As a developer I feel my career advancement stagnating in its current trajectory.

This feels silly to ask, but is there merit to obtaining a masters degree as a software/design engineer to get to staff level one day?

My gut says experience and street cred matter way more but I'm curious what others think of the ROI.

You may have seen this but https://staffeng.com or the book of the same name worth looking atnnIn my experience (primarily recruiting at smaller startups so take with a grain of salt) the MS doesn’t add much, unless you have a specific area of research you want to study that’s applicable to the specific role you’re applying for.