Ask HN: Is it worth it to get a masters degree in CS for SWE? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Is it worth it to get a masters degree in CS for SWE?

8 pointssimse15 comments

Hello everyone. I need some advice on whether to pursue a Masters after finishing my Bachelor degree.

I've tried doing some independent research on this, and the answer I've arrived at is: it depends!

I am currently in my second year of University in London, and while studying I'm also doing a part-time SWE internship at LEGO. This will continue in my third year, and it looks like I will be offered a job once I graduate in 2024.

With that in mind, would it make any sense for me to go for a Masters degree and delay working in industry for one year?

I'm mostly thinking in terms of opportunities in the future and personal development.

I should also note that my current University is not very prestitious, but my grades are excellent, so I believe I could be accepted into a better one for a MSc.

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Given that in the UK a degree is 3 years and an MSc is typically 1 year, I would do an MSc. Delaying work by one year isn't much in the grander scheme of things. Once you've started working you'll find it hard to come back and do your MSc.

I would recommend doing it at another university though and make sure you find a program that interests you. This is so you can broaden your network and meet faculty and students at another place. I was advised to do this by one of my lecturers, I ignored the advice and stayed at the same university but in hindsight I can see I would have got a lot more out of my MSc if I had gone somewhere else.

I did an MSc (in mathematics though) and feel that it opened doors for me in my career. This may be less true for computer science though.

Option A - You take the job in 2024 and put off the Masters. Option B - You start your Masters and put off work until 2025.

When I was in your position years ago I took situation B, but before doing that I had good reason to believe I had a job lined up that was interested in the MS. My main reason for choosing B was I felt I’d never have the time to do a masters full time once I entered the job force, and I wanted do have a degree that distinguished myself. All of that worked out fine for me and I have a good job now.

However, looking back I would choose Option A. I didn’t learn a lot of new things from my Masters because there was so much overlap with my undergraduate degree. I would have appreciated it more as a part time program later in my career when I had more experience. Also, it took me 5 years to catch up with the salaries my friends who didn’t take the pause were making.

I’d recommend taking the job, work for 5 years then revisit the masters.

> it took me 5 years to catch up with the salaries my friends who didn’t take the pause were making

Worth exploring the opportunity cost in a bit more detail.

One possible trajectory is to get a junior permie SWE job on some commercial project, spend a few years learning the ropes, switch to a different org and a different project, get a better salary while learning a bunch new stuff from the new project context, then enter the wonderful world of daily contract rates. It seems very plausible to be making the median SWE daily contract rate (£600) [1] as a contractor after 5 years of relevant commercial experience, one could probably do this even faster if working toward this was a goal, with a little luck.

Suppose you bill 45 weeks per year, 5 days per week as a contractor, with a daily rate of £600 - that's an income of £135k. Money isn't everything, and life isn't a race, but what's the opportunity cost to delay earning good money by pausing a year or so to accrue additional academic credentials?

Another possible trajectory is to start climbing the leadership ladder, towards a technical leadership role, or perhaps sideways to a management role. Doing this likely requires more time spent working in the same organisation, to be internally promoted into one of these roles without having prior experience. For this trajectory, getting some non CS / non-SWE training might be more valuable (MBA?).

[1] https://www.itjobswatch.co.uk/contracts/uk/software%20engine...

I agree that for work in the UK a Master's may be less important. I took one because I believed I'd be working on the Continent where a BSc wouldn't be seen as a real degree and a PhD would look a bit ivory tower (I had a choice to follow either).

~30Y later after running start-ups and working with companies of all sizes, but none on the Continent, I am starting a PhD because I have an issue that I really want to research and resolve: I'm a bit late for it to be a career boost, whatever a 'career' is. B^>

I'm glad that I followed the MSc for many reasons, and especially if we are going to scoot along the edge of a recession for a while, maybe you could finesse that also by doing a Master's.

If you’re going to finish your second year in 2023, how do you plan to get your Bachelor’s in 2024?

Why do you need to decide right now? You’re not even half way through with your Bachelors, and you haven’t had any of the hard CS courses yet.

Statistically you’re much less likely to go back to school after you graduate, so if you want to get MSc you should do it right after BSc.

Also, the benefits of having an MSc from a recognizable university would normally outweigh the 1-2 year delay for the start of your SWE career, unless you’re somehow offered an amazing job opportunity (hint: not a boring 9-5 entry level job at Lego).

Bachelor's in the UK are only three years, so I'm very nearly two thirds done. Regardless, I hear what you're saying.

If you have to pay for it out of pocket then I probably wouldn't as a couple years work experience with a Bachelors is more or less equivalent to having a Masters as far as most companies are concerned. If you're thinking it would be a stepping stone to an eventual PhD you're probably still better off going straight to a PhD program or perhaps taking MS courses part time while working and applying to PhD programs.

One half would be covered by the Danish State, the other half by a tuition loan. I would however lose the income from the internship, so it has to be very worth it for me to go ahead.

Do you need a Masters degree to have a successful corporate career? Of course not.

Personally, I would take the possibility of a few years of a down economy in the tech world as a big variable in this decision. Depending on how secure you think your job is, it might be safer to ride out a few down years in academia and try and time your graduation for the possible economic upswing.

I really don’t think so. Get an entry level job and build working experience, you’ll quickly ascend in title and salary.

One thing I don’t see mentioned here is the content of the Masters. Some programs are extremely technical, others are moderately technical, and some are oriented around being a technical/business leader.

I got my masters and it was moderately technical, but also included people that didn’t have a comp sci undergrad degree, which made classes like advanced algorithms really awkward, and detracted from the program.

Overall I’d do it again if it were either highly technical, or way more business oriented, but I definitely wish I’d known that up front.

I don’t think any degree is a replacement for full time working in your field, so if you expectation is to learn more in order to be more prepared for a corporate career, you may be disappointed.

Imagine your future self (let’s say you with 45 years old). What would that person prefer? A career in software engineering with 20 years of experience and no master’s degree, or a career in software engineering with 18 years of experience and a master’s degree? (Assuming the master’s degree takes two years to complete).

Some points to consider:

If you want a job in science (in Europe), then you'll want a Masters. If you want to work for companies like LEGO, then probably not.

I'll expand on this by adding that at the beginning of your career you're often happy to be doing any paid work related to your degree. After time you want a combination of interesting work, independence (autonomy) and scope for the future. You find this combination more often with research institutes and university labs. A Masters can prepare your for this route, but only if you go hard with it, and if it's specialised and not in generic software engineering. I'm thinking something like Robotics / Mechatronics, Computer Vision.

I've never met anyone who had a Masters degree that was better for doing it. It seems to just be a tickbox thing people do.

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