<p>I don’t think that anyone said that they should do that. But that it is an option.</p>
<p>You don’t necessarily work at a fraction of your old salary on a transfer. And you might get some nice perks as an expat.</p>
<p>I know a guy that moved to the Phillipines to open up a scrap metal business. He employes a lot of people locally. For food and snacks, they just pick the fruit that grows on his property. He doesn’t make a lot of money in terms of dollars but he lives a rich life.</p>
<p>IBM actually has a special program for their laid off workers who can move to India and work for IBM at one-fourth their old salary. Not a joke. It’s called “Project Match”</p>
<p>IBM has been hiring quite a few engineers and scientists in MA the last few years. The son of a coworker did an internship there last year and it was a good gig. If your expenses drop and your salary drop, that may not be a bad deal. Those comparisons are made all the time.</p>
<p>I have to add in my 2 cents on the age discrimination.</p>
<p>1) there were no computer science degrees 30 years ago, meaning, there is only a rare person out there with a computer science degree who graduated that long ago. which would be why the statistics of few people working in the field with degrees more than 20 yrs old.</p>
<p>2) once you have been in the field this long, you get promoted. My husband has a degree in computer science, but is no longer a software engineer. He is an IT manager for one of the biggest software corporations out there. He gets paid more than he has before. This is sort of a natural progession in one’s career. It is not that they won’t employ him anymore, it is that he is now higher than a software engineer. He has about 15 of them below him.</p>
<p>3) historically, there were not degrees in computer science. Even when my husband went to college in 1989, U of Chicago only had a degree in math with a computer science emphasis. Now days, there are actual degrees in computer science. Back when my husband went, he actually transferred to a different university that had an actual comp sci degree so he could major in it. Now days, most schools offer actual computer science degrees. You can still get a job in that field without it, but the better companies to work for the the better jobs will say right on the requirements that you must have a degree in computer science, or electrical engineering, or whatever that job entails.</p>
<p>I want to add that computer science, computer engineering, and electrical engineering are 3 distinct degree paths. Computer science will largely deal in software, computer engineering in hardware, and electrical engineering will take you to other areas than computers. All are excellent choices though, just go with what you prefer. Computer science is offered at most colleges now, where as any engineering degree will generally require an engineering college, which many state universities and other universities have.</p>
<p>Computer science is more straightforward because all you see is code and math there. So assuming you want to do software engineering all your life, and you don;t like physical science, then computer science is the best route to software engineer.</p>
<p>You can still be a liberal art and become a software engineer, depending on how good you are (and of course, the level of software development).
Some areas require special knowledge. For example, coding NASA rocket program, you probably need to have knowledge in aerospace.</p>
<p>Not quite sure this is correct. Many of my friends and relatives majored in CS before 1980. They already had job when I started college in 1980.</p>
<p>
Most likely they lead to 2 career paths: SW engineering and hardware engineering. Most CE graduates (myself included) work in SW engineering. The hardware background in CE gives some boost in SW jobs involved with computer system design, micro-processor system design (but this does not exclude CS graduates from doing this kind of work).</p>
<p>Furthermore, SW engineering and IT are 2 different career paths although a CS graduate can become an IT engineer/manager (and lot of time better than an IT/IS graduate).</p>
<p>Yes. The computer science “core” consists of analysis of algorithms, data structures, programming languages and operating systems. Those core courses help when a developer is faced with switching from platforms because the core courses teach you how each area should “generally” work in theory.</p>
<p>I.S./I.T. degrees may give you the programming and possibly data structures but from my experience, those I.S./I.T. majors struggle when faced with why something “under the hood” between the compiler vs. operating system vs. data structure is not meshing well…something that is not obvious.</p>
<p>PS: This is not a “knock” on I.T. majors at all. It will NOT hurt your career not being able to figure out the scenario I mentioned. Even though I was a math major, I made sure to fit those CS core course in. Besides, those 4 courses I mentioned WILL BE EITHER a) required for admission b) taken as part of program or c) be part of the comprehensive exam for just about ANY MSCS program.</p>
<p>Globaltraveler is correct. I had an IS degree and was working in software engineering and picked up an MSCS and I basically learned what I was missing and what the other software engineers already knew. The CIS degree is basically a business degree with some programming and maybe some CS courses.</p>
<p>Also, after a couple years of software engineering, I want to work in management. Should I get a MBA in MIS (Management Information Systems)? Or will I end up being promoted to management regardless?</p>
<p>You know, while management seems like a logical progression of career, I chose to stay ‘technical’ during my career; 30 years at this point. I’ve always felt more mobile, able to get another job, if things got tough for whatever reason. Honestly, managers are a dime-a-dozen. You need to stay current in IT, and as a manager, that is nearly impossible. In IT, you’re always considered a cost center even though the product of your efforts is a true business advantage as well as an efficiency multiplier. Good managers see that, and let upper management know that. Poor managers, all to common, just make you churn out code quickly without devoting time to quality control. </p>
<p>Management is a reasonable goal if you’re mature enough to realize that you’re in charge of very creative people, and your job is to make sure they have what they need to do their job, while fielding upper management inquiries as to why it costs so much for them to do it.</p>
<p>But some IT programs today have elective tracks for algorithm as well (I believe data structure is part of the IT today - if I am not mistaken, object-orientated programming is what data structure is in IT curriculum).</p>
<p>But it seems like some schools offer IT program very similar to Computer Science.</p>
<p>@ Balthezar
Actually my aunt told me something interesting the other day.
She said her manager doesn’t get paid for overtime, but the non-manager employees do.
While the manager’s salary is higher, but consider the extra pay from overtime, it’s not bad at all. Moreover, you don’t get blamed or laid off for problems :]</p>
<p>At my son’s school, the prerequisites for algorithms are two semesters of discrete math, mathematical statistics, and object-oriented programming. The prereqs for OOP are data structures and C programming. I think that IT programs don’t have the heavy math requirements of CS programs so my guess is that an algorithms course in an IT program is a lot easier than it is in a CS program. BTW, OOP != Data Structures.</p>
<p>Engineers are salaried where I work so it doesn’t matter how many hours you work but we make sure that people are inclined to work a lot of hours when we interview them. Managers not only manage but they are expected to do individual contributor work too. We have fairly flat management where employees are mostly expected to manage themselves.</p>