#Is it worth pursuing a grad school degree in an online masters in CS? Have no experience and big gap

6 messages · Page 1 of 1 (latest)

supple wing
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1.5 years without any job since you graduated? Yeah a master's could help you reset the clock. But you'll still have that gap and will still often be asked to explain it. If you do a master's pick a field where that extra study helps. I highly suggest AI/ML and then target MlOps roles or MLE roles. Good luck

supple wing
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You need to have good linear algebra skills and have taken some pretty good ML/AI classes in undergrad. I'm not familiar with the master's application process and how you can beef up your application if you didn't do these, as I didn't get a master's.

Much of ML is based on matrix math operations because vector math is the name of the game here. If you aren't comfortable with that. Get there rapidly. There are good online resources to bring you up to speed. Getting accepted to a good program is another story

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Alternatively you could do your master's in something like operating systems, databases, etc. and then target firmware jobs, jobs for OS makers like Apple, MS, and jobs at DB makers like Snowflake, some of the vector DB startups, etc.

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Drop a resume in the resume review channel and we'll take a look for you.

I just finished a job interview loop of about 2 months. Cold applying is going to yield a very low response rate in this market. Leverage your network for referrals as much as possible

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Job gap isn't great but not insurmountable. Come up with a good response when asked about it. A good response is NOT "I couldn't get a job"

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Networking is something you do, not a number of people you know. Reach out to your old professors, college mates, friends, family. Someone you know knows someone who works at a tech company.

Now a lot of people won't just refer any rando, so you need to prove you have the chops. Grind Leetcode and tell whoever you can that you're looking for a SWE job at a tech company and if they know anyone who works at one and could refer you, you can prove you'll pass an interview and be a great dev.