Any hope for cs majors?

[kaymin]

Ok, so i'm a third year cs major at a pretty good cs univeristy, not ivy league but good. 3.5 gpa. I"ve been reading how all the programming jobs have been taken by foreigners. Getting kinda depressed. I've been thinking about transferring to pharmacy at another university but that'll take me another 5 years and well i don't think i have the balls to do it, i'm almost 21.

i was planning to go to grad school for cs but that seems more than pointless now.

So anyway, what jobs can i get with a cs degree if they're ALL taken like u people say? I don't have to do a programming job. I'll do anything, as long as the money is right. What's kind of salary can i expect with a cs degree? And no, i'm not that brilliant and i don't have any *special cs skills.


<---wishing he did pharm D, 3 years ago.

 

[notfred]

The economy will recover in time. relax.

 

[jaeger66]

I've been thinking about Pharmacy too. Not because I'm out of work, but because I'm sick of programming and I don't want to do it anymore. And I can't spend the next 25 years wondering if tomorrow is the day I get canned. If you can withstand the 6 years of intense overeducation to become a Pharm Doc, you'll be set for a long time. I'd hate to flush my CS degree down the drain, but it's better than hating life forever.

 

[Ameesh]

for god's sake do internships, tommorow morning go out and find one, when it comes to getting a full time job offer you'll have employers begging you to come work for them.

you can pm if you'd like to hear my experiences.

 

[Ameesh]

Originally posted by: jaeger66
I've been thinking about Pharmacy too. Not because I'm out of work, but because I'm sick of programming and I don't want to do it anymore. And I can't spend the next 25 years wondering if tomorrow is the day I get canned. If you can withstand the 6 years of intense overeducation to become a Pharm Doc, you'll be set for a long time. I'd hate to flush my CS degree down the drain, but it's better than hating life forever.

if you don't love what you are doing then you should change immediatly cause it just gets harder and harder as time goes on. and you will not succede over the people who love what they are doing.

 

[Ameesh]

And don't listen to the doomsday people on this board who will say you'll be living in a box under the freeway after you graduate. they don't know what the hell they are talking about.

 

[GiLtY]

Don't worry, if you have the skill people will hire you. You just have to prove yourself to be a worthy future employee!

And yes, find an internship so you can put it on your resume, looks good and you will learn something from the internship.

Anyways, good luck on whatever you decide

 

[Ns1]

Originally posted by: Ameesh
And don't listen to the doomsday people on this board who will say you'll be living in a box under the freeway after you graduate. they don't know what the hell they are talking about.

you won't have the luxury of the box

maybe old sunday newspapers if you're lucky

 

[jaeger66]

Originally posted by: Ameesh


if you don't love what you are doing then you should change immediatly cause it just gets harder and harder as time goes on. and you will not succede over the people who love what they are doing.

You're right. My problem is that I hate the things I'm good at, and suck at the things I enjoy. I wouldn't mind moving to systems analysis, the ability to touch all aspects of a project is very appealing. But that's not the sort of thing you just become.

 

[GiLtY]

Damn Ameesh, I'd like to talk to you ... I LOVE CS/Engineering.. I'm still waiting for my college admissions, but I really want to hear about other people's experiences

 

[Deeko]

1) We won't be in a bad job market forever
2) Many AT'ers try to make it seem like you will never get a CS job. Whatever.

 

[kaymin]

That is quite reassuring. Thanks. Maybe i worry too much because none of my cs friends are even worrying about it.

But one stupid question that i'm sure a lot of cs majors don't know the answer to. What kind of job, exactly, does a cs degree lead to? You can say programmer, but what does that mean? What do we program and do we do it all day? Most of the programs I write seem rather useless and trivial at the moment. I often joke around that i dont' know any REAL cs, i just know how to get A's in classes.

 

[Storm]

I think the only people that do have to worry are unemployed grads like myself and possibly graduates this May. Otherwise you should be fine.

Edit
I'm Comp Eng

 

[khlee]

im getting worried as well. Comp Eng major graduating in 2 years.

so many of my friends graduated and couldnt find a job.. its depressing!

 

[petejk]

There's only room for the best in this economy.

 

[gopunk]

Originally posted by: jaeger66

Originally posted by: Ameesh


if you don't love what you are doing then you should change immediatly cause it just gets harder and harder as time goes on. and you will not succede over the people who love what they are doing.

You're right. My problem is that I hate the things I'm good at, and suck at the things I enjoy. I wouldn't mind moving to systems analysis, the ability to touch all aspects of a project is very appealing. But that's not the sort of thing you just become.

i know someone like that.... it was physics for her. but she worked hard at it and now she does internships at nasa or something like that. takes more work, but at least you end up doing something you enjoy, which is most important.

and i wholeheatedly agree with ameesh. i am not concerned even though i won't be graduating for a couple years. there are people in my dept who are getting offers for when they graduate from companies like MS, ford, and google.

 

[kaymin]

haha my problem is i always want what i can't get...

if i was a pharmacy major i'd prob be wishing i was a cs or pre med major.

is that human nature or what?

 

[TerryMathews]

Originally posted by: kaymin
But one stupid question that i'm sure a lot of cs majors don't know the answer to. What kind of job, exactly, does a cs degree lead to? You can say programmer, but what does that mean? What do we program and do we do it all day? Most of the programs I write seem rather useless and trivial at the moment. I often joke around that i dont' know any REAL cs, i just know how to get A's in classes.

A CS degree leads to one of two possible careers :

A) Programming of some nature. AFAIK, most of the job opportunities right now are in web and web-related applications. You would be very wise to learn some perl, php, and SQL along with C++ and java before you start hunting for the big fishies. Sure, there's the basic programming stuff floating around, but business people still think (mistakenly IMHO) that the web is the future of computers, that all programs will eventually run on the web. Yuck.

B) Teaching CS to students at either the high school or college level. Personally, this is what I would like to do. It's the most stable of the jobs you can get with this degree, pays fairly well, and still allows you to have a modicum of influence as though you were really working in the market. That is, assuming you are a college prof. No one cares what a HS teacher thinks.

 

[vladgur]

Originally posted by: Ameesh
for god's sake do internships, tommorow morning go out and find one, when it comes to getting a full time job offer you'll have employers begging you to come work for them.

you can pm if you'd like to hear my experiences.

Rright, now that there are thousands of unemployed people with YEARS of experience and great qualifications, she will just get some entry level internship as a code monkey and then employees will start lining up for her....
Wrong century, my friend

 

[iZero]

From what I've seen, most people in the field got their jobs before the IT crash. These are typically the people who will say you're unemployed because you lack skill and they got their job solely their inherent L33Tness. The truth to the matter is anyone and their brother was hiring a few years ago. What has happened now is many people with more experience than recent graduates are unemployed and competing for low-pay entry level jobs which otherwise would be "below" them. Given the opportunity, employers will almost always pick someone who has many years of experience if they are willing to work for entry level wages.

Originally posted by: kaymin
I"ve been reading how all the programming jobs have been taken by foreigners.

Outsourcing programming overseas will be a continuing trend.

People say it's bad out there because it is bad out there.

 

[XCLAN]

And don't listen to the doomsday people on this board who will say you'll be living in a box under the freeway after you graduate. they don't know what the hell they are talking about.

yeah all the boxes are allready taken by all the other graduates

 

[kaymin]

ok ok, i'm a bs in computer science...witih 3.5 gpa who took mostly cse courses...

is it possible for me to get a masters in a whole other major to get a decent job?

 

[gopunk]

Originally posted by: TerryMathews

Originally posted by: kaymin
But one stupid question that i'm sure a lot of cs majors don't know the answer to. What kind of job, exactly, does a cs degree lead to? You can say programmer, but what does that mean? What do we program and do we do it all day? Most of the programs I write seem rather useless and trivial at the moment. I often joke around that i dont' know any REAL cs, i just know how to get A's in classes.

A CS degree leads to one of two possible careers :

A) Programming of some nature. AFAIK, most of the job opportunities right now are in web and web-related applications. You would be very wise to learn some perl, php, and SQL along with C++ and java before you start hunting for the big fishies. Sure, there's the basic programming stuff floating around, but business people still think (mistakenly IMHO) that the web is the future of computers, that all programs will eventually run on the web. Yuck.

B) Teaching CS to students at either the high school or college level. Personally, this is what I would like to do. It's the most stable of the jobs you can get with this degree, pays fairly well, and still allows you to have a modicum of influence as though you were really working in the market. That is, assuming you are a college prof. No one cares what a HS teacher thinks.

C) Research in industry or academia.

 

[bleeb]

Become a PORN STAR.

 

[psianime]

You can't really see into the future. You will just have to get your degree and find out in a few years how the job market is.

As of right now, at this point in time, the job market is not very good. The economy is in a slump so there is a higher percentage of unemployment. In general, this country has a very low unemployment reletive to other countries.

I plan to get my act together in the next few quarters and see what I really want to do. I'm a CS major myself but I want to go into grad school and do something else related to computers but not program all day.

If you analyze the current trends in the job market, there are a lot of people with a BS degree in CS that are unemployed. However, there are even less people with Masters, and far more less with Ph.D's. As you can see, you will have to move up the food chain and get a masters to be in demand in the new economy. With our current mind set, we are only stopping at our BS degree. Why stop there? We should also get a master's. Even if it's not a master's in CS we should still go beyond a BS degree.

-psianime