I'm sorry. My experience is that my MSSE made me look at software development in a different way and definitely gave me a much wider view of what was in front of me. Then again, my only out of pocket cost was parking, since my employer reimbursed everything except that.

Stuff like Project Management, Quality Control and even formal real-time system analysis are probably not concepts I would have learned on my own. Coming from an EE background, it definitely gave me a leg up. Not to mention the class discussions with people from widely varying software niches give really useful perspectives from outside your own little bubble.

> Project Management, Quality Control and even formal real-time system analysis

While powerful and topics that need to be taught somewhere, that's not the takeaways I would've expected from a masters in computer science. I suppose we're talking about a masters of software engineering, which makes those topics feel more relevant. Perhaps that shows the importance of program selection and concentration.

Correct. I specifically did not want an MSCS since I didn't think it would be very relevant for me.

TBH, I didn't intend to get a degree when I started. I took a couple of interesting courses, but then all the other ones that looked good (like real time systems analysis) had required prerequisites. Once you've taken those prerequisites, you might as well just take all the credits required for the degree.

Software Project Management was one of the required classes and it turned out to be one of the most interesting ones of all!

I feel like I was able to learn those things on the job as needed. I'm sure my MS program gave me some knowledge that helped, but I don't personally think the ROI was there. I also had an EE background.

My employer paid for mine. It was an excellent boost early in my career, but it doesn’t matter at all right now. I don’t regret getting it, but I’m more hesitant to suggest a masters to fellow software engineers.