Does getting that graduate degree help? I stuck it out for the degree (Computer Science), and I don't think it helped much with my job prospects. I get paid the same as my peers who only did undergrad.
I think from a strictly economic point of view, a graduate degree is a terrible investment.
Look at it this way - you could spend the 4+ years you spend in grad school working in a high paying job, investing all the difference between grad school stipend and your pay. Once you add all the career progression you can make in the time you spend in grad school - it's obvious that grad school is a net loser, monetarily speaking.
The upside is that, if you pick something that you love, in grad school you get to spend time dedicated to learning and studying something fascinating - and with a good professor, you'll have a pretty fantastic time. In short - do grad school if you are interested in your project, don't do it as a sort of career investment.
If you're doing grad school full time then it should only take 2 years for a Masters.
You can get a Masters in 4 years while also working at your high paying job. That just costs you a night or two a week (and not that much money, depending on the school)
He is talking about a phd, a masters is an absolutely terrible investment, and strong negative hiring signal whenever I see it, unless it was done strictly to immigrate to the US.
I've worked with so many people that were amazing, and had Masters, and others who were nearly useless to destructive. I don't believe it is a signal at all.
Precisely why I did not do a Masters. I found out I learned a lot more (relevant skills in the 'real' world) in my summer internships than I did during the semesters in school.
Yes, especially if your graduate degree involves skills such as programming and statistics and certain scientific areas which are likely to translate well into industry. One thing that a PhD (and Masters to a lesser extent I guess) tends to give is an appreciation for the depth and volume of work that is out there in the research literature; another thing is the important skill of knowing when you don't understand something. Another thing is math and statistics: rather than being just abstract areas of knowledge in which you can do the homework exercises, after a quantitative graduate degree these become tools you actually have experience of using.
Something that people often miss in these conversations is that there is a very strong networking effect from a graduate degree. Doing a graduate degree will mean that via your supervisor you will meet and probably work with some of the top people in your field. I think you would find it hard to cold-email them to ask for a job if you hadn't been introduced to that network via graduate education.
My Masters in applied math seems to at least somewhat impress people and I feel it has opened up many a door that would have been much harder to get through without it. While I don't know if I get paid more or not, I certainly feel it has let me get involved with far more interesting work.
In certain parts of the country (the Bay Area), that need people with specialized/advanced knowledge in CS (which a Masters would definitely provide), I would expect that your graduate CS degree will definitely give you a leg up on those without one.
If you have an undergraduate degree in a non-CS subject but you get a graduate degree in CS, your will have about the same or better knowledge than a person with a graduate degree in CS.
Of course, there is a great amount of subjectivity given to the School that you attended and your work experience after that.
It increases your worldwide mobility. For example, someone getting a green card (US) gets onto the EB-2 track rather than EB-3, they get 25 points instead of 20 in the education category for Canada, etc.
