<p>Which one is more prone to ageism, and by how much?</p>
<p>Here's my take on it (as a high school senior making decisions about college):</p>
<p>It seems that CE is something that requires a certain degree of specialization, and thus it may justify the higher salaries of most who have been in that particular industry for a while compared to fresh grads.</p>
<p>However, it seems that CS (as opposed to Software Engineering) teaches you a lot of theory that won't be used at a job working at, for instance, Microsoft or Google. Applications programming done at these corporations seems like it doesn't require much "knowledge accumulation" over the years... probably even a middle school grad could do it if someone gave him the chance. Working on Facebook or Google apps doesn't seem like a "lifelong" career if you know what I mean. I think in this sense, it may be justified for younger grads to take over the jobs of the older ones, since there is not much value added when you've been writing spontaneous software as a career.</p>
<p>I just wanted to know which one, CS or CE, would be considered better as in terms of specializaton and lifelong learning. Which one is better for gathering more knowledge over the years for a specialization that young grads most likely won't be exposed to in college? The three industries I'm looking at are robotics, artificial intelligence, and possibly energy. What do you guys think will bring in the bigger demand in the future, CS or CE?</p>
<p>First of all, any science or technology degree will require lifelong learning. If anyone doesn’t feel its fair that they have to continuously update their skills or knowledge they shouldn’t major in science or tech. Most of the complaining you hear about ageism is from people who refuse or unable to pick up new skills, demand higher salaries, and have jobs that do not require much experience.</p>
<p>You are correct that CS teaches lots of theory, but you’re completely wrong about it not being used. First of all, computer SCIENCE is a scientific degree, not an engineering or vocational one. An undergraduate degree in CS prepares students for graduate school; conducting research and possessing a deep understanding of algorithms is what makes you a computer scientist, not being able to write simple programs. Programming is a tool that is picked up along the way, but it is wrong to believe CS is a field concerned with producing programmers. That said, it is a popular field for those who wish to be invaluable programmers (not replaced by ageism) precisely because of the theoretical foundations.</p>
<p>Both CS and CE require lifelong learning, there’s no question about it. You shouldn’t be deciding between the fields based on that. For robotics you will want to pursue either EE or CE if you intend to work with the hardware; CS is what you want if you’re interested in working on the “brain” of the robot. For cutting-edge AI you will need a graduate degree in computer science. Energy… that’s more physics, geology, or petroleum/chemical engineering I believe.</p>
<p>Excellent post. I agree with everything said above.</p>
<p>Well, I would point out that science degrees don’t necessitate graduate school, although that is what the education is geared towards… especially true of CS compared to, say, Physics or Math.</p>
<p>So, what kinds of things can CS grads specialize in when they get out into the workforce? It doesn’t seem as “knowledge-based” as engineering, rather, CS seems more like an unstable “gig” job.</p>
<p>Employers don’t discriminate based on age unless age happens to correlate directly with productivity for a given occupation (for example, you wouldn’t hire 80-year-old women to be booth babes). It’s my belief as an econ nerd that engineers who cry “ageism” were either asking for too much money at every job, didn’t bother to stay up-to-date on their skills or industry practices (for example, a computer programmer who loves C/C++ and refuses to learn Java), or simply were among the less-talented engineers and were never destined to move up the career ladder.</p>
<p>Statistics show that salaries for engineering grads go up with age, not down (which is what you would expect if ageism were as rampant as they say).</p>
<p>"So, what kinds of things can CS grads specialize in when they get out into the workforce? It doesn’t seem as “knowledge-based” as engineering, rather, CS seems more like an unstable “gig” job. "
It seems like you know as much about CS as you do about accounting… and most likely any given major, for that matter.</p>
<p>CS grads can specialize in web, database, embedded, applications, systems, etc. Not to mention the variety of fields to get into… defense, R&D, the list goes on.</p>
<p>As long as your CS degree is a real CS degree from an accredited university, and not some CS-lite or IT degree masquerading as a CS degree, you should be fine job-wise. I can’t guarantee that particular types of jobs will always be available, or that you won’t have to move to another state, or that you won’t have to stay updated on technology and yes, even theory, but you should be fine.</p>