<p>Programming is fun and challenging but it really takes a love for the subject to really get into it. I personally found that while I enjoyed programming, I didn’t enjoy it enough to make it a career. As a result, I found MIS was not for me because of the necessity to have a strong IT/CS background. </p>
<p>I would recommend taking programming courses to see how you like them. If you do like them, you might be able to get by by learning a few programming languages on your own. The stronger your IT background, the more of a chance you have of being able to get a job with a MIS degree without the need for programming.</p>
<p>The reason an IS Manager needs 5 years of experience is basically because they are the manager of all the IT/IS/CS personnel. They need to have lots of experience being a programmer or Network Admin themselves before they can manage them. If you wanted to go this route, I’d suggest you pick an IT career to focus on, get the qualifications for that career and then be in that career for a long time (at least 3 years). From there branch out to other IT careers. Once you’ve acquired enough experience doing all sorts of IT jobs, you could very well be a IS manager and you would have aquired the 5+ years experience through your other jobs.</p>
<p>Here’s the deal with System Analysts: The reason why they ask for a CS rather than any other degree is that similarly to a Business Analyst, they have to write the specs for the software or the computers or systems that a business is going to plan on having in the future. They also analyze what the benefits and costs are going to be for those systems.</p>
<p>Honestly man, my advice for going into a tech field is going into the one that most coincides with what you want to do. If you want to do Networking, try to get a Networking Degree (usually an Associates) but can land you a Junior Tech position. Likewise if you want to fix computers, try to get an Associates or Bachelors in IT or IS. </p>
<p>Like I said in some other threads, since the job of Business and System Analyst are similar, some companies have begun to combine the job into one so it makes it harder for those without the IT skills to become one.</p>
<p>It all boils down to this:</p>
<p>Science (CS or other): The science of solving problems through the use of computers.</p>
<p>Systems: (MIS, IS, AIS or other): How computers and networks help humans do their jobs</p>
<p>Technology: (IT, ITS, etc): All the different aspects of computer from hardware to software that store and transmit data.</p>