I just finished my MBA and graduated in April 2007 my first degree was in Business Administration and Management but with no matching job. I 've applied to so many jobs and nothing seems to be happening, currently I work as a clerical officer but this is not challenging enough and I will like something better. Please advice.
Too many degrees; no beffiting job
- Thread starter oakrise
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aircobra19
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Perhaps do a specific certification in a specific skill.
What experience do you have? Employers look for professional experience to back up a degree. Have you tried graduate programs, big banks and accounting companies hire grads?
Brendan Burgess
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Where did you do your MBA?
I know UCD only take on people who have some years' work experience at a reasonable level.
In America, employers do hire MBAs with no experience. But Irish and British employers don't pay the same respect to it or to any other academic degree. They will look for relevant experience and a track record of achievement which is difficult to show in a Clerical Officer job.
In fact, you might have to remove your MBA from your CV as it will make you overqualified for most jobs for which your experience qualifies you.
Brendan
I know UCD only take on people who have some years' work experience at a reasonable level.
In America, employers do hire MBAs with no experience. But Irish and British employers don't pay the same respect to it or to any other academic degree. They will look for relevant experience and a track record of achievement which is difficult to show in a Clerical Officer job.
In fact, you might have to remove your MBA from your CV as it will make you overqualified for most jobs for which your experience qualifies you.
Brendan
Both degress and masters in business administration are a good qualification, but true, they do not have a "matching" job, like law or medicine.
I know plenty of people with MBAs and great careers, but the CV only got them interviews, and they got a job by impressing at interview and showing that they had a drive to do the job. If you are unsure about what you want to do, maybe this is affecting your performance at interview.
I know plenty of people with MBAs and great careers, but the CV only got them interviews, and they got a job by impressing at interview and showing that they had a drive to do the job. If you are unsure about what you want to do, maybe this is affecting your performance at interview.
This is just a suggestion ... maybe you should come from a different angle ie ... forget about your qualifications and what you have done before ... ask yourself what do you want? What really interests you? What gets you going? You are going to spend enough time working, might as well be something you enjoy doing. Then look at what specific qualification or skill or experience that you need to do this job. Then target that and take the appropriate steps.
If you are going to have to start at the bottom maybe you should get into an organisation that has a general interest for you.
If you have a bit of experience you should be able to figure out what you want. Here's a very simple way of trying to figure that out.
1. What is your dream job?
2. What job would you hate most?
3. What job that a mate of your does do you really like?
Then do a job analysis/description of them and see what is common to each ... with a bit of luck you might find a trend.
(ie I want a stable company ... I like numbers ... etc etc and see where it takes you)
If you are virtually a graduate (less than 2 years experience), and you've done a MBA, maybe heading abroad is an option. If you are staying here, the large companies like the banks, who have graduate schemes could be an option, as in the long term the MBA will come in useful and they might even give you some reward like grading you on a higher pay scale in the short term.
MBA's are well paid in the likes of London and the US.
Here I've seen people do mba's because they want a refresher type course, 10-15 years after college or they are an engineer/IT person who wants more business skills(they have risen to IT/Engineering manager and want to move higher to general or operations manager and need the business angle). But what is common is they already have a knowledge base/skill/business that they know well.
Remember that when you read stats about MBA's (our graduates earn €100k within 2 years etc etc ... a good few of these graduates are people who own/have companies or already senior within companies, they have achieved this level without an MBA. Yes the MBA does help their career after that, but stats can be misleading as it doesnt imply that the MBA got them to that level or high salary.)
In fact I think I saw a survey recently that said that of the 97/98 universities worldwide that have triple accreditation in (us, uk and country of origin) that carysfort rated last and Trinity somewhere around 60, in terms of salaries and jump in salaries of graduates.(maybe that shows that Irish employers aren't as respectful to mba's as our international colleagues are)
IMHO, an MBA in ireland without experience does not get you a mid to senior role in Ireland ... maybe the US or London yes.
Best of luck with the job hunt !
Hope it works out for you !
If you are going to have to start at the bottom maybe you should get into an organisation that has a general interest for you.
If you have a bit of experience you should be able to figure out what you want. Here's a very simple way of trying to figure that out.
1. What is your dream job?
2. What job would you hate most?
3. What job that a mate of your does do you really like?
Then do a job analysis/description of them and see what is common to each ... with a bit of luck you might find a trend.
(ie I want a stable company ... I like numbers ... etc etc and see where it takes you)
If you are virtually a graduate (less than 2 years experience), and you've done a MBA, maybe heading abroad is an option. If you are staying here, the large companies like the banks, who have graduate schemes could be an option, as in the long term the MBA will come in useful and they might even give you some reward like grading you on a higher pay scale in the short term.
MBA's are well paid in the likes of London and the US.
Here I've seen people do mba's because they want a refresher type course, 10-15 years after college or they are an engineer/IT person who wants more business skills(they have risen to IT/Engineering manager and want to move higher to general or operations manager and need the business angle). But what is common is they already have a knowledge base/skill/business that they know well.
Remember that when you read stats about MBA's (our graduates earn €100k within 2 years etc etc ... a good few of these graduates are people who own/have companies or already senior within companies, they have achieved this level without an MBA. Yes the MBA does help their career after that, but stats can be misleading as it doesnt imply that the MBA got them to that level or high salary.)
In fact I think I saw a survey recently that said that of the 97/98 universities worldwide that have triple accreditation in (us, uk and country of origin) that carysfort rated last and Trinity somewhere around 60, in terms of salaries and jump in salaries of graduates.(maybe that shows that Irish employers aren't as respectful to mba's as our international colleagues are)
IMHO, an MBA in ireland without experience does not get you a mid to senior role in Ireland ... maybe the US or London yes.
Best of luck with the job hunt !
Hope it works out for you !
Very good question oakrise, and some really excellent and helpful replies. The same question has often come up in this forum before along the lines ' I have a Phd in xxx...' what do I do next?
Obviously these, like yourself are above average intellegence, and yet seem to drift in post grad qualifications and when completed, then wonder if it was benificial or not. I would have expected that modern youth would envestigate the potential opportunities available with the various post grad qualifications before doing them!
Just a thought, and good luck.
Obviously these, like yourself are above average intellegence, and yet seem to drift in post grad qualifications and when completed, then wonder if it was benificial or not. I would have expected that modern youth would envestigate the potential opportunities available with the various post grad qualifications before doing them!
Just a thought, and good luck.
Lipstick69
Registered User
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Just my word of advice - if you are looking for a job with 'too many degrees', perhaps it would be an idea to use correct spelling and punctuation.
S
swordshead
Guest
Just what i was going to say-silly reply!
Yeah - I agree. It could well be a pertinent point and maybe the original poster has not thought of it as a possible reason for failing to secure certain jobs?
Are there any promotions going in your department or others to which you could transfer?
Z
z105
Guest
Or even please advise ?
Bank Manager
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Hi Oakrise, just a couple of quick observations....
a) obviously you are acedemically very well qualified
b) you have attended a number of interviews and haven't been successful
Have you ever received any 'interview coaching'? If you haven't I'd suggest you at least explore this avenue - in a situation where an interview panel are 'torn' between two (or more) candidates who can all do the job, the small things take on a greater significance when trying to separate the candidates.
It may be a possibility that you need to tweak your interview style. Thnink you should explore it, even if its only to eliminate it as a reason you may not have been successful so far.
Finally, when unsuccessful at interview it's always a good idea to seek feedback from the interviwers as to why they didn't choose you. Again it might flag something to you. Hope that's helpful.
Best of luck in your future career.
BM
I would agree with the previous poster about getting interview coaching. I was attending interviews for a long time, getting no where, on advice of a friend who interviews, went for a coaching session.
I got the first job after it - really was the best job I went for interview for, would have hate to have messed up the chance.
I got the first job after it - really was the best job I went for interview for, would have hate to have messed up the chance.