I think the question should be not about starting salary, but about future career opportunities. I would expect starting salary at Amazon ( since this is what OP asked) to be around $90k -$110k .
Would MS lead to faster career growth? That would be the question I ask.
Does not seem to be the case under most circumstances.
The exception may be if your BA/BS graduation occurs during an industry downturn, and you are unable to get a job then. Spending a few years unemployed can make it more difficult to get a job in the field when the industry recovers, while spending those years doing MA/MS study (preferably funded) is likely to be better for when the industry recovers.
I don’t know if many knew this but at least in top schools, some BS/BA degrees entail knowledge of even the courseworks from Master’s. I know for my BS, I got to learn just as much CS as a CS master’s (if not more) and as much mathematics as a Math master’s.
Because of cases like this, the extra diploma of “Master’s” just does not make sense to me both economically and intellectually. If you were to look at some undergrad CS courseworks in places like Carnegie Mellon Univ, you would quickly recognize that the bachelor’s includes the upper courses too.
CS is quite a new field and from my personal experience, I feel that there just aren’t enough courses for the curriculum between a bachelor’s and master’s to be largely distinct. In fact, I would argue a bachelor’s in CS would contain much of the knowledge from a Master’s (at least in top CS schools) if the undergrad student is motivated enough to do so during college.
Hence, I just don’t see the incentives for the company to pay more for a graduate degree when an undergraduate knows just as much if not more (and are also willing to work for less many times).
Certain fields like in Machine Learning I can understand for Master’s but even then, undergrads today get exposure to Machine Learning. After all, undergrads have the chance to study for 4 years taking whatever courses they are passionate in. In other words, they would have at least enough exposure to be able to self teach much of the contents from a Master’s if necessary since the basic foundations are already laid out for them during Bachelor’s.
Plus, CS is honestly overkill in the software industry. Yes, it has basically become a requirement to get an entry software job but the amount of knowledge of CS needed to work in the software industry is far less than many are led to believe. Outside your first year in CS, the courses in CS are just far too advanced in the workforce right now and those that are ‘more interesting’ require a phd. Thus, there’s no true incentive for industries to pay substantially more to a graduate degree than an undergraduate degree in the software industry.
Go for master/phd if you want to work on something interesting. Want to work on the next robotics? Want to work in the machine learning sector? Want to advance artificial intelligence? Want to create automated cars? Want to study for the pursuit of knowledge itself? THEN go graduate degree. But if you are largely in it for “it will make recruiters want me more for typical software jobs” then chances are, you might be largely disappointed after graduation.
My D’s bf graduated with a degree in CS. I don’t really understand what he does but my D said he was researching and doing app development. He was making more than me (an attorney with 35 years experience) 2 years out of college (can you say depressing for me) when he decided to do a start up of some sort. D says he is being courted by Google, Amazon, etc. and might go back to work for one of them. He seems to be doing ok even without a masters degree.
I’ve seen lots of Master’s in CS programs that are meant for people who have a Bachelor’s in something other than CS. They do follow nearly the same curriculum as an undergrad CS program. I suspect that’s the kind of Master’s being described. A lot of these are part-time, evening programs.
If you already have a Bachelor’s in CS and want to go to grad school for CS, you need to make sure that it’s not the type described above. Instead find one that flexible enough so that you can study an area that you’re interested in.
I think a case can still be made for MS in some narrow AI type fields of expertise. Students sometimes do have access to graduate level courses when they are ready. My son took a machine learning class last quarter where he was one of a few sophomores. The majority of the class was composed of seniors, MS students, juniors, and industry researchers. His favorite class so far…
Your technical area of expertise will also factor into your salary. Also, industry certifications have reduced the need for MS/M.Eng degrees.
A masters degree is typically worth 2 additional years of experience. It can be very useful if he wants to get ahead faster. I don’t regret going to graduate school at all. Don’t expect an entry level job to be lucrative. It won’t be, but the experience will be worth it’s weight in gold after a couple of years. What a lot of people do is find a reasonable job after graduation then go to graduate school part time at the local university, paid for by their employer. That’s the way to go, so he would get the best of both worlds.
If the masters takes two years, isn’t that a wash in the end? It doesn’t really get you ahead faster.
Not exactly a wash, since two years of paid employment is usually more pay than the stipend from a funded graduate program (obviously, an unfunded master’s program that you have to pay for comes out a lot worse).
However, if the two years would otherwise be in the unemployment line due to graduating with a bachelor’s degree during an industry downturn, doing a master’s degree during that time is a lot more attractive.
Interestingly where i work (in a “high tech” company) has a different trend. There are a lot of grad and undergrad CS majors. Although undergrad starting salaries are not that far off from grad salaries, over 90% of the managers or execs have masters degrees. It is almost a given that without masters degrees (mostly MS in CS and a few MBAs) it hard to climb the ladder unless you are in a sales team where your undergrad degree is sufficient. I have seen this at another company in our area as well.