Does Msc. Computer Science matter? Is it even relevant?

[CamiKaze]

So i am planning on studying further, got my Bsc. Computer Science degree, will be doing IS Honours next year, but i will/might be doing my Masters in Computer Science. Question; is a Masters degree still relevant? I am in the industry but none of that seems to matter, I see more and more developers moving to business roles, hence the reason why I am also doing IS to cover myself...What advantage will i have with Masters? Is it just cosmetics for a CV when you apply for a job?

In a nutshell, once you in the industry, it doesn't look like it matters if you have all these wonderful qualifications.

Can anyone shed some light please?

 

[Messugga]

So i am planning on studying further, got my Bsc. Computer Science degree, will be doing IS Honours next year, but i will/might be doing my Masters in Computer Science. Question; is a Masters degree still relevant? I am in the industry but none of that seems to matter, I see more and more developers moving to business roles, hence the reason why I am also doing IS to cover myself...What advantage will i have with Masters? Is it just cosmetics for a CV when you apply for a job?

In a nutshell, once you in the industry, it doesn't look like it matters if you have all these wonderful qualifications.

Can anyone shed some light please?

It can help you out if you get to senior management levels, but a MBA would be more useful to be honest.

 

[Ancalagon]

Just make sure you will be able to do Msc Computer Science after doing honours in IS. Not sure thats always possible.

I dont have a masters, but I do have an honours degree. I think what I've realized, is that Masters will only count towards getting a job, and getting a better salary, if you are employed in the field that you did your masters in.

An example - you do your Masters in a specific kind of neural network. Great stuff! You apply for a job doing web development. Now, its great that you have a masters, but its not relevant to web development at all. It certainly wont hurt, but it wont help as much as if, say, your masters was in improving human-computer interaction using open source Javascript frameworks and HTML5.

You could say it comes with specializing in something. Honours is not very specialized, but Masters is usually very specialized.

 

[kurtkz]

What Ancalagon said - it really only helps if you manage to find a job in the field you specialized. That being said, if you're academically inclined go ahead and do your Masters anyway. I did and never regretted my choice.

 

[MongooseMan]

I found my MSc helped with more than just the subject matter.
It teaches you to think analytically and how to research something. It also helps you learn to write technically and to manage your time well.
It goes far beyond just the subject matter of your thesis.

I wouldn't trade the 2 years it took me for anything.

Edit: I see you're in Cape Town. UCT? Who's your prospective supervisor?

 

[CamiKaze]

Edit: I see you're in Cape Town. UCT? Who's your prospective supervisor?

I was at UWC, but I will be doing Masters through UNISA.

Ok, it helps you to do all these things right, but no one seems to care. So i will be stuck in a junior role for 2 years before i go to the next level. Someone with Masters has to sit 2 years as well before they go to the next level. That's just 1 example.

So lets also use Ancalagon's analogy, you have the qualifications, but you stuck in a web development role. It's not easy to get the job that is relevant to your Masters degree in this country.

I would like to do the Masters, but now i need to know why Messugga says that an MBA would be a better choice.

I am going to speak to my manager and ask him what this company has to offer me once I have my Masters.

 

[Messugga]

I was at UWC, but I will be doing Masters through UNISA.

Ok, it helps you to do all these things right, but no one seems to care. So i will be stuck in a junior role for 2 years before i go to the next level. Someone with Masters has to sit 2 years as well before they go to the next level. That's just 1 example.

So lets also use Ancalagon's analogy, you have the qualifications, but you stuck in a web development role. It's not easy to get the job that is relevant to your Masters degree in this country.

I would like to do the Masters, but now i need to know why Messugga says that an MBA would be a better choice.

I am going to speak to my manager and ask him what this company has to offer me once I have my Masters.

With regards to corporates, you just need to look on Pnet to see that MBAs are more lucrative than a Master's degree and offers will mostly be for senior management positions. They want you to know business at that level. Master's won't hurt, but if it's either/or and you're chasing money, I'd go the MBA route. It's a very tough three years though.

 

[greggpb]

I think you need to look at what you want to do and forget about the cash.... A Masters is you best effort at research in a specific area of IT.. which should be you favourite area of IT because the subject of your master thesis will play a big role in recruitment.


Should you wish to just learn more about business, life and such an MBA.. (I'm about halfway through mine and it ain't no joke)

 

[Ancalagon]

An MBA will probably benefit you in the climb up the corporate ladder, but will take you further away from code. It also probably wont start helping until later on in life.

A Masters is great - the problem is that an MSc in Computer Science will focus very much on the science side, which is not much use to businesses. If you could choose an MSc that had more relevance to the business context, then it could help, but then again, only in that specific context.

My advice - look for a course, masters or otherwise, that focuses more on software engineering and less on computer science. Or look at the Microsoft certifications - MCSE, all that kind of stuff. If you only want to study something to boost your career, study something that is not purely theory, but about applying computer science and possibly other disciplines to the IT industry. When you start working, you'll be exposed to ideas and concepts that probably had little or no relevance to you. You've probably never been handed a project whose original developer has since left. Or taken over maintenance of a badly architected system and started thinking how much can you refactor before you simply start introducing more problems. Hopefully you have at least had source control experience.

All of these maintenance issues might get a passing mention in a computer science class, but you really learn them on the job. I like to think of it as the engineering side of IT - what happens when you apply computer science to the business context.

So..... what I would do, if I were you.

Do your honours, definitely. Put a lot of work into, and choose subjects both that are relevant to you and relevant to the business. I think only one or two employers have ever asked me about my honours work. It never comes up. I did computer graphics, artificial intelligence, enterprise java, distributed and parallel computing, advanced networking, and advanced computer architecture. The only one of those I use on a day to day basis is computer graphics, and artificial intelligence and advanced computer architecture was the most interesting to me. Anyway, point being, no employer has ever decided whether or not to employ me based on those choices.

As for Masters, I would say, only do it if it is something you are passionate about. If there is a research subject that you think is really interesting, pursue it. Study Masters for the experience itself, not for what you think the benefit might be. Unless the Masters is in a more engineering related discipline - and you find that interesting too - then maybe thats okay.

During Honours, involve yourself in side projects. Start working on something open source. Write a game. Something like that. Employers love that stuff. It makes them think they can lock you up in the office and you will work 24/7.

If no exciting research subject grabs you, then start work somewhere. Re-evaluate whether you want to study after 1 year - you will be amazed at how much you have learned.