New3m,
I hate to burst your bubble but I know a few academy grads with Master’s degrees AND master’s licenses. They all got their masters degrees so they could get a cush desk job once the first kid started saying “daddy please don’t leave” but now they have kids they are all still sailing. These friends of mine are easy to pick out too, they are the ones holding back the tears as they say good bye to their kids and walking straight to the airport bathroom to cry in the privacy of a sH$#!er stall.
The fact is that a degree doesn’t get you a job, experience does. What experience in managing a shipping company will you get as a Chief Mate doing cargo ops? Sure companies will still hire you but at a level lower than that of the person who took a desk job right out of college.
The only way you can do it is if you put 40% of your salary directly into savings and prepare to swallow your pride… otherwise you will not be able to afford the pay cut needed to take an “entry level” job shoreside and your pride will make it difficult to take orders from a boss that’s younger than you who’s been sitting behind a desk their entire career.
Their is one other way… marry an amazing wife! A wife that doesn’t spend much money (or allow you too!) and gives her full support after you walk away from a $175k captain’s job offer to run a website that’s based off an advertising revenue model you learned in that masters class. A wife that knows you barely studied for that particular masters class. A wife who knows that no self respecting merchant mariner would ever click on a website’s advertisements regardless of how much time you spend making sure the advertiser’s product is actually useful to them. A wife willing to eat ramen noodles and smart enough to find other ways for a website to make money!
I know because that’s my story!
(oh and I forgot… there is the “easy way” for you landlubbing cream puffs out there; Save yourself my headache and call a good headhunter that has developed relationships with shoreside HR managers… one that’s been to a maritime academy and can explain to an HR manager why hiring a Chief Mate is the best decision they’ll ever make. You won’t even need a master’s degree with this option and It’s as easy as clicking on the big green banner at the top of our blog page… I promise! 
-John