I want to go into Software or programming but I am currently studying Cognitive Science at Berkeley. I am afraid that since I do not have a Computer Science degree it will be difficult for me to get those jobs. I could possibly get a minor and my major has some computer science classes and I intend to get an emphasis on Computational Modeling, but this is more for Big Data/ Data analytics. Can anyone offer some of their knowledge? Thanks
I just took a look at the program. If you stick with the computational modeling concentration, that will be enough to qualify you for a programming job.
I didn’t get the impression the computational modeling classes were geared toward Big Data.
Looks like some cognitive science majors do get software jobs:
https://career.berkeley.edu/sites/default/files/pdf/Survey/2014CogSci.pdf
However, these may include those who have double majors with computer science, or who may have taken more computer science courses than the minimum (e.g. by taking the courses listed in the computational modeling concentration). Note that the computer science courses listed in the computational modeling concentration require additional computer science prerequisites, and, due to the popularity of the computer science major, it may be difficult to get into some of them without a major in computer science.
There are some software and technology companies that strongly prefer or require that their software developers have a computer science or electrical engineering degree.
But there are many companies - and I’d say most - that don’t really care what your major is, as long as you can do the thing they want you to do and can prove that you can do it. A cognitive science major who takes a heavy CS courseload, does some CS internships, designs and programs some interesting apps or functions or whatnot and can talk about the relationship between cognitive science and computer science in a cover letter succinctly can get a job in software development. The other day I read an article about an English major who works as a software developer - she did a post-baccalaureate course in CS.
I have worked with people doing software who have unrelated bachelor’s degrees (including H/SS), or no bachelor’s degree at all, but have self-educated the needed CS knowledge. Of course, this requires a high level of self-motivation in the area, so a typical college student who wants to learn CS should take advantage of the CS offerings at the college while s/he is there (even if s/he does not major in CS).