[ruraljuror]

Could you expand on how you see a masters degree as an impediment? Is it just that you've noticed few people have master's degrees or is it actively an impediment?

The reason I ask is that I am a self-taught web developer (BA in English & Classical Studies) considering getting a master's degree in computer engineering. I am not certain if I do go down that road that I would want to stay in web development, but I am rather passionate about the web so I would not want to rule it out.

[iends]

Not who you asked, but it's not been an impediment to me. I've worked at 4 person companies and 100,000 person companies and the masters degree has never been an issue expect I make more money than those without it. I do full stack javascript (Node/Angular).

If you don't have a CS degree, getting a more technical degree couldn't hurt you, but it's more about the opportunity cost.

The masters degree is certainly not that useful for Web development, but it's a lot of fun and was pretty enjoyable to interact with smart people. It's also helped to have more formal learning in things like compilers for the few times I've needed to write a parser, etc.

[smt88]

It's an impediment because, when you're applying for jobs, you're older, poorer, and have no extra job experience.

There are absolutely jobs where it would help, like research. If you wanted to work on the super-technical stuff at Google or Facebook, like developing new languages, you'd probably need that MS.

But generally speaking, employers care exclusively about your experience (partially because there are so many self-taught people that do good work), and a Masters just says, "I'm going to demand a higher salary".

On a semi-related note, I'm self-taught, like you are, and I considered a Masters. I now laugh at that idea -- I don't know even a tiny fraction of what's needed to get a Masters. It was very humbling to talk to people with CS degrees and hear all the things they learned.

When you miss out on an undergraduate CS degree, you miss a lot of theory and math. Jumping right into an MS program would be incredibly difficult unless you're a prodigy of math and logic (and have the time to spend on catching up).

(None of that is to say that your typical web development job requires a CS degree at all. We use high-level languages and, oftentimes, widely-used, lightly-customized software.)