Should I get my master's degree?

Posted by effortissues@reddit | learnprogramming | View on Reddit | 12 comments

I was invited to pursue my master's degree at the college I graduated from, I'm in some down time and I'm thinking about it. Anyone here get there masters degree and still feel like it was helpful to their career? Context: I graduated college with my Bachelor's in may of 2020, got my first 6-figure job in June of 2020, got laid off from that job in January of 2023 a long with like 50 other folks. I rebound quick into a new job and was still within my first 90 days when they took, had layoffs, so I was cut along with 10 other folks in may of 2023. I decided to chill for the rest of 2023 and try to let the market calm down.

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12 Comments

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LongJohnVanilla@reddit

If it’s a masters in Comp Sci it would be pointless. If it’s an MBA or business related masters then yes.

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weinermcdingbutt@reddit

Why is a CS masters pointless?

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LongJohnVanilla@reddit

Is there a correlation between having a masters degree and making big bucks or advancing up the ranks?

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weinermcdingbutt@reddit

Ah so you mean it’s pointless in terms of monetary gain

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LongJohnVanilla@reddit

If you want to spend $40-$60 thousand to have someone tell you to study x instead of just studying x for free, it’s up to you. In my opinion anything beyond a bachelors degree only makes sense if you want to get into academia.

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weinermcdingbutt@reddit

Yeah that makes sense. I somewhat agree that in terms of gaining new knowledge, you’re well off just doing independent study as long as you know what to study.

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LongJohnVanilla@reddit

It was different back in the day before open source GitHub repos and the internet. When I started my career in the late 90s your only options to learn anything was go to school or buy the book. There were user groups on C, C++, Visual Basic, Fortran, Pascal, and Assembly where developers would post problems they were having and we’d all pitch in and try to help. The community back then was so small you literally had the authors of some of these books actively participating in the Usenet groups.

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weinermcdingbutt@reddit

But also, yes and yes

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effortissues@reddit (OP)

Interesting, I had considered an MBA before, the invite was for a new master's degree program in cyber security. What's the benefit to having an MBA? And which focus would you recommend?

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LongJohnVanilla@reddit

Software development is typically something you’ll do in your career in your 20s and early mid 30s. You’ll need to have a skill set and background to go up the ranks from a management/business perspective so you can make the real big bucks. Combining technology with business imo is the best combo to have. Over my career I’ve met a handful of programmers who kept coding into their 40s/50s but these guys were usually one a million type geniuses. The vast majority of programmers are by definition average and ask your salary goes up over time, you just become too expensive and eventually get clipped and replaced by younger and cheaper developers. You want to be able to pivot mid career.

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effortissues@reddit (OP)

Solid advice, thank you!

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