u/Academic_Sherbet_803

I wrote a lot of words here, but a TLDR is at the end.

After a bit of research, it seems the common consensus here is that getting a Masters in something CS-related is overkill and unnecessary, especially if you have prior CS education or experience. While that may be true for many, I’m wondering what your thoughts are on my specific circumstances.

Im 34 and currently working two contract jobs — one as a Frontend developer for a startup (typical WebDev stuff like React, tailwind, NextJS — though I’m working closely with a backend developer who’s using Java so I’m knowledgeable enough about what he’s doing there along with some AWS infra stuff). Second job is for a fullstack role where I’m contributing to an Angular Frontend, Python Backend, plus a bit of AWS management stuff and a ton of random hardware tinkering with Raspberry Pis, PIC32 inverters, and C programs to manage them. So it’s a good mix of technologies and I’m very fortunate to have something in the current economic climate.

The issue is that I’m very insecure about my education background and feel like I’m a step behind everyone and not knowledgeable enough about the foundation of my field. My bosses are a few years younger than me, and while we get along great and they seem to like what I’m doing, it’s slightly humiliating how they’ve made it further than me in life and it makes me wish I had sought out a better path when I was younger.

For context on my specific education and work experience:

2009-2013: Enrolled in bachelor’s of Political Science. Super enthusiastic about the field, but graduated with Bachelor’s of Social Science (3 year degree) because I just wanted to graduate and be done with it. So technically I have a bachelor’s degree, but for a worthless major. Below average grades.

2013-2018: Worked a series of aimless jobs, call centres, cooks, and admin assistant positions. Super depressed and smoked a ton of weed, felt I had wasted my life.

2018-2020: Went back to school for Computer/Network technician diploma. I felt I needed to do something with my life and was ‘good’ at computers so I just picked something random. Graduated with below-average grades. I barely showed up and just wanted the piece of paper.

2020-2023: Had a couple service desk jobs and was absolutely miserable. Quit a decent-paying one because I couldn’t deal with clients, worked some online task-based stuff and fell into another depression.

2024-2025: Earned a diploma in Mobile/Web App development. Knew I needed to do something to push beyond help desk, and coding seemed neat. I took it super seriously and my grades were basically perfect. One of my instructors hooked me up with my current job so I’m grateful the hard work paid off.

Right now: Extremely busy working 50ish hours a week, but it’s from home so that’s fine. Very stressed, but it’s a way better stress than what I’ve dealt with before and doesn’t trigger existential dread. So I think my mind is just suited to the programming/problem-solving aspect of things. However at some point the work might slow down and I’ll be faced with a dilemma of either grinding out some personal projects a brushing up a portfolio, or maybe using some of the money I’ve banked to get a Grad degree.

TLDR: I got into the field a bit older, and my only tech-related education is two separate diplomas (kind of like trade school/community college for US readers). Plus some experience working in the field. I’ve been looking at online Masters programs like WGU and Georgia Tech. I’m wondering if you feel that would be a good way to put myself on par with colleagues with a CS background.

Thanks so much for reading!

I’m not LE, but this question is inspired by this guy I used to work with in a Kitchen.

The guy was obsessed with becoming a cop, “to get back at the people who bullied me”, as he put it. He told everyone he was going to the police academy to train, but when I asked him when he was starting, he said something like “whenever I want to”, which implies he wasn’t actually accepted into anything.

Anyway, one day a cop comes in and orders food, so I’m taking his order and getting it started. The cop seemed mildly pissed off, but was polite enough so all was good.

My aspiring-cop coworker immediately interjects himself, saying something like “You do a great job sir, I’m hoping to wear that uniform alongside you soon”. It sounded nice enough but the actual police officer became immediately pissed off from the remark, being like “You know there’s IQ tests, right? I doubt you could pass those”, along with some other negative snarky stuff.

It sounds really rude but I thought it was hilarious, it’s like the real cop could immediately detect this guy was a clown and treated him like shit because he didn’t want to be associated with him. My aspiring-cop coworker didn’t seem to pick up on the hostility and was just like “Yeah I’m studying hard for the testing — blah blah”. Anyway you get the point.

How would you react in a similar circumstance if someone you’d hate to work with and would be a shit LE told you they were trying to join the force?

As a non-LE, it honesty made me respect the cop a lot to see him be a complete prick to my coworker and shut him down so rudely. Makes me feel better about the hiring standards.

Edit: Some more stories about this coworker that come to mind, because this post is getting some attention and I feel like reminiscing:

- He bought a decommissioned police cruiser model and would drive around the neighborhood “making his presence known” as he put it. I know he went to meetups with people with the same model car, not sure if they were ex-cops or just police ‘enthusiasts’.

- He told me a ‘funny story’ about how he tied his buddy to the hood of his car and drove around the country super fast to ‘prank’ him, with his friends. He was laughing like this was some funny story and I’m thinking wtf this guy is a psycho.

- He’d always pull me aside and show me porn on his phone, like I’d just look over and there’s some chick playing with her tits. Like yeah that’s cool man, go jerk off to that later I don’t want to see this at work with a bunch of sweaty dudes.

- He told me our restaurant doesn’t hire women because one time they hired one, and “she dated my best friend even though she knew I liked her”. Like yeah I wonder why, and you probably shouldn’t admit to violating labor laws.

- I was doing dishes once and pulled out this long metal dish stopper thing that was vaguely dick-shaped and was like “Oh wow, I’ll have fun with this on break”, clearly joking. And he looks at me wide-eyed and says “Dude, you have no idea how gay that sounded!”. Like yes you retard that was the joke.

- He’d always block exits to rooms and tell people he could easily win a fight against them. I was like half a foot taller than him and in better shape so I didn’t care, but a lot of staff always made a point of avoiding being alone with him.

There are other great stories but I’d probably hit the character limit, I’m thankfully out of kitchens now so my coworkers are much less ridiculous.

Edit2: Some more stuff I remember because people asked:

- He had the most bizarre body type I’ve ever seen. He claimed to work out a lot and had an impressive-looking upper-body — chest and arms looked like someone who lifted consistently. But he had this massive fucking beer belly that always was bursting out of his shirt like he was pregnant. And this giant ass and thighs that could barely be contained in his pants. I have no idea what the hell was going on with that fat distribution. And a head that was way too oversized for his body with a massive double-chin and soulless blue eyes. When he spoke to you he’d always do this Kubrick stare before I even knew what that was. Looks-wise I’d describe him as a combination of Kevin James and Buzz Lightyear.

- He’d always slouch on the counters with his giant ass blocking the way, and often would block someone in who didn’t want to ask him to move to avoid talking to him. So they’d just stay where they are and take a picture of his giant ass as a way to say “I want to move but I can’t right now”. I used to get like dozens of these sent to me every week when I worked there, my phone was full of pictures of this guy’s ass taking up my iCloud storage.

- A big reason no one wanted to talk to him is because everything would lead to him getting pissy and turn anything into a confrontation. I’d be like “Hey man, we’ve got a bunch of chicken tickets coming in so make sure we’re good there”. And he’d be like “What’s the matter bud, don’t think I can do my job?” and get all huffy. So then people just stopped telling him things, and he would then get upset when he fell behind because “No one told me about this”.

- Every time I closed with him, he’d either dick around washing a counter in the corner the whole time, or would order a bunch of food right before we closed the grills and spend a bunch of time preparing it while we closed. Then he would sulk around when people were cold to him and post passive-aggressive posts on Facebook after work about how he isn’t appreciated. Not sure what his deal was there.

- He would come in on his days off and ‘inspect’ the restaurant to make sure everything is running fine. If there was a new person, he would keep quizzing them about everything and be like “I’m checking in with the rookie to make sure they can handle it”. Like okay man, you’re not a supervisor and you’re not on the schedule, go drive your fake cop car around instead.

- We hired this cute girl for front of house, and he would always pull her aside after her shift and show her random things about how the grills worked and how to drain the fryers. I’d be like “yeah you don’t need to worry about any of this it’s not your job”, and he’d get super pissed and insistent he had to show her every goddamn mechanical system in the restaurant.

I’m actually on a roll with stories about this guy and could write more, but my phone is low battery and I have actual work to do right now other than share stories about my favorite coworker. Maybe I’ll add more later but I realize I’m straying greatly from the initial question here.

TLDR: Ignoring the giant essay about my fine former kitchen coworker, how would you react if someone you’d hate to work with and would be a poor LE told you they were trying to join the force?

I admit I watch like 10-20 minutes of DSP every few months because it’s mildly entertaining to see this middle-aged man struggle with basic problem-solving and object permanence, self-inducing a mental breakdown every stream with an unparalleled ability to blame everyone but himself.

Unlike other lol cows, I feel Phil is neurotypical enough that I don’t feel like a bad person for finding joy in his struggles. He’s just an extremely dumb and whiney man-child that provides some entertainment value, and I don’t feel like a bad person for finding joy in his struggles.

While it provides some entertainment, there’s no way in hell I’d ever donate to this clown even if I had all the money in the world to support his Uber Eats bills.

Are people donating just to further milk the lol cow, or does he have actual supporters that genuinely enjoy his streams and hanging out with their favourite wholesome internet celebrity? I don’t pay close enough attention to his chat to grasp the pulse of his ‘fanbase’.

And Phil, if you’re reading this. Never change and please continue streaming forever. The haters don’t know what they’re talking about, and you’re doing just fine in health and happiness. We’re all just jealous of your physique and wish we could make a living playing video games poorly for 12 hours a day.