Please help me decide my life/studies

[gameovered]

Hello friends, I have been caught in a dilemma recently.

When I was 24, I completed a BTEC HND and an online bachelors degree from the uni of Wales from the UK. It was a bad move because it turned out that the uni has a horrible reputation and my validated degree is not recognised by most employers, making it hard to find a graduate job back home in Singapore. It also doesn't help that the two biggest universities back home are ranked 12/13 in the world and are churning out graduates.

After that, I went backpacking for a year or two and then worked in universities in China teaching English.

Now, I am already 30-31. I want to go back home, earn a decent salary, get married, buy a house, etc. I applied for a few courses and I have been admitted into 2 courses

1. Do a masters in politics from a top 20 global university

2. Do a mphil/phd with funding from a top 40 global university

I am not sure if I complete a masters in politics, will my lousy online degree still hinder my job search/career progression? I hope to work in the government sector or in a bank after this.

I am also quite interested in doing the phd as I have been working in universities for a few years now. However, surely in academia, they will not hire someone like myself even if I have a phd since my bachelors is of such lousy calibre? My age is also a slight issue as I will be 35 when I complete the phd.

There is also the option of transferring my online degree's credits onto a more reputable degree and completing it in 1-2 years time, but I feel a little tired at doing another bachelors again and wonder if it is necessary.

What do you guys think?

 

Edited March 8, 2016 by gameovered

[rising_star]

In academia, people tend to care about where you earned your highest degree, so that would be helpful. I wouldn't necessarily do another bachelor's. What do you want to do for your career? Use that to decide which degree makes the most sense as the next step.

[gameovered]

17 hours ago, rising_star said:

In academia, people tend to care about where you earned your highest degree, so that would be helpful. I wouldn't necessarily do another bachelor's. What do you want to do for your career? Use that to decide which degree makes the most sense as the next step.

you feel that my degree mill like online bachelors from the uni of wales will not be an issue in academia? i was under the impression that any decent school will want a straight flush type with good undergrad, good phd, good published papers, etc...

I do want to keep instructing in universities. But I have very limited research skills (only did some applied research, mostly qualitative surveys, triangulation of techniques, and wrote a qualitative 40 page dessertation, etc). Will it be hard to learn the more technical research stuff? Such as meta analysis, regression analysis, etc?

I am a qualitative person so long essays and words are not a problem, I do well with words. 4 years is a long time, and I got to wait another 6 months as well, so that is almost 4-5 years.

Looking at profiles of PhD students, they are all mostly from top universities, so I do feel a bit small I guess. If I do the Msc in Politics and do well, I can also do a 3 year Phd after that with funding.

 

[rising_star]

I'm not gonna lie, you sound really immature here when you talk about qualitative research as though it's somehow "lesser than" other types of research or not the same as doing technical research. There is a LOT of technique which goes into doing good qualitative research. 

You still haven't answered my original question about what kind of career you see yourself having. That really is the key to figuring out what the appropriate next steps are.

[gameovered]

I don't imply that qualitative research is lesser than quantitative ones but I personally am more worried about quantitative ones (meta analysis, etc) as I have no experience with them.

I hope to be a lecturer (teaching track). Or just a lecturer, I like publishing papers as well just not sure if I can publish enough in good journals given that I have never done it before, of course.

[rising_star]

What specifically do you want to study? What specific quantitative skills do you think you need to study that topic? If all you want is quantitative skills, take some undergraduate courses in math and statistics.

[ExponentialDecay]

I am very confused by the idea of getting a PhD in political science to go into banking, since that wouldn't be relevant at all, but I am not familiar with the Singaporean system, so maybe there it's acceptable (doubtful, but possible). I also don't know whether your lousy bachelors will impact your academic job prospects in Singapore. It wouldn't in North America, but Singapore is not in North America.

You need to ask someone who has the job you want to have. I would be very surprised if anyone here is able to help you.