Advanced degrees
I received an email from a student who asked: “This year I graduate in Computer Science but my parents want me to continue to study to get advanced degrees such as Master and Ph.D. Do you think it is better to have an advanced degree than just a Bachelor degree? Please advice.”
Answer: Please read my previous blogs about advanced degrees. As a college graduate you should make a decision whether to go to work and build a career in software or continue to study. You should ask yourself what you want to do with your education. What is your passion? Do you want to work for a software company or do you want to teach college and conduct research? Do you want to specialize in a technical skill and be an expert on it? Do you know why your parents want you to get an advanced degree? I suggest that you have a serious conversation with your parents and explain to them what you want as well as understand their reason for wanting you to continue.
Today information technology is exploding with more jobs available than skilled people to fill them. The job market for software developers is growing fast. Most companies prefer to hire graduates with a bachelor degree rather than advanced degree, unless they have specific skills that are needed such as Computer security, Database administration, Data mining or Information system management. The best way to develop a career in software is to go to work to gain more experience by actually building software and learn specific skills.
From an economic view, computer job pays very good salary. For every year that you are not working, you lose that money so if you consider continuing with a Master degree, you may lose about two years of salary. Even the salary of a Master degree is higher than a Bachelor degree but not enough to cover the two year opportunity lost. If you continuing to study a Ph.D degree, you could lose up to seven year of salary.
However, to go to graduate school or not is a personal choice. You must have passion for it; you must love to do research to study for the Ph.D degree and you must commit to finish it because it is not easy to spend another seven years in school. Whatever your decision is, you must listen to your heart and your head to make the right decision for you and only you can make that decision.
Sources
- Blogs of Prof. John Vu, Carnegie Mellon University