Should I Pursue My Masters Degree or MBA?

It seems recent college grads and even young professionals who are unemployed or between jobs are often considering going back to get their masters or MBA. I often see this question asked on career and job boards and forums.

My advice is always the same, don't pursue it if you are going to pay for it on your own dime. These days many companies have tuition reimbursement programs where they will pay a large chunk if not your entire school costs. Why go into a huge amount of debt to get an MBA or Masters Degree when you can probably get someone else to pay for it for you?

This isn't always the case but oftentimes it seems young people pursuing a MBA or Masters Degree aren't really passionate about what they are pursuing nor do they really have any concrete plans about what they are going to do with their degree. I think to many young people it's a way to keep their parents and the world off their back for a few more years while they continue pursuing their education and delay entering the real world. 

I think a lot of young people think a masters degree is some magic ticket that will lead to a job. Having been in the workforce for a while and having been an employee as well as a hiring manager, I can tell you that most hiring managers would much rather hire someone with a college degree and some workplace experience than someone who spent the last 6 years in school getting a college degree and a masters degree. 

Masters Degrees don't specifically train you for a job. Where as someone who goes to school to work in a machine shop basically learned the job in school and can start day one with little to no training. Someone comming out of school with a masters has a skillset but nothing specifically geared towards a job so you will still need to be trained which means that Masters Degree isn't worth all that much to an employer.