<p>Is anyone here an info systems major? Do you think it requires alot of knowledge about computer programming and stuff before entering the major? Or is the amount of backround knowledge required very simple?</p>
<p>Does anyone know if IS majors graduate college and get good jobs? Do they have potential to make 150,000+?</p>
<p>I believe IT consulting is pretty high in demand in general.</p>
<p>If you are the IT manager for a large corporation, you will be making ~$100,000+</p>
<p>However, one thing that I think is overlooked in the IT career field is that odd hours are required (paged/called at 5:30AM to fix/deal with a problem...paged/called at 9:30PM on Sunday, etc.) and the fact that IT managers are married (paged/called in the middle of a movie with the wife... it's an emergency with the network system...you have to go in to work...too bad) to their jobs... their job comes before anything else...even special occasion time with family or buddies.</p>
<p>From BLS:</p>
<p>"Most work at least 40 hours a week and may have to work evenings and weekends to meet deadlines or solve unexpected problems. Some computer and information systems managers may experience considerable pressure in meeting technical goals within short timeframes or tight budgets."</p>
<p><a href="http://www.bls.gov/oco/ocos258.htm#earnings%5B/url%5D">http://www.bls.gov/oco/ocos258.htm#earnings</a></p>
<p>I worked at an IT company and i know that they spent some really late nights getting proposals done and putting together bids. I am sure the CEO there and the upper level mangers all got paid over 100 K+</p>
<p>any other opinions of MIS?</p>
<p>I really dont understand why companies would prefer MIS majors instead of CS majors... whats the difference? Isnt CS the harder one? forgive me for my ignorance</p>
<p>They're related but entirely different fields. For example, physics/math and engineering are related but different. So are business and economics.</p>
<p>Comp Sci is to teach a person how to learn to write programs.</p>
<p>MIS is to teach someone how to actively use information technology as a way of providing support for a business. </p>
<p>quite a difference.</p>
<p>and CS majors have no business backround whatsoever. IS majors can work with businesses because bus. schools usually require 2 econ classes, 2 acct classes, a few mgmt classes, 1 marketing, 1 finance, etc.</p>
<p>Depending on the industry I believe you can make much more than 150K depending on how good you are, esp counting bonus.</p>
<p>If you're in certain IT divisions of major financial institution and i-banks, IT can make huge end of year bonuses, which can be equal to your salary or sometimes much higher.</p>
<p>My S combined CS with IS (same as MIS at his school) for a doubl degree (plus got masters in IS) this seems like a good way to go since you have all bases covered.. For a year he's been with a well known NYC investment bank. Banks like the IS degree because of the obvious business training within the realm of technology. If you do well the potential for $ is great.</p>
<p>He's "on call" maybe every third weekend, which involves several calls each weekend, but rarely has to go to the office. His group is involved in the technical aspects of the trades as they are going on (real time stuff that can be stressful but not boring like some backroom IT stuff can be) so there is that level of stress and the days average 10 hours, which is long but a picnic compared to i-banking (his roommate). He is just beginning second year but has described previous year end bonuses of people in his group as obscene.</p>
<p>Every person that's been featured in my school's alumni journal who was recruited from Goldman Sachs and Meryll Lynch each had double majors in MIS and Finance. Plus my school, Syracuse, has one of the top information schools/programs in the country.</p>
<p>"His group is involved in the technical aspects of the trades as they are going on (real time stuff that can be stressful but not boring like some backroom IT stuff can be) so there is that level of stress and the days average 10 hours, which is long but a picnic compared to i-banking (his roommate)."</p>
<p>Would you explain more on what he really does in his firm? Analysing IT companies and making trading decision?</p>
<p>dm--I can try to explain but IT's far removed from my field so I'm truly a lay person and I apologize for that.</p>
<p>From talking to S (he works for Goldman Sachs): for any co. even GS if you're in IT you can do lots of things, like work on the company website to improve that, work with technical aspects of employee benefits and health insurance, etc etc which would be fine but not to his liking.</p>
<p>His GS group is about 15-20 people strong, the actual trades for the company, between salesman and trader and back to the salesman go directly through his group; so his group ensures these enormous sums of money are transferred as accurately and quickly as possible; and the work includes projects (with deadlines!) geared to improve and better facitilate these transactions. Problems/misunderstandings arise that have to be fixed asap or the firm could lose lots of $$. So his work goes on "in real time" along with the trading and the adrenaline flows and he really likes that. </p>
<p>I think IS combined with Finance is great, or with math or CS. He combined with CS (CMU) and thinks that helped get this particular position but in the end it's the interview process (long over a couple days) that really gets you there. Try to get summer internship at one of these places because that's primarily where they'll hire from, at least in his case.</p>
<p>I originally posted because the OP asked about $ potential for IS grads. There are MDs who make 75,000 a year and some make 2 million. You definitely can make MUCH more than 150K in IT esp if your company is generous with bonuses.</p>