Should I get a new degree? Can studies boost my career?

Like everything in life, before making a decision that will potentially impact your future, take a second to think about WHY you want to do it and what you expect from it.

You wish to learn something new

If your main objective is to learn something, a degree might be the right option. It all depends on what you wish to learn. In many situations you might actually learn better and faster "on the field": practice tends to be more helpful than theory.

Depending on the type of skills you wish to develop, you might try to find yourself a mentor, a person to coach you, teach you things that will help you grow. And if your current working environment does not allow you to express yourself and develop new skills, it might be time to move on!

From my personal experience, you learn much more and much faster in a year on the job than in three years in school.

You wish to jump in your career

Ten years ago, a degree might have opened you doors that no other key would have opened.

Nowadays, companies get smarter and smarter, managers tend to realize that having a degree isn't a certification of quality.

When you enter the job market for the first time, fresh grad like all others with no working experience, your degree matters since there is nothing much else to evaluate you on.

Quickly after, only your performance, skills, speed and efficiency will matter.

If what you are looking for is a better job, you might want to push yourself to learn and develop new skills in a challenging environment instead of ruining yourself with expensive degrees that will suck your time while not necessarily bring the expected result. And when the question of the salary comes up, read "What am I worth and what should my salary be?".

Julien Rio.