A young Bachelor, who also happened to be my Master

April 9, 2008 9:17 AM

Which guy would you rather hire as an engineer - a 28 year old guy who took 8 years to get a bachelors degree or a 30 year old guy who took 10 years to get a masters degree?

I'm posting this anonymous because I am that guy. My first 5 years in college, I just was not interested in doing anything. I was working, socialising, coding and doing everything but signing up for exams.

Then I turned 25 and realised - dude, you've fucked up big time. I dropped out of college, reregistered at a new college and restarted the same course. I followed up the course work, and I am shortly before a bachelors degree. I'm tired of living like a student, I want to settle down and start working, and I'm no young up and comer in the tech world anymore. So after my bachelors (which I will get with about top 30% scores, but not better), I could go start work.

The problem is that I'm competing against all the young guys who have a bachelors degree and do not have to explain why it took them so long to get a first degree.

Or I could bite the bullet and stick it out in college for 1&1/2 more years and end up with a masters degree, which I guess will then be more normal for someone my age.

But then I'm 30 with no formal work experience and a masters degree in engineering.

You may say - but degrees don't matter, all that matters is experience and skills. Well, in the type of big companies I want to work at, I've heard they weed out people based on details like this. So I won't even get far enough to show my skill. And thought I'm a skilled coder, I'm not actually that skilled in what I study, which belongs squarely in the engineering field.

What do I do? Leave now, get work experience in a company, then come back for my masters after 2 years or just stay on now and get that masters?

posted by anonymous to work & money (23 comments total)

1.5 years max left to get a masters? Get a masters. It is going to open more doors in the near and far future and it'll go by fast.
posted by bprater at 9:24 AM on April 9

Just want to chime in to say it is illegal to discrimate and rule out a job candidate based on age. I have seen age 40+ apply for internship positions at past jobs. Also, at my current employer, we tend to hire based on experience over degrees.
posted by ShootTheMoon at 9:29 AM on April 9

1. Get a masters. At least where I work, engineers with master's degree are in v. high demand, and our master's job openings are rarely filled.

2. Does your first program even count, really? Since you started all over at the age of 25, essentially from the beginning, then can't you just leave your first 5 years of schooling off your resume?
posted by muddgirl at 9:29 AM on April 9

Unless the masters is in a subspecialty related to the jobs you will be applying for then I'd say it probably doesn't pay at this point. The age disparity exists, but standing out from a applicant pool can help sometimes as well. When you are looking at a group of 22 year old applicants someone with a bit more maturity can seem quite appealing.
posted by frieze at 9:32 AM on April 9

It is not illegal (under US federal law) to discriminate against a job candidate based on age IF the candidate is under 40. However, "how old are you?" isn't a legal interview question.

Anyway if I were you I would just put graduation date and leave off details that would show your age. You don't need to advertise that it took you howevermany years to graduate.
posted by phoenixy at 9:35 AM on April 9

I wouldn't care about the two situations. I'd care about the engineer in question, his practical experience coding and designing, and how he came off as a person.
posted by xmutex at 9:35 AM on April 9

Get the masters. 30 is still young in the big picture. You'' earn more money with your Masters. I'm also sure you could find work drafting or something as a student with a respectable firm for work experience.
posted by Penelope at 9:42 AM on April 9

Given the economy, if I were in your shoes, I'd sure want to be earning and saving now rather than going into debt for two more years and quite possibly entering a worse job market at the end. As an interviewer, I wouldn't care all that much about the difference between a BS and an MS (though I might care a lot about an impressive master's project -- but I'd care a lot about an impressive independent project, too.) As an interviewee, I haven't noticed people caring much about my computer science MS, but I don't know how different things are outside of software engineering.
posted by Zed_Lopez at 9:50 AM on April 9

In the U.S., it's not customary to put date of birth on your resume, and you don't have to say how long it took for you to finish school, so how would employers know how old you are? Do you look old? Most 28-year-olds don't look much different from 22-year-olds.
posted by Dec One at 9:53 AM on April 9 [2 favorites]

As a hiring manager, I'm picking the candidate that has a string of accomplishments that let me envision them doing the job. If that means doing a masters, fine. If that means doing some really cool projects in your undergrad, fine. Just have quantifiable accomplishments that show me how you are better than just another warm body filling the role.
posted by bfranklin at 10:14 AM on April 9

You can turn that period of lax work, and subsequent dedication, to your advantage.

You are able to make the point that you have learned to appreciate the value of hard work and that you've outgrown the slacker/good times mentality that many younger applicants will exhibit.
posted by oddman at 10:28 AM on April 9

It wouldn't take you ten years to get your Master's. It will take you two. Then "Tell me about what you've been up to recently" can get answered with "Well I got my BA in '08, and I've been working on my Master's since then. During that time I had internship x and worked on research project y." rather than with "Well, I'm finishing up my BA, and it took me some time, and I kinda farted around a bit, and now I'm just kinda looking to make some money."

No matter what you do, the conversation will tend to naturally focus on the last two or three things you did. If those two or three things are good (got a BS, got an MS) that's good. If they are bad (farted around, eventually got a BS) that's bad.

When I interview people, I'm looking for people who are obsessed with being great at what it is I'm hiring them for. And I'm looking for words some, but I'm especially looking for actions. Farting around to eventual BS does not show passion. BS to MS does.
posted by ChasFile at 10:32 AM on April 9

I see your situation as the following:

"It took me a long time to get my BS as I wasn't really sure what I wanted to do, but now I have a couple of years of work experience and I know that engineering is where it's at."
vs.
"It took me a long time to get my BS as I wasn't really sure what I wanted to do, but I came to the conclusion that engineering is where it's at and I wanted to get the best qualifications possible while pushing myself along the way, so now I have my MS."
posted by meerkatty at 11:01 AM on April 9

This was me. It took me eight years, start to finish, to get a BS in engineering. By that time I was serious about school and stayed to get a master's in two more years. I got a great job due to the research training I got while completing my MS. Being older than average and having just completed a master's looks far better than just having the bachelor's, and I think the two-year age difference is negligible.
posted by Mapes at 11:10 AM on April 9

get the masters degree - everyone and their donkey have a bachelors and 1.5 years is no time at all. get the masters and see if you can get some additional qualification (legal, business, that sort of thing) while pursuing it to set you a bit apart from all the other applicants.

then be frank when someone asks you about your story. you needed to mature, realize what you wanted to do with your life, make up your mind. that implies that you have the resolution that a younger person might lack.
posted by krautland at 11:20 AM on April 9

It sounds like the only reason you are considering a master's is out of fear that you won't find a job with the bachelor's.

Go ahead and apply to any master's programs you are considering, but apply for jobs too. Put down when you got your BS, you don't need to put when you started or your age on your resume. If it comes up that you spent 5 years at the previous school, you talk about working your way through school, how you learned from the challenge of balancing your finances with your future goals, etc.

Pay attention to what you wear to interviews, and don't dress older than your age.
posted by yohko at 11:29 AM on April 9

Masters. There's no way that having a graduate degree is going to hurt you, and all kinds of ways it will help. If you can afford to do it now, do it now.
posted by mumkin at 11:43 AM on April 9

1. Masters
2. Internships at local companies - do some serious product development as an intern.

You'll probably get offered a job at the company you are interning at if you do a good job, but if you don't youll get solid work experience AND the degree. Win-win!
posted by zia at 12:49 PM on April 9

Meh. I'd look at their portfolios.
posted by TomMelee at 12:54 PM on April 9

i'd look at experience over degrees. a masters is just another piece of paper that anyone can get with very little effort.
posted by misanthropicsarah at 1:32 PM on April 9

The Masters degree is the new Bachelors degree. You might as well stick it out if you can afford it because you'll have better job prospects.
posted by GuyZero at 2:17 PM on April 9

Bachelors degree and a job that will help pay for your Masters.

Also, until you've worked a year or two you don't really know that you're going to love the field you've selected. You may decide that you'd prefer a graduate degree in management or something.
posted by 26.2 at 6:50 PM on April 9

If the economy hits a major recession as feared, you might be better off pursuing your masters than fighting for scarce jobs at big engineering firms. I graduated with a CS degree at the beginning of the .com bubble burst in 2000. I was lucky but many of my CS/CE/EE friends were laid off, sometimes before they even had a chance to start the job they'd landed. Lots of talented people had trouble finding secure jobs for a couple of years. The engineering grad programs at my alma mater enrolled more students in 2001 and 2002 than any year before or since.

I think if you're smart and dedicated you can get a job with a newly-minted BS at the age of 28. However, if your segment of the economy is at risk you might get more benefit out of studying for your masters over the next couple of years.
posted by rhiannon at 11:41 PM on April 10