<p>Hi everyone. I'm currently a computer science major and I really want to minor in either Math or Business. I asked a lot of people about this... but I was getting different answers. </p>
<p>For instance, my friend who is a fourth year recommended me to minor in mathematics since it adds lots of depth to the CS degree, which looks good when I apply for graduate school.</p>
<p>However, my cousin and my dad recommended me to minor in business because it opens a lot of doors in the future since business is a broad subject. </p>
<p>So....I was really confused about my choice..and I went to career center today and asked a career counselor about what I should minor in, and he told me that it really depends on what I want to do with my major. </p>
<p>But what if I want to go to grad school in the future for Master's Degree, then go to MBA school for management? I really want to hold a management position in the future, but I also want to be a skillful programmer.</p>
<p>So what are you guys' opinions? Should I minor in math or business? Or should I just minor in both? lol (By the way, I like both math and business)</p>
<p>Math is very synergistic with much of computer science. Having a strong math background will give you a marked advantage over other computer science graduate students – particularly if you choose a math-centric focus like A.I., vision, algorithms, or crypto.</p>
<p>I’m very skeptical about business education. Ask yourself what you wish to get out of a business education. Do you want to be a technological innovator or an entrepreneur? If so, you should keep in mind that few of our great technological innovators and entrepreneurs had business degrees. Did Steve Jobs have a business degree? Had he even taken a single “business” class? Did Mark Zuckerberg? Or perhaps you think it will teach you to be a great manager and leader. Well, I can tell you that few if any of the senior managers at my company have formal “business” educations. Most are just engineers who ended up in leadership positions because they had natural leadership qualities (and usually had very high technical abilities as well). No one will put you in a managerial or leadership position simply because you have an MBA or business degree.</p>
<p>Yeah, leadership is a “natural quality”. So if you aren’t born to it, forget business.
And naturally, other “leaders” will recognize your talent and allow you a leadership position. And all business is run in a completely rational manner which appropriately rewards everyone for their work…
Baloney!
Now let’s get real. Even if you are talented in CS, your career is most likely controlled by management types. Even if they are bad managers. (BTW Jobs was never considered a great manager.) The best thing is to give yourself the option of a management track. Yes, an MBA won’t make you a manager. But odds are NOT having an MBA or equivalent will prevent you from ever being a manager.</p>
<p>Believe it or not, mrego, that is the way things are at my company. Engineers are encouraged to get more into the business and leadership side of things once they build up seniority. Many still choose do technical work while they take on some management duties.</p>
<p>We do have some program managers who have non-technical backgrounds, but the vast majority of folks in leadership positions are engineers. The idea that a talented engineer with leadership qualities would get denied a management position because he lacked a formal business education is laughable. Our founders (Jacobs and Viterbi) as well as our current CEO are all engineers themselves, after all.</p>
<p>If you have a marketable major, such as Computer Science, your minor usually isn’t that important. Perhaps if your particular CompSci degree didn’t require as many math courses as other colleges AND you wanted to work in a math intensive area (e.g., cyber security) then a minor in Math would be worthwhile. Minors are really helpful when your major is not immediately marketable. For example, if you were to major in Economics then a minor in Comp Sci would be a really good idea. I had a roommate that did that and went on to have a sold career as a programmer.</p>
<p>As a business school professor, I think getting a minor in business is not usually useful. It simply isn’t enough to be worthwhile. You are getting a tiny slice of something that needs to hang together as a whole, and it is hard to picture how you would use a few different courses in business. </p>
<p>I’m not skeptical of business education, but then again I know what it involves. Good luck running a company without understanding operations and logistics, accounting and finance. I am however skeptical of undergraduate business education; aside from a few exceptions it doesn’t usually make a lot of sense (it’s just a nice money maker for universities)</p>
<p>Having a minor in physics or math puts your resume ahead of an otherwise identical resume but with a minor in business or psychology. That said, the thing that will REALLY make you stand out is a lot of good software projects with your name on it.</p>