Over the past few years, there’s been a trend amongst undergraduates in accountancy and financial management to opt for postgraduate studies before joining the workforce. Some reasons for their decision include a desire to specialise in an area that needs further study (like tax, or for the edge it might give them in their employment prospects.

However, not every accountancy and financial management employer looks for postgraduate qualifications among applications, unless a candidate is applying for a select area of specialisation that requires postgraduate studies. Instead, some firms  provide support further studies, with some companies even choosing to sponsor their graduate hires. With the addition of internal training, new graduate hires will also pick up skills that are more organisation-specific, and that helps the company in the best way possible.

If you’re still on the fence of whether you should pursue postgraduate studies, consider the following motive and objectives, and assess whether they reflect yours.

PURSUE postgraduate studies if...

You’re driven by interest: If you have a strong interest in a particular aspect of the accounting and financial management industry, explore it! But before you jump in headfirst, conduct thorough research into the contents of your course, as well as how it’ll benefit you in the area of work you want to go in upon completion of your studies. Additionally, postgraduate studies aren’t a walk in the park, so be sure that you stay committed to the cause.

Alternatively, you can explore this route if you discovered an interest in finance after wrapping up your undergraduate studies in a non-finance or unrelated area. If this is the case, postgraduate studies will benefit you when you start looking to enter the field!

It’s a networking opportunity: In this more connected world largely fuelled by the Digital Revolution, networking has become a vital and invaluable contributor to success. In this vein, forging new and solid contacts through networking opportunities over the course of postgraduate studies is another valid reason.

As most postgraduate students (whether part-time or full-time) typically have a few years of working experience under their belts, anyone you meet in the lecture theatre could be the person to help you climb the career ladder.

Gain a specialist skill: Due to the rigours of postgraduate study (yes, postgraduate programmes are far more intense than undergraduate courses), you’ll find yourself developing a variety of skills, such as time management, critical thinking and even resilience.

Ultimately, postgraduate studies are for graduates who’re looking to build a specialist skill and knowledge. Postgraduate degrees allow students to deep dive into their chosen field of study, in a manner far more advanced than at the undergraduate level. Because of this freedom, you’ll find yourself developing new ideas as well as the skills needed to implement them.

Although these skills may prove useful later on in your career, you also have to make sure to balance your newfound expertise with work experience to successfully mould yourself into a well-rounded worker.

DON'T pursue postgraduate studies if...

You’re looking to bury bad grades: It’s no secret that you can’t be good at everything, modules included. So, you may have gotten top marks for some modules, and completely dismal ones for others. But if you’re taking on a postgraduate degree to make up for the poor results you unfortunately got, you may want to think again.

Over the recruitment process, employers look for consistent academic ability instead of sudden spikes of excellence. In other words, even if your results in your postgraduate studies are impressive, recruiters will still check your undergraduate scores, and won’t exempt unsatisfactory results.

You want to avoid joining the workforce in this tough time: The global pandemic and following hostile economic climate might seem like a good reason to further your studies and put off joining the workforce for a while longer. In addition, constantly-changing safe distancing measures can lengthen already exhausting recruitment processes as companies grapple with them. But these are truthfully big no-nos.

Postgraduate studies are not only intensive endeavours – they’re expensive ones. In other words, this means that you may have to spend money you don’t have (and take out loans as a result), or should be saving up (now that the figurative rainy day is here). Add in the fact that no one knows how long this global pandemic will continue, and you won’t know if you’ll graduate with a postgraduate degree to a desolate hiring market and loans to service.

Moreover, this strategy to buy time may leave you without a clear motive for the further studies you’re looking to take on. This can be a disadvantage later during the recruitment process, as you may not be able to justify the extra time spent in academia to prospective employers.

Misconceived expectations: Because the job market is so competitive, some candidates have a mistaken notion that a postgraduate degree is a sure-fire way to boost their employability. Except that isn’t true.

Instead, in the current job climate, a postgraduate degree isn’t a definite factor in providing a competitive edge. If anything, internships, past work experiences and soft skills have more of an impact in determining an applicant’s worth to recruiters. These can be obtained during your years as an undergraduate in university, from placements and project work, to involvement in clubs and societies.

Choosing your university and course wisely

If you’ve gone through the points above and settled on pursuing postgraduate studies, then it’s time to conduct research on potential universities and courses. There’s a large variety of courses and universities to choose from, each with different course structures, requirements and expectations of its students.

For instance, NUS’ accountancy programme is more business administration-oriented. This promises a broader module and a more extensive choice of research.

On the other hand, NTU possesses an established staff you can leverage on for assistance and advise. However, due to high popularity, intakes tend to be large. This may limit your access to supervisors when you need to select one for your dissertation or thesis.

Lastly, SMU offers a different mode of teaching, with seminars and conferences acting as an integral part of the course.

These are not the only options, though. Although more expensive, Singapore also offers a wide range of twinning programmes found in private universities, such as SIM-UOL, SIM-UB and Kaplan, among others. The modules and papers will be the same as those from their university of origin (e.g. University Of London, University of Buffalo and Murdoch University), though preferred supervisors and facilitators may not always be in your country of residence.

A varied student population from numerous countries such as South Korea, China and India also make it an attractive route for some, as cultural awareness is one of the soft skills most students can build over their studies. However, language barriers may also serve as a source of frustration.

A helpful checklist

When choosing a course, there are a number of things some things to consider investigating and comparing:

• How to fund your studies (perhaps working while servicing bills or taking a loan)
• Reputation of institution and facilities offered (especially for less reputed twinning programmes)
• Teaching and research ratings
• Course content and structure (take note of their core and supplementary electives)
• Career paths and salaries of alumni
• Networking opportunities, industry affiliations and collaborations with other universities
• Your target employer’s preferred subject or course when recruiting

How postgraduate study can help job applications

If you had valid reasons to pursue postgraduate studies, and have done so, congratulations! Postgraduate studies aren’t easy, and they can be testaments to your character. As such, when you point out your postgraduate degree in your resume, prospective employers can glean these traits:

• Intellectual capacity: The deep dive you’ve taken into areas of study in postgraduate courses spell intellectual capacity to prospective employers. In addition, your deeper understanding of select concepts and knowledge may add value to your job. Some areas to demonstrate this are tax and corporate finance.
• Tenacity and resilience: As mentioned earlier, postgraduate programmes are rigorous, and usually involve strenuous amounts of research. Because of this, successfully completing postgraduate studies may stand as an indicator of your tenacity to recruiters. Additionally, the sustained effort of working on a dissertation or thesis also implies good self-discipline, organisational skills, as well as solid time management skills. These will be especially evident if you juggled your postgraduate studies with a job.
• Soft skills: Postgraduate studies usually involve copious amounts of presenting papers and group assignments to peers. These are effective in improving soft skills, including interpersonal and communication skills, along with the ability to work well in a team – all of which are top skills recruiters are always on the lookout for.
• A wider network: Most students in postgraduate courses would typically have spent some years in the workforce. Because of that, they recognise the importance of networking with other professionals in different industries. This implies to prospective employers that, on top of what might be an enviable circle of contacts to leverage on, candidates have a deeper knowledge of their chosen industry, as well as others.

Whether you decide to pursue postgraduate education or not, there are different paths that lead to your dream accountancy job. With the right skill sets and positive attitude, you’ll get there sooner or later!