Ask HN: How relevant are Master's degrees in tech today?
I ask this question with interest from both from the perspective of a person with a non-cs undergraduate degree and one with.<p>Personally I have a degree in economic geology and am currently studying a Master of Finance but I have been programming on and off since school. Recently I have been considering exiting my finance masters with a grad dip&#x2F;cert (I am in Australia and am not sure if those quals mean anything anywhere else?) and pursuing some form of CS. For many working professionals and people who don’t happen to live near quality education institutions, I think that online learning is an excellent choice.<p>Unfortunately this severely limits the course options to both lengthy and costly master’s degrees through universities such as Georgia Tech, Penn State or Liverpool, or short specialisations through MOOC providers such as Udacity or MIT’s open courseware.<p>[TL;DR] Getting to my actual question. Do you think it is worth the cost (both in time and money) to pursue a Masters in CS through a traditional university or are building skills by completing personal projects and taking MOOC&#x27;s (such as Udacities nanodegrees) just as likely to arm you with the skills to land a job and make a meaningful contribution in the field.<p>Edit: Fixed my paragraph formatting.