Hi everyone, I could use some advice. I have a bachelor in engineering (not CS but with some CS courses) and one and a half years of SWE experience at good (not faang, more like Fortune 500) companies. Last February I started a 2 years master's degree in CS because I wanted to try doing some research in ML and was considering doing a PhD (drank too much AI kool aid). After a couple of months I decided PhD was not for me and started prepping for coding interviews (along with doing some exams). I applied and am now interviewing with several big tech companies (some faang or similar). I'm halfway on my master: missing like 35% of courses plus the master thesis. I'm gonna run out of money by March. My options are: 1) keep grinding leetcode and try landing the best full-time job I can, start the job and drop out from my master. 2) same as 1), but once started try finishing the master working on it on the weekends. 3) join a less demanding company than faang (but that still pays well) and work there 8/12 months while leetcoding and finishing the master. 4) do an internship making a master thesis out of it (in a startup, which in some cases could be linked to a (top) university); leetcode couple of months and apply/interview with faang. The companies I am in the process of interviewing with are Microsoft, Uber, Bloomberg, Databricks, Zalando, Jane Street and I'm about to get a strong referral for Google. Also, some noname startups (which pay well though because they're in Zurich). Some of them I have an onsite, others I just passed the first screening, others am somewhere in between. I'm in Europe and I'm interviewing for positions in Europe (considering moving to US at some point but also considering staying in Europe, don't know yet). My favourite option is the first, because I feel like I already got what I wanted from my master and it gets straighter to the point to what I want (plus, if I'll need to learn something I can just do it, don't need an exam for it). Plus, it would be easy to schedule all the on-sites in the same period because I planned well so far. I'm a bit scared of having that "dropped out" in the CV though and finishing the master feels cleaner. My master is at a good (not top) university, similar (maybe even a bit worse) to my bachelor's university. Some of the companies I'm interviewing with would allow me to postpone the rest of the interviews in case I decide to work on my thesis first, others might not allow that. Deciding what I prefer would allow me to know what to do in the following two months: if focusing on leetcode or trying to finish my exams. TC: 80k before starting my master, now is 0. YoE: 1.5 #master #graduate #google #faang #swe EDIT: if you're only reading the poll, beware that "faang and graduate" actually means "get into faang, then try graduating studying in your free time". Can't edit the poll naming.
Get that Masters. Hang in there. Don’t dropout.
If you get education loan that would be great. In US you could. Don’t know about Europe.
Here it's done only in the UK. Plus, I wouldn't do it. I'd rather do the thesis/internship if I wanted to finish it right away while getting some money to get by.
Drop out. Education is a poison for mind
I also never really liked formal education to be honest, started the master's manly to consider PhD and have some time to study CS fundamentals well.
A lot of those companies would be willing to help pay to finish the degree—just ask. That way you can get your cake and eat it too...and don’t feel pressure to finish in a certain time :) best of luck!
Thanks! ☺️
Masters + Leetcode.
This alone wouldn't give me money to get by (gonna be broke by March 😁)
Is taking a semester break not an option? LC. Get offer. Restart program. Reimbursement.
Sounds reasonable. If the company let's you start when you want I'd consider it. Not sure about the reimbursement part.
Can’t you transfer to part-time programs. Am in similar situation. Half way thru. will try to see it through. In my experience education reaps it’s benefits in unexpected ways. Some day looking back. So don’t drop out and neither hold off everything else for it.
Dude I started grad school and dropped out because it's not worth it to me, I did well in school, but grad school requires a lot of time commitment, which I didn't want to sacrifice. My undergrad is in CS, but I meet a lot of SWEs that aren't CS grads and I mean they aren't good, but that's a different story. Unless you want to work in research or academia, grad school isn't necessary for a lot of people imo.
Agree grad school is not necessary, but I already started it don't know if there's a "dropped out" stigma out there
Bill Gates was a drop out.
You have 35% courses left and the whole thesis? Did you’re barely 15% done with your masters. Cut your losses and get a job before you become homeless.
I have done like 45% of my master. (Thesis at my university is not at all 50% of the master like you assumed, it's actually less than 1/3 of it).
lol. Nobody cares what your University thinks buddy. Thesis counts 50% in the industry. Do you think people give a rats ass about the courses you took?
Finish your master. You are almost there and will regret it later in your career. Some jobs (architects, director level) require a master or at least prefer it.
I think this (having a master to get a director job) doesn't apply to faang companies. Or does it?
Check this: Google Staff Software Engineer https://www.linkedin.com/jobs/view/1554435199 Preferred qualifications: Master or PhD. Not a requirement, but can certainly help, even at FAANG, at least at higher levels.
Depends on what you want to do. Drop out if you want to be a code monkey forever. If you want to be doing research/ML at some point then MS will be useful (but of course there are alternatives like doing your MS later at a better place/self study/online MS etc.)
Not sure if you meant code monkey in a bad way. But to me some ML jobs in industry where you tune parameters and do experiments or keep building the same pipelines over and over are more monkey-like than actually building systems, unless maybe if you are in a hedge fund or in a really special team in faang (maybe there this stuff is actually worth doing). Not sure about this though, it's just my impression. But if I start out as an engineer I don't think I will go later on into research, I think it's more likely I'll stay in engineering or possibly end up in management. Anyway I think I'll start working and then if having this master ongoing will stress me too much I'll just drop out otherwise I'll just do the remaining exams and thesis with no hurry when I feel like I want to learn something new.
Code 🐒 is pretty much everyone here, they code to earn living, the moment they stop coding they can’t maintain the same life style
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FANG doesn’t worth dropping out
Why?