Doing a postgraduate course, whether taught or research, is not a sticking plaster to being unhappy in your job. 

The main thing to remember about doing a research-based postgraduate course is that it’s not the title that counts, but how you make your mark while you’re doing it, according to Dr John Nolan, deputy director of the macular pigment research group at Waterford Institute of Technology (WIT).

While doing your research, you have to make the time beneficial by publishing papers, establishing links and going to conferences in order to build a solid career in a specific area, he says. “I think my publications have more merit than my PhD title. Your publications are your marker, your identifier. If you can be identified as an opinion leader, that’s when doors open. It’s not easy — you have to be motivated and self-disciplined. If an individual is unhappy in his or her career, simply taking time out to do a handy piece of research is not going to solve that.”

Nolan did a certificate in applied biology at WIT and then went to work in a factory, testing food products. He went on to do a diploma and a science degree, before returning to the food industry. “The key to my progressing as a scientist was the way I was able to do my studies in stages. After my degree, I was working away happily, but I did feel I had more to offer,” he recalls. “I applied to do an exciting practical research project with Waterford Regional Hospital investigating the dietary pigment in the eye that’s thought to protect against age-related blindness.”

As part of his PhD, Nolan published 18 papers in four years and went on to get a much sought-after Fulbright scholarship to do research in Augusta State University in Georgia. At WIT, he is now deputy director of one of the leading research centres in the field of macular research in the world.

Those who do a research postgraduate take a long-term view of their careers, and are motivated by curiosity and the desire to be creative, says Venie Martin, head of development at WIT.

She believes employers have a different perception of staff members who decide to do postgraduate studies, either on a full or part-time basis. “They are seen as ambitious and motivated people investing in their career. They tend to be independent and creative and bring new ideas to the company. Employers are valuing postgraduate studies more and more.”

Regarding taught postgraduate courses, Martin has observed a rise in computing, science and electronics conversion courses in recent years, reflecting employees’ desire to acquire new skills. She also identifies a growing sub-category — secondary school teachers — who are registering to do higher degrees in pedagogy, for example. Traditionally, the biggest area in taught masters’ degrees has been business.

True, a postgraduate course will cost you in the short term — at WIT, for example, the one-year taught masters costs €5,000, while the research masters costs the same over two years. But if you play your cards right, it can lead to a bigger salary fairly fast, according to Martin. “IT graduates usually get a starting salary of around €25,000. I know of two young men who did a research-based master’s degree in the area of automotive control and walked into jobs in car manufacturing in the UK, commanding salaries of £30,000 sterling,” says Martin.

Travel is a very important component of doing a postgraduate course, opening up exciting opportunities, she adds. Nolan, for example, has been to 15 countries in the past six months.

“I’ve just come back from Paris and am going to Khazakstan. Because the area we work in affects people in real time, there are a lot of significant results
that opthalmologists and companies around the world want to know about.”

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