I grew up in an environment that valued education over all else, so I pursued post-grad stuff starting 1997 or so and stuck to my guns until way after dot com crashed. Turns out I hated it and ended up wasting a bunch of time and missing out on the exciting stuff, so the advice I would give to my then-self is obviously to not do that. But would I give the same advice to myself if conditions were like today? Thinking maybe not, unless the Amazon thing was thick in the AI infra tech.
Ask HN: Should I do a CS masters at Cambridge or start as a new grad at Amazon?
11–20 of 103 posts
Re: Ask HN: Should I do a CS masters at Cambridge or start as a new grad at Amazon?
#12Reddit is full of desperate crabs pulling you down into the bucket. Go to Cambridge, that's literally a once in a lifetime opportunity.
Re: Ask HN: Should I do a CS masters at Cambridge or start as a new grad at Amazon?
#13Cambridge. Train the human, not the machine.
Amazon will still be there, if that’s what you decide for your soul afterward. If you made the cut now, you’ll make the cut again in future.
The world is so much bigger than commerce. Even if you choose to work the world of commerce, you’ll have a richer experience of it, and bring more subtle value to your professional career, entering into it with eyes that can see other hues in the outside world.
Plus relationships with a cohort of smart thoughtful humans who are engaging with the world from other perspectives, as you all go into the decades ahead.
Re: Ask HN: Should I do a CS masters at Cambridge or start as a new grad at Amazon?
#14It depends on what you want to do with your life and career. You haven't said what your interests are or what your Master's is going to be in. If you want to be a software engineer then starting career early is better. If you want to go into research then going to university is better. If your Masters is going to be in liberal arts then your prospects of a lucrative job out of Cambridge will be less than having gained two years of professional experience. Since I don't know the specifics, I'll give general advise - decide what's important to you long term and choose the option that aligns with it.
Re: Ask HN: Should I do a CS masters at Cambridge or start as a new grad at Amazon?
#15Do what you want to do
Both options excite me for different reasons - so what now? :)
Re: Ask HN: Should I do a CS masters at Cambridge or start as a new grad at Amazon?
#16[deleted]
Re: Ask HN: Should I do a CS masters at Cambridge or start as a new grad at Amazon?
#17No one knows what is going to happen in the long term. No one is going to know what is going to happen in the short term. I'd take the education and put off working as long as possible and see if the market sorts itself out.
Re: Ask HN: Should I do a CS masters at Cambridge or start as a new grad at Amazon?
#18flip a coin, the option you want while the coin is in the air is what you should do.
The thing is I don't have a strong preference since intellectually I would be more interested in Cambridge, but would prefer living in the location for which I've got the Amazon offer - and in addition to that I'm confident that I will be happy with either choice, so for me it's really just about taking the rational choice career-wise
if you want to offload the decision to a decision engine, might i recommend the following prompt to the LLM of your choice:
> "which should i choose: 1 word only"
the comments are already universally aligned. but, it now seems you want a defense of your preference.
Re: Ask HN: Should I do a CS masters at Cambridge or start as a new grad at Amazon?
#19Cambridge. The experience will be more enjoyable, the networking will be good, and seeing a Masters from Cambridge on a resume would make a bigger impression (to me) than seeing that you worked for Amazon.
Re: Ask HN: Should I do a CS masters at Cambridge or start as a new grad at Amazon?
#20Cambridge MS will open doors that will never open for you otherwise. Amazon will be there in 2 years, you won’t have control over your destiny, and things can go much more wrong there with toxic people and no recourse.