Not sure if this is the right thread to post it but here goes...
M/24/Toronto
Education:
2013 - Graduated with BA in Economics with an Environmental Economics Minor. ~3.1 GPA
Apr 2015 - Graduated with a postgrad diploma in the environmental sustainability field. 3.9 GPA
Experience:
3 years in a leadership/executive student role in my first school's environmental advisory team (2010-2013)
About 1 year combined in sales/performing administrative tasks (Apr-Sep 2011, and as well as during my intern below)
7 months working as an intern in the public sector in the environmental department, as a requirement to graduate for my postgrad diploma. I mainly did environmental research, community outreach, and reorganizing the department's website for user friendliness and SEO. (Oct 2014 to May 2015) Unfortunately due to budget cuts, they didn't keep me full time (my supervisor also got laid off around the same time I left).
Working on a side project/startup? since July 2015 with a friend who's a freelance videographer...it's not generating income for me, but I've helped my friend create a basic website promoting his content using SEO, worked with pricing strategies, created social media feeds, and created sales charts/reports focusing on past performances and current trends, and where he should focus on in promoting his stock footage. His sales have increased by over 150% since the website launch, and he's been very grateful of my efforts. Currently this person is my primary reference for anything work related.
Situation:
Aside from my side project, I've been unemployed since May and have sent about 200 applications, with 13 interviews, but no offers. I've also attended 5 networking events and had 3 coffee meets, with all 3 telling me that I have an excellent resume related to the environmental field and they would hire me if they had the authority to, but suggested I go for further studies if needed. I've been led on a tangent in my most recent interview, after my initial interviewer told me they chose another candidate, but another department was impressed with my resume and samples and wanted to hire me. They interviewed me last Monday, and told me to expect an offer this Wednesday. Wednesday came and I got an email...saying they're gonna take a different approach into finding the ideal candidate. I spent all of Wednesday beyond depressed and used Friday to forget everything about job hunting and enjoy the outdoors.
My passion lies toward the environmental sustainability/urban planning field...which was something I discovered after joining that environmental advisory team. I really want to be part of an organization that can contribute to either a program, project, or strategy that focuses on environmental sustainability, or an organization that focuses on community building practices in designing communities that create vibrant pedestrian hubs. I have experience and knowledge in the first part, but my urban planning experience is confined towards my 3 years in the environmental student advisory team, as well as some urban planning courses I took in university (after begging to my university that I wanted to take these courses as a secondary field of interest).
I have a few places where I wanna target for grad school, all with programs related to either the environmental studies or planning fields. However I'm hesitant on applying as I don't know whether it would be a good investment in getting into the field I want to get into. I follow a lot of environmental professionals and planners via social media, and I noticed many of them have some sort of masters degree.
I guess the question becomes...in the field that I wanna pursue, is a masters degree something that's pretty much needed nowadays, and/or given my situation, would going back to school be the best idea for me?
Thanks for reading through the wall of text; it means a lot to me! I'm open to PMs if you wanna PM me, or if you wanna see my resume I'll be more than happy to send it.