Was your MS in Stats worth it?

[curious-grad]

For those who had several years of industry experience before applying to Master's programs - was your experience worth it? Why or why not?

[kingduck]

I have an MS in stats, but I don't have much YOE, so my experience is based on my observations of my colleagues, and my experience may not be applicable to your situation. Several of my colleagues had business degrees or social science degrees, who ended up wanting a career change into something more technical. The more technical folks got an MS in stats, while the less technically trained folks, went for a more professional MS, like in applied analytics or masters of the sort.

They were able to land a job in a more technical space, but some had down-levelled because they had no professional experience in their new field. E.g. I knew a director who went from senior associate business intelligence (5+ YOE), and down-levelled to data analyst (normally 1 YOE folks are here) at another company, as his BI experience was basically negotiating contracts with data vendors. Despite his dual master's in international business and MBA, since he ad little professional experience in analytics aside from his newest degree, he had to make the choice to start over again. However, I think he would have no problem being promoted quickly given his professionalism and YOE. On the other hand, I had a coworker who was promoted as soon as he earned his MS in analytics part-time, since he was working in a technical capacity already. 

I was able to switch into an R&D role as a data scientist with my masters in statistics. I was a BI analyst prior to that, but my work was fairly technical. I would presume with enough experience, you could get promoted eventually, however I think I was up-levelled sooner, at least partially due to my MS. So it seems the question really comes down to how you showcase the skills you bring to the table, and at the root of it, what your goals for getting the master's are. In my experience, the MS was worth it, but if I was at a much senior level today, I don't know if I could say the same, as my career goals would likely be different. 

 

btw, I saw your previous post about low GPA. I was admitted to a decently ranked program with a 3.3 ugrad GPA. 

Edited October 23, 2020 by kingduck