Ask HN: Should I get a Master's degree in CS? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Should I get a Master's degree in CS?

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Since the last post about this was a few years ago [1] and with different circumstances, I though I'd ask again. I'm studying CS at a mid-ranked program of a US university, where I have an option to do a 1-year master's degree after my undergraduate degree is complete. I could also try to do a master's degree at a higher-ranked CS program, or skip it and get a job. Is the extra degree worth it? (either in terms of career options or educational value).

Other things: - I've done some internships; I expect I'll be able to get a job after I graduate. - I'm considering trying to move to Europe within a few years of graduating. Would the degree be more valuable there? (and also - should I be trying to study for a master's there instead?)

[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26405955

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Idk about the European job market, but in general the CS Masters is pretty useless. That time is far better spent working in industry, in pretty much every dimension.

The only time it's worth getting higher degrees in CS is if you intend to go into academia, or a certain subset of research-heavy roles (research in AI, quantum computing, etc.) But for those, usually a PhD is what they are looking for, Masters wouldn't cut it.

In some places in Europe the title is very important. I know companies, where if you do not have some degree you just do not qualify for certain positions. You can get an exception, if your boss is good, but you cannot bet on that.

If you are doing it to fulfill a personal goal, yes. If you are doing it to gain career advantage, absolutely not. In this case, pick a different field to get your master's in. You'll get a better understanding of the world around you. Getting a master's in CS doesn't make you more desirable for a position in the US.

Some places will require more education to get promoted, but that's a decision you can make after you get such a job.

In Germany, a master's degree in CS is definitely valued higher than a bachelor's - this is similar in most (west/northern/mid) European countries.

Most master programs in CS are 2-year programs, this might be important for the degree to be considered equivalent to a European master's degree if you decide to start a PhD.

There are quite a number of English language master programs in CS in Europe and you should usually have little problems being accepted into one with a bachelor's degree from a US university (though there will be a lot of bureaucracy involved...).

Some advantages of studying in Europe are that there are no tuition fees in several countries in Europe (at least in Germany, the Czech Republic, Sweden, Denmark and Norway AFAIK - though the Norwegians are discussing the introduction of tuition fees for non-citizens) and a European degree is recognized throughout Europe due to the Bologna process (see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bologna_Process).

Not my personal experience, but that of a family member. Getting an advanced degree at a German university is far better regarded by German employers than a foreign degree, especially if the university is not well known internationally.

I have some know people in many big companies Germany. About half of employees there are from foreign countries. I have never heard about any preference of universities from Germany. Maybe depends on region/company?

In recent times, it hasn't mattered a lot and you were good as long as you could write the code that people asked you to. However, the market looks like it might be changing with hiring freezes/slowdowns and layoffs here and there. If we do hit another recession, where we have to compete for jobs, the rules change. Anything that you do from certifications to MCS and any other way to set yourself apart from the crowd will be a benefit. I always felt like the MCS was beneficial because, unlike the bachelors, you're concentrating nearly exclusively on computer science, which is pretty cool.

Maybe you should specify better where in Europe are you targeting? Or you have not still decided? Europe is less homogeneous that you may think (in some aspects, at least).

Having a master degree may help to get a job, especially in some countries where still is more important the title as the experience (what still shocks me). But in my experience a PhD will not help you necessarily to earn more money, or get a job faster. It may influence the kind of job you can get tough.

What title it is, is not so important. In many countries the names of the titles are very different. In some there is no EE and CS just as you know them from the US. In some companies they still insist in you presenting the grades of all your studies, and recommendation letters. Luckily this is decaying, but still present. So, sometimes it is better to opt for courses where you can get better grades, and jobs where you get better recommendation letters.

The question of where to get the master, depends: if the master is for you just "a means to get a job" make it where it is cheaper (probably Europe). If you really want to learn CS, I would stay in the US. At least where I am, the level of CS teaching in Universities is not as good as in the US (at least my limited sample of known people/universities).

Last but not least, in my experience, people graduated in the US, also when not in the best universities, are well seen.

I have a preference towards Germany (I did a short-term project working on research at a university there recently), but would be open to somewhere else as well.

My grades from my undergraduate program are good (4.0/4.0 GPA); it's possible my grades could decrease a bit, but I don't expect them to drop significantly in the future (although you never know).

I really do want to learn CS better; I think the opportunity to do that would be good. But the expense / opportunity cost is high enough that it does seem like more of an economic question of "will this help me get a better job?", which there doesn't seem to be a good answer to.

> At least where I am, the level of CS teaching in Universities is not as good as in the US (at least my limited sample of known people/universities).

Would you mind saying where that is? (I can email also if you don't want to here)

I would have no problem to tell you in private. It is a sensible topic to do it here.

The nice part about Germany is, that you don't pay any tuition fee there (except Baden-Württemberg). So doing a Master's there is a lot cheaper than in the US.

As for CS, it is possible to work there with a BA, but generally speaking, you will earn more money and have more job opportunities with a MA.

I have a rather unique situation, where Master's degree is worth it:

I wanted to move to Denmark from an East-European country, in the hope of a better life. So, I enrolled at a university here (at a "famous" one though), so I could be accommodated in a dormitory where I pay half of what I'd pay in a rent. I also can network at the university, but to be honest, it's not going that well as I planned, I think because I'm a really introverted person and I'm getting only well with other people from my country.

So, being enrolled at a university in Denmark, I also get SU (scholarship) from the government, and for it I only have to work 12 hours a week and that's all! That's a big help. Because of this, Danish companies are open for the cheap, part-time workers so it's easy to get a part-time job, where you still get paid moderately well. With the scholarship, it's a pretty good deal.

That sounds really neat! Unfortunately it doesn't look like I'm eligible for the scholarship since I'm not an EU citizen [1]. I also don't know if I would be able to work at all under whatever visa I would get. But tuition is so much cheaper (and food/housing also somewhat cheaper it seems) than in the US, so it still might make financial sense.

[1] https://www.studentsurvivalguide.dk/posts/survival-guide-to-...

It depends on what your career goals are. In most cases (for example, if you want to work as a software engineer or want to start a company), it’s probably not worth the opportunity cost (i.e. having a year of actual work experience would be more valuable). However if your career goals involve research or academia, then it may be worth it.

I did one while working full time. My employer paid for it (a reimbursement could be recovered if one left within a year of getting it), and given that my undergraduate majors were in the liberal arts, it made my resume look a lot more attractive.

But your undergraduate degree will be in CS. You might do well to work and see what's out there.

This is the obvious answer, do it part-time. Its very do-able while working full-time, perhaps more difficult with a family, can take 2-3 yrs though. I'm glad I did a MSc, learned some deeper comp sci and its evidence of achievement to employers, especially doing part-time. Full-time though possibly not worth the career opportunity costs and lost income , unless, as others have said , you long-term wish to move into academia

University SE/CS courses give you foundational knowledge in the field. For some jobs it might help, not always. It is practical, especially domain specific experience that employers are looking for. You can always take time off to do a masters after you have solid experience and a better understanding of where your strengths and interests lie. Obviously, this advice isn't for everybody, but based on my experience of going back to do a PhD in SE after 20+ years industry experience, I can attest that I had a far clearer picture of what I needed/wanted to know more about.

It depends on your goals.

1. Become more desirable for US-based employers? If your undergrad is already in CS, doing a CS masters will have negligible effect.

2. Become more desirable for foreign employers? Yes, some countries prefer more highly-educated candidates (eg: they might have a quota for undergrads, and another one for Masters or PhDs).

3. Personal growth? By all means yes, you can take more specialized elective classes during a masters and explore more deeply within your concentration of interest than in undergrad. However, chances are that you won't use 95% of the knowledge you learn unless you are very fortunate to get into a research position rather than just building commodity CRUD apps. That remaining 5% could be the difference between being a 2x engineer and a 1x engineer though. If you are self-disciplined, you can get much of the same experience by taking classes through EdX or Coursera but without the shiny diploma at the end.

4. Networking? Yes, college/university is a great place to make friends (it might get harder to make new friends once you're in the workplace depending on the industry you are in). Although you're probably already getting many of these networking opportunities in undergraduate.

5. Prepare for PhD? If you want to break into a PhD program, do a masters and get to know the upper-division professors very well. But PhD is not for everyone: https://www.dropbox.com/s/5c70typ50be0d9l/pguo-PhD-grind.pdf...

Another option is to go into industry and take night/evening classes through an online masters like Georgia Tech or Stanford Online. There are many problems with this though:

- it might take 2 or 3 years (since you can probably only take about 1 or 2 classes per semester/quarter than the usual courseload of 3 or 4) - you will miss out on many of the networking opportunities, and not have much of a social life or free time if you are also pursuing a full-time job

I only recommend it if you are in financial need, otherwise just enjoy the extra year in university (in the grand scheme of things, 1 year is not such a long time out of a career spanning 30+ years).

> doing a CS masters will have negligible effect

If they are taking out student loans for an extra year or two it will have a negative effect financially. I work with senior engineers without degrees and they are in the same pay band as people with that title, a degree has no effect on salary. In all the discussions about levels at different places, including FAANG, I've never heard of a degree level impacting salary. The outlier there might be for very specialized research PhD types from prestigious universities. Someone can be book smart and excel in an academic environment and not have any practical experience for doing actual work.

In my opinion, anything beyond a Bachelors in CS is only going to help if you're going into academia or research.

I don't see myself doing a PhD, it's too much time to commit to something I'm only marginally interested in. (I haven't read the link yet, but just based on the ToC, it doesn't look like it's going to convince me otherwise!)

> Another option is to go into industry and take night/evening classes through an online masters like Georgia Tech or Stanford Online

Have you done this before?

Europe is so competitive that any edge you get is welcome. In the UK/London, particularly if you are a foreigner, you will need to both appear to and be more industrious than your peers if you want to get a job with high-upside. So my suggestion would be to go for it - just make a reputable top 10 uni that is recognizable overseas.

I wouldn't get an MS, unless it's mostly free. Even then, probably still a waste of time.

I got an MS and it did nothing for me. Other people worked more and got promoted faster. You're better off working an extra hour a day instead of spending 10 hours a week on school work.

Just an idea, but would a Masters in some other field besides CS make more sense? Perhaps you have a passion or something that drives you to where you could marry this with what you already know about CS?

If you don't know why you want the master's, don't.

I would if you have international ambitions. Masters degree tend to make it a touch easier to work abroad, deal with Visas etc.

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