Hello.So I have recently entered the consultancy world, as a consultant for a small niche firm working in the defence sector. My speciality is in project management, however part of the culture of the firm is that employees pursue other avenues of interest outside their speciality, which don't have to be related to consultancy offerings, but do need to be related to the running of a business.I can get up to around £10k to pursue this 'other avenue'. Now I have narrowed it down to 2 options:Option 1: Chartered institute of Marketing Qualifications, so that would be the certificate, diploma and post-grad diploma, probably taking around 27 months and costing around 6 - 8k. Benefits of this being that the upper echelons of the company are all heavily involved in marketing (as it is a small company) and I have the opportunity to do some marketing work inbetween projects. So this would position me well as I move up the chain.Option 2: An LLM in commercial or contract law. Again this would take around 2 - 3 years and cost between 8 - 12k. Benefits of this would be that it is a strong academic qualification, and is more relevant/appealing to our clients/industry, as finding project managers with the commercial savvy/knowledge are very difficult to come by (as opposed to more technically focused project managers, so I am told).Both routes I would be undertaking a lot of the study in my own time, so it is a considerable commitment. For your information I have a BA in History and an MSc in Engineering Management, so I don't currently have any formal legal or marketing quals. However I am a bit concerned about becoming one of those people who have a list of degrees longer than their arm, which slightly puts me off the LLM as it is the same level as my MSc, rather than a step up. The marketing route has the added bonus of allowing me to become a member of the CIM. I would consider a move within the company to a business development role in a few years.I would say I am equally interested in the subject matter of both. I am less concerned with which is more appealing to clients, but rather which gives me the broad knowledge and sets me apart to the senior management as I move up the chain. So if you were looking at my CV, which of these would jump out at you more? Keeping in context that they are just secondary factors if you will, designed to make me more rounded, rather than key parts of my CV.Thanks in advance.

Hi Defence88, Although both qualifications have their advantages and disadvantages (some you've pointed out), having touched marketing/business law/contractual law myself, I can say that marketing is by far the more interesting - for me at least - and arguably more practical - i.e. if there was ever a legal issue in your firm (or in any other job you may move on to), I'm pretty sure lawyers would deal with it - regardless of your input, it would almost NEED to be looked at again by commercial lawyers.Also, from an employers perspective, I think marketing would appeal more (totally dependent on what line of work you wanted to pursue of course). I feel that marketing would help you more in your current role as you could add another perspective to what you already have, enabling more of an insight and a keener eye for more opportunities in a business sense. It's a tough decision to make and well done on pursuing it, but yep, I would opt for marketing. Only you will know what's best for you though.

+1 for PatrickMcIntyre's advice.