Re:Graduate Degrees Are Overrated
by entropicdrifter on Tuesday November 12, 2024 @01:40PM
(#42118323)
>You don't get a graduate degree because _you_ need a graduate degree. You get a graduate degree because _others_ need to see it.
I feel this is more true in other STEM fields than it is in Software. Could just be bias talking, but I'm a senior SWE with no college degree (couple of certs) and haven't had it stop me from getting good jobs, especially once I got like 3-4 years of experience under my belt and could talk about projects I co-designed and interesting problems I've worked on.
That strategy worked well for me until I was about ten years into my career and hit a tough job market. A degree makes it much, much easier to navigate a tough job market, especially as you get older.
Re:Graduate Degrees Are Overrated
by Molitor5901 on Tuesday November 12, 2024 @01:42PM
(#42118337)
You don't get a graduate degree because _you_ need a graduate degree. You get a graduate degree because _others_ need to see it.
I think this sums up the majority of cases. Some people need graduate degrees because they are seeking higher education, such as a Phd, but mostly it's because someone else requires it without ever really expressing why.
1. Undergraduate degrees: Getting things done, getting in on the ground floor. Needs to be screened rigorously because the high variance of graduates.
2. Masters degrees: Getting things done, but with enough understanding of the landscape on how to make money doing it. Usually pretty good in my experience.
3. PhDs: Getting research done. Are not necessarily good software engineers and need to be screened more rigorously than the Masters holders.
The problem for undergrads is the glut of graduate degrees squeezes out the undergrads, if _only_ for the experience level. With all other things equal, you take the PhD over the Masters over the Undergraduate simply because they are older and have more experience. Recruiters also don't want to have to filter through hundreds of undergrad applicants: it's much easier to trim that off and just look at the Masters/PhD applications instead.
You don't get a graduate degree because _you_ need a graduate degree. You get a graduate degree because _others_ need to see it.