Foreign Bachelor, little work experience

[jamazn]

Hi All,

I recently moved to Canada from Jamaica after completing a four year Bachelors of Business Administration with a major in Operations Management.
Basically, I have a foreign degree and little work experience.

I have been job hunting with little success, and this has led me to consider continuing my education, in hopes of being on equal footing with those who have a canadian degree.

I was accepted into the University of Toronto for the Computer Science program, however I began to rethink doing another three years of undergrad (they gave me about a year off)
I have been looking into doing some continuing education to enter the field of finance, such as doing a certificate in Financial Planning from Changs school of continuing education or a certificate in financial analysis from U of T continuing studies

I looked into a Masters degree, however I lack work experience.

My questions are:

(a) Is it worth it to do another 4 year degree or just continue with my business degree?
(b) Would these certificates help me to land a job in the field of finance, or are there better options? I have also considered doing a bachelors of commerce in finance, hopefully I could be finished in two years.

 

[frege]

Hi All,

I recently moved to Canada from Jamaica after completing a four year Bachelors of Business Administration with a major in Operations Management.
Basically, I have a foreign degree and little work experience.

I have been job hunting with little success, and this has led me to consider continuing my education, in hopes of being on equal footing with those who have a canadian degree.

I was accepted into the University of Toronto for the Computer Science program, however I began to rethink doing another three years of undergrad (they gave me about a year off)
I have been looking into doing some continuing education to enter the field of finance, such as doing a certificate in Financial Planning from Changs school of continuing education or a certificate in financial analysis from U of T continuing studies

I looked into a Masters degree, however I lack work experience.

My questions are:

(a) Is it worth it to do another 4 year degree or just continue with my business degree?
(b) Would these certificates help me to land a job in the field of finance, or are there better options? I have also considered doing a bachelors of commerce in finance, hopefully I could be finished in two years.

Hi,

Sorry I can't answer questions about your specific field. I'd just like to point out that you might be able to save a year on a BA by studying in Quebec. This would be at McGill, Concordia or Bishops if you wanted to study in English.

In Quebec, a BA normally takes three years (90 credits). Since you have a BA already, you'll most likely have 30 credits knocked off, so you can probably get a BA there in two years (perhaps even one and a half if you go to school in the summer term). A Quebec BA will be considered equivalent to one from any other province, because in Quebec you do 13 years and then 3 in university, rather than 12 + 4 as in other provinces.

If you move to Quebec before you've lived in another province for three months, you'll be eligible for in-province tuition ($2,200 a year) and Quebec government financial aid. For example, if your income for the year is less than $9,000, this would be about $1,000 a month plus tuition, with about $400 a month being loans and the rest bursaries). As an out-of-province student, you'd pay $6,200 a year and could probably apply for aid in your "home" province.

Generally, I think getting an undergraduate certificate or a master's might be a good idea - perhaps there are other universities that would accept you for a master's that you haven't looked at yet.