I've done almost all of my learning either on the job, or through extracurricular reading (e.g., lots of conference proceedings, and textbooks on interesting subjects). If you read just one paper a week, that's 500 papers in a decade, and you'll have a good grounding in large swathes of CS (or at least you'll know where to go for ideas on hard problems). Two papers a week and you will be wise beyond human measure.

I dropped out of college 40 years ago and the lack of a degree has never been a problem. It's getting that first job that's probably the biggest hurdle; after 4-5 years, few companies will care. And if they care, you may not want to work there.

Marrying software development knowledge with another non-tech domain expertise would make one valuable.

The masters students at my current uni (ETH Zürich) are easily the best software engineers I have ever worked with.

To who though? A lot of people won’t care if your masters is in education if you’re gonna work in most fintech.

I think it pigeonholes you further if you go down this route. If you want that then go for it but I’ve seen many wasted masters and PhDs in Silicon Valley. Many.

"To whom..."

Sorry. Couldn't resist...

Muphry's Law strikes again: compl-e-mentary vs. compl-i-mentary.

I've seen requirements for a master's in CS or related disciplines on job descriptions for technical leadership roles, mostly at larger, older, more conservative organisations.

My work experience gets me roles as director of eng, vp eng or CTO at most startups, but for the national rail company here in Canada, I have a hard time getting considered for any jobs.

For two cents, I’ve been in leadership roles (VP, or VP-equiv) at three big/huge companies now (Oracle, Amazon, Microsoft) and I don’t even have a Bachelors degree. This is somewhat unusual but not a one-off by far.

Job descriptions often say “or equivalent experience” (meaning professional experience) and in probably 1-2 cases during my career, a requirement to have a degree with no “or” clause included still hasn’t been a huge issue.

Impressed with all the research you did here and and your being intentional about objectives and how to get there, good luck!

I’ve hired folks at all levels. Degrees are one data point among many when I decide to interview a candidate, rarely discussed when making a hiring decision, and _never_ a factor when making a promotion decision.

If considering formal education to unlock promotion, I would strongly suggest speaking with one or two people with recent, direct experience in the promotion process at your institution. Get familiar with the functional reality of the process (it’s usually more subjective than advertised), ask how credentials are used (they usually aren’t), then go from there.

I will say that I have required education as evidence of commitment when considering applicants who were looking to change careers (that is, I see you have had success in your current role, but go get a cert to demonstrate basic aptitude and show me you are serious about doing this). This was only relevant for the most junior, entry level positions.

As an aside, I’m currently pursuing a teaching credential through WGU, but I have zero expectation that it will provide additional income (quite the reverse!) Rather, I’m pursuing the credential as a forcing function to engage with topics outside of my professional experience, and to provide access to opportunities that are actually formally, legally gated by credentials (teaching in public school in California).

If you don't have a goal like that, and you already have that level of experience, I agree it's dubious what a masters would do for you.

This would only make sense if you're looking to retire-in-place though.