Should I get a master's degree?

[Daniel E.]

They do, but I have taken some CS grad courses already -- years ago in the swamp lands of Florida (Go Gators!)

My B.S. was in Psychology with a minor in computer something-or-other.

(I learned more about psychology reading Psychology Today blog posts than reading undergraduate textbooks.)

 

[Daniel E.]

Ten Reasons You Don't Need An MBA -- Forbes.com

...In a lot of industries, companies want to hire managers who have specialized knowledge and experience in their particular industry, not necessarily those who have general educations, like the MBA curriculum. Make sure you understand what hiring managers in your field are looking for. In many industries, an MBA won’t be useful to your career advancement.

 

[Daniel E.]

I took the GRE a few weeks ago, survived, and today got accepted to my masters degree in fancy computing which starts in January.

As Gary foretold: I had one course missing in my background. But my laid-back graduate advisor will let me take an online course at Coursera to substitute :woohoo1:

 

[David Baxter PhD]

Well done, @Daniel!

 

[gooblax]

Congratulations Daniel
:cool2:

 

[forgetmenot]

Congratulations Daniel way to go

 

[GaryQ]

Sorry for being Late to the party. Missed this one in my depressed state of mind. But better late than never.

Awesome to read you only have one missing prerequisite to complete and can do it online.
Not sure if you mentioned it and too lazy to look back and see LOL. What area of IT are you wanting to specialize in?

 

[Daniel E.]

It's in a trending area of computer science: data/information science. My masters thesis will probably be in the area of software visualization for making it easier to develop or understand inherently complex software. The program is online except I have to fly in to defend my thesis in 2020 or so.

 

[Daniel E.]

Not sure if you mentioned it and too lazy to look back and see LOL.

I didn't mention it before. In any case, you may want to keep each post in an Excel spreadsheet for easy reference

 

[GaryQ]

:lol: There’s a limit to spreadsheet use in my book and that’s numbers.

 

[GaryQ]

Daniel, have you started the “journey” towards IT mastery yet?

 

[Daniel E.]

The semester at this university starts later than most. I am wrapping up my first major Carribean cruise and will start the online courses in a couple days. I am glad I picked a cruise before the semster started since the Internet on Norwegian Cruise Line is very slow.

 

[David Baxter PhD]

Was that a holiday, @Daniel, or were you working in the cruise?

 

[Daniel E.]

A holiday. It was a gift from my mother as a way to see her since we live on opposite parts of the country now.

I would not want to work here haha. Most of the employees work 10 hour days, 7 days a week, for 8 months at a time.