Ask HN: Looking for advice on going back to school

M28, Software Engineer with 3.5 years of experience, working full-time in a third-party software house (consultancy) in Italy. My long-term goal is to become a tech entrepreneur, possibly in the startup landscape. My short-to-medium goal is to enter the internal job market (remotely or by relocating), ideally in an early startup or scale-up to gain insights from the inside. However, I’m feeling stagnated: my positioning isn’t great and my professional network is minimal.

In retrospect, I am trying to understand my next move, and an alternative that came to mind is going back to school. I’m considering joining a 1-year Master’s program (or similar) in a European tech hub, which I believe would be beneficial in terms of networking and positioning, more than the hard skills acquired. I have a Master’s in Computer Engineering, so I would be more interested in something related to entrepreneurship or startups. I don’t feel an MBA would cover my interests, but it could be good for networking. To decide, I am looking to gather information from others’ experiences:

- Does going back to school actually help in terms of networking and positioning?

- Which courses or colleges should I look for in the EU? Is there something specific I should look out for when checking out the courses?

- Would choosing a specific city be as relevant as the school? I’m thinking about events and local companies. Do you have any suggestions? Zurich, London, and Amsterdam are on my mind.

- In your opinion, is the ROI (for my current goals) of going back to school greater than joining a startup? It would also be interesting to do both part-time.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!