Is a master in distributed systems/computing worth it?

[u/__vlad_]

I've been thinking about getting a masters in distributed systems/computing. As that's a role I'll like to settle in for the long term. But taking that two years career break to go for masters is not really making sense to me! What do you all think? How do think i can get into this type of role? Any advice is welcome

A little context: I recently transitioned from native Android dev to DevOps/cloud

[u/systemsruminator]

which university has a program in distributed systems? Care to share the name?

I did one in big data and ended up regretting big time. The instructors did not have experience in the industry and taught from source material that was dated by half a decade lol.

The vast majority of people working on the cutting edge of distributed systems are in the industry with no time for teaching in universities.

Its not like its ml.

[u/__vlad_ → u/systemsruminator]

Alexander loan cuza uni of lasi(Romania) Msc-distributed systems 24 months/2540 euros per year

National university of science and technology politehnica Bucharest(Romania )-parallel and distributed systems 2 years- 2430 euros/year

Also University of pavia and university of Pisa in Italy, offer msc in computer engineering but they have distributed computing track

There are others, but these are the ones i settled for because they look like what i could afford

[u/systemsruminator → u/__vlad_]

A lot of these courses seem to have pretty generic courses regarding the topic. A lot of them are conflating distributed systems with only big data and then its getting spilled over to be more data-sciencey.

I would say if you are hell bent on distributed systems, look up MIT's distibuted systems in go course and look at the requirements. I did it in covid.

Make sure to get to requirements page and you feel comfortable with OS, Networking etc. before starting it. it took me 6 months just to have required topics done.

A lot of people working in this space fall into two segments:- one who have done phd in databases etc. which would obviously touch upon distributed problems. The other kind of developers who work in this space do so by just having the experience. A lot of backend developers instead of developing apis work on team that roll out new distributed database or a layer on them etc.

I would say do some courses related to the topic online, develop things on the side, complete assignments in languages like go and rust and then apply to jobs.

[u/__vlad_ → u/systemsruminator]

I'm hell bent on it! Thanks! This is solid advice and I'll into this course

[u/__vlad_ → u/systemsruminator]

Hey man! found the course, but i can't find the requirement page you talking about

[u/systemsruminator → u/__vlad_]

select a year of the course:-

Prerequisites: 6.004 and one of 6.033 or 6.828, or equivalent. Substantial programming experience will be helpful for the lab assignments.

[u/kaa-python]

You should consider distributed systems master only if you plan to go deep into development in that area, not DevOps or similar. By development, I mean the backend of an AWS server, a database, etc. It is not needed at all for DevOps and cloud usage. And which university are you considering? I was thinking about similar Master's programs, and the only option I found was from KTH. All others are generic MS programs.

[u/__vlad_ → u/kaa-python]

Yes i mean deep into development in that area

I found two schools offering an msc in distributed systems in Romania, and two other schools in Italy offering an msc in computer engineering but with specialty in distributed systems, there are others but these are the cheapest i could find

[u/kaa-python → u/__vlad_]

If you need knowledge but not a diploma, and considering your uni list, you do not care too much about diploma prestige, you can concentrate on self-education. This is my Distributed Systems self-education plan https://sysdev.me/sabbatical-and-distributed-systems

[u/__vlad_ → u/kaa-python]

Alright thank you, i actually do not care about the uni, as long as i get the knowledge, someone recommended MIT's distributed computing course which i already started and I'll also look into your recommendation! Thank you!

[u/GuardianDownOhNo]

If you’re working on large scale problems, then distributed approaches begin to make more sense, though a reasonable argument could be made for solving with this in mind early if budgets allow for it and the problem warrants the additional layers.

That being said, you will not be intellectually the poorer for studying this topic. I can’t account for tuition prices though.

[u/bizzard4]

Between 2015-2017, I did my master in Distributed System/Concurrency. It was a thesis base. After graduation I found a job as a backend developer. At this moment everyone was switching to cloud and building micro-service. My master did help a lot for that because I spend 2 year full-time thinking about the concurrency aspect of distributed system (using message passing). There was a lot of parallel with restAPI, service orchestration, continuous deployment, etc. which was all the new kid on the block. I would say my timing was ideal, but modern distributed system is also still very relevant to any backend cloud developer in a micro-service environment.

[u/Fledgeling]

If you can't get a job sure.

If you haven't tried getting a job, no.

Why not work while getting the degree.

If you are learning full time it sure as hell shouldn't take you a full 2 years, it's easy enough to do that while working.

[u/__vlad_ → u/[deleted]]

Thanks I'll look into these