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I don’t have a masters. I’ll likely never need one. If there was a specific field that required intense learning and was cutting edge (computer vision or something) then I’d understand a masters (or especially a PhD) but for general work…? Don’t get it.
You’d certainly be better off financially from doing more leetcode or system design prep instead.
This is the most important line in the article. Perhaps that’s part of being “mid career” but that’s an excellent level of self awareness and shows that there are multiple upside/benefits.
I wish him the best of luck!
I'm personally in the Georgia Tech Online Master's in Computer Science (OMSCS) program right now and can't say enough good things about it. The coursework is rigorous, deep, and varied, you really do learn quite a bit through the program and more than just random learning on your own, you get a degree out of it. Plus you get the opportunity to do some research and publish papers.
I have a Bachelor's degree from a decent state school in California.
At the time, I felt the courses were too easy, and my four years were a bit of a waste of time.
I remember going to a graduation party, and you would think we graduated from med school. The graduates were carrying on like it was so rigrigrous. (I have a very, very average intellect too. I actually flunked kindergarten.)
To this day I will not denigrate the school in any way.
Where would a masters degree in CS help for someone with 20+ years of software experience? Genuinely - I have no clue. I don’t have a masters. I’ll likely never need one. If there was a specific field that required intense learning and was cutting edge (computer vision or something) then I’d understand a masters (or especially a PhD) but for general work…? Don’t get it. You’d certainly be better off financially from…
Marrying software development knowledge with another non-tech domain expertise would make one valuable.
Where would a masters degree in CS help for someone with 20+ years of software experience? Genuinely - I have no clue. I don’t have a masters. I’ll likely never need one. If there was a specific field that required intense learning and was cutting edge (computer vision or something) then I’d understand a masters (or especially a PhD) but for general work…? Don’t get it. You’d certainly be better off financially from…
If I had to get a masters, I would take one unrelated to software development. Marrying software development knowledge with another non-tech domain expertise would make one valuable.
To who though? A lot of people won’t care if your masters is in education if you’re gonna work in most fintech.
I think it pigeonholes you further if you go down this route. If you want that then go for it but I’ve seen many wasted masters and PhDs in Silicon Valley. Many.
Where would a masters degree in CS help for someone with 20+ years of software experience? Genuinely - I have no clue. I don’t have a masters. I’ll likely never need one. If there was a specific field that required intense learning and was cutting edge (computer vision or something) then I’d understand a masters (or especially a PhD) but for general work…? Don’t get it. You’d certainly be better off financially from…
This is the ONLY program I'd like to get into because so far it is the only program that I know deals a lot with hardcore malware analysis. There are probably more programs available but I didn't spend much time researching options.
Unfortunately this program is NOT online, and I'm not in Europe. ALAS! If anyone knows a similar online program in NA please let me know!
For the opposite perspective: "The case against CS master’s degrees" [1] [1] https://ozwrites.com/masters/
Oouf. Felt that one (and I don't even have a MS degree).