I hired software engineers at a big company in Silicon Valley for many years. I interviewed thousands at university career fairs. I hired dozens of summer interns and full-time people.

My take on a master's degree is that I treat it like a year or two of experience: experience that the poor fool didn't get paid for. Of course, a person with an MS is going to be a stronger candidate than one with just a BS, since they've had more experience. But I can take the engineer with the BS and give him the year of experience myself.

Perhaps it's different in Europe: they seem to value high education credentials more. I didn't care about the status of an MS and neither did most of my colleagues.

I think the only reason to do an MS in the USA is if you're a foreigner trying to get residency through an H1B visa. There's a separate quota category for people with an MS degree earned in the USA.