USA, Canada and Australia being my priorities in list.
Kindly, help me with suggestions.
Hi,
I am having 10 years of work experience in the field of IT technical support. I am looking for completing post graduation in cyber security in Canada. I am having couple of queries as below.
Is it worth studying abroad after 10 years of experience ?
I have 87% in my graduation with a third rank. Will some university abroad consider me for some scholarship?
Chances of getting IT related job after completing the course.
Is it worth studying abroad after 10 years of experience?
Yes. definitely.
I have 87% in my graduation with a third rank. Will some university abroad consider me for some scholarship?
IT will help. Also, your test scores count as well.
I am in great confusion between whether to give GRE or to prepare for ISRO entrance exam.
I want to do MS in USA in aeronautical branch and I am currently pursuing BE in ECE. Please suggest me an appropriate path as to if I should have work experience as a scientist in ISRO or I should directly go for higher studies in USA. Thanks in advance.
Hello Vinita, It’s tough choice to decide where your life will take if you take between one of two paths. I can speak for Study Abroad and values it will add to your career. I would recommend Study Abroad. You can take-up ISRO entrance even after studying in the US and you will be in much better qualified with studying abroad.
Raghuram sir,
I completed my b-tech in 2014 and till now i have no job as i attended PG diploma in CDAC nd later prepared for GATE which now i’m not sure that ill get a good rank for IIT so is it wise to apply for GRE with 4 years gap after my degree and although i have no work experience i can assure that i build up knowledge in my core eceembedded systems,programming) field over this years.
Sandeep – Yes, you can apply for GRE after gap and MS in countries outside India.
Hi,
I am 27 years old and planning to do MS in USA/Canada.Can you please advise if it’s right decision.
I have 3 years of software testing and 2 years of development experience. I have worked in UK for one year.
Pankaj, It’s never too late to study abroad. Go for it. Try for both countries at the same time. If visa gets rejected, you will have another country for backup.
I am planning to do MBA in HR from UK. I haven’t fared well in my academics. I got Band score 6 in IELTS. I have experience of 2 years in administration. Is there a chance for me getting into a good university in UK?
hi ,
i’m an ece graduate with 9 cgpa, presently working in tcs..I want to persue my higher studies in US..i’m struggling between ms in ee and mis, not knowing which one to choose..will it be a wrong decision if i opt for ms in ee as i’m having software ex..could u please suggest me
Hi,
i have done my BE E&C in 2011 n i don have any work exp…as i was preparing for civil services but now i have decided to go abroad can i go ahead n what r the pros n cons about my decision?
You can certainly go ahead.
Pros:
1. You would not waste much of the time now when you have already wasted so much time in your desire to prepare for civil services and now changing the track.
2. You will have international degree and international exposure to education, people and culture.
3. If you were really interested in any of the field back in engineering, now is the time to think over it again and pursue your dreams and align your interest to your goals.
Cons:
1. No experience can affect you will go in market looking out for job so prepare to work hard and try for internships, graduate program etc.
2. One of the disadvantage can be you have to gauge what you want to do because you look confused at this moment. I really can’t figure out why you want to do civil services? Was that your dream? Do you really want to pursue education abroad and why? think over this and choose wisely.
Hi Ashish
You have shared very nice experience on this page.
I have completed my B.tech in Bioinformatics in july 2012. i want to pursue my MS in IT field. Currently i have job offers from Cognizant and Accenture. What are the chances that after 2 years i will get MS in good reputed university as my background is from Bioinformatics. Though i have studied many subjects from Computer Science.
Thanks,
Rahul
I would say perhaps very good chances, if you choose to spend these two years working for either of the organization.
Do you think this is the right time?
As a initial industry exposure you have done well but now it up to you how you can utilize this experience and knowledge gained through university studies to apply to corporate job application and grab a gold mine kinda job 🙂
what specialization should i opt for?
Ask yourself following question
1. What I like, What I m most bent on, What makes me work for hours on computer and I don’t fatigue myself, What interest me most? Is it computers, java programming, electronics, telecommunication what ??
2. How is it’s demand in market? Can I do something in SAP related to java which can further be useful in a career in some functional domain of SAP, should I be doing some part of advanced Java programming coupled with perl or python to do something which is very great in demand, Is it cloud computing that’s changing the world? Do a research mate!
3. Do I want to base my career into research into specific area where I want to do pioneer work and give world something they can rely on for year and I would be remembered all through ages of human mankind? Do PHD in that.
Also apart from USA do you suggest any other countries for studying?
Please type Germany, UK, Australia and Canada in the search option available on this blog and you will find all the forums related to each country. Read them and review them for answer to this question.
Sorry for late reply Sonia. US is perhaps full of MBA colleges and different website and bodies come up with different rankings for Management colleges which may or may not be useful for you. I myself used FT rankings of Management colleges to see how well placed it is. Please go to this website to get an idea on Management college rankings:
http://www.ft.com/intl/business-education
This website gives you an idea on rankings for all kind of business education, you can download rankings as a PDF and best part is you can customize rankings based on what do you expect out of a business school. Like male to female ratio, number of years of experience of faculty, Average GMAT score of class etc and get your own ranking.
Best of Luck!!!
Ashish
Hi Ashish,
I am working in TCS for the past 2.6 years in java/ j2ee and I had done my engineering in electronics and communication. Now I am planning to do a masters in USA . Do you think this is the right time?. Also can you please suggest what specialization should i opt for. Also apart from USA do you suggest any other countries for studying?
Hi,
I have 3 years work experience in IT as a software engineer in .Net. I have done MCA and I want to do MBA in US. But I don’t know the good colleges for doing MBA after getting work experience and their requirements.
Please show me the right path to follow.
Thanks,
Sonia
Hi,
i am gng to graduate in 2012, i am done with exams and waiting for results….
GRE-1310
Toefl-94
Acad- 81.5%, no backlogs
i am an electronics student and want to specialise in VLSI at masters.I had got admit from Arizona State University and i had a offer in hand from infosys….
My doubt is whether software experience helps me as it is not relevant to the field i choose in masters…..if it helps me in what aspects…..
Thanks in Advance..
Hi Pavan,
Mostly an experience always helps but in your case I think this won’t help much. The way an experience can help you getting a job after completing studies is like an employer can easily be convinced that since this person has worked in IT environment, he is professional and aware of IT ethics and policies. I have been asked many question in the interview here in Oz related to that like, “What does harrasment or bullying means to you in corporate environment?” “What does out of boundry and within boundaries mean to you”
However, this will not be very much of help to you because at the end of the day what you are looking at is a job that will be aligned to your interest area so I would suggest you to please ask your employer that what is the possibility of you being put into a project in VSLI technolgies, though chances are less.
If you are put into some other project then I think opting for a university that offer a good research into VLSI will be good idea. Usually Infosys is very much governed by client’s needs and will surely put you in a project where most of IT manpower is needed or sometimes into no project at all. You don’t understand the value of time if on bench or no project but my friend I would hate to be in such a suitation because I strongly believe that this time is more important time of your career for learning and career development so don’t waste it if there is no learning and good oppurtunities.
Best of luck!!!
Ashish
hi ! i have two years of experience in oil and gas field and graduated as mechanical engineer, now which country is best for me to go for specialization in petroleum either canada or australia with hoping to get job as well as PR..me waiting for your suggestion…thanx
Hello everyone,
It is very informative page here.
Well I needed an opinion.
I have an admit from an average university from USA while one of the best university from Australia. Which should be given preference and on basis of which factors?
Thank you.
Nilay ofcourse a good ranking university can make a difference but there are lots of factors that play into such a suitation because as I said earlier rankings are decided on the basis of certain factor which may or maynot be useful for you.
While choosing a university you have to see which university works best of you in terms of you achieving knowledge and getting a job or research career in that domain.
For example, University of Melbourne and Australian National University are very good universities in Australia and you would surely get a job but you never know that a normal ranking university is doing really good research into field you are interested and have course content very much aligned to industry specific needs to giving a very generalized response will be wrong here.
You have to ask some questions from youself and do a research for the answers like:
1. Do you know what field you are interested in and would like to pursue career into it ? If yes, did you do a research about which university in the world can offer best education in that field for you ? Try to find out what makes that university a good ranking university(many website list that this university is good because of these factors) and find out how good these factors are for your career like a good infrastructure won’t give you a good knowledge on VLSI or graphic visualization or XYZ. For example, Victoria University has a awesome course on SAP but it is not a very good ranking university but still if I want to pursue a career in SAP in near future, I will blindly go for Victoria University in Melbourne because after going through the course content I found out to be very impressive and very aligned to industry specific needs.
2. Do you know which country you want to settle down based on rules and regulations in the country? Like Australia has strict policies on immigration so ranking does not matter if you’re not able to fetch Permanent Residency for yourself and jobs are all very much related to PR. This decision can also take into consideration your friends and relative being based in that country who can really help you coping up with a new environment and help you adjust and survive.
3. Location: Is that university located into a place where jobs are plenty. like a person in this post choose San Jose University which i think is a superb decision because it is in the heart of silicon valley so job avaliability should be plenty.
There can be many other factors but these are some of the very important factors I can think of as of now.
Best of luck!!
Ashish
Abhishek,
You have good scores and experience. Make sure you have some proof or something like LOR and certificates to prove what you are saying, this all can help you putting down a very good SOP and application. Work hard on SOP and try lots of universities. Software engineering is one of the domains which every other university in US offers so you have to do a real hard work there. Try to apply to as many universities as possible and check out your chances for a scholarship. Try more into bit less ranking universities like 25-100 because your chance to get scholarship is more there so if you are applying say to 20 universities 6-7 can be among top 25 and rest can be below rank 25.
Also do a good research on what topic you are interested and what domain your organization is in. Try to align them and select a university who does a research in that domain. This will give you a edge in your application, because you experience will show university that you have already a very good exposure to those technologies so your chances into successful research are brighter than other candidates. Have you thought about writing a publication or research paper or patent into those technologies. Does your company encourages to do that ? These days most of the companies do that, go and find out with your employer. My company was a champ into it, they use to motivate employee to file patent, organize training sessions and what not.
Best of luck!!!
Thanks a lot for reply Ashish
I will surely will work on the SOP. I will ask my employer about the patents.
I have awards, trophies and certificates with me. :).
I am thinking about getting into San Jose University CA.
Hello,
It is very informative page here.
Well I needed an opinion.
I have an admit from an average university from USA while one of the best university from Australia. Which should be given preference and on basis of which factors?
Thank you.
Hello Ashish/ HSB,
I have given GRE Sept ’11 301/304 and Dec ’09 1150/1600
and TOEFL 100/120 July ’11.
I am currently working in Indian IT industry, Synechron technologies, aspiring to be software architect.
Exp 1.5 years right now.
I have been nominated for best employee for one quarter and best Jr. associate of year ’11 in the company.
Thinking about applying for Fall’13.
MS in Software Engineering is the field that I am currently thinking of getting into. I am not that strong economically.
Could you please guide me about where should I apply so that it might increase my chances of getting a good scholarship and should I take LOR from my employer as well because I have got quite a good recognition in project because of my work.
is 8 months work experience in R &D countable?
If it is not fake and you have really learned during experience, even a single month is countable.
Hi every one
Ashok is here from Pakistan!
I have in the final semester of Electronics Engineering and want to do MBA in Marketing.
My CGPA is 3.33 till 7th semester. I do not take any test till. Please tell me first i should search for the job or start preparation for GMAT and IELTS.
As stated earlier, you should do both. Since you have done electronics engineering and you are looking further into management, do you really think your education will play a considerable amount of role in your new chosen field. I would suggest you to start looking into techno managerial aspects of jobs, like a team lead role or technical marketing of say cisco products. Try your luck into many such areas, work there for sometime and you are good to go for MBA. You can even choose to go for MBA straightaway but my friend my personal experience says, that will not reap you as much benefit as you want because there are lots of my friends who straight away did MBA after engineering and they did land up with job but those jobs were like 6 or 7 lakhs per annum, this kinda package you usually get after working in an organization for like 3 years. So there is a need to do MBA from a good college. According to me, try for a good job and during job try to score above 700 score and then apply for all desired MBA colleges abroad. Also in the process do keep in the mind the fee structure of colleges abroad. MBA is one of the costliest courses in US and it is not easy to arrange money for the same. I have heard that you guys don’t even get student loan in Pakistan and in India government banks don’t give you loan above 15 lakhs, and I am pretty sure most of the good management colleges abroad will have expenses above 15 lakhs.
Thanks Ashish.
Hi HSB,
This is bhargav. I have got admits for MICHIGAN TECH, UMASS Lowell, Old Dominion univs in EE for MS for Fall2012 with tution fee around 9L
I have avg profile GRE1060, TOEFL82, 71% no backlogs, 2national level conferences and some national level PPTs, meets, etc.
I got job in SASKEN Communications as R&D engineer with 3.2 LPA & 3 years bond(full pay during training period which lasts for 8-10 months) posting propably in july. Looks like good company to start as a fresher(+ve OL reviews)
I really struggling to take a decision as i am not sure about the job oppertunities in US after completion of my MS!
My main motto is to earn as much as possible and come back ti INDIA after 5years or so.
I also want to know whether job experience will help in finding jobs after MS?
I don’t hav problems with location but investment for MS now is a bit matter to my family as we are typical middle class indians.
Please do reply me as i am in very crutial stage of my life and i wil be very thankful to u, if u help me to take a decision.
Well Bhargav, I don’t have a very great advise for you. What I know from my experiences is R&D opportunity with Sasken is really a great opportunity but three years bond really sucks. Also you have really good credentials and I believe that you can get through really good ranking university in US but I don’t see any of those listed there so you might better your chances there by good GRE score and back it up R&D experience. You might even land up with scholarship. But I am really not sure what to do with bond period, maybe go through contract document and find out how much money you have to pay if you break the bond and other things and try out some pathway through.
Hi!!I have completed my B.E. in mechanical engineering.I am currently teaching at an engineering college.The college is new with their first batch in Third year.I wish to work two years more and then do my M.S.I would like to know whether my teaching experience will be counted for T.A. or for a full time job after completion of my M.S.
HI Rohit,
We have T. A. stuff here in oz too and I think your experience will surely help you to get T. A. but I would encourage you to try writing some publications, white papers, look out for patent etc. This can really bright your chances to get T. A. and also I would suggest you not to waste much time and start the process of GRE, TOEFL and applications because according to my understanding the best person to answer this question will be the professor of the course you are planning to undertake in your desired university. He can easily tell you your chances of getting T. A.. There are lots of possibilities my friend. Like the desired university does not need T. A. because they only consider students enrolled in P. H. D for teaching assistance(that’s what happened to me) at A. N. U or that university does not have enough funds to hire more T. A. and professor themselves can handle stuff and so on. So please my friend give GRE, TOEFL. Apply to all universities, select few universities, write email to professors and ask all these questions.
Best of luck,
Ashish
Hello HSB. This is a great article that you have posted.
Dear Ashish,
Greetings! I am a B.Tech Biotech student, is it fine if I work for an IT company after my B.tech and then apply for higher in the subject that I would like to major in. Because usually we biotech students are not placed in core companies rite after B.Tech, but IT companies do take us. I would request you to please acknowledge my question.
Thank You.
Hi Kunal,
I really don’t have much idea how an IT experience will help you with biotechnology career but if I were you, I would have sought job in biotech field, maybe some IT department of a biotech firm or something. I would suggest you that you should look job in your own field because that will help you building up a strong application for very good universities abroad and build up firm knowledge and ground for your future career.
You can do a research on all companies who have biotech profiles and try applying to all of them. If you are keen on biotech career, I would suggest you to apply for John Hopkins University where biotech stands top in the world. Write emails to professor in biotech department expressing you interest in biotech field and ask them straight away what makes your application strong for Johns Hopkins and what are your chances of getting admission. Do exactly what they say? It’s good to also ask if you have any chances for scholarship or are they any chances of department giving scholarship. If I get admission there, I will blindly choose John Hopkins over other universities, even if I have to pay full fees. It’s like Harvard and Stanford for people having keen interest in medical profession or biotech.
If you don’t land up with job in biotech field, don’t waste much of your time. Just get into a decent university in biotech field.
Regards,
Ashish
Hi HSB. This is chandu I follow your website very regularly.I have done my B-tech(ECE) in the year 2010 with 64.33% and 4backlogs .my GRE score was 810,Toefl -90 applied for F-1visa on Gannon univ and have got rejected in the month of oct,nov(2010) and dec(2011) I am working right from oct-2010 to till date as a software consultant in a Central govt. Firm .I am planning to rewrite GRE and IELTS and apply for 2013 Spring intake. so my problem is my brother is been to us for his masters in the year 2009 which might be the reason of my rejection previous apart from the LOW GRE score of mine.so all i need is a suggestion from HSB that does a work experience really an added advantage as my salary is 15000 per month.So how far can i show my savings to the VO.and do you think it would really work out if i apply for a VISA, provided my brother is still in USA.
I hope many of us face the same situation
Awaiting For Your Valuable Suggestion
Not much. You need to get improve your GRE Score.
Hi HSB,
I have an exp of 5 years and have been to US last year for 6 months on L1.
If i apply for F1, is there any chance that it may get rejected for the above reasons ?
@HSB – +1
Agreed to your points 4 and 8…They were informative 🙂
Thanks for posting!!!
Hi Ashish,
I completely agree with you on this article. Job experience does matter when it comes to the application process. Many good universities do consider candidates who have relevant work experience. I am a final year student of B.E. Civil Engineering and will be applying for Fall 2014 session in the US. I will be working for L&T which will definitely give me an edge over others when it comes to the application process.
Excellent post.. Thanks Ashish arora. n HSB !!
so ashish garu ,
u are discouraging freshers who immediately go for masters aftr thry b.tech,
seriously,
every aspect has its own advantages n dis-advantages.
so, u mean immediate masters after b.tech is a sin…
what nonsense are u talking.?
it is totalyy discouragingggggggggggggggggg!!!
u mean ppl who have no experience should not do masterssss
u mean, they wont get oncampus jobs, no good gradessss?,…
i am a fresher , i am going for masters ,fall2012,
completely discouraging yar..too much it is..
A lot of articles have different perspectives, it all boils down to you on taking the decision. I think it all depends on the student perspective
Read it properly 😛 !!
You should not get discouraged with this article. Writer has just stated his perspective based on his experience. I have another perspective on this. Couple of years ago, I was in similar situation like yours. I did not had any prior experience , I graduated at the pick of recession with no job, but after 3months I got an internship on my OPT and finally, it got converted to full time. All of my batch-mates without any experience were working as full within 6 month of their graduation.
You should try to get internship before you graduate, that will open many door for full time. If that does not work go for certification and professional training related to your field. At the end, 29 months OPT after MS is life saver for freshers. If you plan smartly there is no reason to worry. So don’t get discouraged and go ahead with your MS with open mind. All the best.
Dear Aparna,
You have not done a sin and you should not be feeling bad about the fact that you have made a decision to pursue education straight after your graduation. However, I am really not sure how calculative or appropriate your decision is. I think someone made a very good point in some article and all people have different perspective to gaining education. Some of them are very passionate about certain skills and technology and are ready to go to PHD level into it, while others just need a job in US to have a steady salary or a steep growth career path.
What I wanted to convey through this article is that all those people who are straight away going for education without experience have to MORE CAUTIOUS in terms of grades, job hunt, internship, OPTS, skill up-gradation etc because they need to realize that experience people will create a tough competition for them and I have stated this earlier, US is a free economy so sometimes they hire people from anywhere from the world, do outsourcing and considers everything for a good business so opportunities and competition seems to be less for you guys. Well don’t they say, if you are really passionate about your dreams leave no stone unturn!!
Best of luck!!!
Ashish
so opportunities and competition seems to be MORE for you guys* …sorry typo there…
Hi All,
I agree with this person’s view. I have three years of experience in my field and I can clearly stand out of the crowd. Due to experience the way I answer in interviews or complete certain task with ease is all because I have gone through it.
Yes , it does not mean others with little or no experience cant make it big or wont get a job right after their education. But in general I have seen that experience people have very mature and professional approach towards life & have an edge over non experienced students.
Bro just wanted to clarify :
Freshers( Zero Exp) get chance for internships and the experienced guys donot? If i understand correctly, is it so?
Hi All,
Experience is always an asset but going for early studies and getting degrees is also an important task in life. The experience teaches you the job skills and managing your works. Freshers will be able to get internships thats true. But nowadays, for university graduates jobs are slightly less and everybody wants experience guys. Check any advertisements etc. It always says that. campus interviews are being reduced.
Thanks
Hey,
I have done my Bachelors in computer engineering from a good college in India.
I graduated in 2011 and am currently working full time in a software developer company in USA(on H1B visa).
I’m considering getting a masters degree in computer sc. from USA. But have not yet taken my GRE or TOEFL. I dont have any publications or projects to back my application, just the job experince and my interest in software development.
Can you help me decide if this is a wise decision. Will it be worth the money I will spend(and not earn for those 1.5-2 yrs). Is there a chance of getting a better job(better work and better salary).
What will be a good time for Masters if I do decide to do it.
I have tried reading on the internet and have got 2 divided opinions:
1. If you already have a job in USA and earning enough then dont go for masters since most international students do it to get a step in the US job market.
2. It does not matter if you have a job in USA, its still wise to get a masters because it guarentees a steeper growh curve in professional life.
First thing is check the course or field you are interested in and more prospects for future in that field. Then only get to study. If u study computers, study for about less time max 2 years and get to job. Here in US, job sector is becoming slow, so if you have a good job in India, please do not leave and continue. You will not be given permanent job in US even after ur degree. Its generally contract ones. Check all the possibilities before taking steps. Its my experience too came to canada, after doing a job for 3.5 yrs.
I think all these things change per person, When you see a successful person and tries to track down where it all happened, sometimes you see people starting as a student, sometimes you see people coming from work-experience.
From what i have experienced in US, i say that if the student has any idea of what he is doing in Under-grad about the courses he/she is taking .. coming directly to graduate studies is not a problem. If he/she does not know anything in four years about his courses, he/she gonna have a tough time here competing
I see everything as a challenge, so for me coming directly from under-grad without knowing what is present here and what i should look for ..Its all a good experience trying to compete with all different kinds of things in life, i do not look back and think that i should have done a job.
Fine article, I should say, and HSB’s comments were very good, as usual. But again, as the majority is, people are always concentrating on jobs. What about research, the R&D sector? I understand jobs pay a lot more than what you earn sitting in a lab wearing your university sweatshirts, but I personally feel this justifies our journey more than earning some thousands of dollars per year. When your primary goal is research, and you wish to continue to Ph.D., it is better to be on the learning streak, rather than working for a couple of years, and then going to the US. As you said, anyhow one will not be earning quite much in that short span. My two cents.