Computer Science vs. Accounting major?

College Majors Science Majors
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<p>(I apologize in advance for the long post. I'm new to this website and am not familiar with it yet.)</p>

<p>I'm a college freshman who has been generally undecided about what major to choose, as well as a career path. I am currently taking pre-requisite courses to get accepted into the engineering program at my university (Calculus I and Physics I) which I enjoy. I feel like I very much enjoy math and I enjoy working at problems until I get them right. I have been becoming more and more interested in Computer Science, but I do not have any prior experience in programming. I have a friend who is currently in an introductory programming class, I grew interested in what he was doing in his class, so I bought a book on basic Python programming. I actually really liked going through the examples and reading through it. I am thinking of declaring Computer Science as my major once I have finished all of the engineering pre-reqs (Calc I & II, Physics I & II) but I am nervous because I'm not sure how prepared I am for the programming. I believe I have a growing interest in learning it, but I think I would feel intimidated if I was surrounded by people who have had more experience than me. I'm afraid of falling behind or not catching on as quickly as my classmates. </p>

<p>But on the other hand, I keep hearing bad things about the field. Outsourcing, high unemployment rates? I'm scared that it might not be stable enough for the future as a long-term career. I've also heard that people who grow older in the industry, like 30s and 40s, sometimes get laid off to be replaced by new, fresh people. And that scares me very much. Because of this, I have been looking into other majors that have elements of math in them. I have not been generally interested in the other engineering fields, nor business and finance. </p>

<p>Because of this, I am considering Accounting as a possible major as well. I have not really been very interested in the field much, but this could be due to my ignorance and not being very familiar with it at all. I always told myself I enjoy science and math, and it feels like Accounting is more on the business side of things. But I am attracted to the stability it holds as a career choice. Handling money, working with taxes, etc. seems pretty boring to me, but I feel that the math portion of the work could hold my interest enough to graduate and find an entry-level position. After working in the field for a while, I've heard that it can get more interesting.</p>

<p>So I feel like I am stuck choosing Computer Science where I have more interest, but less job security for the future, or choosing Accounting where I could (possibly?) grow to enjoy, but I would at least be offered a higher level of security for finding a job. Even as we recover from a recession, I feel that job security is becoming more and more necessary. I think I would be willing to choose security or interest if I had to :/ What do you all think?</p>

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<p>A few brief points:</p>

<p>-The computer science major is very different from programming. You can go pretty theoretical with this major. From the looks of your long term plan, it doesn’t seem that you will be following academia. So be mindful that what you will use in the real world will be quite different from what you learn in school. </p>

<ul>
<li><p>Though outsourcing is an issue, it pertains mostly to entry level programming jobs and simple modular (commodity) programming jobs. CS is a field that will continue to pervade our daily lives, so there are plenty of jobs at home that require CS talent. </p></li>
<li><p>About job security, both are fairly stable. However, it is hard to remain a programmer throughout your entire career. New technologies, languages, and paradigms emerge and you need to keep up if you want to remain a developer/programmer. Not to say this is impossible, it will be laborious if you are in it for only the money. Therefore, most people eventually move onto project management, designing architectures, and the business side of CS. Accountant’s upward mobility is relatively straight forward (but it is only one job). While CS shadows many different jobs. </p></li>
</ul>

<p>-CS jobs (programmer, analyst, consultant, developer, engineer, etc.)
-Accounting jobs (auditors, tax professionals, financial advisor, accountant, consultant)</p>

<p>Please choose a major that you find interesting, job is only a job, but wouldn’t you want to enjoy working?</p>