To consider this Masters Degree?

[Cherrywood2021]

I have an undergrad degree in History from a redbrick University but within a couple of years of graduating I had fallen into a career in sales.

I spent some time in my late twenties working as a (still fairly junior) manager at a high-profile corporate in London and would probably call that the pinnacle of my career! Moved back to my hometown and now work in sales at a perfectly nice company nearby. I like my colleagues and my boss and I don’t dislike the work per se, but being honest few people graduate university with big dreams of climbing the career ladder all the way to…..Account Manager.

The thought of another 30-40 years in an industry which I have little interest in leaves me feeling flat. My professional self-confidence has also taken a beating recently and I’m wondering…is this IT? Is this all I’m capable of achieving? With every day that goes by I seem to feel less challenged but equally less on-top of my game.

I would like to apply to do a MSc part-time. I am determined to choose a field that genuinely interests me and am considering International Relations but is it ridiculous to choose a subject that I have no previous experience in, neither professionally nor by merit of my undergrad degree?

Am I going to feel completely out of my depth from day one?

Is it unrealistic to hope that a genuine interest in the area combined with a further decade of life-experience will equip me enough to at least get started?

Has anyone else completed post-grad courses in a field outside of their usual area of expertise?

Good luck if you go for it. Research the options.

Getting back into the discipline of studying, even for a fortnight on a language course, I found a struggle.

No you're not being remotely unrealistic-you never know where it will lead and it might really inspire you!

Go for it :) do you research and maybe have a chat with a professional careers advisor to explore alternative careers.

Are you hoping it will lead to a career change - if so, you will be up against an army of other applicants who have interned in relevant organisations. If just doing for interest, not a problem. I would however find a university who has a good employability record from past students on the course then make contact with the admissions tutor to discuss what you want to get from the course and what their requirements are. Studying is fab but just worried how realistic your hope's are re employment.

I deffo don’t think you should stick to a career you don’t like for 30 years, but if you want to do the MA for a career change rather than just for interest, I would do a bit of research into what jobs you could get out of it and if you’d realistically want to do them (eg if you had to move away from your area).

It’s probably a big financial and time commitment so if there was a way of testing the water of this area that would be good too.

It might also be worth considering range of areas before you jump.

There’s an organisation called Career Shifters that I think is good and worth you taking a look at.

Good luck!

Why not do some International Relations courses somewhere like [[https://www.futurelearn.com/ FutureLearn]]to get you back into the swing of things and check that you really do enjoy the subject enough to invest the time and funds for a masters?

you could do a second degree, there are some Stem subjects which still qualify for funding so long as they are done part time.

no idea about this particular masters sorry,

Do you speak a second language? International Relations may be a tricky area to get into if you're not bi/multilingual

My son is finishing his History degree this year and is planning to do a Masters in either International Relations or Politics. He has researched it so it looks as if a History degree is a good basis for these Masters.
Look into it, talk to the universities. You can’t lose anything.

I'm an account manager. Worked
My way up from sales. I earn a decent amount.

I've moved from that to business development manager. I'm on target to earn about £75k in commission.

My basic is good.

What do you intend to do with the Masters? My degree is in that field and, honestly, none of us really went on to use it. If you want to do it just for interest that’s grand, but if you think it’s going to open doors in international organisations or something, it probably won’t.

It can. IR is a fantastic subject. I wasn’t clever enough to get on to IR so did an MSc in Government instead. It finally opened doors for me but it took a while and sheer perseverance. I would say if you are passionate about the subject go for it. And open doors. I am not sure where you will study IR but look at the careers services at the uni and really push to talk to alumni who have done the course and where they are now

I know people with top class undergrads, great masters in IR who are multi (speak 4 languages fluently) and had a hard time finding work.

I know others who walked into great jobs (mostly via connections or after internships).

I'd look at what you want to be doing and really research that and then look at masters. I'd not pick a masters and hope for a job at the end, of my goal was to have a more interesting career.

Further study us sensible, but in this current economic climate plus your desire to not end up in an unrelated job, I'd look very carefully into it.

I feel like my post came across very negatively, so I would say I absolutely loved my studies and they were really interesting. History isn’t a bad background to have for it. If you’ve got a grounding in theory from your History undergrad some of that will translate to IR theory.

It massively depends whether you're happy to relocate - if opportunities are thin on the ground where you live you will need to do this to get a foot in the door.

NB the only people I know working in international relations (I know 8 people) all live either in London or overseas on a posting they got after living in London for several years.

I think - do it because you are interested. But what job are you aiming for? We've had people apply to our company recently with five Masters degrees, a PhD and at least 3 fluent languages but very little relevant work experience - which they seemed to want to ignore. Reading their CV left you feeling utterly bewildered as to where they were going or what they wanted to achieve...my advice - plan your route and make it seem like you were always heading there! Good luck!

I did a similar degree then did a MA in IR for similar reasons. Before you do it, I'd consider what career you'd like at the end of it. I say that as IR is quite a broad umbrella which is partly why I chose it. But I started to regret that for a few reasons. One - the IR cohort was massive and that made it difficult to make friends for me. So do consider the type of environment you'll thrive in.

Two - I found the IR theory modules the least interesting, and found the ones which were more specific and practical more interesting (and if I'd done those master's then I'd probably have had more interactions with professors, etc, and would have been more likely to get into related industries.) I did it at KCL whose War Studies dept is great and it was difficult not to get an internship (which is pretty much the starting point for most roles). The courses I wish I'd done instead were Security Studies and Terrorism & something or other.

Three - It was an MA rather than an MSC. It didn't include statistics, etc. If I'd done statistics, it would have opened up more career options in analysis, etc.

Also, if you're looking for a general career change, the civil service could be a good option for you? There's the graduate programme, the Fast Stream, or just applying for entry level positions. Unless you take a role in operations (e.g. Border Force) you can work your way up fairly quickly and the roles are diverse.

Pick the career you want to change to and then work backwards for what qualifications or experience/internships you may require from their.. and start saving (it will give you more options when you need to work for free intern

PS I do work in an area related to my IR master's in the civil service. It was a bit of a fluke - I was 6 months in, working in some random area, had an intro chat with my new boss and mentioned the MA. A week later he said 'oh, this team is looking for people'.

I think my MA, or internship really, got me an interview at the Cabinet Office as a MENA analyst too, but it was, like most roles, advertised internally only.

It definitely sounds interesting but it definitely can take a lot of resources (time and money) so it’s worth looking into what you’ll gain out of it. If it’s purely for interest then go ahead. I’m interested in what those said about having relevant experience in their companies. Are those with transferable skills also not considered?

from there not their

Do it! You never know where it might lead. I was in a similar boat to you and picked a master’s where I had zero knowledge of the field, I just thought it sounded fascinating and wanted to prove to myself I could do something using my brain after a decade in shitty clerical roles. Everyone else on the course was a decade younger and had much more relevant experience, but I LOVED it, ended up getting a high distinction and stayed on to do a funded PhD. Best thing I ever did. I had (some) savings behind me, studied part time so I could keep my day job if it didn’t work out, and had a very supportive partner and family, which was crucial. You are absolutely right that a decade or so of life experience will help - I was able to keep a sense of perspective that many of the younger students struggled to achieve, and just having that worldliness - those extra years of having kids, working, reading, following the news, etc - helped massively. Good luck!

Thank you all.

Great questions regarding what career I see the Masters leading to and I don't have any preconceptions about that. The decision would be 70% fuelled by a desire to learn, to add a further dimension to my CV and to (as Seventytwo put it so well) "prove" to myself that I can still achieve something. I am not rigid in my expectations of it leading to one specific career, more that I hope it would generally prove beneficial in opening doors to other types of job that wouldn't necessarily be a fit for me if I didn't have an international outlook. IR appears to equip alumni well for a variety of jobs from charity work to think tanks, security, data analysis etc. These are all areas that are a fairly good match to my personal strengths but there is no singular job that I have set my sights on.

I do speak a second language yes.

I will also say I am extremely fortunate to be able to afford to do this partly for pleasure as well as career progression.

A small part of this may stem from the fact that I am very good at my existing job but there is nowhere for me to progress to and I can tell it suits my employer to keep me where I am. I worry that I will start to believe this is all I'm capable of amounting to and whilst I could look elsewhere for a more senior position or move into BD as a previous poster suggested, it would feel like I was binding myself to this career even further.

jellyfrizz thank you so much for that excellent link. I'll definitely take a look at some of those.

Ive just started an IT masters after years in salesand admin, I have no experience at all. Its tough and im totally out of my depth a lot of the time but I am enjoying the challenge. Mine is purely for career development though i am not sure i would persist just for pleasure or to prove I could, it takes up a huge amount of my free time keeping on top of the assignments and reading tons of research papers