when you're hiring, how important is a MS/Ph.D?
Tangurena: At our tiny branch of a division of a subsidiary of a  large fortune 500 corp, a degree is neither a hinderance nor a help for technical staff. At higher levels, management staff can't get promoted without a masters degree in a business field (usually an MBA, but I'm working on a masters in accounting as an alternative to an MBA). So this means that one needs the masters in business-ish degree by the time one is a manager with the actual worker bees being 3 levels beneath one. Years ago, when I worked at the large bankrupt car company, at the division I worked for, one needed a masters before getting promoted from first line manager (where the people that did the actual work were 1 level beneath oneself).We don't get to see resumes until after HR has screened them for buzzword compliance. Prior to the absolute hiring freeze, we didn't see too many programmers with a degree at all.