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I'm close to deciding to go back to University to get some additional education that's likely to improve my work in the future. I can afford it without any sala

I'm close to deciding to go back to University to get some additional education that's likely to improve my work in the future. I can afford it without any salary. Based on your experience, do you think this is the right moment to do so? I'm employed at the moment.

typeofhuman 4y ago
What are you going to pursue? If you're looking for income growth and are already in professional position making decent money it's almost never worth it to go back to school.
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
sillysaurusx 4y ago
If you’re going in order to get education that you personally want, now seems like the best time. The economy will recover and you’ll be able to get back in later. If you’re going because you think it’ll give you better work opportunities later, I suggest thinking carefully about that. You’re already in your field. Even if you’re in an adjacent field but still in tech, you can usually transition — I’ve been a gamedev, worked in finance, been a pentester, and now I do ML. The question of whether I had a degree came up exactly once, very early in my career. Academia can be a good fit if you’re going for the right reasons. Make sure you research what life is like at that university, and plan out what you hope to get from it and where you want to be five years from now.
- yarky 4y ago
  Great advice! Where do you see more opportunities in the near future, ML?
  - computomatic 4y ago
    Nothing interesting will be reliably funded over the next 5-ish years given the current macroeconomics. If we’re talking about where the opportunities (jobs) are going to be, then you’re probably looking at tech roles within non-tech companies. These companies have been dying to modernize but haven’t been able to hire engineers due to the tech bubble. After that, tooling that enables non-technical companies to build software - whatever that looks like.
  - dimitrios1 4y ago
    The really high paying jobs of the future (well, and really now to be honest) are going to be some sort of combination of Data Science + Speciality Science. Think biomedical engineering, material scientist, chemist, any engineering discipline because the thing we need the most right now are better medicines and antibiotics against the rising threat of resistant bacteria, COVID showed us we still don't have a shot against a really bad virus, we need better batteries, better power generation, better cars and modes of transportation, etc. What we don't need any more of is web cruft and CRUD apps, social networks, and people figuring out more ways to mine our data and shove ads in our face.
    - logifail 4y ago
      > What we don't need any more of is web cruft and CRUD apps, social networks, and people figuring out more ways to mine our data and shove ads in our face (No snark intended, my background is in science...) The fields that would benefit society the most are not typically the fields where the most money is to be made.
taude 4y ago
This was common on what a lot of people did when the dot-com era crashed to an end. Almost all my software engineering friends went to grad school, most for their MBAs and law degrees, a few stayed their course in software engineering and bit-twiddling.
- boringg 4y ago
  If you look back at those people who went to switch into mba - did it pan out for them?
cableshaft 4y ago
I did that after I got laid off early 2009, although for me it was going back to finish my bachelors. Spent two years in school and got to sit out the worst of the recession. However, (in the US) tuition increased a ton from when I first went to school and has only gotten more ridiculous since I graduated. Personally I'm glad I did it, it just took a while to pay it all off.
greenhearth 4y ago
From personal experience school is much better (and more fun) later in life, especially if you're genuinely interested in what it is you are studying. If you can afford it, or even better - get your company to pay, it's definitely worthwhile. You may have to pace yourself, as taking on a lot of credits and full-time work at the same time is not easy.

typeofhuman 4y ago

What are you going to pursue? If you're looking for income growth and are already in professional position making decent money it's almost never worth it to go back to school.

deleted 4y ago
[deleted]

sillysaurusx 4y ago

If you’re going in order to get education that you personally want, now seems like the best time. The economy will recover and you’ll be able to get back in later. If you’re going because you think it’ll give you better work opportunities later, I suggest thinking carefully about that. You’re already in your field. Even if you’re in an adjacent field but still in tech, you can usually transition — I’ve been a gamedev, worked in finance, been a pentester, and now I do ML. The question of whether I had a degree came up exactly once, very early in my career. Academia can be a good fit if you’re going for the right reasons. Make sure you research what life is like at that university, and plan out what you hope to get from it and where you want to be five years from now.

yarky 4y ago
Great advice! Where do you see more opportunities in the near future, ML?
- computomatic 4y ago
  Nothing interesting will be reliably funded over the next 5-ish years given the current macroeconomics. If we’re talking about where the opportunities (jobs) are going to be, then you’re probably looking at tech roles within non-tech companies. These companies have been dying to modernize but haven’t been able to hire engineers due to the tech bubble. After that, tooling that enables non-technical companies to build software - whatever that looks like.
- dimitrios1 4y ago
  The really high paying jobs of the future (well, and really now to be honest) are going to be some sort of combination of Data Science + Speciality Science. Think biomedical engineering, material scientist, chemist, any engineering discipline because the thing we need the most right now are better medicines and antibiotics against the rising threat of resistant bacteria, COVID showed us we still don't have a shot against a really bad virus, we need better batteries, better power generation, better cars and modes of transportation, etc. What we don't need any more of is web cruft and CRUD apps, social networks, and people figuring out more ways to mine our data and shove ads in our face.
  - logifail 4y ago
    > What we don't need any more of is web cruft and CRUD apps, social networks, and people figuring out more ways to mine our data and shove ads in our face (No snark intended, my background is in science...) The fields that would benefit society the most are not typically the fields where the most money is to be made.

taude 4y ago

This was common on what a lot of people did when the dot-com era crashed to an end. Almost all my software engineering friends went to grad school, most for their MBAs and law degrees, a few stayed their course in software engineering and bit-twiddling.

boringg 4y ago
If you look back at those people who went to switch into mba - did it pan out for them?

cableshaft 4y ago

I did that after I got laid off early 2009, although for me it was going back to finish my bachelors. Spent two years in school and got to sit out the worst of the recession. However, (in the US) tuition increased a ton from when I first went to school and has only gotten more ridiculous since I graduated. Personally I'm glad I did it, it just took a while to pay it all off.

greenhearth 4y ago

From personal experience school is much better (and more fun) later in life, especially if you're genuinely interested in what it is you are studying. If you can afford it, or even better - get your company to pay, it's definitely worthwhile. You may have to pace yourself, as taking on a lot of credits and full-time work at the same time is not easy.