[otras]

Did you do any internships during your Master's program? That's one of the things I always recommend to people learning to program, and from talking to undergrads, that's where a lot of the real job-specific learning happens. It seems like that's where a good balance of theoretical (from classes) and practical (from industry) often comes from.

I think this does bring up an interesting point about the current state of training/education in CS for those that are looking to transition into the field. It seems that schools are marketing their Master's and certificate programs towards people breaking into the industry, but it's hardly a direct mapping from CS classes to practical, on-the-job skills (creating the niche that boot camps have worked to fill). Furthermore, these programs are often money makers for the school, especially if they're fully-online programs, which scale much better. This adds an interesting side incentive to getting paying students in the door.

Is there an intangible value of having a degree on your resume? If there is, or at least if there's a perception that there is, it seems like it's still driving this small part of the academic industry.

Caveat that I'm currently finishing up my CS Masters w/o a CS undergrad degree while working full time and have many opinions about this.