Is computer science a dead-end career?

[CChaos]

It's definitely a dead-end career. All technology is going to be gone in the next few years and we're all going to be hunter/gatherers again.

 

[T2T III]

I think it all depends on which area you plan on relocating to once you've completed your degree. If you can get a security clearance, then doing Government contract IT work might be the best way to go. Lots of good contractor companies out there: Lockheed Martin, Etc.

If you are looking to get hired by a corporation, then I don't think your chances bode well. They are usually the types to look at saving major bucks and will outsource whenever and wherever possible.

Keep in mind that there's also demand for IT people who are also business people. Knowing the business side and the IT side at the same time is not a function that can be sent to India, Brazil or wherever at the moment.

 

[SP33Demon]

Originally posted by: SagaLore

Originally posted by: clicknext
I'm also thinking about electrical engineering, particularly computer engineering; the hardware aspect. I havn't been able to get any opinions on this, so it would be great if you guys could give me any information about it such as common jobs, job availability, future possibilities.

Go for the computer engineering. Everything you hear about job layoffs and outsourcing are related to IT Support staff and Programmers. But you can't go wrong with an engineering degree - you'll be dealing at the lower level, designing the electronics. If you can't get into Intel, AMD, etc. there are other chip companies that need engineers, such as the automobile industry, embedded systems, anything that is electronic.

edit:
correction, go into "electronic engineering", not just a computer specific engineering.

Actually, from what I've seen on the market with friends who are EE's, it's harder to find a job as an EE or CPE than a CS major. And CS is not a "dead-end" career, at least not in the DoD world. For instance, our contract just finished and roughly 3 middle to senior level guys lost jobs. All found jobs easily in the next week... If you are just starting out, it may be hard to get your foot in the door, but once you get experience it is a highly lucrative field, just be sure to keep up on the technology (latest greatest like C# and .Net) that's in demand. But maybe I'm just living in the "DC Bubble" where jobs are plentiful, I'd recommend moving here if you can't find work, the CS industry is booming with all these contracting companies and open gov positions.

 

[SagaLore]

Originally posted by: SP33Demon

Originally posted by: SagaLore

Originally posted by: clicknext
I'm also thinking about electrical engineering, particularly computer engineering; the hardware aspect. I havn't been able to get any opinions on this, so it would be great if you guys could give me any information about it such as common jobs, job availability, future possibilities.

Go for the computer engineering. Everything you hear about job layoffs and outsourcing are related to IT Support staff and Programmers. But you can't go wrong with an engineering degree - you'll be dealing at the lower level, designing the electronics. If you can't get into Intel, AMD, etc. there are other chip companies that need engineers, such as the automobile industry, embedded systems, anything that is electronic.

edit:
correction, go into "electronic engineering", not just a computer specific engineering.

Actually, from what I've seen on the market with friends who are EE's, it's harder to find a job as an EE or CPE than a CS major. And CS is not a "dead-end" career, at least not in the DoD world. For instance, our contract just finished and roughly 3 middle to senior level guys lost jobs. All found jobs easily in the next week... If you are just starting out, it may be hard to get your foot in the door, but once you get experience it is a highly lucrative field, just be sure to keep up on the technology (latest greatest like C# and .Net) that's in demand. But maybe I'm just living in the "DC Bubble" where jobs are plentiful, I'd recommend moving here if you can't find work, the CS industry is booming with all these contracting companies and open gov positions.

Yes, you must be in a bubble. Now if you want to work for DoD, then you specialize your IT credentials into something in demand - for example, Security. That's where I'm heading. Or messaging systems. Or a WAN engineer. Or disaster recovery (redundant systems, failover, and business continuity). So in that respect yes go for the CS, but don't stop there, you have to work your butt off and heavily compete. The market is saturated with helpdesk techs.

 

[jai6638]

Originally posted by: Tiles2Tech


Keep in mind that there's also demand for IT people who are also business people. Knowing the business side and the IT side at the same time is not a function that can be sent to India, Brazil or wherever at the moment.

hmmm, how can they know both the business and IT side?? what degrees would they have??? for example : CE along with an MBA?? or how it would be ?? i plan to try and do something like this.


cheers

 

[gigapet]

as long as you are willing to work for the wages that they pay in india then you should always have work. Otherwise....i would look to persue some experience in management. The key will be managing offshore vs. onshore relationships to effectively complete projects.

 

[HardcoreRobot]

computer science is an academic study, not a career.
if you are good at what you do, you can find someone to pay you to do it. my experience graduating last may was CS had an easier time finding a job than EE. do you mean dead end in that the industry is going to evaporate? not a chance. maybe its bc im new to the workforce, but i havent seen any examples of outsourcing, and none of my ~15 graduating CS friends had any problems finding high paying CS jobs. maybe i would be bitter if my tech support job went overseas, but i have yet to be affected by any of that, and thats not what a CS major will be doing anyways.

id really like to know how many of the people carrying on about the terrible future of cs and the evils of outsourcing are actually CS majors. maybe i am the clueless one here...

edit - i do think EE and CE are good majors. im just saying i dont agree they are necessarily superior or better options.

 

[Mo0o]

Originally posted by: HardcoreRobot
computer science is an academic study, not a career.
if you are good at what you do, you can find someone to pay you to do it. my experience graduating last may was CS had an easier time finding a job than EE. do you mean dead end in that the industry is going to evaporate? not a chance. maybe its bc im new to the workforce, but i havent seen any examples of outsourcing, and none of my ~15 graduating CS friends had any problems finding high paying CS jobs. maybe i would be bitter if my tech support job went overseas, but i have yet to be affected by any of that, and thats not what a CS major will be doing anyways.

id really like to know how many of the people carrying on about the terrible future of cs and the evils of outsourcing are actually CS majors. maybe i am the clueless one here...

The new danger is insourcing to rural areas of the united states where standard of living is cheaper.

 

[Hammer]

yes

 

[gigapet]

Originally posted by: Mo0o

Originally posted by: HardcoreRobot
computer science is an academic study, not a career.
if you are good at what you do, you can find someone to pay you to do it. my experience graduating last may was CS had an easier time finding a job than EE. do you mean dead end in that the industry is going to evaporate? not a chance. maybe its bc im new to the workforce, but i havent seen any examples of outsourcing, and none of my ~15 graduating CS friends had any problems finding high paying CS jobs. maybe i would be bitter if my tech support job went overseas, but i have yet to be affected by any of that, and thats not what a CS major will be doing anyways.

id really like to know how many of the people carrying on about the terrible future of cs and the evils of outsourcing are actually CS majors. maybe i am the clueless one here...

The new danger is insourcing to rural areas of the united states where standard of living is cheaper.

its still outsourcing.

 

[Mo0o]

Originally posted by: gigapet

Originally posted by: Mo0o

Originally posted by: HardcoreRobot
computer science is an academic study, not a career.
if you are good at what you do, you can find someone to pay you to do it. my experience graduating last may was CS had an easier time finding a job than EE. do you mean dead end in that the industry is going to evaporate? not a chance. maybe its bc im new to the workforce, but i havent seen any examples of outsourcing, and none of my ~15 graduating CS friends had any problems finding high paying CS jobs. maybe i would be bitter if my tech support job went overseas, but i have yet to be affected by any of that, and thats not what a CS major will be doing anyways.

id really like to know how many of the people carrying on about the terrible future of cs and the evils of outsourcing are actually CS majors. maybe i am the clueless one here...

The new danger is insourcing to rural areas of the united states where standard of living is cheaper.

its still outsourcing.

Technically yes, but the catch phrase they're using is "insourcing"

 

[HardcoreRobot]

Are they hiring americans? How is it outsourcing if its american jobs?

 

[amoeba]

to OPs original question about EE and hardware design,

hardware design jobs are perhaps a bit better paying than software jobs but just as scarce.

In the future, a lot of design work will probably also go offshore.

If you are very experienced though, there are certain things that really can't be outsourced.

 

[Mik3y]

the reason why comp science is a dead end field is because the supply is way to high and the demand is too low.

 

[Descartes]

If you keep pursuing only what's "in demand" then you'll keep finding you will, at some point, be "out of demand." Why not concentrate on what you enjoy, and develop those skills? The ignorants in this thread talking about it being dead-end are either speaking from their arses, or they couldn't hack it.

If you are good at what you do, there will always be demand.

 

[gigapet]

Originally posted by: HardcoreRobot
Are they hiring americans? How is it outsourcing if its american jobs?

outsourcing just means that someone outside the business is hired for a particular activity. offshoring means giving jobs to ppl outside the borders.

 

[ArmchairAthlete]

I'm hoping that good grades/school/coop = job. If not, I'll live in my parent's basement and just not give a damn because I already busted my ass and should've got a job. Maybe I'd find one eventually.


EDIT: Also.... there are a lot of people who know *just* CS. There's big demand for people who can combine CS skills with something else (chemistry, biomedical engineering, etc).

 

[Gibson486]

As much as I want to be an Electrical Engineer, I am afraid I am not gonna land a job. As a result, I am thinking about being an actuary or doing something in th EE field that is not electronics related (I want to eventually get my PHD and do research too and teach).

 

[kalster]

I dont think its a dead end career


I did a BS in Comp Engg and MS in Comp Sci and work in the telecom industry now

lot of the outsourced programming jobs are low level implementation or support type stuff

you need to be a bit focussed, rather than looking for a generic coding job you should try and focus from an early point on what domain interests you and focus on it (do projects, take courses in iit)

there are a lot of jobs (atleast in So Cal) in the telecom sector, gaming industry, databases.

the problem is everyone knows of stories of people who got laid off who got in programmiing in the late 90's, these were people with BA's in arts, psych who learnt java/javascript and got jobs, I thik if you have a solid background in Comp Science (which is more than just coding, know algorithms, databases, computer networks), you should not have a lot of problem, and moreover, if you are really interesed in it you should do it no matter what,

 

[z0mb13]

Originally posted by: alpineranger
The vast majority of the world, including many computer science students and those that employ them, don't seem to have a very good understanding of what computer science is. Consider the famous quote often attributed to Dijstraka, which goes something like: "Computer Science is no more about computers than astronomy is about telescopes." Programming != Computer Science, and the inverse is true as well. It's incredibly hard, if not impossible to get a job doing real Computer Science without an advanced degree, but the same is true for some other fields (e.g. who would pay you to be a historian if you only have an BA in history?)

very true and well said

 

[Ameesh]

if you are good there will be a job for you. if you suck, dont bother.

 

[ajayjuneja]

I graduated from Carnegie Mellon in CS last May, started work at BeVocal, quit a few months later to start a company off my research from school. There is $$$ in CS still, you just gotta be creative, specialized, focused, and do what you love

But I agree, many of the jobs in CS are boring! The job I had at Bevocal I could have done when I was 14! I was so glad when I quit....

 

[yllus]

I suspect a majority of the people in this thread who complained about jobs going to India or whatnot was an "IT person", aka the computer industry's version of a Mr. Fixit who oughta be getting about $10/hr. What kind of guarantee of employment do you want when your company can sub in a high school student on a day's notice to do your job for you?

No, the Computer Science field is really just like any other field. If you're good at what you do, people will recognize that and offer you a fair wage. If not...you might want to skip on out of here, because the post-Y2K crap created a glut of unqualified people who flood employer inboxes with resumes, making your qualified credentials harder to locate. One trick is specialization... what in the science are you interested in? Find out what companies are in that area and make some inquiries. It's not that hard if you put yourself towards expending a little bit of effort.