4 ms·

Ugh. Stop. Just stop. That young man doesn't need a master's degree, he needs a lesson on how to find a job. Taking people with a proven inability to make real

Ugh. Stop. Just stop. That young man doesn't need a master's degree, he needs a lesson on how to find a job. Taking people with a proven inability to make real money and adding another 100k of debt on their backs for an equally bogus masters degree is completely irresponsible. Speaking as a hiring manager (for jobs that pay more than $50k/year), most of the real skills that get people hired have aren't part of a degree. - Coding? Most of my guys got their knowledge on the job. I did as well... not saying a CS degree doesn't help, but for many basic IT jobs, you don't need it.... - Sales / client mgmt? Learn by doing - Project management? Go run projects - Soft skills? Go work with people for a while, under the eye of someone knowledgeable. Get coached. Coach others. - Writing? Go write something that gets edited by a pro and published. Feedback is good. - Product knowledge or big blocks of local history? Here's a book, go read it. Sure, go set the standard of requiring a master's degree to get hired. Know what? The smart folks network their way up. Proof. My #3 guy has an MBA My #2 has a high school degree I'm just a BA... Explain this degree thing again?

namelezz 11y ago
Do you think this is true for immigrants? I find most will obtain advanced degrees from US universities then apply for local jobs to stay in the country as skilled engineers.
- horsecaptin 11y ago
  You're talking about people who arrive as students with the intention of staying here and know that the only way to do that is by getting a job visa and eventually a green card. Their lives are much more constrained.
dinkumthinkum 11y ago
Noooooo that's not right. Most programmers do not "just learn on the job," that's hard to take seriously. There might be "that one guy" that did I guess, I don't know, but that's so far from reality. All programmers do not need masters degrees and there are many good programmers that do not have a BS/BA, but most of those, that are not just whipping out JS, are extreme autodidacts and represent a small part of the population. Also an MS in CS is not going to put you 100K in debt, in most cases you will have a tuition waiver and a small stipend in the US (TAship). I think for many an MS in CS would be beneficial but sure it's not necessary .... with more and more JS "monkey" type jobs, it may become an expectation for non Anders Hejlsberg autodidacts that want to make > 100K (though yes this depends on cost of living, but I'm just comparing to your number).
- Etheryte 11y ago
  You can have a degree, but any considerable experience and knowledge still comes from actually doing something.

namelezz 11y ago

Do you think this is true for immigrants? I find most will obtain advanced degrees from US universities then apply for local jobs to stay in the country as skilled engineers.

horsecaptin 11y ago
You're talking about people who arrive as students with the intention of staying here and know that the only way to do that is by getting a job visa and eventually a green card. Their lives are much more constrained.

dinkumthinkum 11y ago

Noooooo that's not right. Most programmers do not "just learn on the job," that's hard to take seriously. There might be "that one guy" that did I guess, I don't know, but that's so far from reality. All programmers do not need masters degrees and there are many good programmers that do not have a BS/BA, but most of those, that are not just whipping out JS, are extreme autodidacts and represent a small part of the population. Also an MS in CS is not going to put you 100K in debt, in most cases you will have a tuition waiver and a small stipend in the US (TAship). I think for many an MS in CS would be beneficial but sure it's not necessary .... with more and more JS "monkey" type jobs, it may become an expectation for non Anders Hejlsberg autodidacts that want to make > 100K (though yes this depends on cost of living, but I'm just comparing to your number).

Etheryte 11y ago
You can have a degree, but any considerable experience and knowledge still comes from actually doing something.