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Is a master's in software engineering worth it
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Should you spend an extra two years in school or should you spend that time getting experience
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out in the workplace? In this video, I'm going to be talking about five reasons why getting a master's degree in computer
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science is not worth it. And then I'm going to also talk about five reasons why it could be very beneficial
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The first reason why getting a master's degree in computer science may not be worth it is
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that that is two more years that you are out of the workplace. Up to this point, you've probably spent then at least
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six years in school where you are paying and taking on debt rather than being able to work
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full time. And so that's six years of lost opportunity costs on the earnings that you're going to make
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And so you have to calculate, is any pay increase that you get by having a master's degree
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How long is that going to take to make up for six years of lost earnings
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And in some situations that it might make financial sense, but in others, you may be better off
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getting the two years of experience and be making money during those two years than actually
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getting a master's degree. Another reason that it can be a detriment is that it makes you a riskier
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candidate for a job. And the reason for this is because now that you have an additional degree
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and you likely expecting higher pay the hiring manager has to weigh okay I have a candidate here that has a computer science degree for your degree and I have someone who has a master degree who going to be asking for more
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I don't know for sure the experience and the skill level of either of them
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I can assume that the one with the master's degree has some more advanced studies
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but there is no guarantee that when they have graduated, that the guy with the master's degree
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is actually better at software than the guy with the computer science degree
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and so there's an inherent risk in hiring someone with a higher degree and not having any experience
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And another reason is that there's no guarantee that just because you get the master's degree
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that you will do better at programming than if you just have the computer science degree
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A lot of times in master's programs, you're doing a lot more focus on research
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and doing things that are going to be preparing you for going into research or academia
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not necessarily practical engineering and coding skills. So there's a place for that
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but that experience may not be really, really actionable in a day-to-day programming job for most positions
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And another con is that there's going to be a lot of overlap between what you're learning in a computer science degree
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and in your master's degree. Now, this can be good because it can reinforce a lot of topics
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but if those are topics that you aren going to be actually using in your day then now you just wasted twice as much time learning something that isn going to be of use to you Whereas if you just stuck with the bachelor degree
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then you would have only learned that once and wasted your time on that class once. Not really
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waste because there is context and understanding that comes there. But it definitely, I think, can become
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more wasteful if you're spending twice as long studying those topics that you won't end up using
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So now for the five reasons why having a master's, degree in computer science is going to be worth it. There are some jobs where it will be really
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really helpful. For example, if you're looking at some of the government jobs, having a master's
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degree will really set you apart and help you to get those positions because there's a lot of
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bureaucracy in the hiring process and a lot of requirements and different ways that they weigh candidates
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and stuff. And because of that, just having the degree will make a huge difference on your
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application. Also, if you're looking at getting at H-1B, having a master's degree can be really helpful
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because there are funds that are set aside specifically for people who are looking for H-1B
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who have certain higher-level educational skills. And so there's going to be doors that will be
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open to them that will not necessarily be open to people who just have a bachelor's degree
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Another huge benefit is if you are interested at all in going into education in the future into academia and you want to become a professor then the master degree is going to set you on that path towards getting a PhD degree
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so that you could actually become a tenured professor. So if that is your long-term goal, then getting the education is well worth it
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because there's a good chance that you won't make it there unless you happen to be some prodigy
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who comes up with something just crazy new and everything, and, you know, a university is willing
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to kind of grandfather you in. but for academia, you're definitely going to want to get more education
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And finally, when you're applying for a job, you aren't always just selling yourself to a manager
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or someone who has that technical experience. A lot of times you're going to be going through different gatekeepers in HR who really don't
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know much about software other than what they've copy and pasted from other job positions
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and they just have a kind of real high-level understanding. And so when you have a master's degree, a lot of them may have kind of
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come from other areas like business and stuff. And so they can at least appreciate the value of a
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master's degree in their domain and therefore, you know, place some weight on it as they're
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filtering out candidates for a given position. So there are doors that could be open because
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you have a master's degree where you can be placed above others in the hiring process. So now that you
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know some of the pros and cons of getting a master's in software engineering, you should watch this
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video to find out how you can grow your career fast as a software engineer. And I'll see you in the next one late
