<p>wis75,
“I don’t understand Miami DAP’s response. I repeat- Computer Science is NOT programming-”
We simply have different experiences. In all of my 9 jobs working for great variety of companies, industries, different computer platforms and using different technology for over 30 years, the position label did not mean much, call it whatever, it made no sense. I had to figure out what had to be done, come up with the solution that would fit all parties involved and technology at the place, create (or change ) software and implement it. I call it programming, I actually like to call myself “a stupid programmer”, you can call it any name you wish, it would not change any of what people around me and I are doing. We simply do not care what we are called. But every time I hear a “software engineer”, it makes my day, simply sooo funny for a person who has been working as an engineer, again, nobody really cares…</p>
<p>…also whatever kids do at school is sooo much easier, that mentionning it in connection to actual job positions has no meanning whatsoever. Math or not, programmer will spend much more time writing emails than writing code. The last one is the easiest part, even though it is at much higher level of difficulty than anything at school. The emails / discussions / bringing everybody together in solution, having customer involved on the other end might be the enourmous task that may last for many months (mind you, nobody works on only one project. so while you are doing research for one, you are doing coding for another and testing third and trying to estimate the time for a 4th one and yes, you are not a manager of any degree, by me, you are stlll a stupid programmer). </p>
<p>Creating entirely new projects is not the same as doing various programs for customers. Can’t find out son’s project until it becomes public some year. I don’t get how labels are chosen by different companies- a software developer is a software engineer when changing employers. Never called a programmer. Difference in level of though processing. The college majors vary with hardware and software emphasis. Reminds me also that arithmetic and mathematics are not the same.</p>
<p>Yeah, no more little creatures under bridges allowed. Nor certain kinds of fishing…</p>
<p>You need to know MiamiDAP’s perspective about CS before trying to interprete her ideas.
I rememeber she said she did not know the meaning of CS and algorithm in this thread:</p>
<p>@coolweather very enlightening. I myself am a Ph.D. EE and 20+ year professional in the computing industry. If you aren’t doing algorithms, you’re are most certainly not a computer scientist. My son is majoring in CS and his absolute first course as a major is “Algorithms and Data Structures”.</p>
<p>I am an EE (from back in the days when CS was not a major) who has spent a career in mostly VC backed companies. My first job out of school was actually writing embedded software (EEs did that in those days), but I only worked as an engineer for a few years before moving to management on the marketing side of the business. In my business marketing is where company strategy is set, and products are defined - like your DS I want to control the big picture.</p>
<p>An engineering degree is a good, respected education for the entrepreneurial world. CS is fine too, although a little more open to interpretation. CS is probably best if he is interested in tech businesses such as apps and games. However, his college major will likely proscribe his first job, but from there he can go in any sort of surprising direction. He should pick the major where he likes the courses best and focus on finding some internships in the type of industry he likes. Internships in startup firms are rarely advertised - so this takes some initiative if that is what he wants to do.</p>
<p>I have to give a plug for physics. It’s a common denominator in both of his proposed majors, has a strong foundation in math, definitely academically rigorous, and you can get just about any job with a physics degree (that doesn’t require a certification of some sort). The main difference with a physics degree, however, is that some HR folks might not understand how that will be applicable to whichever job he chooses to pursue, so it’ll be up to him to ‘translate’ it for them, if you will. Trust me, if you google ‘what can a physics major do’ it’s anything from research, teaching, tech jobs, Wall Street- you name it.</p>
<p>Further so, depending on the school, the physics curriculum should be more open for electives than CS and EE. I was able to take quite a few electives and really broadened my exposure. It’s possible to major in physics and get a math minor with only 2-3 extra classes, and if he still wanted econ exposure, he’d probably also be able to get an econ minor.</p>
<p>If I say algorithm, then people around me will look at me like “what?”
We do not call anything algorithm, not at the 9 IS/IT or whatever you can call departments that I have worked, anybody ever mentioned algorithm. We call it logic. And nobody is discussing it anyway, coding is the easiest part of the job, it is up to you to figure out, Google is a great help if it gets a bit dipper than anybody at work would know, unless you use some proprietary software for developing the code. Many people arond me like Google, lots of very useful technical information.
The discussions are about requirements, not the code. Nobody cares how you code it or whatever label you attach to this task, algorithm or whatever, it is simply up to you, the end result is what counts. Debugging and wahtever is your personal thing. Just complete within time and produce results.
Everybody does all, “Creating entirely new projects is not the same as doing various programs for customers”, nobody cares if it is the same or not, you just do it all as all others around you. I do not understand this low tech, medium tech, high tech, golden tech, silver tech or whatever gradation. It is weird.</p>
<p>“you can get just about any job with a physics degree” - That surprised me. But perhaps it is like DD’s Econ degre. Some of the doors it open are for job descriptions that require major “X, Y, Z, or other 4 year degree”. </p>
<p>IT- information technology (IS- information systems?) is an entirely different major than computer science- even through the business school instead of letters and science or whatever a U calls that.</p>