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Comment by ransom1538 | Hacker News Reader

I know this isn't popular. But I will say it - since I know it goes unspoken in the industry. When I see a CS MS degree I assume the person is terrible. I am always proved correct. I can count on one hand resumes of people that gets a CS BS degree THEN a MS degree in CS [15 years of looking at resumes]. In the US, if you get a BS in CS you usually take off doing cool stuff. CS Master degrees are full of people not majoring in CS for the right reason [eg, never played with computers as a kid]. If computers were your passion you would have got a BS in it.

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My experience is the opposite of yours. Oh look, we cancel out. Hurray for anecdotes and biases!

I mean, if they're coming from a different major, it's the equivalent of hiring people after sophomore year. If they haven't been programming outside that, that frankly isn't enough time to be a good programmer.

What a weirdly specific statement that has little connection to the parent or reality.

Remember that we're responding to:

> I can count on one hand resumes of people that gets a CS BS degree THEN a MS degree in CS [15 years of looking at resumes].

In fact most people who get an MS in CS got a BS in CS first. And all MS programs have prerequisites.

Most M.S. requires a year or two of prerequisites.

This is discouraging. As someone with a BS in something other than CS I don't feel that I get the benefit of the doubt during interviews. My CS fundamentals are weak because I never learned them and they very rarely come up in building things and I have been thinking of going back for a CS Masters

Pick up Discrete Mathematics by Knuth, Foundations of Mathematics by Sibley, Modern Operating Systems by Tanenbaum, and Computer Organization and Design by Patterson and Hennessy.

You internalize those, combined with your experience, and you'll be better off than a lot of CS grads.

Thanks! Currently working through The Algorithm Design Manual, and next on my list is Introduction to Algorithms but I will add your recommendations to my reading list

It's interesting how different things are here. In Germany it's nearly expected to get a Masters degree because of the way things used to be: until not too long ago we didn't have BS/MS but only a diploma which was equivalent to a Masters degree so many companies still expect a Masters degree even nowadays. From what I've seen it also seems more difficult to get a MS in a different field than your BS here. Is it common in the US?

From what I remember of my time in Germany it’s not nearly expected to get a Master’s, it’s expected. Getting a Bachelor’s is still the norm in the UK or US, getting a Master’s is the norm in Germany or Austria.

Getting a Master’s in a different field from your Bachrlor’s is so common as to be unremarkable. The ones which are only available to those with significant prior study in the field are the exception, not the rule.

You make it sound like this is some elephant in the room across the industry. I'm curious if others here have found the same conclusions you have.

I've seen it among many managers from several companies. After I got involved in the hiring process I saw why. Like unable to fizzbuzz more than half the time.

By the time I finish my M Eng I will have a cutting edge education in machine learning, robotics, computer vision, and natural language processing, on top of five solid years of paid programming experience.

If someone insists on making a hiring decision based on my ability to whip out fizzbuzz on a whiteboard under a ticking clock, find another person and waste their time. I’ll pass.

If you can't fizzbuzz, I'm not going to hire you. Not being able to isn't defensible.

I'm going to be real, what I'm assuming is a near completed master's student complaining about fizzbuzz not being fair is kind of proving my point.

Fizzbuzz is fair: it’s a fair waste of time.

Interviewing an experienced and credentialed developer like they’re an undergrad sophomore with a one sentence resume looking for a summer internship shows to me that if an employer is going to waste the time of a candidate (and implicitly insult their intelligence and education), then they will waste the time of an employee, and such they represent an organization I want no part of.

Except it isn't a waste of time. Most of the credentialed, experienced people looking for a job in this current market can't do it. Most of the people actively looking for work in this field don't have a job for a reason.

Have you ever been a part of the hiring process, or are just stating that it's a waste of time because you think it's somehow beneath you to prove that you can do basic work? You know those annoying people in you group projects who don't do any work, but somehow squeak by? They graduate to, and get a job to.

Foreigners use the MS in CS as a way to get into the country. They might have done a BS. I'm sure you just mean native-born Americans?

The best people I have worked with are "Foreigners". Good people just get here. It is just how it works.

Not everyone finds their passion before or during undergrad.

Yeah, you're probably just biased against someone you know who has a CS degree, or is getting one. It's how humans work.

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