Ultimately grad school paid off in a big way for me. So powerful is our program that lots of successful publishers get jobs and rise in the industry without completing their graduating report. "I wanted to be happy and I'm so glad that I did get a master's degree in social work," Moss said. It was and is one of the best lessons I took from Emerson and has kept me from embarrassing myself professionally with brash statements or rude, poorly thought out comments. Often this training will have been acquired on the job, so by default it is applied and therefore relevant. On the other side, the teachers in the publishing program then have a hard time justifying adding new and interesting courses when they cant fill all of their other classes. And I broke into the book publishing world and never looked back. Millennials "were raised in a world where you use loans to pay for college," said Bradley Custer, senior policy analyst for Higher Education and the Center for American Progress. Of course the students interested in design loved it, but for me Id have rather known how to find/hire/fire reputable contractors to execute these projects for me. We could use those in Masters of Publishing programs to advance the science of scholarly publishing. My HR director at the time used to come to the final presentations given at the end of the semester and recruit candidates who she was impressed with when we had job openings. That said, I have never felt like I need to be an expert on the subject matter. This is Moss's third master's degree and the former teacher earned her first two higher degrees in the 90s in order to make more money in education. Hope so. Most definitely and without a doubt I owe my career to my MPS in Publishing from GWU, and to the exceptional value of the contacts and expertise I was able to cultivate while a student, which I still tap into. All of my companys editorial staff have at least an MA or a masters in something else plus a Certificate in Publishing. Emerson has considered the idea of dealing with this issue by actually separating the programs, which would require that publishing students get special permission to take writing program courses and vice versa. As for my Emerson classmates, most of my acquaintances there have jobs at magazines or publishing houses. But the high costs and debt load for many makes you wonder: Is it worth it? Entering a publishing program offers many of the benefits youd expect from attending a graduate program, benefits such as networking, job opportunities, and a well-established alumni, which are all immensely helpful when moving forward in your career. Ive found this degree to be an asset, not only from the breadth of knowledge that I possess but also in the contacts that I have made throughout the industry. Publishing is a business with a lot of continuous, on-the-job learning for all of us. We liked getting some non-Chefs involved and may try to continue that going forward. No regrets. Online distribution is different than typesetting. All of my classmates aspired to be the next Tolkien, Rowling, Austen, Bront, or maybe even the next Stephen King. In my year and a half at Emerson, I had two long-term internships, a job, and some freelance work, and I and rolled right into an ePub fellowship without any issue. Excluding Kindle and several app-based products. Like Moss, I thought that this program would offer me entry into my dream career and, like Cunningham, I was partially motivated by the pandemic. Having graduated with a BA in Journalism, I never targeted publishing as my end-game, yet here I am. One of the challenges of advancing in ones career is that time becomes more limited. Not to tell them that is doing them great professional disservice, in my opinion. It is my perception and that of the students I have taught is that you are much more likely to get interviewed if you have shown you enthusiasm for a career in publishing by doing a masters. Happily, publishing is not like that. That was one of the main reasons we went with one of the others. And if so, then to whom is it valuable? Thus this is why the correct term is a master's degree. Those skills were neither taught during my undergraduate degree nor explicitly conferred by my job duties, so the classes were an opportunity to learn things I might not otherwise learn from a job-specific perspective (ie, general business principles as a whole and not just how we do it here). Students in editorial learn about digital, students in production learn about marketing, students in marketing learn about finance. All rights reserved. Who Is Going to Make Money from Artificial Intelligence in Scholarly Communications? My preference instead is to see a series of authentic modular courses that take key skill areas, from digital, product, content capture, agile, marketing, fiscal, analytics, to market knowledge, client care and team working. What I have seen over my almost 40 years in this business is that if you graduate from a elite college you do have a better chance of breaking into this industry, but if you have a graduate degree (and now there are more and more of them) it does and will increasingly give you a leg up. In many ways thats what I thought as well, and thats what I witnessed in the 1970s with my peers. Writing a dissertation does not confer on one skills necessary in publishing. We did a similar post on the value of an advanced degree for a career in scholarly publishing here: https://scholarlykitchen.sspnet.org/2016/02/18/ask-the-chefs-is-it-necessary-to-have-an-advanced-degree-to-succeed-in-publishing/. That love encouraged me to search for graduate level coursework in publishing, specifically in ePub. It is difficult to get a senior job in a library without an MLS/MLIS. Searching within those programs for electronic publishing at the masters level yields only 20 schools, and digital publishing returns 29 graduate programs. This made my teachers both busy and incredibly up to date. "You have received these messages that the master's degree is going to lead to higher income I think that's the reality we live in that in some fields it's harder to predict," Custer said. Then, I attended a seminar that addressed this very question, attended by some who thought they should, and others who already had. After 20 years in publishing, I did the Stanford Professional Publishing Program in 2000 at Stanford (2 weeks, but 150 hours), and found I had already learned most of it in my various publishing jobs. I am glad to see that several universities are offering programs ranging from certificate to a Masters degree in publishing. In part, of course, any kind of postgraduate education may give people a headstart in terms of being more mature, more used to assimilating information, than trainees coming straight from secondary or tertiary education and Laura suspects that those who take the industry experience route may learn just as much in the equivalent time as those taking the MA route. After all, in an industry that is so heavily learned on the job, how much good could something a professor tells you in a classroom do? The correct spelling is master's degree, with an apostrophe. I learned about many aspects of publishing, which have come in handy. I think it demonstrated to prospective employers the commitment to working in the publishing profession. She said, while her master's degrees in education helped make her a diverse, and therefore competitive, applicant, it was her degree in social work which allowed her to revive her career in a direction she didn't know about when she was 18. When someone is awarded a master's . These are some of the things I look for when filling a position. YES. While pursuing my Masters, I was promoted because of the way I changed how I was doing my job and I made those changes as a result of the classes I took. Thanks, Roy. Id taken on an editorial position at my colleges yearbook, started an e-magazine that was doing moderately well, and had an editorial internship at a high-profile New York food magazine. This means that the school and professors are more likely to be up to date on current and rapidly changing workflows that incorporate digital publishing. One of the challenges of advancing in ones career is that time becomes more limited. MFA programs offer exactly that: total immersion in a culture of books and writing to the exclusion of all else. While Im sure none would readily admit it, they are far more interested in taking the writing courses than the publishing classes. Sure, many of us consider trends and activities taking place particularly in our own organization, but few of us have the concentrated time to do research, study, and then craft visions, narratives, or histories of our community. Not only did my degree start my career, as I found a job at a literary agency as a result of an internship required by my degree, it exposed me to the various aspects of the process allowing me to fully understand the various pitfalls and hurdles. For years also, our grads had the best technology skills and understanding than anyone else in the many small firms where they were working. Not one of them has ever told me that they regret getting their degree. Publishing needs to be reinvented as business strategy and tactics for the digital age. My two cents again, Roy. What Is a Master's Degree? | Coursera Will artificial intelligence fatally undermine the integrity of scholarly publishing? We get there eventually! Enrollment in graduate programs rose 3.6% in fall 2020 from a year earlier and continued to rise 4.4% during the spring 2021 semester, according to the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center. Best of all, I didnt have to hand in assignments or take tests. There were courses in basic web development and in content management systems as well. She taught me so much, and I am grateful. What you say counts, sometimes more than you mean it to. Lephate Cunningham III, 24, pursued his master's in public relations and corporate communications at New York University in 2020 after working as an actor in New York City with a musical theatre degree from Rider University. "But if you're at all hesitant, just really think about it. So Id be asking what areas were covered; looking for in depth critique of the digital age we grapple with. If this was not their goal, then chances are that they wanted to be editors buried in a sea of riveting manuscripts, finding the next big hit in the slush pile. Though this may sound unpleasant, it was actually an invaluable experience. Master's degree vs. masters degree. Went through and fixed the Masters/Masters thing by the way. Hiring managers should consider anyone who has taken the time and energy required to pursue a higher education to have an advantage over those who have not. I'm looking to transition careers in the next year or 2 and am considering a master's in publishing. Practical experience combined with a sold grounding the various aspects of publishing from an academic perspective is likely to be superior to theoretical knowledge alone. I also noticed that they were particularly good at organising their time and priorities (much better than other new recruits at this level). Thank you. Their bottom line: it hadnt made a difference. Overall, however, Id describe myself as neutral on the value of a Masters in publishing. Thequestion this month is:What is the value of a Masters in Publishing? I am an independent editor who works mainly with self-publishing authors, so I wasnt looking to get hired by a publishing house. Provenresearchexperience in one or more related academicfields suggests an understanding of the research process, including getting research published,a commitment to research dissemination and the credibility to talk with authority to the academic research community. For those uninterested in digital but considering traditional print publishing grad work, Id still choose a graduate program that offers digital publishing classes. And we would all benefit from that. As such, they have mastered or become the master of a particular subject. If you're considering graduate programs in publishing, you may be wondering just how relevant those courses are. Now with one more degree to my name, I am happy for the people and experiences that I've had the past year, but I wonder if those same connections and education could have come from an entry-level job, as well. The remaining four courses can be taken from three areas: design/production, business (marketing, management, entrepreneurship, legal issues), and English (proofreading and copy editing, academic publishing, and so forth). "only about 2.4% of published scientific research papers are fully accessible. Im a linguist by background, for example, and trained as a translator so I do have a vocational post-grad qualification, but I joined an online publisher because it was the first paid job I could get. Moss is not alone in her pursuit of a master's as part of a career change. Thats a sense of community I know I wouldnt feel when I go to the CSE or SSP meetings (I know because Ive been, and people who already know people tend to ignore the newcomers unless theyre trying to sell a product or service). Similarly, if social workers go into public service, they may also be eligible for loan forgiveness. My experience after 4 years as a member of the Board of Directors for the Independent Book Publishers Association, which has 3000 members, is that the DIY segment of this industry is also going to be a grooming ground for people who find they like our industry and want to make a career out of it, and those people will probably attend publishing conferences (such as IBPAs Publishing University) rather than do a graduate degree. Is It Masters Degree or Master's Degree? - BusinessWritingBlog I think having an MA in publishing shows that you are really committed to working in publishing. Then hed invite the author in to talk with us, answer our questions, and hear our advice. ", "I think in terms of the day-to-day, it's not worth it to pay for online classes, and generally I think programs that aren't vocational are just way too expensive and aren't worth it anyways," Loudis said. No, but you dont need to teach the basics. I agree whole-heartedly that most of us who find ourselves in publishing fell into it. The average pay for graduates with a bachelor's degree is $64,000 a year, while the average pay for those with a master's degree is $76,000 a year, only about a 19% increase, according to . These are some of the things I look for when filling a position. Better to learn how to do an RFP from the safety of a classroom with good guidance from an instructor than to have to figure it out and wing it in a job you arent prepared for. via @scholarlykitchn. Well, at the director level when youre planning out budgets and editorial calendars for your books program, you definitely want to know that stuff. I must confess I didnt know there was such a thing and Ive never seen it listed on any of the CVs Ive looked at over the years. Im fascinated to see what the other perspectives are on this! It is definitely a complement to, not a substitute for, experience. . On the positive side, I personally would appreciate the time to do concentrated thought and study about our industry and the trends buffeting it. Publishing sounds simple but there are so many different skills required to get it right. What's more, they held more of other types of debt, including an average 21% more credit-card debt that the national average, according to educationdata.org. Because that's a lot of moneyto be borrowing.". So yes I would encourage people who really want to work in publishing to take an MA to help them get onto the first rung of the jobs ladder. So today you do need a MA in Publishing (or maybe an MBA or an MA in literature) in order to show that you are committed to this work, this calling if you will. Practically speaking however, getting a degree is most likely to help someone get that first job in publishing, or support their advancement in the industry. I don't regret one minute of it," Moss said. Even though all of these comments are true and sincere in their own way I feel like no one is acknowledging the lesson of history in the US book/journal publishing industry. Anecdotal, I know, but we all bring our personal experience into decision-making. And the third group, again, internships or some entry level experience is going to be necessary. A professor of English, I typically encourage my undergraduates to gain work experience before pursuing any masters degree (definite exceptions, of course) and to do internships.
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