Should I switch majors?

[BarneyFife]

I'm nearly a junior in CS but I've been getting some bad signals about finding work. A few people I know visited a job fair at school and nobody was hiring any programmers. All they wanted were civil and mechanical (I have friends that are in those majors and they have found jobs pretty easily) From the looks of things, it doesn't look too good. I'm thinking about switching to civil engineering since I can transfer quite a few classes but will end up resulting in me graduating a year later. Is it really that bad for the CS field because I have the chance to bail out now without it being too late.

 

[jpeyton]

You're looking for work in all the wrong places.

I hear India is lovely this time of year.

 

[bleeb]

DO IT!!

 

[ryzmah]

If you think civil engineering is interesting there's a constant demand in the field - always need new bridges. I was a math major who switched to double majoring in civil - then realized no one was working on the things I wanted to do with a civ. eng degree, so I went back to pure math. Now I'm working essentially a programming job with a bunch of cs majors, and we've increased hiring. That might be a special situation though - federal government work.

 

[T2T III]

The most important thing is to do what you love. If you love doing CS work, then you'll be set for life. Don't follow a major because of the potential for work - instead, do what you love. The economy in general is a bit rough for work at the moment - and many career fields are not doing a lot of hiring. I've taken a sabbatical from I.T. work for a while. Meanwhile, I'm doing another thing in my life that I truly enjoy - and it pays nearly as well as the I.T. jobs.

 

[AreaCode707]

I'd suggest it, but I have a fairly limited knowledge of that at this point. Things have definitely slid downhill from a few years ago.

 

[BarneyFife]

Thanks for all the advice. Since I still have until early November to decide, I will talk with some people in each department at my school and proceed from there.

 

[MegaloManiaK]

Originally posted by: Tiles2Tech
The most important thing is to do what you love. If you love doing CS work, then you'll be set for life. Don't follow a major because of the potential for work - instead, do what you love. The economy in general is a bit rough for work at the moment - and many career fields are not doing a lot of hiring. I've taken a sabbatical from I.T. work for a while. Meanwhile, I'm doing another thing in my life that I truly enjoy - and it pays nearly as well as the I.T. jobs.

The job market shifts from one side to the other. I would stick with the CS and then go back and do the civil if you really need to. Basicly you have no way of knowing if you will find a cs job or not. And you have no way of knowing if you will find a civil job or not.

 

[bpctech]

i'm a junior working on my CS degree, if CS is what you want to do i'd stick with it.

I'm really not that worried about finding a job, I know the market shifts a lot and lots of people in many fields are having trouble finding work right now. My plan has always been if I can't find a half decent job out of school, I'll head back to school and begin working on an advanced degree.