Getting accepted into a top level CS program.
bdr: These departments are not interested in your coding skill. All they care about is your research ability in the area you're applying for. Software you've written or worked on might be relevant, but only if you're doing something hard and/or novel. It's easier to imagine this for some areas (graphics) than others (complexity theory). Overall, I imagine that very few programming jobs would be valuable on your application.Also, note that the top-tier programs generally don't have academic Master's programs. Stanford offers one but it's career-oriented.