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You can always get your Masters if you get laid off. Jobs are precious especially for new grads. Do not make the mistake of passing over this job offer, it’s worth so much more than a masters degree. You can always get your master’s later on, for example if you get laid off from Amazon and can’t find another job.
flip a coin, the option you want while the coin is in the air is what you should do.
I've not worked at Amazon, but work in other big tech. If you were my son, I'd tell you to pursue Cambridge. Amazon employment isn't that special. (i've been in industry for 18+ years, went to a name brand school, and live in the heart of silicon valley. Cambridge, i'd imagine, gives you at the least a more interesting story, and at the most a different opportunity set. amazon is now the lower bar of what you should…
Will your grad school work be done in a year resulting in the equivalent of an MS, or are you looking at a phd or longer timeframe? Shorter timeframe is better, then you can torture yourself again by looking for a job after the MS. Are you studying something you like, is it relevant with today's AI craze or not? Do you feel excited and passionate, do you care about getting an MS?
No one can predict what the job market will be in a year, will we be in a widespread depression? More likely it will be like today, economy ok but unclear future as the world muddles through. Even if you go there now, amazon could lay you and your division off and you'd be scrambling for a new job to stay in the US (presuming you aren't a us citizen). Or maybe your grad school work would make you more employable (or you work on something at amazon that is hot), depends on the area.
I was excited to go to grad school and was glad I went because my undergrad wasn't an especially great school. Then I went to big tech after grad school years passed. If you are excited about grad school and it's not a many year commitment then I'd go that. If you are hot to come to Seattle or where-ever, and you are paid enough to live there, and/or Amazon offers you a job working in something that excites you then do that. No easy answers in life.
This feels like a wishy-washy answer but everyone has to decide for themselves.
I loved doing a masters as a mature student, but I was very lucky to be able to do so.
School won't always be so easy. Do school.
Also, Amazon are gross.
If you have to pay -lets say- 30.000 bucks, rethink.
The additional time of being student will open you newer doors, than if you are already working - assumption: IF the CS master is free, otherwise it may not pay off
Being a student is a huge privilege in most countries accordings to different costs/fees/taxes - so I recommend everyone to keep this status, as long AS IT IS FREE and legally possible.
I've hired ex-Amazon engineers at Google who believe that your job is to fuck over as many other teams as possible in the name of delivering your feature as quickly as possible so you can climb the ladder, and who believe your manager's job is to back you up while you fuck over those other teams and steal credit from other engineers on them. They tend to struggle in Google's more collaborative culture, and I'd imagine they'd also struggle in other companies that are a little less sociopathic. The problem is particularly acute with people who have never worked anywhere but Amazon; older employees coming out of Amazon are more like "Well, that's just how Amazon is, I'll adapt myself to whatever culture my current job has", but junior engineers are often shaped and molded by it because they've never known anything else.
I'm often a big fan of going to industry early because a.) you make more money early which can then compound and b.) you actually do learn a lot of tacit knowledge working in industry, very often more relevant than what you'd learn as a student. But if the choice is between Amazon and Cambridge I would probably do Cambridge.
If I was in your position I would try to combine masters with working at a startup or a small company.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
TAKE THE JOB OFFER. You can always get your Masters if you get laid off. Jobs are precious especially for new grads. Do not make the mistake of passing over this job offer, it’s worth so much more than a masters degree. You can always get your master’s later on, for example if you get laid off from Amazon and can’t find another job.