Should I pursue a degree in computer science for software engineering?

How can I be a good software engineer without an MS degree?

• I am currently working as a Developer in a consultancy firm and recently completed two years in the industry. Its time for me to decide if I want to pursue an MS in Software Engineering (I have done my graduation in Computer Science itself). While it would be great to get an opportunity to do an MS in Software Engineering from a college like CMU, however I want to know if there is anyway you can be good at it without a formal degree in Software Engineering.

• Answer:

  Practice, practice, practice. The more work experience you get and the more personal projects you do, the better a software engineer you become. I work at a very successful startup company right now with some really top-notch engineers. Only one of them has a masters degree and several of them don't even have college degrees, but you'll be hard pressed to find people who are more knowledgeable about their respective fields of expertise as software engineers. Basically, if your goal is to go into industry, then yes, of course you can be an excellent software engineer without a Masters. But you may get more (academically) out of doing a Masters degree -- the kinds of things you learn may be qualitatively different. The industry perspective is often different from the academic; it really just depends on your experience and what you're looking for. TL;DR: If your goal is to become an excellent software engineer without getting a masters, then work out a fairly complex SE project to do every week (or within whatever timespan you are comfortable) and just keep on working at it. Also, make sure you stay up to date with tech news in the field that you are interested in and that you are always familiarizing yourself with new tools; understanding new industry standards is always very valuable to an industry position.