<p>I'm a prospective CS major, and I had a few questions about CS.</p>
<p>What are the typical career paths of CS majors? IT, Software engineering, web development, etc. Which ones are the most sought after by CS grads? How competitive is each field?</p>
<p>What courses should I take to prepare for the above fields? </p>
<p>What are important electives that all CS majors should take?</p>
<p>What internships should I look for? How important is it to join clubs or do open source work?</p>
<p>Any other tips/advice?</p>
<p>Thanks</p>
<p>Software development is the more common destination, though hardware development is also a target.</p>
<p>IT and web development are usually targeted by graduates in less technical majors like business-oriented MIS majors, although the quality of IT with respect to technical issues often suffers due to this. Some CS graduates handle IT on the side while working at tiny startups.</p>
<p>For industry software development jobs, the courses (beyond the introductory courses) whose concepts are frequently used are: algorithms and complexity, operating systems, networks, software engineering, databases, security, and any applicable to the specific area of software development.</p>
<p>For IT, one would focus on operating systems, networks, databases, and security; someone whose goal is IT may want to consider taking the CS versions of these courses for a stronger technical foundation, as opposed to the MIS versions found in the business school.</p>