Time to get a master’s? More jobs requiring one

By Brittany Hackett

Graduation is almost here for the Flagler College class of 2006. Students will enter the workforce armed with ambition and bachelor’s degrees, but for some it will not be enough.

The job markets for some graduates are beginning to require a master’s degree for entry-level positions. According to Paul Carpino, director of Career Services, two of the fields that most strongly encourage a master’s degree are psychology and sociology.

“Education and any helping profession usually require a master’s degree for an entry level position,” Carpino said. So, how does a student know if he or she should pursue a master’s degree after graduating from Flagler?

Carpino’s advice would be to utilize the online resources offered in the Career Services center, such as the SIGI 3 database, o*NET Online, or the Occupational Outlook Handbook online. These three services are designed to help students research their potential career paths before entering the job market and can even outline the training and degree requirements needed.

“These are resources students can tap into long before senior year,” Carpino said. “All the information is out there on entry-level positions and students need to engage in these programs early on (to benefit from them.)” Students should start this research as early as sophomore year.

Another research strategy students can use to discover degree requirements would be to pull job listings from the target field off of the Internet. According to Carpino, two valuable pieces of information can be learned from job postings: the required degree and the preferred degree.

“Wisdom in the job market is to target the preferred degree,” Carpino said.

Web sites such as careerbuilder.com and yahoohotjobs.com allow users to enter keywords specific to their undergraduate majors. The user can then pull job positions based on the degree requirements or preferences. According to Carpino, the location, job responsibilities, and sometimes even the salary can all be determined simply by looking at the job posting.

“Awareness is the key and students have an extreme advantage with online resources,” he said.

The Career Services center is open Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. For more, visit the center’s Web page at www.Flagler.edu, in the “Students/Faculty/Staff” section.