Geoff said:
Master's degree? In what? Assembly language programming? What
universities confer such degrees? Putting a specialty degree
requirement into a job posting is pointless. Your project goals are
not specified so one cannot even guess what degrees might even apply.
I agree that the desirable attributes are exceptionally vague, most
well-written job descriptions say what the application is so that they
can get somebody with experience not only in coding but also in what
the
device is actually supposed to do. But very few job descriptions are
well-written!
Especially when working for an academic institution, and doubly so when
working for a state school, having the correct alphabet soup of
diplomas
becomes very important. I suspect that the subject of the Master's
degree
is somewhat unimportant (maybe it could even be in English Lit, and
yes I know some embedded programmers with the background...) compared
to its existence.
Most extreme example of this getting in way of the hiring process:
I know a very famous nuclear physicist who was offered the job of being
department head at the University of Michigan, but the offer fell apart
when during the application process it came out that he didn't have
a high school diploma, a requisite for ALL state employees.
(He'd left high school to fight in WWII and immediately after went
into college under the GI Bill eventually getting
his PhD and a string of academic jobs, actually a rather
common situation for bright kids of that era.)
Tim.