I wonder what he would have to say for my example: I did a 4 year BS CS degree and graduated in 2005. I did calculus, linear algebra, real analysis, mathemati

I wonder what he would have to say for my example: I did a 4 year BS CS degree and graduated in 2005. I did calculus, linear algebra, real analysis, mathematical statistics, etc. until 3rd year and then the typical CS curriculum of compilers, distributed systems, programming languages, artificial intelligence, etc. I've been working in industry for 12 years doing typical systems/software development, but got involved in more "Data Sciency" things in the last 2 years. I liked it so much that I decided I want to change career directions and move away from just "building software" to more "building software that runs on data as the fuel", like machine learning/deep learning/NLP related problems. So okay, I have no real problem with doing anything that involves manipulating the data, building pipelines, or implementing things in Tensorflow or Gensim, etc it's just programming. Easy, peasy. I also understand most of the mathematics, and what I forgot was not too hard to "re-learn" very quickly. The problem is it is difficult to apply for jobs as a Data Scientist when you only have a BS CS, even with real world experience. I'm not "formally qualified" as a Data Scientist. So I enrolled for a 2 year course-based MS (1 year course work, 1 year dissertation). Basically it allows me to slap on my resume that (a) I have done university accredited courses in mathematical optimization, machine and statistical learning, deep learning, ethics, big data, etc. and I suppose the dissertation says that I can do more advanced work on data in an academically rigorous fashion. So basically I'm using the MS to change career trajectories 10 years after doing a BS CS. I suppose you could do the courses through MOOCs but I appreciate the dissertation part as I am forced to read journal articles and learn how to do things more "rigorously" than I would otherwise in a plain old MOOC. Isn't this a viable option for pursuing an MS? I don't think it's necessary directly after an undergraduate, but after a decade or so you might want to "specialize" into something that didn't really exist when you did your undergrad. BTW, I did this part time while working (you can kiss away your weekends and evenings).