Ask HN: Is a Master's in CS worth it?

I'd recommend you take it, but you should definitely take some CS undergraduate classes too to have a solid foundation, either not for credits or required by the CS department.

It will be easier to find jobs in Chemistry industry where CS jobs are available, like data scientist.

If you care less, community college is actually also a good choice.

I was an undergrad in biology and just finished my masters in comp sci last year. Now working at a FAANG as software engineer. It was 100% worth it for my long term career. Wouldn’t recommend for someone with CS undergrad already though if you’re only focused on career prospects.

Reading through everyone's replies below (some good stuff there), I thought I'd add another point of view.

You said:

> Hopefully in a few years I'll be able to start my own business related to this field, but that's an aside.

Depending on how important starting a business is to you, I would perhaps weigh this up more strongly in your decision to pursue a Masters.

I was a fresh graduate with a BSc in Computer Science when I started my software company (~15 years ago). The fact that I had a BSc never came up once in my business dealings. Literally never.

But having a BSc at the time gave me peace of mind, knowing that I could fall back on decent employment opportunities should my business venture fail to take off.

Some years later I earned a Masters degree (part-time, whilst continuing to run my business). My motivation to do so was primarily driven by ego and insecurity.

The fact that I have a Masters has also never come up once in my business dealings. Again, literally never.

So was doing a Masters a worthwhile pursuit?

To some degree (pardon the pun), it certainly was - in that I learnt more about my craft, as well as about myself - and I made some good friends along the way.

But was it worth it? That's tricky to say.

It was a significant opportunity cost in terms of my time and money. And the lessons I've learnt along the way through practical business experience (both technical as well as life lessons) far outweigh those I learnt during my Masters.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that, depending on the seriousness with which you wish to pursue starting a company, I would weigh this up more strongly in your decision.

And if you are indeed set on starting a business, then unless your Masters will directly impact your odds of success in doing so, I'd perhaps think twice.

Hope that helps, and good luck with your decision and your path going forward.

EDIT:

Probably the best advice I received as a youngster with entrepreneurial ambitions was to "take risks whilst you're young, before you have big financial obligations (such as a mortgage bond and / or a family to support)".

I'd urge you to also weigh this advice into your decision of whether to pursue a Masters first and start a business later, or vice versa.

Depending on where you are at in life (in terms of those big financial obligations), this advice might help clarify which path makes the most sense for you :)

From my perspective (ie, opinion), probably not.

I've been hiring engineers for a few years, and I've come to associate a CS/IT Masters + unrelated undergrad with bad candidates and generally use it to filter _out_ candidates (unless something else on the resume catches my eye). Conversely someone with a science degree and a bit of experience (or some decent personal projects for fresh career-switchers) is a much better sign.

My experience (read: anecdata, opinion, bias) is that the IT/CS masters candidates I've interviewed have switched for money and because of failure-to-thrive in their original industry, and have no care or passion for software, and have done poorly on interviews. The non-CS-undergrads-but-no-masters candidates are just the normal spectrum, with a higher variance (some with 0 skills but much hope, some with really interesting backgrounds and wide-ranging interests like how you sound).

Data disclaimer: I'm only at ~500 total lifetime interviews/10 years experience so far, I'm in Australia, I have no recorded numbers or hard data just "feelings" and "intuition".