Do IT pros need master's degrees?

A poster made a comment over in another thread along the lines of:

99% of IT professionals only need a Bachelor's degree.

Do you agree? Not? Why? What sayeth thou?

(I'll hold my thoughts in the hopes a few others pipe in.)

 

In corporate America - no, except for managerial situations of significant scope in certain firms. Experience trumps everything.
In consulting America - yes, because corporate America is paying for additional knowledge and you'll be rewarded by living out of a suitcase and higher wages.
In academic America - yes because you can't teach in certain areas of the country without the credential.
In government America - yes because your pay grade is directly attached to your education.

 

In "workaday" America - no, I'd say. Even with no degree but all the relevant industry certs and a portfolio (if relevant) may be all someone needs to get a job. Although to be more competitive, I'd suggest at least an AAS.

 

I agree with other replies; however, if you have the opportunity...just go for it just in case. For example, I am in the IT industry; but I have the opportunity to continue my education under the Post 9/11 GI Bill without cost for my pocket. Therefore, I am continuing until my benefit is exhausted.

 

No, but it helps.

 

Now that other folks have joined in. . .

I think it depends on where you are, and where you want to land.

More specifically, if you're interested in management, you'll need some sort of master's. I've seen plenty of postings that say "master's degree required" or "prefer master's degree in related field". An MBA is usually optimal if you want to land in management, but I'm sure related can extend to among other majors: management, leadership, mathematics, accounting, business whatever (non-MBA), electronics/engineering and of course CS/IS/IT.

There are many fields within IT, though, that are somewhat terminal in themselves or that people may settle into. For these and folks who have no advancement ambitions, a lesser education might be fine. Some folks will be network admins forever; a few certs might do it for them. Some folks will fall into a support role-- an A+ and a few narrow support-related certs (e.g. recent MCPs) will be fine.

There are some technical roles with a signficant amount of potential impact on an organization's productivity and/or security that may require a BS or higher, such as database administrators, infrastructure architects and security gurus. It's an additional requirement an organization can have to help (hopefully) ensure they're getting a competent professional.

Let me put all this into numbers: yeah, maybe 70% of many IT organizations employees are in support roles and won't need more than a Bachelor's. But if you want to get into the better paid niches (and/or have career mobility), get at least a Bachelor's and think about possibly getting a Master's.

 

This is the same logic for some MBAs to get DBAs, it is basically continuing education. In the case of IT, things change very quickly so the master's helps to keep your self up to date.
However, it is just cheaper to do certifications and they seem to have a better payoff than Master's degrees.

 

While you don't NEED a graduate degree for an IT job, I am willing to bet that there is a fairly direct correlation between degrees and salaries in IT up to the masters level.

 

To be quite honest, it is very demanding to be an IT professional. I started with a Novell certification, then went for a CCNA, then for a MCSE and CWNA.

My advice to many students is to use IT just to get into a corporate job, then try to get an MBA so you can move into Finance, Marketing, etc.

It is not easy to keep up to date with IT and it gets harder with the age. IT is great to get your foot in the door in a company but an MBA might be a better bet in the long term.

You can still remain in IT but more in the business side as a business analyst, project manager, etc.

 

It really depends on what segment of IT you are in. If you are a network admin, or info sec guy, certs are a big deal. However, certs mean almost nothing for developers.

 

That's probably the main point there, "IT pro/job" is too broad of a term.

 

I worked in IT for years and an AS/AAS seemed to work for most of the positions. A BS was almost terminal. For any management position in IT, an MBA or MS-IT was required. The most important part of all was the expereince and certs (not just certs without the experience to back it).

 

Certs and low-level degrees are only good for getting those entry level positions. To rise to senior management or to command better salary, a master's degree is required from a school with a name. So, depending on the area of specialism, a BS maybe all that is required. However, if there's opportunity to go for advanced degrees, there's every reason to go (except one is lazy). Degrees with experience are always preferred by employers more than certs with experience. Also, the career portability that a master degree will provide suggest that you can't go wrong with a master's degree. In third world countries, a holder of PhD in IT (a hand-on IT program with significant lab/practicals time) with no experience is 100 times preferred than certification holders with experience. Why? Because the IT is consumed at a very less-complicated level; skills to integrate systems versus heavy programming skills, for example.

 

I'm probably repeating what's already been said here, but for the PM and Management side of the house a masters degree is almost expected. My MBA certainly does not make me stand out among my coworkers as about 2/3rds of them have similar credentials. The certifications I will do tend to also lean more towards PM and Management work (PMP, Six Sigma, Agile, Lean, etc.) with the exception of the security stuff (just in case). IT is very, very competitive and difficult to keep up with. You must always be sharpening the axe (so to speak) as younger faces with newly minted skills will continue to churn out competing for technical positions and given the rate of change that takes place it can be difficult to keep up. The business side of things is slower but ever evolving still…

 

this was my experience as well, MBAs seem to be more beneficial for people with a BS in IT. Now, let's clarify and mention that not all people with MBAs get to be managers. There are plenty of programmers, network administrators, etc with an MBA that were not able or did not want to break into management. As MBAs are a dime a dozen, many people hold them but work in places where the MBA is not required (e.g. sales rep, accountants, etc).

Yes, there are plenty people with MS and PhDs working as programmers, network administrators, etc. However, it doesn't mean that they are making more money or preferred than people with only a BS. I have bee involved in hiring IT people and we have always looked for experience and skills, the education part we used to leave it to HR that only verified that people had a degree. So many times, your education would not even be noticed by hiring managers.

Many people with a BS look for a MS mainly because they hold a non IT BS degree.

 

That is certainly why I am earning a 2nd masters degree.

 

Life is too short Cyber, I wonder if time spent doing an MS or PhD when you are in your 20s and 30s would be worth all the time you missed with your family and all the things you did not do.

I have done few degrees but sometimes regret this as the time you lose enjoying this world doesn't come back.

People with a BS that use their free time to enjoy life cannot be seen as lazy but perhaps smarter as they might use their time to invest in other things that give them more happiness.

We have the wrong idea that more degrees make you smarter, happier, richer, etc but this is not the case all the time.

 

It's all about balance. I do not regret the time I spent earning my degrees but I do regret the time I spent in law enforcement...I feel like I missed out on my 20's working 2pm to 11pm every night and weekends, I missed countless holidays, etc. Almost like I mortgaged a decade of my life away that I will never see again...so I can get why people at some point just say "enough" when it comes to formal education and it is a very personal decision that I think everyone can or at least should respect.

 

I have had a Senior IT Director with High-School diploma no Degree whatssoever. He actually signed my MSM Tuition reimbursement. One IT director had a BS in Accounting. A Vice President - IT with no College Degree. In all three above cases, experience played a role, the bigger role was played by "them being in the right place at the right time".

 

In my small experience in working for government in the IT realm, degree's hardly matter at all. Experience and certs count for more, and experience trumps all. Keep in mind this is only a small area of IT in the federal government sector. With experience in IT you can move up to pretty high levels within the government without a degree. Again I'm speaking in my small experience in the federal sector. There is NO requirement for a degree to work for the federal government in IT. As in it is not a requirement, nice to have and a positive, but it is certainly not required.