#Master's degree or solo learning?

23 messages · Page 1 of 1 (latest)

old flume
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Do you already have a bachelor degree?

hidden cloud
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In a similar boat ngl
I think doing mba too early won't get you as much benefits as it can later on in ur life
That's just my thoughts tho
Maybe in the current job market, mba is gonna be better ?

old flume
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with the bad state of the world right now for any field in general,
have you tried applying to graphics jobs recently? How was your experience?
From what I’ve experienced over the past 12 months, the job market for graphics engineers doesn’t seem to have been as affected by the current downward trends. It’s a niche field but it's always hiring.

old flume
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does it make sense to not pursue a mater's degree in computer graphics
I'm not in the best position to give advice (because I just graduated 4 months ago), but I was in a similar situation. Before that, I worked as a mobile developer, publishing shitty games using my own custom engine.
Over time, I fell in love with graphics, so I decided to return to university to fill the gaps (math, physics, CS). I ended up earning a bachelor’s and a master’s degree, and I didn’t have any issues finding jobs in graphics afterward.

In retrospect, I’m glad I made that decision. I learned things I would never have had the discipline to study on my own: like compiler courses, graph theory, signal processing...

Did it directly impact my job search? Honestly, I’m not sure. I’ve never been asked about my degree in an interview. It might just serve as a filter for HR to select candidates.

If you can afford to take two years off financially, I’d say go for it. It could open up more opportunities (you can also do research outside of academia, plenty of companies have R&D departments, and master/PhD is not a requirement to work there). If that’s not an option, a bachelor’s degree is already a solid foundation.

hidden cloud
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they all are like we need people with 4-5 years of experience in the fiend

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field *

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GP, kinda feels like a gate kept field in genreral

old flume
hidden cloud
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Sure i shared it

leaden hare
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I know I've written a lot, but there is just so much to talk about with this subject that I've learnt!

TLDR: I'd personally recommend doing an Honour's in Computer Graphics if you don't want to self-learn from textbooks and think it's worth the credentials, otherwise self-learn from textbooks and keep doing personal projects to try and get a permanent industry game dev job. The 4th year math papers could be worth it if you love maths and want to improve your logic problem solving skills (maths is everywhere in problem solving), but it's not directly found often in graphics as it's too specific in 4th year. If you don't get a graphics job right away, you can move into a Senior Graphics role within the company later.

First of all, Master's is NOT a requirement for all graphics jobs, only the research oriented ones.

Do you know for sure that you don't ever want to go into academia? Have you tried a small sample of it to see if you like it?

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I did an Honour's (4th year) then Master's (5th year) in Computer Graphics in the country New Zealand (Victoria University of Wellington, you can check out their graphics courses), so I'm not sure how different it is to your country. In my Honour's year I learnt about PBR in detail (as a lecturer was teaching that at the time), but the other graphics course was some nieche computational geometry graphics paper as that was the specialty of the lecturer who taught it (but we had the freedom to implement our own paper for the final project, so I got to do an SPH fluid sim!). Given this, sometimes your education depends on who is available in the small graphics department in the university. I wasn't able to do any 4th year math papers in this year because getting the "Honour's in Computer Graphics" title didn't allow me to, so keep these things in mind if you want to get a certain credential. I don't think the extra 4th year math would have helped me for graphics anyway as it gets a bit more in-depth than what you need, but it's good to take lots of math courses in your first 3 years as it can be hard to self-learn later, and maths always teaches you how to think logically which can be valuable. I did a few 3rd year math papers like Fractal Geometry and Computational Maths, but a lot of these were a bit nieche to be directly used in graphics. The main papers I found useful were in second year doing partial differential equations and multivariate calculus, which helps when reading through some graphics papers. Also, you can do whatever you want for your Honour's dissertation, so that could be a good opportunity to survey lots of graphics research and implement something cool. My 4th year PBR course also allowed me to do a group project on anything PBR related, which is a nice way to spend time in a specific graphics area.

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After my Honour's year, I did 1 more year to complete a Master's in Computer Graphics by using my Honour's as the equivalent first year of Master's (the coursework). This 5th year in my Master's was a thesis. Again, you can choose what you want which is nice, but I was focused on a fluid simulation and biological sponge growth 3D mesh thing because I had a scholarship that required me to do that project. The fluid sim stuff might come in handy for me in graphics one day, but it's very nieche.

I think got a job straight after as a Junior Graphics Programmer in my country (very rare job for Junior level!) where they trained me to write proper C++, not just the quick "it works" from university, as well as improving my git workflow and learning how to work on a game project in a team. I do remember the CEO always saying "Josh has a Master's, he's so smart". I feel that people can equivalently self learn instead of getting a Master's or Honour's, but some people attach value to that I guess and will want to hire you more if that's the case. Also, my personal project on an FFT Ocean sim helped me a lot with getting a job as it was done from scratch instead of using Unreal or Unity, and at my company we are working on a custom game engine, so this skill helps.

I hope this helps! It can be difficult making big decisions like this, but I find it helpful to consider the most important factors and how much effort I want to spend on the decision, then reflecting and learning as you always do in life!

leaden hare
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No worries, I'm happy to help.

That's good that you have had a think about if you actually like academia.

I thought you could only do 4th year papers in a Master's and no other papers (that's my experience with my Master's), which would mean that you could only do super in-depth 4th year math papers, which might not be very useful for graphics. I'd double check the Master's course you're looking at as maybe there are different types, but I thought they would all be the same across universities.

Yeah, I do see university education as a bit of a checkbox personally, especially due to how much it costs and how much you can self-learn from textbooks these days.

hallow tiger
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If you get a Masters in CS you need to get over the fear of a bad grade and take the most challenging classes you can. Things like systems design, compilers etc. Get the actual skills and exp not just the grade. GPA is overrated

leaden hare
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Yeah, I agrees with this, GPA is overrated if you aren't going to use it to get into academia. From what I've heard, hobby projects or unique university projects in game dev matter more.

jaunty tangle
leaden hare
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Sometimes you can have special arrangements if you think you won't make the cut-off (like doing some work over the university break, for example).

peak cloud
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Move to France, get good food, free student loan and free masters degree.

old flume
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...and high taxes.

peak cloud
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True, let’s all move to Orlando