I’ll try to make the context quick. I have been employed as a compiler engineer at a large company in SV (not FAANG) for about a year now. Previously, I’ve held jobs at a couple companies at the junior level (~4 years total). About 5 years ago, I completed a bachelor’s degree in Mathematics at a state university.
I am now feeling that this education was insufficient: the subject matter was not really related to my eventual career path, and the experience was overall incredibly mediocre. To put it quantitatively, my school is not even in the top 100 engineering schools in the country. And, as the title implies, I never received a masters degree.
My coworkers all have masters degrees and this has led to a pervasive feeling of imposter syndrome. I’m also worried about my future employment prospects: while I am not searching at the moment, I am worried that when I decide to do so, most of my competition will also have masters degrees. My company has recently struggled to hire compiler engineers, and I can’t help but feel like I was able to get in with a lesser degree and experience as a compromise against a tough hiring market. I don’t know if I’ll be afforded that same chance in the future.
I am now in a much better position to pursue a master’s, and since I live in SV, I also have the possibility of pursuing a master’s at a high-quality school without needing to relocate. I am trying to determine if this would be worth it. Some pros: increased networking opportunities, a more prestigious resume, possibilities for research/skill growth. Some cons: likely expensive, could be difficult to get into a good school, skill growth might not be as much as I’d like.
Some part of me thinks it’s a better idea to continue working on side-projects to improve my skills on my own. I have several “impressive” projects (e.g. compiler, OS kernel, GB emulator) that were instrumental in me getting my foot in the door, here and at previous companies, that I still actively work on. But I can’t shake the feeling that an MS from a top school (assuming I could get in) would open doors to places I haven’t yet been able to crack (mostly FAANG). I also think it could improve my chances for promotion within my current org.
Anyways, if you’ve made it to the end, thanks a lot for reading. Any response is appreciated.
You say you have a lot of coworkers with masters, are they from other countries? A pattern I have noticed while working in a company with a lot of H1B hires is that people will do undergrad in their country, then come to America on an education visa and get their masters degree while looking for a job here as a next step. If you are working somewhere where that is common that might be why you have many coworkers with masters.
I personally don’t think it is worth it. You have 4 years of experience. That’s going to be plenty to get your foot in the door. Your college experience matters less the further in your career you are.
I’m not saying don’t get a masters, I’m just saying I don’t think it is the necessary step you think it is. If you’re interested in furthering your education it may still be worthwhile, but not solely for your career.
You say you have a lot of coworkers with masters, are they from other countries?
This is an interesting observation – that does appear to be the case. I have noticed that most people in compilers tend to have a masters/PhD, though I suppose it’s likely the implication is reversed (i.e. people go for a masters, end up in compilers, and then get a job in industry).
I am a lead/staff SWE at my company, and I have never looked at education level when hiring. I studied robotics in college and almost nothing I learned there applies to what I am doing now (distributed data processing and ML).
Don’t get a master’s degree unless there is a specific skill you want (ML, databases, networks, etc). You should be learning at work. If you are not learning at work, move on to another company.
Probably the most valuable thing you could get to give you better chances at faang or elsewhere, is a friend on the inside. A single removed will get you past all of the automated filtering that happens.
In my experience as someone with 0 degrees, 15ish years of exp, and having been on both sides of the hiring process:
- Degrees don’t really matter for hiring in tech, in fact personally I think X years working a real job in your chosen field (as long as you put some effort in to improving) is a lot more valuable than X years at even the best college.
- Everyone has imposter syndrome. It’s not just you, and having more degrees doesn’t make it go away!
Everyone has imposter syndrome. It’s not just you, and having more degrees doesn’t make it go away!
Very true! As a huge admirer of the Rust programming language, hearing that Graydon Hoare felt like an imposter when he was Rust team lead gave me a lot of reassurance about my own skills. Of course, I’d probably be a lot more reassured if I had been pivotal in the creation of one of the fastest growing modern programming languages :^)
As someone with a Bachelors degree in (Pure) Mathematics from a state university, I’ll comfortably say that it hasn’t caused any problems for me in my 10+ full stack/data engineer career, and I’ve never gotten any impression that a Masters would’ve made things better.
Compiler work might be different, but I’d suspect not.
As for networking opportunities… Not really. You’ll be networking with people with 0 years in professional dev work, mostly in a academia. They aren’t contacts that will benefit you.
Personally I feel you’ll learn a lot more practical skills by just doing it on your own and on the job. FAANG companies do hire without masters, you just need the experience and be able to show it in interviews.
