As far as I have seen, the thing that in mostly gets you a job is that you already had a similiar job somewhere else. The sentence for junior positions is "comp

As far as I have seen, the thing that in mostly gets you a job is that you already had a similiar job somewhere else. The sentence for junior positions is "completed bachelor's degree in CS/Software Engineering or at least 2 years of work experience in field." On the other hand, my two years of experience was "Sysadmin a server for a local church." and only reason why my local church needed sysadmins was because me and a friend of mine bought a server, collocated in a local ISP that a third friend worked at and decided "Hey, our church could use a website and we could be the sys-admins :-)" To answer your question, I think the utility of Master in CS as well as learning through MOOC's is dwarfed by anything you can present as "Somebody already paid me money for a thing I did", if you want to primarily land a job. When I thought about getting a master degree, I thought about these questions: Do I see ever wanting to pursue some sort of academic career? I.e, get a phd, desire to write papers on obscure topics, e.t.c. then definitely. Do I want to learn things that require at least somewhat well furnished lab? I.e. it is quite hard for MooC to offer a lab on side-channel attacks on security cards or hands-on with sensor-array networks. Do I want to learn the theory more in-depth and does physical classroom help in this regard? How does the cost compare? What do I get out of this credential-wise? In my case I wanted to get masters in Information Security for these reasons: 1. I already endured 2 semesters of algebra and I.S. was one of the few that both interested me and would use the theory I have learned in BC 2. yes, one day I might go back to school to crank out few papers just for fun and the low probability of getting a proper academic title :) 3. school did have a few nice security lab courses present 4. having a course end with proper seated exam with lecturer present helps me focus on studying 5. I study in Czech republic, which means I have first 3 years of tuition paid for by the state. (Even if I didn't it is under 1000E/semester).