Bart Whiteley wrote:
There are some cool jobs that require graduate degrees.
That is most certainly true, but may I offer a counter point regarding jobs at my company? I have interviewed dozens of BS/CS and MS/CS candidates for software developer positions. I generally have higher expectations for the MS candidates, and I have been disappointed with them about 80-90% of the time. I figure that a candidate who has been studying CS for 6 years or more ought to have mastered basic CS principles (like big O). I realize that MS students tend to specialize, but even in their chosen areas of emphasis, they still have disappointed me. We have hired some MS/CS candidates, and after a few months I can't tell any difference between them and the BS/CS people.
So if you want to get an MS/CS degree, do it like Bart did, because you want the experience, and not because it will make you a better applicant for software developer positions or earn you more money. As an example, a co-worker of mine is a real programming language geek, and he loves studying it. He is getting his MS/CS right now for that purpose, but he certainly doesn't expect it to get him a pay raise. He has, however, been able to apply some of what he has learned at work (like building a lisp-style macro system for JavaScript, which has been awesome).
I know Derek, the original poster, is considering the academic route, and for that, MS/CS is an obvious and appropriate first step.
Well, there's a few more cents for the pile. --Dave /* PLUG: http://plug.org, #utah on irc.freenode.net Unsubscribe: http://plug.org/mailman/options/plug Don't fear the penguin. */
