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do people with masters or PhD STEM degrees make much more than people that only have bachelors in similar fields? I thought that the gain was fairly small.
by lsc 15y ago
do people with masters or PhD STEM degrees make much more than people that only have bachelors in similar fields? I thought that the gain was fairly small. Even in the same area, I know a literal rocket scientist working as a rocket scientist with a masters degrees from MIT who makes less than your average programmer/sysadmin.
As far as I can tell, once you make programmer, having a bachelors vs. a masters doesn't seem to make much difference. (Once you have the job, lacking even the bachelors doesn't seem to make much difference; but those of us who have the job with out the degree are relatively rare, which to me points at the degree helping you to get the job, even if it doesn't change your pay all that much once you have it.)
- cdeonier 15y agoI think the degrees have an impact at large companies-- at the large company I worked at, developers with bachelors started at 10k less than developers with masters.
- lsc 15y agoThe fair comparison would be a developer with a bachelors and two years good work experience and a developer with a Masters. Depending on your area (and thus the size of the salary involved) $10K might be a mediocre raise for your first two years; heck, if you are making $100K, that means you haven't even been making 5% a year. I don't know if it's normal, but in my career, raises came much harder and faster (at least percentage wise) earlier rather than later.