So I have been researching into an Information Systems degree, and I have gotten a lot of mixed reviews. I have seen that a lot of schools graduate their students with jobs paying 55k and almost all of them are employed. On the other hand, I am hearing I will be stuck as a tech support, even if I can find a job since the unemployment rate for such major is near 14% or something. I am just trying to figure out is it worth it, and what are the chances of making 80k+ a year eventually?
I am a smart and hard-working student. I will be in honors and already know a lot of knowledge on computers. Not trying to be cocky or anything, but I believe I would be up there as one of those hard-working and successful students. Had near a 4.0 GPA in high school and have been told I am very hard working and that I am likable. I am not just going into the field to hope for an easy course load and hope to come out with a solid job with little effort. With this, what are the chances of landing a solid job out of college, and eventually work my way up to making a decent amount of money?
Info Systems is a pretty big field and tech support is just one option. You could get into programming, databases, info security, data warehousing, among other things. There is competition from computer science majors for these areas too, but a good student with good school experience, internships, and the right attitude will get hired.
I followed a similar path although in my case I was getting an MBA (from a non-technical bachelor) and focused my electives on technical IS classes. Then got hired into a programmer position. I didn’t make $55k, but this was also many years ago.
I worked for a local consulting company a few years ago that was hiring IS and CS grads out of college. I was project manager and from cost info I saw I think they were probably making more like $40k +/-, but dollars went up fairly quickly as they gained experience.
My other suggestion is that if you have the math skills, go the CS route. Tougher degree but will have lots of options and good pay. But if your goal is to get into management or business analyst positions the IS degree is good because you get more of the different business classes that are helpful for those roles.
I am currently a jr (basically a sr here in a cpuple of weeks) in CIT (computer information technology) which is basically information systems. I am minoring in computer science to go with it. I have a paid internship this summer making $17/hour which is pretty good for an intern, but my internship focuses more on CS stuff than IT stuff.
IT is super broad and some people do end up doing tech help, some end up making decent money. It all depends. My advice to you woud to be take classes seriously. Especially networking classes as they can be challenging, but also the basis for a lot of IT jobs that are not tech desk. Try to get a certification when you have a summer off. And defently work any IT jobs you can while in school. Companies love to see that you have some form of real world IT experience when you apply. Also apply for tons of co-ops and internships every year. Ive probably applied to 40+ over the past couple of years and a lot of places never contact you back even after you follow up. Lastly, network with people. I got my internship this summer thanks to a friend in my class who told me he turned down his interview with them bc he got another offer.
Overall there will always be a demand for tech degrees as we are a society that uses technology constantly, but you have to work for it if you want to earn some $$.
Information system can be housed in a business school (it is often call management information system) or an engineering school. It is probably not a good idea doing an information system degree in a business school. Many such programs have been terminated in the past 15 years due to poor placement. In contrast, I know very little about the information system in an engineering school. But I will not recommend my own son to major in it either. I still remember the tech market crashes in late 80’s and early 2000. Also year after year, many relatively more expensive tech engineers in their 30s and 40s are replaced by inexpensive fresh college graduates in their 20s. Age discrimination. How unkind!