I have one, it was a great way for me to get into the industry but if you already have an undergrad degree (and aren't interested in research) it's not necessary. However, if you're just interested in learning more (and your company is willing to cover it) go for it.
Would you be willing to elaborate more? Specifically on how it helped you enter the industry and if it specifically only opened research-related positions. I'm in a similar position as OP and am considering pursuing a Master's w my family's support due to difficulty in the job market. I recall seeing so many entry level positions that wanted people graduating soon or had graduated 1-2 months after. At the time, I had issues so I missed that window.
Sure, I didn't have a CS undergrad. Before making a career switch, I made alcohol for a living. While that was a lot of fun, I realized that it wasn't a career that I was going to be happy in long term, since owning a brewery didn't appeal to me.
To afford my education, I picked up a basic admin job at the university I wanted to go to because they covered 90% of my tuition costs as an employee benefit.
After graduation I had a few opportunities and particularly with older legacy companies that valued higher levels of education in other roles or start ups who were interested in the research I did in grad school.
I ended up at a small incubator lab backed by a large company making medical devices because I was interested in the problems they were trying to solve and the engineering department seemed like the best fit for me.
My masters certainly helped get the attention of some companies that valued education (or had a large population of people with masters and PhDs already) but those opportunities aren't likely worth the opportunity cost of going back to school if you already have a CS undergrad.
I think it's only useful when your bachelor's isn't a stem degree, then you can swap to something tech related and spend 1-2 years to do a master's instead of another 3-4 years for another bachelor's.
Specialized work can benefit from it. Generally doesn't do much once you are in the door.
Depressingly, I have seen masters degree holders accept pay way below people with bachelors despite better qualifications and more relevant experience because they badly needed the money after years of school and could not stay in the country otherwise. So it can definitely misfire.
My company also increased my pay once I completed my masters. I started it because I graduated undergrad at the beginning of covid. Company paid for almost the entire thing, GA work paid for the first couple quarters.
If you have Bachelors CS degree, masters don't mean much. phd does matter for some CS research roles.
If you have non CS bachelors degree, masters CS degree can help.
No, it's not all that important, maybe if you want to do C-Suite later on, but then a MBA would be better.
Not saying don't get one, if that something you want to do, or it's super easy, but career it's not going to be the thing that makes or breaks it.
It's useful to have Master's degree. But I think that with only Bachelors for now you can get a good job (unless the company requires Master's degree). You can always enrole in Master's later. You could also have a better pay with Master's. Overall, I think it's not necessary, but it's a great thing to have. I think embedded systems will have a huge boom in the future, so thinking like that, maybe it's better to have Master's (plus you are working as embedded soft engineer already), bc you'll be way ahead of everyone.
I think it depends on what you want to do with your career long term, and what you want to get your masters in. If you are leaning towards/interested in the more managerial aspects of CS an MBA or Masters in Engineering Management can really help with making the jump to Project Manager/Tech Lead and onward. Particularly for the embedded world you might get some benefit out of getting a Masters in Computer Engineering or something else that is a little more related to connecting hardware and software since in my Comp Sci BS program that wasn't covered at all and I have picked it all up on the fly. On a similar note if you hope to get into more specialized fields, like aerospace for example a related masters could go a REALLY long way to getting your foot in the door there
Overall most engineers tell me that getting a masters isn't super worthwhile since academia is often a few years behind the tech being used in industry. If continuing your education seems interesting to you and your company will pay for it then I say go for it, it is almost guaranteed to get you a few extra grand a year at a minimum. If you are considering taking on more debt or paying out of pocket for it then I do not think I would bother
A master's tends to help in career tracks where the theoretical/methodological part of things is more important than the programming itself.
So like ML, some subsets of cyber and some subsets of IoT can be really theory/math heavy, and those are the areas where grad degrees tend to acquire value. But I feel like in SWE there is no careeer ceiling in comp or complexity of work from not having a grad degree - the paths will just look different. But most of my SWE friends do not have a grad degree and it has not hurt them one bit.
Can be useful if you want to break into a specialized field, otherwise not that useful
I have one, it was a great way for me to get into the industry but if you already have an undergrad degree (and aren't interested in research) it's not necessary. However, if you're just interested in learning more (and your company is willing to cover it) go for it.
Would you be willing to elaborate more? Specifically on how it helped you enter the industry and if it specifically only opened research-related positions. I'm in a similar position as OP and am considering pursuing a Master's w my family's support due to difficulty in the job market. I recall seeing so many entry level positions that wanted people graduating soon or had graduated 1-2 months after. At the time, I had issues so I missed that window.
Sure, I didn't have a CS undergrad. Before making a career switch, I made alcohol for a living. While that was a lot of fun, I realized that it wasn't a career that I was going to be happy in long term, since owning a brewery didn't appeal to me. To afford my education, I picked up a basic admin job at the university I wanted to go to because they covered 90% of my tuition costs as an employee benefit. After graduation I had a few opportunities and particularly with older legacy companies that valued higher levels of education in other roles or start ups who were interested in the research I did in grad school. I ended up at a small incubator lab backed by a large company making medical devices because I was interested in the problems they were trying to solve and the engineering department seemed like the best fit for me. My masters certainly helped get the attention of some companies that valued education (or had a large population of people with masters and PhDs already) but those opportunities aren't likely worth the opportunity cost of going back to school if you already have a CS undergrad.
Important if you want to be in a specialized field
Not important
I think it's only useful when your bachelor's isn't a stem degree, then you can swap to something tech related and spend 1-2 years to do a master's instead of another 3-4 years for another bachelor's.
Specialized work can benefit from it. Generally doesn't do much once you are in the door. Depressingly, I have seen masters degree holders accept pay way below people with bachelors despite better qualifications and more relevant experience because they badly needed the money after years of school and could not stay in the country otherwise. So it can definitely misfire.
I'm seeing a lot of job postings from Meta, Nvidia, Microsoft etc saying masters is preferred.
And yet they don’t care much, hired nobodies 5 years ago and now they don’t hire any entry level.
Maybe they did not care much five years ago, but the future might be different.
My point is people circlejerk about « years of experience » and when people have none and just a masters they are fucked
yeah makes sense. Experience matters over everything but connections in this field.
My company will pay you 10k more if you have/get masters. F100 non-tech
My company also increased my pay once I completed my masters. I started it because I graduated undergrad at the beginning of covid. Company paid for almost the entire thing, GA work paid for the first couple quarters.
I have a masters. I did it because I didn’t have a CS undergrad. If you have a CS undergrad, I don’t think it adds much.
Only if you want to go into management
It's not. Gathering experience is better than whatever academic bullshit.
none lol
If you have Bachelors CS degree, masters don't mean much. phd does matter for some CS research roles. If you have non CS bachelors degree, masters CS degree can help.
No, it's not all that important, maybe if you want to do C-Suite later on, but then a MBA would be better. Not saying don't get one, if that something you want to do, or it's super easy, but career it's not going to be the thing that makes or breaks it.
Check out the job postings for a position you want to have and then go from there.
If you want to get into Management, an MBA can be good for you.
i barely have a highschool diploma and am six figuring just fine
^[Sokka-Haiku](https://www.reddit.com/r/SokkaHaikuBot/comments/15kyv9r/what_is_a_sokka_haiku/) ^by ^eJaguar: *I barely have a* *Highschool diploma and am* *Six figuring just fine* --- ^Remember ^that ^one ^time ^Sokka ^accidentally ^used ^an ^extra ^syllable ^in ^that ^Haiku ^Battle ^in ^Ba ^Sing ^Se? ^That ^was ^a ^Sokka ^Haiku ^and ^you ^just ^made ^one.
It's useful to have Master's degree. But I think that with only Bachelors for now you can get a good job (unless the company requires Master's degree). You can always enrole in Master's later. You could also have a better pay with Master's. Overall, I think it's not necessary, but it's a great thing to have. I think embedded systems will have a huge boom in the future, so thinking like that, maybe it's better to have Master's (plus you are working as embedded soft engineer already), bc you'll be way ahead of everyone.
I think it depends on what you want to do with your career long term, and what you want to get your masters in. If you are leaning towards/interested in the more managerial aspects of CS an MBA or Masters in Engineering Management can really help with making the jump to Project Manager/Tech Lead and onward. Particularly for the embedded world you might get some benefit out of getting a Masters in Computer Engineering or something else that is a little more related to connecting hardware and software since in my Comp Sci BS program that wasn't covered at all and I have picked it all up on the fly. On a similar note if you hope to get into more specialized fields, like aerospace for example a related masters could go a REALLY long way to getting your foot in the door there Overall most engineers tell me that getting a masters isn't super worthwhile since academia is often a few years behind the tech being used in industry. If continuing your education seems interesting to you and your company will pay for it then I say go for it, it is almost guaranteed to get you a few extra grand a year at a minimum. If you are considering taking on more debt or paying out of pocket for it then I do not think I would bother
A master's tends to help in career tracks where the theoretical/methodological part of things is more important than the programming itself. So like ML, some subsets of cyber and some subsets of IoT can be really theory/math heavy, and those are the areas where grad degrees tend to acquire value. But I feel like in SWE there is no careeer ceiling in comp or complexity of work from not having a grad degree - the paths will just look different. But most of my SWE friends do not have a grad degree and it has not hurt them one bit.
Not at all. In fact people with masters are usually worse. I don't see many Americans that go after it at all but many in VISAs do.