Will I have good job opportunities if I do both these things? I am really starting to get into programming and liking it a lot but I am towards the end of my undergraduate career and only have two more math classes and three more computer science classes left. Is this a good move for a programming or software engineering job?
or would a better option be going to graduate school for engineering and get my master’s degree? What I am trying to ask is, is there a good job outlook for programmers and software engineers even though I am a math major? Or would a better option be go to graduate school and get my degree in Engineering? If so, are the job outlook for those jobs better than the ones for programming?
Why don’t you go to your colleges career fair or placement office and ask.
You shouldn’t have a problem finding a job with a major in math and minor in CS. I know lots of programmers with math degrees.
No need to go to grad school.
Yeah, if anything a good mathematical understanding can be a surprising benefit in CS at higher levels - if you can code and are willing to learn, you shouldn’t have too much trouble.
My personal feeling is that a BS/BA in math with a minor in CS is a powerful long-term combination. Were you in our household, I’d recommend finishing the degree you’ve started.
I like it. Maybe even better than pure CS (did I just type that out loud?).
Frankly, as a pure CS major, I almost did type that as well. The distinguishing factor these days in CS is the difference between hackers, coders, and programmers: Hackers being your people that know every language and library by heart and hack things together that work, Coders being your code design and architecture junkies (a median between the other two), and programmers being your theory and math-based software architects. I have found myself in the middle of coder and programmer, and I really see the strength in the programmer side of having a more mathematical understanding. So long as you can pick up the CS technical stuff (learn languages / IDE’s / API’s quickly), Math certainly could be argued to be more useful.
I have a CS degree. If I could do it all over again, I’d probably go for something like Computational Math instead.
Thanks a lot for everyones feedback! I am definitely thinking of pursing the computer science minor. I feel as if that will set me up good for the future. With these credentials, could I go into software engineering? Information Security Analysts? Database Administrators? I would love to go into these type of jobs.
You have the ability for sure. Some will specifically ask for CS degree, but many will also include the line “or similar”. Some won’t require it at all. It won’t be as easy to find jobs as a pure CS, but it won’t be much harder either. Your amount of coursework and technical ability will be what matters - make sure you do more than the bare minimum for the minor if that’s your plan. Once you land a job, your math background will set you ahead of your coworkers in many ways.
My response will be biased since my undergraduate degree is in Computational Mathematics. Doing the CS minor…well, I would do a little more than a minor…allows you more flexibility is selecting CS courses.
I would suggest that your CS electives include Database Systems, Computer Networks and Operating Systems as DATA rules the job market.
If your school offers a B.A. in Math where the number of required Math courses is like two courses less…choose that to free up space for the CS courses.
With the emergence of big data, I am almost thinking that the Stats/CS combo may be better.