<p>Bonus Question: Is a Bachelor Science in Computer Science (Bsc) the same as Bachelor Computer Science (BCS)? If not what's the difference.</p>
<p>What makes you think CS graduates get paid more? What is their pay? How does this compare to the pay of various kinds of engineering graduates? What is your source?</p>
<p>What makes you think CS graduates have high unemployment? What is their unemployment? How does this compare to unemployment of various kinds of engineering graduates? What is your source?</p>
<p>The BSCS vs BACS vs BCS thing is hard to say unless you name the school(s) and program(s) you’re talking about. It could merely be an artifact of the way the university administration is structured, or it could be a deeply significant indication of the thrust or rigor of the program.</p>
<p>What makes you think CS graduates get paid more? What is their pay? How does this compare to the pay of various kinds of engineering graduates? What is your source?</p>
<p>What makes you think CS graduates have high unemployment? What is their unemployment? How does this compare to unemployment of various kinds of engineering graduates? What is your source?</p>
<p>Unemployment –> [BBC</a> News - ‘One in 10’ UK graduates unemployed](<a href=“http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/10477551]BBC”>'One in 10' UK graduates unemployed - BBC News) </p>
<p>High Pay –> [News</a> Headlines](<a href=“http://www.cnbc.com/id/44008484/Highest_Paid_Bachelor_Degrees_of_2011?slide=7]News”>http://www.cnbc.com/id/44008484/Highest_Paid_Bachelor_Degrees_of_2011?slide=7)</p>
<p>Of course there are more sources</p>
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<p>It is much higher, especially at the right tail. I don’t know of any engineering firms that start their employees out at >100k per year, yet there are several software firms that do this. </p>
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<p>I would be really surprised if this were the case. If you can’t get a real CS job after graduating, you can always fall back on a lower level software engineering or IT job.</p>
<p>Labor market conditions, as well as possibly the definition of job titles, differ in different countries (you listed one UK source and one US source).</p>
<p>Well according to headlines, Comp Sci grads have one of the highest starting salaries and are in demand, however they are one of the highest unemployed bunch, which of course sounds contradictory with the supply and demand law. Maybe this just applies for some parts of the world.</p>
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<p>Curious as to which ones?
Also, is this for undergrads or people with masters?
Seems unlikely that there are that many software firms that pay that much more than the googles and microsofts of the world but I guess it’s possible.</p>
<p>Computer science is an extremely wide field. Let’s say you were looking at writing scripts for a website. This website <em>probably</em> doesn’t want a COBOL, C engi, MATLAB, or BASIC programmer; they likely want someone with PHP/html expertise, and maybe java/flash/xml depending on what part of the site they are designing/operating. I would see which languages are in demand and make sure that you learn a languages that will continue to be useful.
The sort of company you want to work for will have preferences on languages for the sorts of jobs they want done.</p>
<p>@Hence9:
If those sources are both for the UK, then that is strange. If not, it isn’t strange, and it probably means unemployment for CS grads is lower in America and pay is lower in the UK. I find it unlikely that unemployment is high for US CS grads, since there are more jobs in software engineering, programming, databases and networks than in all kinds of engineering, combined (and I assume there isn’t one CS-related graduate for every engineering graduate… if I recall, that has always been abundantly true every time I’ve checked a school’s enrollment statistics).</p>
<p>For example, a WSJ blog ([College</a> Majors and Unemployment Rates - Real Time Economics - WSJ](<a href=“College Majors and Unemployment Rates - WSJ”>College Majors and Unemployment Rates - WSJ)) suggests unemployment for CS grads is 5.6%, which isn’t so bad compared to engineering majors. </p>
<p>CNN Money puts CS at 5th place in terms of starting salary ([Most</a> lucrative college majors - highest starting salaries - Jul. 24, 2009](<a href=“http://money.cnn.com/2009/07/24/news/economy/highest_starting_salaries/index.htm]Most”>http://money.cnn.com/2009/07/24/news/economy/highest_starting_salaries/index.htm)). This number could be a little high since top CS grads who get recruited by companies like MS, Google, Facebook and Amazon can make a bundle. It’s also possible that more CS jobs are located in metropolitan areas, where salaries are simply higher for everybody.</p>
<p>I guess what I’m trying to say is that CS grads aren’t extreme outliers, which is the impression I was getting of your opinion.</p>
<p>This could be very easily explained by gpa (if it is true and it looks like it is not) But 3.8-4.0 grads rake in bundles of money. 2.0-2.9 grads can’t find jobs. Now would you like to compare Cal Tech to DeVry? All those lovely high salaries are pulling in too many students who should have studied something else. Kinda like the Biology majors who get into medical school make a bundle and the ones who don’t get to clean the cages of the mice in the testing lab. Universities have big dreams to sell. But my bet would be that aegrisomnia nailed it.</p>
<p>At Texas A&M, computer science isn’t one of the highest paid in terms of engineering at least. It’s right in the middle about, definitely not towards the bottom though. Chemical and Petroleum are the highest for sure. As for salary and unemployment, the pay is only average about the people who have jobs. They don’t take people who are jobless as zero salary.</p>
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<p>The high unemployment one is from the UK.</p>
<p>The high pay one is from the US.</p>
<p>They are different labor markets.</p>
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<p>Just be aware that it is the “lower level” jobs that tend to be outsourced, offshored, and/or automated.</p>
<p>Recent computer science grads tend to fall into two camps: either really good with previous work experience or not-so-good with limited experience. The first category can be 5-10x more productive than the latter on Day 1 of a job, so they are always in demand and command high starting salaries. The latter group is, from a business’ point of a view, a liability. They will require training and do more harm than good. It’s this latter group that talks about how bad the job market is. </p>
<p>The outsourcing thing is largely a myth. Any work that can be outsourced has been for the most part. Other non-technical industries should worry about this more than programmers.</p>
<p>^ What Duecey said. Bravo!</p>
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<p>Any technology, when it matures, is subject to cost reduction, whether it be by automation, offshoring, outsourcing, migration to lower-cost locations, etc.</p>
<p>I’m not surprised at all. As others have mentioned, those at the top of their class are often in very high demand and can basically name their price. That’s why you see the high average starting salary. BTW, the median salary is often less sensitive to multimodal distributions as is the case here.</p>
<p>The high unemployment does not surprise me, because computer science is a very dynamic field. Computer scientists who do not stay on top of the advances being made in their fields often find that if they need to leave a job that there are few prospects elsewhere. You have to keep learning new programming languages, new techniques and keep networking. Computer science is a very cutthroat field. If you don’t stay current you will be left behind. </p>
<p>Lastly, there are a lot of computer scientists who rushed into “hot” fields during the bubble days like web development, which have low barriers to entry. </p>
<p>The best way to set yourself up for a lasting career is to pick a field, specialize in a specific niche, network, and stay on top of your game. If you do that, you’ll never have a hard time finding a job.</p>
<p>First of all, outsourcing is no myth.</p>
<p>Secondly, why does CS have the highest pay? Because CS majors tend to be overwhelmingly concentrated in the big, expensive cities, rather than more evenly spread out. </p>
<p>Concentrating CS majors’ job opportunities in the major, high-cost cities (SF/SJ/SV, LA, SD, Seattle, Chicago, NYC, Washington) produces a skew in salary relative to other occupations. </p>
<p>Another factor to consider is that CS salaries don’t tend to have a huge amount of escalation over time. A law grad, for example, can expect to start their career at $60k, and end it probably at $200k/year. A CS grad might start at $70k, but end at $140k (all inflation-adjusted, of course). Since generally only the starting salaries are quoted, it might seem that the CS grad is doing very well compared to the lawyer, but finishing off one’s career at $140k/year and being permanently laid off when one is 45 – certainly has far less value than being a lawyer and working a full 30-40 years at rates that are often dramatically greater.</p>
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<p>Guys who are at the top of their classes often can send out hundreds, sometimes thousands of resumes and not have anyone actually recognize their talent, or look at their resumes. Google receives over 1000 resumes per position they actually hire for. Do you honestly believe Google has any way of really sifting out the good from the bad with that many resume submissions?</p>
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<p>That is the “grass is greener” view. The comparison is incorrect because a law degree requires going to (expensive) law school beyond undergraduate, while a CS degree can be completed at the bachelor’s level. Also, only the very top law schools’ graduates have good pay prospects ahead; graduates from lower ranked law schools have much worse prospects (law is a very school prestige conscious field).</p>
<p>Of course, if you really think law is the ticket to economic prosperity, nothing is stopping you from taking the LSAT and applying to top law schools to see if you can join the lawyers in the green grass after completing law school and passing the bar exam.</p>