Ask HN: I'm about to graduate. Why should I consider a MSc in Computer Science?

I'm in a similar position myself. I'm in the final year of my BSc, and am looking at doing an MSc to develop my knowledge and skills in software engineering and information security, and also in research. Academic research is something I'm interested in pursuing, and an MSc should help me to determine if it's right for me, and to prepare me for it.

I suppose whether or not to do postgraduate study depends on what sort of career you want to pursue and what skills you need. There may well be other ways to acquire those skills, though a benefit of an MSc is that it is very widely recognised.

(That's just my initial impressions going into this, mind.)

You should consider a MSc in Computer Science if you are lacking the skills to do what you want to do. This 'might' be the case if you are looking to do cool machine learning stuff and you are having trouble getting the positions at the big tech companies that you want to get into. That being said, I have seen exceptions.

You should not consider a MS in CS if 1) you want a cool looking resume, 2) you want to delay making decisions about what you want to do in life, 3) you think MS will make you a better tech founder, 4) you think you will get paid more / raise through the ranks faster with a MS.

I agree with everything ruler88 wrote, but want to expound on it. Look at the type of role you would like to be in 5,10,15 years down the road, do most of the people in those roles have MScs? If so, definitely get it. If not, figure out what the MSc will get you.

Everyone will tell you that an MSc will not get you more money. This is technically true. However, if it gets you into a career that you love, it probably will get you more money, because you'll do a good job (all things being equal).

Well, think hard about what you'd like to do every working day of your life for the next 10-20 years at least. You should consider a MSc in CS if the answer to this question is learning to be a better programmer and coding.

It's a lot more fun and technically interesting than an undergraduate degree. You also make a little bit more money, but because of the opportunity cost it takes awhile to pay for itself.

Would say an MSc soon after graduation is mostly useful to specialise in a particular domain of the industry instead?

Does a MSc really assure better programming skill? @greg7mdp

I thought, people who wanted to be a teacher or researcher considers MSc.