Just wondering, I don’t see myself sitting in front of a computer for the rest of my life however I do like programming, just not all day every day.
Many of the computer guys I’ve worked with spend a lot of their days climbing and wiring and hauling hardware down to some dungeon to fix it. They walk around adjusting things. They teach classes on the equipment… They set up lighting and sound for presentations. They go to meetings to find out what we need our computers to do .
Some people want to spend all day writing code, but there are plenty of other technology jobs that support all those software developers, and having a CS background is usually quite helpful (or even required). Some examples: Business Analyst, Scrum Master, Project Manager, Software Development Manager, Application/Technical Architect.
Good luck!
For most programmers, I’m going to say that out of every 8 hour day, typically 4-5 hours is spent sitting in front of a computer and programming, while the rest of the time is spent either in meetings or sitting in someone else’s cube or office and socializing.
It does get old, which is one of the reasons so many programmers leave the field before they hit age 50. Even the people in magtf1’s list spend most of their time sitting in front of a computer, although they likely won’t be doing much programming.
A large proportion of white collar workers spend a large proportion of their time at a desk in front of a computer.
In the 21st century as far as I know, like @rockets88 stated, most white collar jobs involve sitting all day on a computer. It’s pretty hard to find jobs that don’t do that. Sure there are “work at home” jobs but those generally aren’t available for new grads and pay less + less job security and isn’t looked favorably by many firms.
Don’t feel pressured to major in CS just because you “like programming”. I “like drawing art”, but I don’t pursue it. There’s nothing wrong with programming as a side hobby if you enjoy it and you don’t want to work 5~6 days a week doing a 9 to 5 job programming (though I must say, you will most likely be programming about less than half the time everyday).
If you absolutely feel the need to avoid any field with much sitting, you’ll probably have to look more into either medical fields (which generally require medical school) or blue collar jobs (e.g. technicians for those who like more in technology). There also ‘other’ options like selling products through retail services like Amazon and profiting off them but I believe overall in the 21st century, it’s quite difficult to avoid sitting in front of a computer all day (at least to some degree).
Teaching CS comes to mind.