Pursuing postgraduate study in ICT

Some ICT employers will value postgraduate specialist knowledge as an asset. However, others may not. This means that you need to be clear about your reasons for spending a year, or three, in academia.

 

If you know from the outset why you are continuing with further study in ICT, you’ll get a lot more out of it by being able to focus on your fields of interest; you’ll also be better prepared to sell your postgraduate skills to employers and get the recognition you deserve for your extra academic effort.

 

Choosing a course

As a technical graduate you have three main options:

Master’s courses help people to specialise further in a particular area of technology, eg software engineering, bioinformatics, network design and enterprise computing. You can find out about the different Master’s options by looking at universities’ online postgraduate prospectuses and seeing what different courses are available.

 

If you have already found a subject area that you think you will enjoy researching, read up more about it and track down the research groups who are actively working in the area and can give you more advice about a PhD.

 

Do a literature search to check out the standing of these research groups within the research community. How frequently do they publish and in which journals? The activity and reputation of an individual research group can sometimes be more important than the standing of the university.  

 

Always take every opportunity to talk to the postgraduates and postdoctoral researchers in the groups you visit as they can give you realistic view of what life is really like in academia. Try to get a feel for how the supervisor runs the group and works with postgraduate students.

 

Transferring your skills

Problem-solving ability and innovative thinking rate highly as postgraduate advantages. Through further study, and PhD research in particular, postgraduates get into the habit of conceptualising and questioning, and this transfers well into the workplace.

 

Postgraduates are the ones more likely to run to a whiteboard and start putting down ideas when presented with a problem than a graduate fresh out of university. For this reason postgraduate experience is particularly sought after by employers that specialise in commercial research and development and in innovating new technology. 

 

While it is tempting to hide yourself away in the ivory towers of academia, never lose sight of the ICT world outside. 

 

Look for ways to develop your skills portfolio to ensure that you are irresistible to employers after you receive your degree. Teaching undergraduates and presenting papers at conferences are both excellent ways to develop your communication and presentation skills. 

 

Don’t forget to add some additional ICT strings to your bow while you still have access to university facilities. Pick up a programming language or two that you didn’t have chance to learn the first time round, even if you have to do it by yourself. They can be useful skills to add to your portfolio.

 

Job prospects

As a professional in the ICT industry who is considering embarking on postgraduate study, it must be foremost in your mind that your qualification must develop you into a (more) marketable commodity. The likelihood is that your company is requiring you to study a particular field because it needs it and, therefore, the theory is that you will be rewarded accordingly.

 

If your company does not feel the need to reward you, then your qualification could be beneficial to competitors who may be willing to up the ante.

 

One final point to remember is that – regardless of whether you are employed or still at university – choosing a postgraduate course with the aim of increasing your employability but without considering the market is not in the slightest bit sensible. No employer worth its salt would be willing to pay extra for (or in many cases employ) someone with the wrong qualifications, no matter how sparkling they may be.