How much does a masters degree in CS worth in landing a software engineer job in Sillicon Valley?
On a related note, I'm wondering what the difference is between a Masters and PhD in Computer Science. If I get a PhD instead of a Masters, how will it affect:
*My marketability (job security, ability to land specific jobs or land jobs in general)
*Salary
I'm one year into my graduate program and am trying to decide which route to take...
I'm not sure what the salary difference is, but I find that PhD candidates do worse in software engineering interviews. Is that correlation or causation? I don't know.
Correlation: people who get PhDs tend to be people who don't want to go into industry because they don't like programming. They don't like it therefore they're not good at it.
Causation: you don't really program that much while you're getting your PhD, so you get rusty.
Or maybe it's some combination of these. Either way, get a PhD if it's something you *want* to get. You need to want to do research and potentially enter academia. I wouldn't recommend it if you're just doing it to get a better job. That's an awful lot of time to spend...
Just my two cents. Other people may give you very different advice :)
I sort of agree. But then, I have seen a couple of Phd students getting hired by Google. I think it depends on the candidate's programming aptitude. Having a PhD alone does not qualify you for getting hired. I think consistently improving your programming skill is the key.
Also, in general, a lot of PhD students seem to get PhD's because they prefer to research or stay in academia. Thus, companies seem surprised when they see a PhD candidate for a software development job. I am not sure if this is good or bad from the candidate's perspective.
programing skill do count but thats very less, how u approach the problem from algorithmic points of view is more important....
What about payscale difference? Would I generally be better off financially if I get a Phd instead of a Masters?
I would assume that you would be paid better, yes. If I had to guess, I'd say it'd be 10 - 20k more, but I have no actual knowledge of this. It would vary wildly from company to company. Some companies may think PhDs are great, others may not really care.
Remember that there is a very real opportunity cost here. Let's work with the following figures:
Length of time to get a PhD: 3 years
Stipend for PhD: 15k
Salary with a masters: 70k
Salary with a PhD: 100k (this might be being very generous)
Annual raise: 5% (possibly higher)
This means:
1) You're making 55k-65k less per year while working on your PhD, which means that your PhD effectively cost you 180k (plus loans that you may have to take out, because 15k a year isn't much to live on). It would take about 6 years after your PhD to compensate for that loss.
2) When you graduate, you have three years less working experience. What would you have done with that time?
My conclusion: if you want to head down the Software Engineering track, a PhD is not a good career move. It's very expensive in terms of the opportunity cost, and the salary increase afterwards doesn't justify it. Now, if you want to go into academia, start a company, do research, etc, then it might make more sense.
Don't take my word on the numbers though - find out what you would be making at companies you'd work at.
It sounds like you're getting interviews, but not offers, from major companies. Most companies wouldn't interview you and then reject you on the grounds of something that's on your resume. You're probably not doing well enough in your interviews.
- Gayle L McDowell July 19, 2007Interviews aren't really as much about "did you get the right answer" as it is about how you think through the problem, what knowledge you demonstrate in solving a question, etc.
That being said, even though you're not getting rejected because you don't have a masters degree, it could still help a lot. It'll give you at least one extra internship. It'll fill in any gaps in your education. It'll give you more project experience. I got a masters degree, and I think it helped me a lot (mainly because I got to do an extra internship).
However -- I wouldn't do it if you have the expectation that it's going to help raise your salary a whole lot. Companies generally don't adjust that much for a masters. When you consider the cost of tuition and the opportunity cost of not working for two years, the amount a masters degree raises your salary just isn't enough.