Generally, to get a promotion past first-level-supervisor requires some business degree, and this is usually (an unspoken) policy at most larger corporations. I

Generally, to get a promotion past first-level-supervisor requires some business degree, and this is usually (an unspoken) policy at most larger corporations. It is my belief that far too many folks have gone for MBA degrees and that they no longer really work for sifting employees. Anecdotally, there are several programmers I know who have MBAs working in my company and it has done nothing for them. As for myself, I'm working on a masters in accounting. It is a business masters, so it meets the requirement for a business masters degree, but one that I think opens a couple additional options. I live in CO, and here (as well as MA), one can sit for the CPA exam with a masters in accounting (with no on-the-job time hired as an accounting). For me, this is one of my "Plan B" strategies to possibly transition out of IT. A CPA with a background in IT should be able to do well with sox/cobit/sas70 auditing. For yourself, the question should be along the lines of "do you want to move into management" or "do you want to stay in technology." Because I think the answer to that question decides what degree to go for (and really, I can't answer that for you, I can only say "I did X and why" and perhaps that might be useful to help you decide). And I think you should only consider the masters if your company (or family) is footing the bill, as I think this is a terrible time to get into debt for college.