How to choose the best business and management postgraduate course for you

An MBA or postgraduate course in management could help you prove your enthusiasm and ability for business. Use our advice to choose the course that will take you where you want to go.

The questions to consider if you're thinking about postgraduate study in business or management

• What is your overall career plan? You won't necessarily make yourself more attractive to recruiters simply by indulging an interest - how will a course boost your employability?
• What gaps in your CV or experience do you need to fill in? How will a course help you do this?
• Is a masters a prerequisite for specialisation (eg quantitative finance)?
• What practical or vocational skills will a postgraduate course give you?
• What industry links and work experience opportunities do different institutions offer?

Postgraduate study + work experience = career success

Beware of appearing reluctant to enter the workplace, particularly if your course is academic. Many first graduates can't quite face getting a job yet and see further study as a way of putting the real world on hold. Show you can thrive outside the library by getting holiday work experience. Whilst intellectual achievement will never fail to impress, you must convince recruiters that your skills are transferable. Non-finance graduates entering the City may wish to prove their enthusiasm and ability by taking a finance-related course. It's wise to select something directly relevant to your eventual workplace, as long as it differs from any graduate programmes already in place. These programmes are specifically tailored to the job in hand, so little previous training is strictly necessary. However, if you truly are fascinated by finance, further study could help you explore the theory underlying the practice. Alternatively, you may be unsure finance is for you, in which case a postgraduate degree will be an expensive but sure-fire way to find out.

Choosing where to study

When considering where to study, look at the statistics available - most institutions offer salary details and job destinations of their graduating classes on their websites. From Tanaka Business School, for example, about 60 per cent of its masters students accepted jobs in investment banking after their course, with another 30 per cent working in consulting, banking or investment management.

Next steps: choosing the right postgraduate business and management course

Use our course search facility to find the courses that are right for you: search by location, research rating and study mode and look at students' and employers' ratings of courses.