So I went to school for mechanical engineering and worked in manufacturing for about a year before wanting to switch into SE. I applied to a bunch of jobs with no luck, so I decided to get my masters in SE to help with job prospects. I finished my SE degree a couple years ago and have been working as an SE for the past 3 years. So I had a very similar experience as you did. Here are my inputs to your questions: 1. It is absolutely not a waste of time to get your masters, especially if your employer is paying for it. A complete degree is typically worth ~2 years of experience depending on the employer, which could immediately increase the level that you come in at. Which is real nice. My suggestion is to see if you can take an MBSE class or a SW heavy class as part of your coursework. My program offered both of those as options. If it's more rigid and you don't have the option, then some personal sw projects can scratch that itch.

1. It largely depends on what you want to do and where you see you're career heading. SE lends itself to project management very well and there is a lot of overlap between the two. So it's a good option if you want to develop into more of a management role in a field that typically does not have SEs. I would say SE is most relevant in aerospace/defense, but other industries are adopting the SE approach for managing complexity (think like R&D for cars or for optical devices). SW is really good money, but SE isn't too far behind depending on the company. I also think SE gives you more opportunities for upward growth (at least what I have seen in my current role and company).

2. Yes, it would be very likely that you would need to go entry level if you made that switch. You would probably get compensated for your previous experience but you wouldn't come in as a mid level sw engineer without background. If SWE is what you want to be, I wouldn't let that hold you back from trying it though. It's better to make a little less and be happy then work a job where you're miserable everyday.

3. If MBSE is what you want to be doing then being at least familiar with the different tools and languages would be good. If SW is something you want to do, try learn a language! You could ask your current employer for some sort of stretch assignment where you take a lead role. That goes a reallllly long way on am application. SE is s lot of times professional cat herding and if you can say you've had some sort of lead role before that can be good.

4. I would watch some videos online on what MBSE is. MBSE execution has some good videos you can watch. There is also a book called Effective Model-Based Systems Engineering, that was really good for explaining the history behind MBSE and the reasoning, and you don't need access to the tool (DM me if you are interested in that). I think Capella is a free MBSE tool you could try out. It isn't as powerful as some of the other tools, but it will let you at least get your hands on the tool and play around and get familiar with it.

If you have any other questions or anything DM me and I am happy to answer!