From my perspective (ie, opinion), probably not.
I've been hiring engineers for a few years, and I've come to associate a CS/IT Masters + unrelated undergrad with bad candidates and generally use it to filter _out_ candidates (unless something else on the resume catches my eye). Conversely someone with a science degree and a bit of experience (or some decent personal projects for fresh career-switchers) is a much better sign.
My experience (read: anecdata, opinion, bias) is that the IT/CS masters candidates I've interviewed have switched for money and because of failure-to-thrive in their original industry, and have no care or passion for software, and have done poorly on interviews. The non-CS-undergrads-but-no-masters candidates are just the normal spectrum, with a higher variance (some with 0 skills but much hope, some with really interesting backgrounds and wide-ranging interests like how you sound).
Data disclaimer: I'm only at ~500 total lifetime interviews/10 years experience so far, I'm in Australia, I have no recorded numbers or hard data just "feelings" and "intuition".
I've been hiring engineers for a few years, and I've come to associate a CS/IT Masters + unrelated undergrad with bad candidates and generally use it to filter _out_ candidates (unless something else on the resume catches my eye). Conversely someone with a science degree and a bit of experience (or some decent personal projects for fresh career-switchers) is a much better sign.
My experience (read: anecdata, opinion, bias) is that the IT/CS masters candidates I've interviewed have switched for money and because of failure-to-thrive in their original industry, and have no care or passion for software, and have done poorly on interviews. The non-CS-undergrads-but-no-masters candidates are just the normal spectrum, with a higher variance (some with 0 skills but much hope, some with really interesting backgrounds and wide-ranging interests like how you sound).
Data disclaimer: I'm only at ~500 total lifetime interviews/10 years experience so far, I'm in Australia, I have no recorded numbers or hard data just "feelings" and "intuition".