CS decline?

College Majors Math/Computer Science Majors
1

<p>I have heard that toooo many students are starting to major in CS and so the jobs are being filled up. Will the jobs be like low salary, generic jobs in the future? Or will CS continue to expand?</p>

2

<p>Enrollment in Computer Science is, like many professionally oriented majors, cyclical. This is due to the cyclical nature of the software industry. Yes, it will decline and then it will rise again. Where it will be when YOU graduate is a matter of speculation. Right now the job market is good.</p>

3

<p>@xraymancs‌ i just don’t want the field to be over flooded with graduates, btw I’m a senior in HS</p>

4

<p>I haven’t heard that. Can you post a link if you have one.</p>

<p>Jobs that CS majors are qualified for always show up on the lists of best jobs for the future. I think the people who create those lists tend to look only at the number of jobs there will be in the economy. I don’t think they factor in how many kids are currently enrolling.</p>

<p>Still, I would be very surprised if there are enough kids majoring in CS to flood the market. The skills needed to be successful in CS are very specific, and many kids just don’t have them. Also, having the skills isn’t enough. You have to actually want to do the type of work that CS majors do when they get out of school. </p>

<p>I’m not saying that it’s impossible for the market to ever get flooded, but I think that people with the type of mind you need to be successful in CS, and to enjoy it, are a minority, at least in this country. </p>

5

<p>I don’t have a full source for this, but this will give you an idea of how hard it would be to flood the market:</p>

<p>

<a href=“http://www.famigo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/Available-Computer-Science-Jobs-300x215.png[/img]”>Sign In - Make More Doing What You Love! - FAMIGO

</a></p>

6

<p>Here’s another:</p>

<p>

<a href=“http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-smFIb1FAxcQ/UVCJIrSci9I/AAAAAAAADJY/RNQl5XB7ZKY/s1600/lazowska.png[/img]”>http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-smFIb1FAxcQ/UVCJIrSci9I/AAAAAAAADJY/RNQl5XB7ZKY/s1600/lazowska.png

</a></p>

7

<p>From the above statistics, it does not seem that there will be a bust any time in the near future.</p>

8

<p>I’d probably be more worried about companies preferring younger software engineers over older folks. Does anyone have insight into this?</p>

9

<p>^ That I have heard of. I think the way to avoid that is to learn practices and designs, not languages. I think many CS students make the mistake of learning the language rather than the programming ideas behind it. Ideas like algorithms, data types (trees, graphs, arrays, etc) and other topics like recursion are timeless and will make older programmers valuable with their experience in these areas. If you just learn how to make something function but write bad code / only can use a few languages then yes, you have that risk as you age.</p>

10

<p>Be careful in that “computer jobs” may include IT, help desk, etc., which may not be your goal. </p>

<p>Also, there was a down cycle in 2000 to 2003 or so in CS.</p>

11

<p>Very interesting… nice pic @PengsPhils‌ </p>

12

<p>It’s a boom/bust industry. However, I wouldn’t be too worried about a lack of jobs. Unlike factory work, coders can create their own jobs.</p>

<p>Also, IMO, the way to stay ahead of the curve is to, after you have picked up the technical skill, also pick up business or area-specific knowledge.</p>

13

<p>My sister has been in that field and is older and has moved from programming to project management early along the way. Maybe proj mgmt respects experience, I dunno. She had seen many a boom and bust. I suppose you are too young to remember the first dot com bubble. I remember her surviving layoffs and mergers and having engineer friends fighting for jobs at home depo. She has never been laid off, however she did once start training in a new field, but she just ended up working for a tech company in that domain doing what she always did but just having more product knowledge. I know software engineers who worked at the same company for 25 yrs and couldn’t find another job after layoff. I guess you always have to be networking (really in any career it is a good idea) and maybe moving around doesn’t hurt. Also I know someone who got into animation and programming after getting some retraining after an industrial accident forced a job change later in life. This person is due to retire after 20 plus stable years in tech, but was asked to learn about 6 new languages last year and wasn’t up for the challenge–didn’t see the point so near retirement so proposed an alternate outgoing path. So you can expect that you need to know fundamentals and there will always be new languages and technologies coming along. It does get harder for many people as they get older but not everyone. Many companies will pay for you to take classes and boot camps in those for your job, though. All companies are ageist pretty much, our American society is too. Unlike your grandparents, you will always have to be ready to change jobs whatever you do.</p>

<p>It is true people are into CS now and I know what you mean about wondering where it will end, I see CS majors quadrupling since my own kid graduated. She even graduated into a tough year 2009 when many who expected to go to Wall St couldn’t get jobs. She could have if she wanted though. She went to grad school, but now is working and she gets a job offers very easily. There is no shortage of jobs at least in that specialty she is in right now. However not everyone is going to make it. The reality of the classes is different than a lot of people think, some won’t like it, but some won’t be able to make it. But even business people need to use computers and business analytics is really in a growth period too. CS people can be well qualified for business jobs too.</p>