I'm more interested why you are pursuing a Master's degree in engineering. Is engineering not your undergraduate major? Or is it a specialty field of engineering that only exists as Master's such as Fire Protection?
I went for a Master's in mechanical engineering and all it got me was a year of missed wages and a $20,000 loan for tuition. I think I even paid some of the tuition out of pocket on top of the loan! No job that I or my husband have worked in have ever given an edge during hiring or higher salaries due to having a Master's. For an MBA yes. I wish I had just quit after undergraduate but at the time it seemed like a good idea to stay for 8 months to get a Master's. In reality it wasn't.
I do have a B.S. in electrical engineering and no, the M.S. degree I'm pursuing is not for any specialty field or career track.
I moved to Minneapolis immediately after graduating with my B.S. that May and began working at a large company in what I would call a support role (to those in engineering/manufacturing, you'll know what I mean - supplier quality). At that time I only cared about getting to Minneapolis with a job in hand.
After a year or so, I realized that was not the type of engineering career track that I wanted. I applied to the graduate program for EE at the University of Minnesota, a much more prestigious school for engineering (as far as midwest, public universities go).
The idea was that by earning a M.S. from one of the better Big Ten universities, it would greatly increase my chances of being able to land the type of engineering job that I ultimately want as my career for the next 30+ years: new product designer or R&D (rather than support roles).
I was accepted and planned to quit my job, starting full time that fall, but I was talked into staying with the company for two reasons: 1) the top benefit of this company was a very generous 401k match, but the money would not become "mine" until I worked there for five years (thus I'd be throwing this away if I quit early) and 2) the company would actually pay for my master's degree while I continued to work there.
This sounded like a great plan, so I enrolled part-time at the U and continued to work full time for the company. I was only able to make it through two semesters (taking just one class in each) before I burned out. I promised myself that once I hit the five year mark with the company I would quit and finish what I had started as a full time student.
I ended up working for the company five and a half years, quitting early this year. I completed two classes in the spring semester and I believe I can complete three this fall and three more in the spring, which would complete my degree requirement.
It never really occurred to me that I could attempt to land such a design or R&D position at another company using my existing B.S. credentials.
In hindsight, I'm certain that doing so would have ultimately been a better use of my time and money back when I applied at the U. But I didn't believe in myself, or perhaps that was just an excuse to enable me to select the graduate school path. And when I recently now just quit my job, rather than trying to land such a job elsewhere I had already made up my mind to "finish what I started" rather than leave it unfinished.
So in the end, quitting the M.S. pursuit and just looking for my desired career with my existing B.S. credentials is not on the table, for me. Even if it ends up getting me a job that I could well have gotten without it, wastes a bunch of money, missed wages and experience time - I'm going to get this M.S. and then take it from there.
And besides, I'm not in it to maximize my wages. It's more important to me that I get the engineering career/position that I want (or that I think I want). I do believe getting the M.S. will give me a (slightly) better chance at obtaining it.