I'm 33 years old and currently working as a DS at BCG. 1.5 years at BCG and 5-6 years at a bank. I'm thinking of going for a CS master's degree from elite schools. I already have a masters degree but in management analytics and never had a formal CS education. My motivation is to get more technical depth, and to progress in my career after my master's. Probably join big tech or a savvy startup. People who have done that (left work n go back to school) looking for your advice on how to handle this transition. Is it worth it? TC 150K
Your goals aren't very clear. If you want to join big tech/savvy startup, you need leetcode not a masters. If you want to build technical depth then for what reason? Is your lack of depth hindering you right now?
Can't land an interview at FAANG. I don't have recos so I apply through LinkedIn. Never get a response back
Sounds like your goal is purely to get into FAANG then. If so, my point still stands. You're applying to highly desirable companies within the most competitive talent landscape in recent memories for tech. If you're getting a masters, get it to upskill or reskill (from analytics to data science or from analytics to SWE) but don't get it for the goal of getting into FAANG.
Stay at least two yrs with BCG but preferred three. Great thing to have on CV. Fall 2025 for ed if you decide to go for more sounds good
If I were you, I’d stay in BCG instead of going to FAANG.
Why
@BoA FAANG and Tech isn't 100% stable. Weather the storm. Go with their strengths in analytics. Move to Analytics Engineering. Find opp to go into DE and be a DE SWE. Continue to look for more interesting work from there.
Do you mind sharing your TC progression at the previous banks you worked at? I’m currently applying for grad school and I’m curious to see and want to compare the salary ranges for a DS working in finance or other industries vs tech. Also curious if you regretted going into DS and should’ve done CS in the beginning? Thanks!
Following, I am in similar situation currently 2 years as DA at a bank and taking CS master to pivot into big tech.
If you want to get into big tech, you need to master Leetcode, not a master's degree.
How do you get interviews though
if I were you. try to find a way into the consulting track, if you can cut it, you'd accelerate past the CS paybands after 6yrs through the up or out culture
Nah. Consulting track folks are trying to get in DS. I have no interest in going consultant track
Wow, I didn’t know consultants are trying to switch to DS. Always thought client-facing roles like Consultants will have better exits opportunities and better Tc
You can learn all of this for free online and create your own project. Coursera.com
A master's isn't getting you into a faang. Networking will.
I did that and it was worth it. I always wanted to get more indepth on machine Learning and AI even though I was working as a data scientist. If it's a good college, it's worth it. You might have to manage finances and also letting go of 9-5pm routine and corporate weekend mindset. But I really enjoyed my master's.
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No need to spend your money and energy for masters if you are already in tech and doing well. If you want technical depth just invest your time in projects. And if you want to get into big tech then start doing leetcode.
If you don’t have formal education then MS helps to build domain knowledge. Doing that for distributed systems and concepts like ML needs a ton of motivation and having an environment really helps. This is not like MBA. You need guidance to build a good career in this field.
Tbh you get better guidance joining a startup and working in the trenches. Or doing side projects, studying (certs) and leetcoding.