Originally published 18th September 2022
Let’s rewind back to January 2020 (unknowingly living the last few months of normal life). I was feeling stuck in my management consulting job — like I wasn’t growing or doing anything particularly challenging at the time.
I had attended a large tech conference called Big Data LDN a few months prior and was inspired to seriously consider trying to learn how to code and be a part of this booming and ever-growing industry.
I had 2 options to choose from at the time:
- Do an online coding course/bootcamp
- Do a formal degree in CS
For a whole host of reasons (more info in this article: 4 Reasons to Pursue Formal Education in your Free Time) I chose to do a part-time CS master’s degree.
As I come to the last few months of this degree, I feel reflective of the last 2 and half years…
Was it worth it?
The Pros
- A formal degree is structured and rigorous, meaning it pushed me to carry on learning even when the initial ‘motivation’ wavered. Honestly, I think I would’ve given up a long time ago if I did a self-study course online.
- Having a master’s degree somehow sounded more ‘official’ (?) to me, and I am happy that I will have a higher degree certification added to my education.
- The degree started from the basics of CS and programming, meaning I think I have more of an appreciation for the principles behind coding and coding languages.
- The university staff were knowledgeable on the subject they were teaching (even if some were nowhere to be seen/heard from for weeks on end).
- There was a nice comradery between my cohort of students — we all helped each other if needed and there felt like there was a good level of support from the group. Although I think we did lose over half the class over the course of the program.
The Cons
- The workload was pretty damn stressful at times. This was to be expected from a part-time course, however, I do think it was fairly unsustainable at times — especially as a lot of the content was very, very, very complicated.
- The amount of time the degree has taken is quite long… I discovered early on my dislike for coding and I was forced to do it multiple times after this epiphany. Shorter and more intensive courses may be a better option for discovering what you like/don’t like in a more streamlined fashion.
- We had to study modules that I did not find particularly interesting, so I would be slogging through 2 months of content that didn’t excite me. This is probably my own fault though as all of the modules were listed before I signed up. Make sure you like the sound of most of your modules.
The Verdict
Overall, I do believe the experience was worth it. Computer science is a vast field with so many different areas, and I would’ve never discovered product management without studying CS.
However, if you want to quickly build technical skills without going too deep into theoretical concepts, I would probably advise just doing an intensive course or boot camp, as you will see results so much quicker without having to invest so much money.
Online part-time CS degree course options:
- University of York, MSc Computer Science
- University of Bath, MSc Computer Science
- Northumbria University, MSc Computer Science
Coding BootCamp options:
Thanks for reading!
letters from nowhere 
Leave a comment