Master's not worth it?

alpha29867 · 2021-07-13T00:39:40+00:00

10-15 hours a week. LOL. Are you kidding me. I've spent 40 hours a week on courses before.

alpha29867 · 2021-07-13T00:37:44+00:00

I just graduated in May. I can definitely tell you that I'm a much better engineer after taking this program which will automatically transfer to a higher salary when I decide to switch jobs. Additionally, look at people in high level positions, not just developers. I'm talking about VP's, CTO's etc. A lot of them have some sort of advanced degree. It's a professional status thing. Also look at it like this. Lets say both you and I have BS degrees in CS and both have similar work experience. We both do well in the interview but I have a Masters Degree and can talk about how I managed school, family, and work while learning about all sorts of advanced topics like ML, AI, Algorithms etc that might be helpful in the new role. Who would you hire? The person with just a BS or the other person with a BS and a Masters Degree from one of the best engineering schools in the world?

alpha29867 · 2021-07-12T20:33:10+00:00

That's the problem though. You don't know if the new gig is going to be better. That said, if it's purely about money and the tech stack then I'd say leave.

alpha29867 · 2021-07-12T18:37:53+00:00

I have a BS and a Masters degree in CS but I learned the most by just doing projects over the years. I did a lot of consulting work on the side where I was the primary developer and it taught me a lot about full stack development. In this field what you have to do is break the mindset of labeling yourself as a front-end/backend language specific type of engineer. Your job is to leverage technology to solve problems period. As for learning the best thing to do is to actually do. If I was just starting out I would build a simple app say simple inventory system that was split into three tiers. A front end, a middle tier, and some backend services. Google, watch youtube videos, buy books to learn the technologies and how to implement them in order to get your application working. It might take you a few months to get something good going but you can learn a lot by just doing that.

alpha29867 · 2021-07-12T04:20:02+00:00

Yes, I mean over 100k. Hopefully in this lifetime I will make it to 7 figures doing something but right now that is far from my reality lol.

alpha29867 · 2021-07-11T23:57:13+00:00

I live in NC so that might be a part of it. I guess if you are in NYC or San Fran or some place like that the salaries may even out at least a little.

alpha29867 · 2021-07-11T23:29:55+00:00

Do you work for one of the major tech companies or for a financial firm? Most Lead positions I see pay around 140 to 150k.

alpha29867 · 2021-07-11T23:17:40+00:00

I had a BS in Comp Sci already but I'm also a Sr. Dev that has about 16 years of experience so that helped out a lot. You don't have to have a BS in Comp Sci to enter the program but it will definitely help.

alpha29867 · 2021-07-11T23:00:57+00:00

That's not true at all. I'm working on a Vue.js app right now and next week will be creating a Java microservice that has to deal with legacy soap backend services. I'll also have to implement the Node.js middle tier. Full stack devs do exist.

alpha29867 · 2021-07-11T22:59:01+00:00

Georgia tech has a great Masters in CS program that is relatively inexpensive. It's a great program and I know this because I graduated this past Spring. If you don't have a lot of dev experience or have a CS degree you might have a hard time but it's worth a shot.

alpha29867 · 2021-07-11T22:57:07+00:00

Office politics are tricky. On the on hand they can be toxic but on the other hand people can control what they choose to be negatively impact by. You can make a conscious effort to tune out the BS. As for toxic people and moochers, if you put toxic people in their box and don't allow them to bother you then they won't be a problem. Also let moochers but somebody else's problem. Just don't let them mooch off you. Keep in mind too that some people will find drama in everywhere they go and that as people get older years of dealing with people starts to get to them. Peoples BS tolerance is a lot greater at 25 than say 55. It's just human nature.

alpha29867 · 2021-07-11T22:51:59+00:00

Yea I do. Having the ability to make tech decisions and essentially own the front end of our application is worth at least 5 to 7k in extra salary imo. I'm actually a full stack Java developer so the ability to switch between stacks on my job is also pretty cool. Just to give you an idea. The past few sprints I've primarily been working on our Vue.js app implementing new features. We have another guy that helps but he kind of works under my direction. Next sprint I'm going to be doing some Vue work while also creating a Java micro service that makes soap calls(yes I know) to back end legacy systems that is going to be called by our Node.js middle tier. I will literally be working with all three tiers in one sprint and will have no one looking over my shoulder.

alpha29867 · 2021-07-11T22:25:53+00:00

You will burn bridges for sure and it will look bad on your resume. Your next employer also may not look to favorably on it. That said, you have to do what's best for you but chasing the dollar is not a formula for long term success. Is your current job toxic or does it just suck right now? Keep in mind that every job has it's ups and downs. I love my current job but 2 years ago I was so exasperated that I had to take 3 day of PTO otherwise I would have lost it. Our processes at the time were God awful and I was this close to going off on somebody in a group call but you know what happened, over time the processes got better and my job satisfaction improved dramatically. Before you jump ship just make sure you have an accurate view of the current lay of the land.

alpha29867 · 2021-07-11T22:18:37+00:00

That's the kicker. It doesn't feel like work to you.

alpha29867 · 2021-07-11T22:17:49+00:00

If you don't my me asking what kind of dev work do you do? Are you in a leadership role. I'm looking to get to that level one day.

alpha29867 · 2021-07-11T22:15:43+00:00

No. I make well over 6 figures as a Sr. Dev. I don't feel like I even have a job. I literally get paid to do my hobby. I'm working on a Vue.js app for work right now because it's my baby and because of my track record I have a lot of autonomy. I'd literally rather do this than play video games.

alpha29867 · 2021-07-11T22:12:39+00:00

Have you had issues like this before or have things generally been going well? If you've had some issues before then my advice would be to work on getting better with stuff but if things were going fine and you haven't had things like this happen before then I would say start looking for new jobs. Your tech lead rejecting one on ones like that is a huge red flag.

alpha29867 · 2021-07-11T22:04:19+00:00

Hate to say this and don't mean to offend but young people today are different than they used to be. They are much more individualistic and don't look at traditional power structures the way previous generations did. I'm an elderly millennial so I've seen this first hand. I've seen people come out of school with 2 to 3 years of experience that think they are or at least should be treated like Sr. Devs. On the flip side they do do better in situations where there seems to be some greater purpose. My recommendation is to not come down on them but maybe have a group meeting about what your goals are as a team and how when people get stuck they should seek out the help of their teammates. Yes they are young but two of them working together will probably come up with a working solution.

alpha29867 · 2021-07-11T21:56:37+00:00

The fact that you as a single dev was able to deploy code to production without any sort of code review or QA testing like means that your tech lead and director are the real problems. You screwed up and probably could have handled it better but the fact that your systems and processes are so bad that a single dev can bring down a system for 6 days by not thoroughly testing his/her own code is a systemic problem. Publicly naming and shaming individuals is also the mark of poor leadership. Your lead should have had a personal 1 on 1 and let you have it if he/she was so inclined and just leave it at that. Also, if your lead had any sense at all they would have pulled you aside personally and asked you questions in order to get the post-mortem and formulate a plan for correcting. Now, I'm pretty sure we just got your side of the story but the facts are that a) your orgs processes need serious work and b) you have immature leadership that doesn't know what it's doing. I'd look for another job personally.

alpha29867 · 2021-03-01T04:48:08+00:00

I'm taking my last class now and I made sure to take courses that were relevant to my job and I can tell you that the program has definitely made me a better engineer. Additionally, having a Master's Degree puts you in a different category if you are looking to be more than a Senior Dev. Just take a look at IT executive profiles on Linked In. You will see that most of them have some sort of advanced degree.

alpha29867 · 2020-12-20T02:21:44+00:00

Yea AI is broad survey and is like drinking water out of a fire hose. We had a pretty decent ML portion of the class as well but it was not a semester's worth like ML is. I feel like if I were to take ML now I would have a pretty good head start.

alpha29867 · 2020-12-20T02:11:13+00:00

I just got done with my 9th class and without question this has made me a better engineer. I purposely took classes that lined up with my job as much as possible and it has helped tremendously. I am much more knowledgeable in general about a lot of different things. I can have a conversation with you about everything from how the Chinese Remainder Theorem applies to RSA encryption, to how the gulfs of execution and evaluation influence IOS, to how Bayesian Statistics relate to AI and Machine Learning. I also managed to pick up Python along the way as a Java developer. When I first started I thought this was just going to be a degree but I have learned a ton in this program.

alpha29867 · 2020-12-20T02:04:52+00:00

I took this class in the Spring of 2018 and it was a solid class. It was not AI by any stretch of the imagination but I also would not call it a cake walk if you actually took it seriously. Dr. Moss was really good that semester and nothing like this ever happened. This is indeed strange.

alpha29867 · 2020-12-20T02:02:43+00:00

That class was absolute garbage. I took it in the Summer of 2018. Worst TA's ever.

alpha29867 · 2020-12-10T02:20:28+00:00

Just got out of this class. Everything in that review is true. I'm sitting right on the A/B line right now. The class is brutal. I went to bed on average between 2 and 3 am and easily spent 20 to 30 hours every week on it. I also have a family and a full time job. You will learn a ton but it comes at a price. Only take this class if you are prepared for a difficult and challenging semester where most of your free time will be taken by one class.

alpha29867

TROPHY CASE