Education advice pls! MSc vs MBA

Hi all!

This is my first post here, so be gentle!

I was meant to start work for an established security company back in September. After many weeks of delays, they have now cancelled the contract so I am now officially unemployed. I am 37 yrs old, and have 12 years experience of running my own drinks business and a further 3 years at a very senior and high profile level in the security industry. I want to return to college and my options are pretty much as follows:

1. MSc Security & Risk Management (Distance Learning) from Leicester Uni (Starting Feb 2011)
2. IMI Henley MBA (Not starting til Oct 2011)
3. Henley MBA via distance learning (Starting March 2011)

Basically I am looking for some opinions on whether I should just go ahead and do the MBA which is nice and broad and would leave my options wide open. Or should I specialise in the the security masters as I will probably find it easy to get a good job in that industry, and then go on from there?

Thanks in advance for any or all help!

R

It might be worth considering what you did in your primary degree as I would be inclined to do something in a non cognate area. For example, if you did a BComm, you might be better off with something other than the MBA. If you did something cognate to neither, you probably want to ask yourself if you see yourself qstaying in the security business long-term; in which case, the security related masters may be the one to choose, assuming there is some management/accounting/finance.

Aisling,

Thanks for the reply. My main degree is a BA in BUsiness Studies and I also have 14 years experience in running my own sales/retail business, so I think you are probably right to do the MSc!!

Yep - think you're right R. I had a similiar choice a few years ago, had a business degree working in a technical area. I opted for the technical masters as opposed to the second business degree. Looking through, UN/WHO jobs recently, it was explicitly stated that the primary and masters would be ideally non cognate (or whatever word they used!)

If you're applying for a security industry job, the security masters will stand out. If not, and you're applying for something more general, you still have a general business degree behind you and you have demonstrated dedication to something that you were very good at by pursuing a masters in that field, albeit, you decided to move on to something else.