
Ask HN: Masters in CS, ML, or get a job? - _Tyler
Hi! I am about to end a two year contract working overseas, and I don’t love my current line of work. I’ve been teaching myself python, django, javascript, html, css etc with some CS fundamentals, algorithms on firecode.io and a few lessons on http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.fast.ai for fun for the past two years.<p>I’m returning to the states in about a month and I’m trying to decide if I should just look for junior dev jobs and get some hard experience, or if I should look into getting a masters in CS, or a masters in ML .<p>In terms of future long term job security, earnings, etc, which of the three options would you recommend?<p>FYI, I’m a 27 year-old male who will probably be moving back to the Austin, TX area.
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djinnandtonic
I have friends at the code camp, BS, MS, and PhD level; PhD enables you to go
into research or stay in academia, but my buddies with Masters really haven't
seen any benefit. They're still competing for the same jobs as the BS folks:
the degree gets you an interview, but after that nobody cares what your degree
is or where it's from.

Disclamer: this is my experience in a secondary market, SF might be different.

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GFischer
Same here, I have a Master's degree but I haven't seen many benefits other
than getting a foot in the door. (also not in SF/the US)

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qdonnellan
Get a job. A master's degree in CS will help to augment your experience in the
industry - it won't obviate it. I would recommend taking a look at Georgia
Tech's OMSCS program, which (for non-CS undegrads like myself), necessitates
some number of years of professional software engineering experience.

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eggie5
I don't think the two are mutually exclusive. There are plenty of masters
programs (in ML) that are tailored for working professionals.

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janbernhart
Is there a specific topic you would like to work in but don't feel comfortable
enough in? If so: a Masters in that direction might be wise. Doing a Masters
just for the title doesn't add much.

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pinchharmonic
What were you doing overseas? Depending on what it was, it could synergize "on
paper" with the masters.

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mslate
Get a job, hands down. Why pay to learn when you can get paid?

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scottimidus
What projects have you built?

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_Tyler
a basic Django CRUD app with social logins, an alexa skill using Node.js, and
a few static websites

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scottimidus
That is a great start. I'm in a similar position to you and all of the job
interviews I have come up against will require whiteboarding / coding tests.

I would recommend to starting something like Cracking the Code Interview on
Hacker Rank and begin working through the problems.

[https://www.hackerrank.com/domains/tutorials/cracking-the-
co...](https://www.hackerrank.com/domains/tutorials/cracking-the-coding-
interview) (will have to create a login I believe).

I would also recommend not using any external libraries, even basic stuff like
collections for Python. I was not allowed to use anything in the coding tests,
only standard libraries.

