Continue with job or go for Masters

Question

I work in a company where PL/SQL is the ONLY language used for coding. We also use a bit of Oracle forms and reports for front end.

They tend to force us to get more domain knowledge (financial) rather than work on improving our programming skills. I am also working in support. I have worked for almost 8 months now and the programming skills I have learned are NILL. So what do you suggest? Should I continue with my job or go for a master's degree?

If I continue with my job, will the work experience I get here be counted when I apply for a core comp science related company?

Given the present situation (read recession and freeze in hiring) I can't even get into some other company. I have BE in C.S and I am planning to do M.S in University of New South wales in Australia.

Answer 1

You may want to have a look at the answers to this question as it is pretty much the same or at least very similar.

I would say:

It may be a very good time to do a masters, if you are sure you want to do one.

If you are not sure about whether you want to do a masters, you'll need to do a lot of looking at the job market to see what else you could be doing right now, that is more challenging and is a better career step for you. Then, if you find that your choices are being limited due to employers who expect you to have a masters, then you'll know that doing a masters is a good idea. But if you haven't done that research, you may find that a masters is not useful in your specific line of work. It may be that you have some good options for advancing your career without a masters.

Answer 2

Also, I would say a Masters helps but wouldn't necassarily prove quality. I shared a degree course with some pretty dumb-ass Masters students. Join a trade body in a high grade, which helps recruiters who would be a lot more careful in their selection process that you are recognised by a professional body within the industry in "real life" which academia cannot reflect. eg. in the UK we have The British Computer Society. For the sake of an application form and a subscription fee, it may be worth it. For me, it puts letters after my name and says I have applied my learning to industry.

Answer 3

At first, be glad you have a job. I'ts maybe not the best, but it generates income and some experience.

On your question, the Masters title is no silver bullit. You can still have a great job without it. If you are unsatisfied with your current job, try to talk about it with your colleagues and even with your superiors. And if that doesn't help, keep this one until you have found a new job.

You can work at your skills in your spare time. Work on some OS project or start your own pet project.

Answer 4

There's no substitute for just coding. It doesn't have to be at work, do it in your own time. A Masters isn't going to give you much more of a leg up - you claim a BS in Computing already, yet your programming skills are lagging and not growing. Why do you think a Masters will give you something that the BS hasn't delivered.

Go help out on an open source project, install a Wordpress instance and fiddle with some plugins, become a database guru at work, just do something - anything - rather than sitting on your hands moaning about your job and your employer.

If you can't change your employer's attitude, then normally you'd be best changing your employer but, at the moment, you have a job - which is more than many in this market. Well done for thinking about bettering yourself, but seriously, grow some gumption.

Answer 5

Is there any possible way you can study the masters part-time?

I have been working on mine 2 years now and only have the dissertation to complete. Also there is also the chance that you could get employer support for studying (time off for classes etc)

It also looks good on the CV as you were working while studying and any experience is good experience given the current employment situation.

Answer 6

Experience is a poor substitute for knowledge.

Knowledge is the distilled peer-reviewed experience of many, whereas experience is just your own.

Even if you have a BS, I would still recommend going for the MS (at least), or better. By taking in more knowledge, you will be able to apply those new ideas to existing problems, solving them better than they are solved right now, making you more valuable to the employer, giving you more money.

The language you use right now, is simply a syntax for solving problems. Therefore you should be productive in any language in a week or less, since the hard part is understanding the problem you are trying to solve.

There is a reason you need a CPA to audit your companys finacial statements, and not just someone with alot of experience.