Computer Engineering-Should I go for a Master's?

[dannypickle]

Hello!

I am currently an undergraduate going for a bachelor's in computer engineering. I just completed my first year and am a little behind because I started the first year with different majors. Right now I am a sophomore so I still have 3-4 years before I would start going for my masters degree, but for the sake of planning ahead financially would it be wise for me to go for a masters degree before heading off into the work force? I am not sure how the job market and employers view computer engineering/science students in terms of usefulness if they enter the workforce with only a bachelors, so what could I expect with either path? AKA, starting salary with either bachelors or masters, company interest, etc.

Lets assume I will be graduating my bachelors with a 3.4-3.5. That seems to be where I am headed right now, doing great in everything but calculus. -_-

Also what would be some good experience/internships to get under my belt before graduation? I currently work part time for best buy doing sales, and in a couple years would like to apply to the Apple store near my house. I am hoping that Apple hires from within, so a job there would be great to get me into the company.

I would really like to work for a company like Nvidia, Intel, or Apple when I graduate. So I will do whatever it takes school-wise in order to get there.

 

[Floid]

For non-PhD goals I would advise working before getting your Masters. I feel that I got a lot more out of mine having worked for a few years before starting it and I also got it paid for by my employer.

Here is what employers know: if you get lucky and get a good engineering job (doing something fairly technical) you will learn as much in your first few years of working as you did in school. This is true even if you got your Masters. Two good years of experience is worth more than a Masters degree. Of course if two people have 10 years experience the person with the Masters degree is going to get preference.

Salaray: Obviously you will likely have a higher starting salary with a Masters. How much higher is highly dependent.

Experience: Try to get an engineering internship instead of working sales. It will look much better on your resume even if in practice it isn't all it is cracked up to be (might get stuck making spreadsheets of parts or some other mundane task).