Switching from Computer Science to Information Technology

College Majors Science Majors
1

<p>I made a post about this before, but I feel like a new post is warranted with the final decision needing to be made by next week.</p>

<p>I am currently a student at USF majoring in Computer Science. I am almost positive that I will be switching to Information Technology after this semester. This is primarily because I do not want a job in software development anymore. I still have 43 credits left to complete the CS program. I would only need to take one extra class if I switch to IT so it would not set me back.</p>

<p>I am no longer enjoying my programming courses. The IT major accepts all the courses I have taken and still has plenty of technical courses left with just a couple more programming courses (Data Structures/Operating Systems/Networks) and 3-4 business courses. My school also offers an MIS major which is a lot more business oriented. The IT program is said to bridge the gap between CS and MIS.</p>

<p>I don't want to feel like I am giving up on myself by switching to the IT major. I'm sure the CS degree is more lucrative, but I honestly don't think I can stick it out much longer. I am not enjoying the hardware courses either. I just barely passed my C++ Object Oriented course with a C-. I know they are only going to get more difficult and more involved. I also don't seem to be very good at programming. I just don't have the passion for it either like most students in my class seem to have. I also completed all the math courses required for the CS degree. I don't want employers to think I took the easy way out and couldn't hack the math courses or something.</p>

<p>What scares me is the job outlook. I would prefer to work in an IT related position for a business (not sure what position yet). I just do not want to be a programmer for a living.</p>

<p>I am terrified of making this switch because I am worried about job prospects. Can I still become successful with the Information Technology degree or am I making a huge mistake? I have been stressing over this VERY badly over the past few months. I have been absolutely miserable and unhappy with life. I feel like I want to make the switch to IT, but I am incredibly nervous.</p>

<p>What do you guys think? Sorry for the somewhat long read, but I would greatly appreciate any input. Thanks so much.</p>

2

<p>Could you be a bit more explicit about what you want to do (or think you want to do), career-wise? What is your interest in the computer/tech industry?</p>

<p>In the meantime, I’ll tell you the same thing I tell everybody else: you’re putting far too much stock in your degree. Everybody has one now; while they’re becoming an essential requirement, the most important thing your degree (plus GPA) can do for you is get you through HR screens. This’ll be tougher with an IT degree and/or a poor GPA than it would with a CS/CE degree and a high GPA, but it’s no means going to ruin your career prospects. In this industry (with the possible exception of the very biggest/best companies), a candidate with an impressive collection of professional certifications and/or significant outside experience will almost always receive stronger consideration than one who relies upon academic credentials alone.</p>

3

<p>akhbhaat,</p>

<p>First off, thank you for reading and taking the time to reply.</p>

<p>I honestly have NO idea what I want to do for a living. I have always had a fascination with computers and I know I would like to work in the IT industry. A business analyst or a systems administrator sounds interesting. I would prefer to interact with people and customers possibly. I loathe the idea of being tied to a computer all day with no other human interaction. I know I do not want to be a programmer for a living. That is about all I know. Its difficult to determine what I want to do for a living when I really have had no experience working in any field outside of retail. I have been trying to acquire some internships to gain insight into the IT world and see what its like. I recently had an internship interview and hope to hear back soon.</p>

<p>I have a pretty good GPA (3.6). I feel like this will DEFINITELY get lower if I stick with the CS route. I’m pretty sure I will be getting a C- in my Object Oriented (C++) course. The next programming course in the CS track is Data Structures which I hear is VERY difficult. It also delves more into linked lists. I was never able to grasp this data structure in my previous Program Design (C) course. I just feel that I don’t have the passion like most other students. Its hard to truly feel like I want to understand how some of these data structures/concepts work when I am simply losing interest in programming.</p>

<p>Do you really think continuing down the CS track (at the risk of a lower GPA) is worth it if I don’t have an interest in software development/programming as a career? I am still going back and forth on the matter. I have to make a final decision before summer courses because this is where the tracks branch off a bit. Everything I have taken so far for CS counts for the IT program so I am not at a total loss.</p>

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<p>Do you have a faculty advisor who you could discuss this with? How about a career center at school? I think it would be very helpful. Your heart doesn’t seem to be in computer science. I agree that an IT internship would give you the opportunity to get some job experience.</p>

<p>I don’t think it’s that unusual for a student to be unsure as to whether they want to major in computer science or information technology (or information systems). My daughter is a CS major. Next year, she will be participating in a new course at her university designed to help students decide between the two majors.</p>

<p>Good luck!</p>

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<p>No stick to computer science. You wont regret it.</p>

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<p>

No doubt, and I wouldn’t expect you to. It’s just that it’s difficult for me to tailor my advice unless you have a fairly specific goal.</p>

<p>Here’s what I can tell you: all else (experience, GPA, etc) being equal, the best jobs will always go to CS/CE graduates, even for positions in system/network administration or IT consulting. The reason is simple: those majors are (often much) harder than IT or MIS, and carry the prestige to match. The hiring managers and technical interviewers at major companies (think IBM, Apple, Microsoft, Google) were often CS majors themselves.</p>

<p>But that does assume that “all else” is equal–rarely is it that straightforward in the real world. If you think you can maintain the same GPA in CS that you would in IT, then CS is probably the better choice. But if you think (or know) you’ll do better in IT, then you should definitely switch to IT. Otherwise, you’ll just end up as a mediocre CS graduate and won’t have a shot at the top jobs anyhow.</p>

<p>I have friends who graduated with IT degrees and have decent jobs across the industry. One is actually working in software development. I also have friends with CS degrees who are un- or under-employed. As I mentioned in the earlier post, certifications and experience are the real difference between somebody who graduates with a job offer (or three) and somebody who doesn’t.</p>

<p>

Heh, well, there’s a lot more to data structures than linked lists. That’s actually just about the simplest type of data structure there is…</p>

<p>

No. See above.</p>

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<p>I had no idea there was an IT major. I am unsure of the results from switching to it. But I am curious about the IT major so I am off to look at it.</p>

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<p>Adam, I have a degree most similar to MIS - My current role is a mix between System Administrator/Help Desk/Auditor… and I also do a lot of company reporting/analysis. I can tell you at my company we always seem to have some sort of IT position open. Sometimes in development, sometimes not. I occasionally do some light java scripting at work and I design websites on the side. My group is currently in charge of a system upgrade and all the training that goes along with it. I deal a lot with ‘the business’ side of things… but also with the IT side of things. It’s a really nice mix.</p>

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<p>fendergirl, that sounds perfect. I want something that is a mix of business/IT. I don’t want to be sitting in a chair writing code all day. I would like to interact with people and assist on the business side of a technical company. Systems administration has always been interesting to me as well. What was your degree in specifically? Did you have many difficulties trying to find a job after graduation?</p>

<p>I will be starting an internship with AT&T in 2 weeks which revolves primarily around help desk. I am absolutely thrilled to have the opportunity so I can get some technical experience on my resume. The internship lasts until graduation so I am hoping for the possibility of getting hired full-time after graduation. I am not sure of the likelihood of that happening, but it sure would make the job search after graduation much easier!</p>

<p>I just wonder if I could get some business IT roles with the IT degree. I don’t want to be strictly locked into technical positions. I do take 3-4 business courses, but much less than that of the MIS major which is from the college of business. They have a business core which is about 36 credits worth of business courses.</p>

<p>I have to make my mind up by this weekend on whether I switch to IT or MIS. I am leaning towards IT, but that could change.</p>

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<p>I was a business / is end user support major with Minors in fine arts and visual communication. I had 15 business courses, probably about 10 is classes and about 10 art classes… Plus a few random other courses to fill distribution requirements. I actually didn’t work in IT right away… I worked in the business side if the company and then transferred over last year after six years. I like the way I did it because I have a full understanding of everything i’m doing and how it affects the end users. </p>

<p>Most of the people I went too school with got IT jobs right away… Some add programmers , some help desk, etc.</p>

<p>I like system admin. One thing is at times it can be a bit monotonous, but its different each day. Were also involved in all system releases because depending what’s being changed in the release we have to set the permissions for all the users… I personally think its neat to be part of that and see all that goes into something like that. </p>

<p>I feel like within a year I’ll have my feet wet enough to try posting for different positions at work. sometime this summer i’m going to be shadowing someone on another team that does some light VB scripting and learn how to do that. </p>

<p>Sent from my DROID BIONIC using CC</p>

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<p>Hey Adam, I’m currently an IT major, just have one more year left. I think it depends on what type of position you want. I also struggled a bit in programming but I’ve been in IT from the start. CS/CE majors usually do get priority and interviews over people with IT degrees. But, if you can program, you can program, it usually comes down to skill at one point. I have a friend who just recently graduated in IT, and he has went the software development route.</p>

<p>If you want to be in more of a business environment, I would go MIS. I think MIS is BA degree and not a BS, but I’m not sure. Also, have you also looked in CIS? At my school CIS is a little bit more programming heavy than IT, but from what you’ve posted, I would think you’ve already completed all of the programming courses needed for CIS. I don’t think a lot of schools offer strictly an IT degree, so CIS may be a more recognizable name and you can still have concentration in IT related things. </p>

<p>My current course path focuses a lot on databases, networking, operating systems theory, some programming - but different types, such as C, VB, Java, and Script, I’ve had courses on all of those, but doesn’t go in depth like CS or CIS. And there are a lot of IT/Server administration courses, and I only had to take one business class.</p>

<p>With IT I think it’s best to find one particular thing to concentrate on, some do programming or database administration. I have an interested class coming up, which is Linux System Administration.</p>

<p>I also think people down IT a little bit because of degree mill schools offering the degree, but if you go to a pretty decent school I think it would be a good option for you.</p>

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<p>jgshin,</p>

<p>It is absolutely great to hear from someone who is also pursuing a BS IT degree! Is yours also strictly titled “Information Technology”?</p>

<p>What made you go into Information Technology instead of Computer Science? Were you also not really interested in becoming a programmer or was it all the math that was required? I actually completed all the math for Computer Science which is a shame because IT only needs about half the math that I took.</p>

<p>What kind of job are you looking to get after graduating?</p>

<p>Where are you going to school? Yeah, I also think that is why people down IT. I always see IT on those terrible commercials for those degree mill schools. I go to USF which I like to think is a pretty reputable school.</p>

<p>My school doesn’t have CIS. It DID have IS(Information Systems) which is probably similar, but it is being phased out due to lack of enrollment. It was almost exactly like the CS major except instead of taking 8 electives you would take 4 electives and then 4 courses in business.</p>

<p>The IT major at my school has a CS core for the most part, but has much more interesting electives (to me anyways). I would take similar classes which are offered in the CS major (Data Structures, Operating Systems, Software Engineering) for IT, but I think they are less rigorous than the CS versions. The amount of programming courses in IT is about similar to that of CS. There are about 5 or 6 programming courses.</p>

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<p>Hey Adam,</p>

<p>Yes, my degree is strictly Information Technology, my school also has a couple of other concentrations with IT, such as networking, but I’m just IT.</p>

<p>I’m actually quite good at math, it’s probably my favorite subject. I’ve though about doing a Math minor, or possibly a dual major with Math. </p>

<p>As far as programming I received a C in both C++ and Java, I’m not really good at retaining the all the information needed for those programming languages. I usually have to start my projects a week ahead and work on them for the entire to week to get them working successfully. It doesn’t just “click” for me. I’ve never thought about doing Computer Science because in high school I was always interested in building PC’s, benchmarking, etc. I wanted to do strictly computer hardware engineering and not CE, but there are probably only a handful of schools in the country that offer that. On the other hand, I’m pretty decent with SQL, and there are plenty of database jobs out there.</p>

<p>You’re not too far from me, I’ve actually considered going to USF because I went to high school in Tampa for a couple of years. But I didn’t even know they had an IT program there, I definitely would’ve went there. I also considered UNF, because I’m actually from Jacksonville, but I don’t think they had IT, and FSU had IT but I think it’s a B.A. degree, it’s under there communication field or something like that. I’m currently at UWF, it’s probably one of the smaller public universities in Florida, but CS/IT dept, is really great. I currently work an OPS IT position for the school, so that looks pretty good on the resume, you should probably look into something like that with your school if you haven’t already.</p>

<p>At my school, a lot of the required classes are usually offered just once a year, so I’ve been trying to get those out of the way. This summer I’m taking two electives, and I have an elective in the fall which is a Web Server class. For the summer I’m taking a Linux Sys Admin class, which I thought was a bit rare, if your school has a class like that, I would definitely take it. I see a lot of Linux System Administrations jobs, and I would definitely not mind pursuing a career in that field because it’s actually entirely new to me and not the same ol’ stuff I’ve been doing. I think I’ve finished all of the programming heavy courses, but I do want to take a stab at an Internet Programming class we offer. I only have 2 semesters left after the summer.</p>

<p>As far as jobs are concerned, I see a ton of government jobs with titles such as “IT Specialist”…I also wouldn’t mind doing some IT security. A few health consulting firms are usually always in need of people with IT. And I know a lot of people usually don’t really think about the military when they’re trying to get a college degree, but the Navy has an “Information Operations” field which is pretty much IT, which is a field for officers. I know officers make quite a bit, and the benefits are really good. I think there are a lot of options out there.</p>

<p>USF is a really good school, and an IT program from a public university is much more of a rigorous program than from of those degree mills school. I know for a fact that employers look at what school you go to.</p>

<p>As far as employers undermining an IT degree, I just think that it’s a bit rare because a lot of schools don’t offer an IT degree. I noticed that when jobs list the degrees they’re looking for it’s usually, CS, IS, MIS, CIS…so forth. Those are just the more common degrees, so I wouldn’t be to concerned with it. Rarely do I ever see a programming job that lists “Software Engineering” as one of the degrees they’re looking for, I just think it’s because its more uncommon and not a lot of schools offer it.</p>

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<p>Thank you for that response jgshin. The USF IT program is mainly online, but you can take most of the electives on campus. I talked to an adviser and they told me that it doesn’t state anywhere on the transcripts that the courses were taken online so employers wouldn’t know anyways. I think the only way employers would know if you have a degree online is if you get it from one of those online only diploma mills like DeVry or University of Phoenix or something.</p>

<p>I think USF may offer a linux based system admin elective. I will have to check it out.</p>

<p>I also have another question about majoring in IT. Do you think this completely pigeon hole’s me into a career in IT? I am not entirely sure what I want to do for a living. I am interested in working as a System Admin or a Business Analyst if possible. Do you think the IT degree is versatile enough to obtain a job doing something other than being involved in IT? That is my only real worry about the degree. Hopefully I would be fine to pursue other ventures if I decided to do so. Not entirely sure though.</p>

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<p>Honestly most companies don’t even care what your degree is in… So of you decide not to work in IT they’ll just be happy you have a degree. </p>

<p>Sent from my DROID BIONIC using CC</p>

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<p>You will be fine with your IT degree, in the end you’re coming out with a degree and you’ve already attached a CS background to it. That’s a lot more effort than plenty of people already in the IT field. If you have enough experience to back up the position you’re striving for, you should be fine.</p>

<p>You should probably check out adding a math minor to your degree since you’ve completed a lot of math courses already. Anyway, good luck, I think you’ve already accomplished quite a bit with your college career thus far.</p>

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<p>With an IT degree and you CS background, you will be a good candidate for the types of positions you have talked about. This is just as jgshin says above. In addition, the IT/CS combo will not “pigion hole” you as fendergirl said. For many positions (such as some of the alternatives you mentioned), the key is to have a college degree. You are on a good path and should be fine.</p>

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<p>englishjw,</p>

<p>Thanks for your response. I have one quick question. How will employers even know I have the few courses in CS background? The one thing I am worried about is employers thinking I chose the IT route because I couldn’t hack it in CS. I have completed ALL the math required for the CS. It seems MOST people who switch from CS to IT is because they were not very good at math OR don’t want to be involved with software development. Unless employers look at the transcript (which I think is doubtful except for my first job), they won’t have any idea that I took all those math courses. I mainly want to switch because I just have no interest in programming. </p>

<p>You said IT/CS combo. I would only be getting the IT degree or the CS degree. Heavily leaning towards the IT degree. Did you think I was going to be getting BOTH the IT AND CS degree? I was just a little confused when you said the IT/CS combo.</p>

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<p>Employers aren’t going to know you switched majors unless you tell them. As far as then knowing you took cs courses our math courses you could bring it up in your cover letter for a position as to show why you’d be such a good fit for the job and to set yourself apart from other people. You could also tell then during your interview. </p>

<p>When I first got hired at my company they didn’t even ask my GPA yet alone for transcripts. When I interviewed for my IT position they asked my to describe my major and give an example of what kind of courses and course work we did. They didn’t ask for GPA and I didn’t provide it. I just summarized my business courses, IT courses, and my minors… And explained some of the project work I did during school.</p>

<p>Hope that helps. I really do think you’re worrying too much. Cs majors tend to do for programming jobs so chances are you wouldn’t be competing against them anyway… And like I said they more then likely won’t even care what your degree is in… Just present yourself well, get an internship or a job because what they are looking for most is experience… And you’ll be fine.</p>

<p>Sent from my DROID BIONIC using CC</p>

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<p>Thank you very much fendergirl. You are probably right. I am likely just stressing this way too much. I feel much better about this. Thank you so much for your input.</p>