I’m worried about outsourcing and being a programming code monkey all day sitting in an office.
Thoughts/comments?
<p>this is what Bill Gates has to say... <a href="http://www.newsday.com/news/local/wire/ny-bc-nj--microsoft-researc0718jul18,0,738408.story?coll=ny-health-headlines&track=mostemailedlink%5B/url%5D">http://www.newsday.com/news/local/wire/ny-bc-nj--microsoft-researc0718jul18,0,738408.story?coll=ny-health-headlines&track=mostemailedlink</a></p>
<p>Even if you don't major in computer science, chances are you're going to be sitting in an office all day at some point in your life. If you're that worried about the versatility of a CS degree, then specialize in something worthwhile like Bioinformatics, or shoot for an MBA program to go with that CS degree.</p>
<p>As a comp sci major, you may end up in business school, at an office, as a lawyer, or doing something probably not even directly related to comp sci. Major in your passion, and major in what you love. If you want a comp sci job, then you might have to make a little less than you like. Few people get their ideal salary with their ideal job.</p>
<p>Computer science is the most tedious and mundane technology major EVER</p>
<p>i dropped out of cs this year. lol. i am gonna do economics, and perhaps cs as minor.</p>
<p>There are schools where you can minor in Computer Science? Wow.
That's like minoring in Engineering, almost.</p>
<p>/CS major, Econ minor.</p>
<p>Major in in what you love. No one can tell you what the right major for you is, but yourself. If you have passion for computer science go for it. As for me, I find computer science to be relatively boring and complicated. My passion is in biology..and that is what I want to major in. I am just obsessed with biology. I am going to go on and go to med school. I have a passion in medical related things and in anatomy and physiology. I can see myself loving every minute of it..learning new things everyday..Anyways as I said major in something you have passion for.</p>
<p>Yes CS is a good major, the money flow never stops with a CS major.</p>
<p>If you like solving problems, CS is a great field. There are literally thousands of paths with a CS degree. Take hard sciences and math along with it, and you can write your ticket in defense, research, etc. You do not have to go into the mundane or into management unless you want to.</p>
<p>The economy changes over time. Currently information technology jobs are stagnant. It isn't as bad as it could be, but things were so good for so long, and now it is just like any other industry. Engineering is more fun in college than as a job. Have you thought about getting a doctorate in CS?</p>
<p>I disagree. I find the job far more interesting than school was. I'm in defense. We are far from stagnate. We have increased the workforce at our facility by 25% in the last 2 years, and that's mostly CS, Systems Engineering, and a few aero engineers. As I said, you don't have to go into the areas that are outsourcing or retrenching. There are literally thousands of variations of CS careers.</p>
<p>I think that whether college is more interesting than a job differs from person to person and job to job. My own experience is that in engineering (including computer science), you study a lot of neat topics from a wide range of stuff. The example I use is that you become an aerospace engineer because you love planes, you study planes in college, and once you get a job you spend five years designing something that has nothing to do with aerodynamics. In CS, I think you study operating systems, compilers and all kinds of neat stuff, and then you get a job programming some dumb system. This is obviously my own view, and I can see how other people would enjoy a job more since they are actually producing something useful. I would rather be a doctorate teaching computer science.</p>
<p>is cs minor a good choice? i am interested mainly in programming. do you think major/ most programming courses will be in a cs minor requirement</p>
<p>In today's economy and trends, CS is good only as a minor. Major in eng and minor in CS if you want. There are thousands of software eng in Silicon Valley who couldn't find steady work and settled on occasional temp contracts at a fraction of the salary they once made. Blame it on the tech bubble burst and offshoring of generic coding jobs, but it is the reality of today. Good luck with your choice of major.</p>
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Major in eng and minor in CS if you want. There are thousands of software eng in Silicon Valley who couldn't find steady work and settled on occasional temp contracts at a fraction of the salary they once made
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<p>Oh, I don't know about that. Check out the salaries of the grads of Berkeley. Looks like the EECS and pure CS guys are doing pretty well for themselves, compared to, say, the ME's and the ChemE's. Since this is Berkeley we're talking about, I think it's safe to say that most grads head to Silicon Valley for work.</p>
<p>Well the CS world is continually changing...You have to learn a whole language every few years (barring that some are almost identical). C++ is becoming obsolete as Java is taking it's place in today's market. I'm too lazy to bother learning a whole new language every 3 years (though this might be "fun" for some kids). </p>
<p>I kinda got discouraged when my CS teacher told me about a taxi driver that she met who used to be a COBOL programmer..</p>
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In today's economy and trends, CS is good only as a minor.
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Nobody says you have to stay in S.Cali. There are thousands of jobs all around the country. It's a very good life if you enjoy designing and problem solving.</p>
<p>That Berkeley '03 chart looked good for CS guys. There is a dichotomy here. I wonder how big the class of 03 is for the CS dept and how many double-majored (eg EE) in order to be at the work place. The other side of the coin is many experienced softw eng are still out of work, esp in the valley. I have been suspecting what's going on is something unique in that business. Companies can hire just-out-of-school grads for a lot less and mold them, and they are already schooled in the newest technologies. So in this business, experience doesn't count. It is a crazy field. Someone just out of school is more valuable. That is like saying a 10-yr experience chem E is less valuable than new grads. It is a crazy field. Sure you could be that lucky few to become proj mgr, and you are the one who does the hiring for offshores. Still doesn't make me feel secure if I choose that as my major, or my sole major.</p>
<p>Only part of the OP was about job security. The other part was about the joys of sitting in a cubicle all day.</p>