<p>Will I have to worry about finding a job after college? From what I've heard, this is the case with business, nowadays, but not so much with engineering.</p>
<p>There was a boom cycle years ago for CS, but as soon as more people started getting CS degrees and jobs were cut, the field hasn’t been the same.</p>
<p>Supposedly, something like ~50-60% of CS students graduate with a job lined up. This is statistically much higher than almost any other major. Starting salaries are also relatively lucrative.</p>
<p>But there are a couple things that you need to understand. First of all, the degree itself will get you nowhere (as is the case with ANY university degree). If you stick entirely to the school curriculum, you’ll never touch any of the tools that are used in actual software development and you won’t even be a very good programmer. In short, you’ll have little to no idea for how to actually produce usable software. Most employers (especially those in the tech industry itself) are wise to this.</p>
<p>This is why a decent internship–or a willingness and ability to create demonstrable projects on your own–is crucial. That’s where you’re actually exposed to industry-standard software engineering principles and learn how to use the tools and frameworks that enable you to build real software. </p>
<p>Your GPA also matters, because the principles and concepts that you will learn and practice in some of your upper level core CS courses will be directly applicable in the professional world–a solid understanding of things like data structures, algorithms and database theory will make you a better developer.</p>
<p>So in short: if you have a 3.5 GPA and at least one good internship, you’ll almost certainly graduate with two or three $60k offers on the table, and there’s a good chance one or more of those will be from major companies who can offer relatively interesting projects and work environments. If you have a 2.8 and no experience, you’re going to struggle mightily like all the rest.</p>
<p>CS has fantastic job prospects. My department’s career fairs, at least, are full of companies desperate to hire people for internships and jobs.</p>
<p>akbhaat is right, though - internships and other practical experience (even just something like developing an iOS application on your own) are stuff you should definitely have on your resume. CS theory is important, but being able to point to large chunks of real work you have done is important, too.</p>
<p>Just anecdotally, everyone I know in my CS department has an internship lined up for this summer, and I expect that they will all have multiple job offers when they graduate.</p>
<p>CS definitely has a lot of career opportunities. Unfortunately, your future employers will prefer you to have real world experience in addition to your degree. Consider looking for an internship or getting a part time job in the field during your college career. </p>
<p>If you simply earn a CS degree and go out into the real world expecting to find a job, it will be difficult. You have to prove that you can apply the concepts you learned in school to real life situations.</p>
<p>What a CS major needs to do is keep an “ear to the streets” as far as what is “hot” in the industry. Maybe a senior CS major can take professional training in something like Linux, Oracle/SQL Server or Cloud Computing and have a leg up on the competition.</p>