A second master's is worth considering when it provides a qualification or substantial training your intended work requires. A relevant job may be the stronger choice when you already meet the education requirement but lack experience. Compare what each option would add before committing another year or more to study.
Identify the gap before choosing a course
After a broad degree such as international relations, further study can feel like a way to become more employable. The difficulty is deciding what would actually change. A specialist qualification can meet an education requirement; practical work can build experience. A university's reputation does not, by itself, tell you which gap its course will fill.
Begin with a small set of jobs you would genuinely consider. Separate their education requirements from their experience and skills requirements. UNICEF's careers guidance, for example, describes relevant advanced degrees and professional experience as distinct requirements for International Professional roles, with additional conditions in each vacancy.1 Another degree does not automatically resolve both.
If you are still deciding which work interests you, start with the career options after an international relations master's. Choosing a type of work makes the education decision more concrete.
When another master’s could help
Further study has a clearer purpose when it teaches methods you cannot reasonably learn through the work available to you. Someone moving towards quantitative research may need sustained teaching in statistics, programming and research design. A prospective researcher should compare the course's research training with the preparation their intended doctorate requires.
Read the compulsory modules, assessment and entry requirements together. LSE's Applied Social Data Science MSc, for example, combines programming and research design with a capstone project and requires evidence of quantitative training.2 Programming, assessment and project work give an applicant concrete features to compare with their existing training.
Ask what you would be able to do at graduation that you cannot do now. Look for assessed work, individual feedback and opportunities to practise the methods your intended jobs require. Compare shorter assessed courses as well, especially if you need one particular skill rather than a new qualification.
When relevant work could help more
If vacancies repeatedly ask for experience you do not have, examine the work available to you before applying for another degree. Relevant experience could involve coordinating a project, preparing research for a client or maintaining information that colleagues rely on.
The job title is less useful than the learning conditions. Ask what you would produce, who would review it and whether your responsibilities would develop. A junior role with substantive work and regular supervision can give you examples for later applications. A role consisting of unrelated routine tasks may offer less preparation for your intended field, even within a well-known organisation.
Work can also help you choose a later specialism. Experiencing a programme's reporting demands may reveal an interest in evaluation; assisting research may expose a need for stronger methods. Further study can then answer a problem you understand.
Compare a real course with a real job
Consider a hypothetical choice between a specialist data course and a paid junior research role. The course offers structured teaching in methods. The job offers practice maintaining a research database and preparing tables under supervision. Neither is automatically the better investment.
If you lack the foundations needed to understand the analysis, teaching and assessment may be the priority. If you already have those foundations but have never used them for someone else's project, the job may fill the more immediate gap. Avoid comparing an idealised degree with the least interesting duties of a job, or the reverse.
- Learning: name the methods, assignments or responsibilities each option provides.
- Feedback: identify who will review your work and how often.
- Eligibility: check which intended roles you could apply for afterwards and what would still be missing.
- Affordability: compare tuition, living costs and lost earnings with confirmed funding and actual pay.
Before committing to another degree
You do not need certainty about an entire career to make the next choice. You do need a reason for the investment beyond hoping that another qualification will make the job search easier.
Before accepting, answer three questions. If the connection is still unclear, ask course staff, graduates or the prospective manager for more detail.
- The gap: Which qualification, method or experience do your target jobs require that you do not yet have?
- The result: What assessed work or supervised responsibility would this particular option give you?
- The cost: Can you sustain the fees, time and lost earnings? A useful next step should leave you with a capability, qualification or experience you can name.
