Ask HN: Should I Go to Gradschool?

During the summer of 2019, I did a coding Bootcamp which helped me land a job in a new startup as a full-stack developer. I worked there for a year, part-time (I was studying undergraduate economics too). It made me understand that I want to build products with other people. At the end of May, I'll have finished my bachelor of economics. I applied for a couple of Master's degree (business school) but I'm not sure I should go. A bit of context, I live in France, school is free and my parents (from whom I'm financially dependent) believe that graduate school is the only way to get a job. I applied to competitive graduate programs that I find interesting but nothing like working at a startup. I fell in love with building software and constantly improving my skills. I found it so much more fulfilling than academics. After working at a startup and acquiring coding skills, I gained confidence in my problem-solving capabilities. I'm hesitating between going to graduate school in Paris, like my parents want me to, or work at a startup abroad.

That's a tough question; I've been there. I wouldn't ever give advice but I can tell you my own experience, and hopefully others will share theirs, so that you get a wide variety of responses.

After my undergrad, I moved to the Bay Area and I had a chance to get an MBA at a good school, but I turned it down to work on my own startup. For me, it's actually one of my few regrets because I can see now that it would have actually helped me in my startups later. Doing a startup is like rolling the dice; there's a lot of luck involved, strangely. If I had taken the couple years to get that degree, I think it would have bettered my odds later, and would have been worth it.

Again, that's just a personal anecdote and not intended to convey anything other than my limited perspective. Of course, if you're really sold on the idea, you could take a year off and just see what happens as well. Personally, I've worked in both Silicon Valley and France (the 06 :-). I would take France any second of any day of the week. It's a slice of heaven and nothing less. :-)