UCSD vs Cal Poly SLO vs UCLA

iulianc
Thu, 30 Mar 2017 05:57:30 +0000

Strictly referring to the need for a graduate degree for engineering. I work for one of the largest software companies, starting salaries for fresh out of college kids with no experience are six figures (which is typical in the industry). I had many interns working for me and many fresh graduates with both masters and bachelor degrees. There is absolutely no difference in starting pay between having a masters or not. When an intern shows promise in the summer before senior year, they are made an offer and HR puts a ton of pressure on them to accept it, rather than go to grad school. I am spending a lot of time on the phone with those kids in September getting them to accept. Not only there is no difference in starting pay, but I have noticed absolutely no difference in qualifications and knowledge between masters and bachelor degree holders. In my experience, I would rather take a holder of a bachelor degree with one year industry experience, than a fresh masters graduate.

I also have not seen much of a difference in the quality of the new hires between schools. As a matter of fact, graduates of top state schools tend to be humbler, more effective and have better engineering sense than Ivy league-rs. One of the worst hires I had was a Stanford guy so arrogant and obnoxious he did not last a year, as it was impossible for anyone to work with him. This is in line with the observations made by the (former) top HR guy at Google - Laszlo Bock in his book “Work Rules”.

Not saying this is a rule for all engineering companies or majors, I am sure in certain fields a masters is absolutely valuable, just sharing what I have been observing directly over the last 10+ years in my field.