So I have been stuck between a few majors which are…marketing,computer science, engineering
I have a few questions
What is goo about marketing and is it easy to find a job with a high salary?
I want to someone big someday so I thought of computer science…What tasks do computer scientists do daily?
My last question
I have wanted to be an engineer all my life,and I always loved software/electrical/aerospace but I don’t know how to decide
any tips?
In general, a CS or engineering job may involve some debates over relative merits of design solutions, but in the end, stuff actually has to work, and “real world performance” is a wonderful arbiter of those kinds of discussions.
A lot of other jobs, including many engineering management and some systems engineering positions, involve more use of personality and judgement than anything actually provable. I say that having been sometimes a systems engineer and sometimes a software engineer - and sometimes both - since the early 90’s. Before that I did some technical management (military officer in a science area), but was fortunate to get promoted out of that and into a purely technical job.
The daily tasks will vary with the company, the industry, and your experience level. In general, if you can find the heart and will to excel at an entry level position - which may be kind of dull at times - people will remember that, and you’ll find more opportunities as you go along as well as what sorts of things you do and don’t like. After some time, you may be able to find or even create the job you want. You always have to remember that each product you make or are associated with is a “grade,” and while we work for professional pride, those “grades” are quantifiable during a business downturn. If you are good to work with, and can produce more salable product of higher quality in less time than the person next to you, your chances of surviving a layoff go way up.
My job right now is as a software engineer for embedded control systems. An entry level job there is going to be “here is a change to a design. I need you to implement it in software.” As you progress, the jobs become more “this isn’t working the way I want it to” and eventually “talk to customer X, figure out what they really want and come up with a plan on how we might integrate it into our existing system, draw up the design, get it peer reviewed, implement it, and get a test plan developed and get it tested. Customer Y wants something similar, so make them both happy. You have 6 weeks.”
An earlier employer supported Indy cars (I didn’t do track support, but did once work and bill 30 hours in a 31 hour stretch). The daily tasks there were similar, but the timetable was in hours instead of weeks. The pressure was off the charts, but what a fantastic resume builder.
I didn’t pick this field because of the pay. I picked it because it seemed difficult and interesting. I would probably do it for free if I could afford to, but I take the money to remind our personnel department that they care. Mentally, I find it takes similar concentration to doing a Sudoku in my head.
I’ve no idea what a marketing person’s day is like. I know they don’t actually make product, and have heard that as a result during lean times the backbiting can get intense. Don’t know that firsthand, but have had a couple friends who transferred into a similar field. Said it was like high school that way. Maybe different places are different though.