What is the best Masters to do - in terms of job prospects afterwards

[Munichfam5]

DS finished his Music Tech degree and is struggling to get a career type job - so he is looking at doing a Masters degree

Can anyone help with what are the best subjects to do as a masters that can lead on to a career in industry ?

thank you

What does he want to do? Music production?

What does he want to for work? I know a pile of people with music tech qualifications and none of them have ever worked in music. Apart from one who worked in a gituar shop as a retail assistant.
None of them could afford to do internships or volunteer work to get experience or don't have the connections to land a unpaid role. The courses spit out more graduates that the sector can employ sadly.
He's needs to be getting as much relevant experience as he can, and I'm not sure a Masters would help.

A few years ago I would have said computer science but not now.

IMO if he can’t get a job now then a masters isn’t going to help, it’s just kicking the can down the road and he will be even more over educated.

He needs to focus on getting A job and then finding out what roles and opportunities exist and which skills he needs to get them and going from there.

How about getting a teaching qualification, a PGCE or the like, and teaching music whilst trying to get production experience on the side? I think a lot of the experience he’ll need will be low pay or even unpaid. And I agree with previous posters saying that unfortunately jobs in this industry are scarce.

There are loads of conversion degrees available - psychology, law, AI/data security etc - mainly with a specific profession in mind. You can even train in law without a law degree now (solicitor’s route), so if he was interested in IP/copyright/music performance contract law etc he might be able to sell himself as having specialist knowledge to get into a placement using that? As others have mentioned, there is also teaching. A friend I met on an MA in creative writing who had a music tech degree. He’d been working in the local Housing dept for 10 years as couldn’t get a music industry job. He is now a copy editor and makes a nice living doing that.

So, the answer very much depends on whether he has any interests in particular professions?

Depends what career / profession your DS is interested in, but as others have said a masters isn’t in itself going to make him more employable ( as a former recruiter it would only be of interest if it was relevant to the role as he had been studying it full time - so what ? . Studying part time and gaining a Masters while working would be of interest as it shows work ethic / ability to organise and time manage ) He might be better looking at a PGCE for teaching or a conversion degree as long as he has a profession in mind.

Thanks so much for your responses

yes music is a hard Industry to find a job in
but the advice you’ve given is really helpful
especially @CautiousLurker01 the info on conversion degrees
and I do think a PGCE could be good
thanks again

@Munichfam5 the previous Government was actively encouraging/funding people to take masters-level conversion courses in AI and Data Science because they considered those skills to be most needed. The sponsorship funding may have dried up now (and was only ever for candidates that met the diversity criteria), but the courses are presumably still running: https://www.officeforstudents.org.uk/for-students/planning-to-study/study-artificial-intelligence-and-data-science-as-a-postgraduate/why-study-ai-or-data-science/

If your son does become a teacher, hopefully he will give his future students some pointers about supply versus demand in the jobs market before they choose their degree. 🙂

As someone who got a Masters for the very same reason I'd say don't.

Complete waste of time and money. I enjoyed it but was did nothing to enhance career prospects and I spent the year skint while my peers were all financially independent.

Unless they are pursuing an academic career I can't see the value in an Masters. Only worth it where sponsored by an employer

This

Does he have any work experience? I am an employer (and have taken on some recent Music Tech graduates) and am far more interested in those candidates who have work experience and than those who have a Masters degree.

The problem with a lot of degrees (excluding those like medicine, law, architecture) is that they don't actually qualify you to do anything, and completing a Masters (apart from PGCE etc) still doesn't make you qualified for anything.