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“An advanced degree may help someone get a particular job. Once a person begins working, however, the
advanced degree and the formal education it represents are rarely relevant to success on the job.”
Discuss the extent to which you agree or disagree with the opinion stated above. Support your views with
reasons and/or examples from your own experience, observations, or reading.

My essay :


According to the author, an advanced degree may help someone get a particular job. On the other hand, once the person begins working, however, the advanced degree and the formal education it represents are rarely relevant to success on the job. I agree with the author by substantiating my position with the following reasons:
First is that a job requires specific skill sets and a specific knowledge. Whereas, an advanced degree course, like undergraduate, encompasses various fields, most of which may not be applicable to the knowledge required for the specified job. For example, I am a mechanical engineer and during the four years of engineering, I studied topics that varied from CFD to machine tool design. However, now I am working in an automobile industry, where I can use only automobile engineering and operations management course knowledge on the job. This was just one topic out of approximately forty topics studied in the four years of engineering course.
Second is that a job requires practical knowledge and everything does not happen according to the book. An advanced degree course can tell you about a few examples and theoretical situations, whereas, in reality you will face new problems each day. When I was line incharge of the engine assembly area, my target was to achieve a specific number of engines per day. But I was able to achieve the target only ten percent of the time. The problems in the assembly line could be in logistics, manpower, quality or a combination of them. The resolution of such problems cannot be taught by any book and depends on problem solving ability of the line in charge and quality personnel.
Moreover, third is a particular problem in some of the company which have a hierarchy based organisation structure. In such an organisation, executives may not be able to think and take decisions freely as most of the decisions are taken by the persons at the top of hierarchy. This is a particular case in my company, where, all decisions from strategic to working level issues have to be taken up to the top management for approvals before moving forward. Such rules are also not mentioned in any book.
Thus, I strongly believe that an advanced degree may help someone get a particular job, but it may be useful to a limited extent in that job.