Would Computer Engineering hold me back in becoming a programmer?

[CountZero]

I want to be qualified for a wide range of computer related jobs....and Web devolpers seem to make decent money.
http://www.bls.gov/ooh/computer-and-information-technology/web-developers.htm#tab-1

You should consider if you are more interested in having a deeper hardware understanding or having a broader/deeper software understanding. When it comes to a four year degree it is a zero sum game and there are only so many classes you can take in those four years so you will definitely not cover every single computer related thing in enough depth to get a job in it.

While I don't know if CS suffers in quite the same way I can say that for EE hedging your bets to cover a broad range of items didn't seem to help. The new graduates I interviewed that had gone broad never had an intuitive understanding of the stuff we were interviewing for whereas the graduates that took every VLSI class they could had an intuition about the material.

 

[z1ggy]

All the software people in my company mainly have software engineering degrees.

People who work on one of our controllers, have EE degrees.

 

[purbeast0]

I want to be qualified for a wide range of computer related jobs....and Web devolpers seem to make decent money.
http://www.bls.gov/ooh/computer-and-information-technology/web-developers.htm#tab-1

im doing web app development right now and have a cs degree. i actually enjoy web app development more than any other type of development. i've done some game development for mobile in my spare time too which is also enjoyable.

 

[Markbnj]

I already graduated high shool,I am currently in Job Corps doing culinary arts training.

I plan on being a part time cook while Im in college.

That bodes well. Cooking is another very creative art that can be tedious and laborious in execution.

 

[Gizmo j]

reverse question.

If I major in Computer Science would I be qualified to be a Computer Engineer?

 

[Printer Bandit]

Is it possible to get a degree that explictly spells out "Software Engineering" on it?

 

[Ruptga]

reverse question.

If I major in Computer Science would I be qualified to be a Computer Engineer?

Not really. It's easier to go the other direction, or so I'm told. CE involves a lot of EE and shit that CS either never touches or just skims.

 

[CountZero]

reverse question.

If I major in Computer Science would I be qualified to be a Computer Engineer?

Maybe. Part of the problem is every school treats CE differently. For some it is CS with a few EE classes and for others it is EE with a few CS classes. Most are somewhere in between.

IME working in VLSI/chip design we had CS, CE and EE working on functional verification though predominantly CE. For actual front end design work (essentially the code that describes the chip/architecture in a higher level language) it was heavy CE with some EE and very little CS, plus nobody did this kind of work straight out of school. Maybe if we hired PhDs (we didn't) they would but otherwise no one. For physical design (the translation of high level code into an actual chip, plus the various other necessary chip parts) it was 100% EE aside from my boss who was a physics guy.

People moved from physical design into design and verification but no one moved from design and verification to physical design (unless they had already done physical design).

 

[Gizmo j]

Another question, would computer engineering qualify me for this?
http://www.bls.gov/ooh/architecture...l-and-electronics-engineering-technicians.htm

 

[Printer Bandit]

i'd pick either EE or CS.

Computer Engineer can get typecast as either IT or Code Monkey easily.

 

[videogames101]

No.

If anything, you will have a much better understanding of computing in general. Hell with CS imo.

<-- Graduating with an EE this spring, going to be working in VLSI physical design.

 

[Sukhoi]

Another question, would computer engineering qualify me for this?
http://www.bls.gov/ooh/architecture...l-and-electronics-engineering-technicians.htm

Why would you get a BS to do a job that requires an AS?

 

[CountZero]

Another question, would computer engineering qualify me for this?
http://www.bls.gov/ooh/architecture...l-and-electronics-engineering-technicians.htm

Maybe, the job only requires an associate so you might get enough EE to know the stuff. But you probably wouldn't be able to solder or do any of the required manual work. Realistically you'd probably get passed by for being overqualified.

 

[Merad]

Not really. It's easier to go the other direction, or so I'm told. CE involves a lot of EE and shit that CS either never touches or just skims.

Yep. Places that do embedded firmware type stuff almost always want CE or EE people. I was pretty interested in embedded stuff my senior year and had a decent amount of interest in it, but when I talked to many companies about it at a major job fair (2nd largest in the country for science/engineering) almost none of the companies there showed any real interest.

Ironically the only place to actually give me an interview for embedded stuff was the NSA... I turned them down though, work sounded interesting but the offer was meh.

 

[KlokWyze]

Work experience and demonstrable skill is really all that matters. School curriculums don't teach you how to do it. They teach you how they think you are supposed to do it.

If you are trying to be into computer science, engineering, etc. why wouldn't you do that stuff part time during school? Work experience and contacts will be what benefits you the most. That piece of paper is meaningless to most people. If you're good at what you do, all it is, is a check off a list of bureaucratic requirements, IF the degree is even necessary to the position to begin with.

 

[njdevilsfan87]

You should look up the difference between "Computer Science" and "Computational Science". I'm a mechanical engineer and doing the latter. It's an extension of my field that one can get into if they wish that can involve a lot of programming (if you're up for the additional work at the reward of flexibility), while the former is almost irrelevant. A few different fields of engineering have this extension.

Programming itself is just too vague a term as well. I worked as a part time web developer years ago, and while code structures are similar, the coding logic was just completely different. I also didn't particularly enjoy that as a job after a while, where it seems like my recent line of work I have some kind of passion for.

These are also skills I picked up on my own outside of school.

 

[Carson Dyle]

reverse question.

If I major in Computer Science would I be qualified to be a Computer Engineer?

Typically, no. Certainly not with an undergrad CS degree from most schools. But I'm not sure you really understand what a "computer engineer" does.

 

[Ruptga]

But I'm not sure you really understand what a "computer engineer" does.

Isn't that what Dilbert is?

 

[Gizmo j]

Another question, In which order should you learn programming languages for the absolute beginner.

I want to have a basic understanding of programming before I go to college.

I was thinking about buying this C++ book but I heard that you should learn html before c++....is this true?

http://www.amazon.com/Smarter-Way-Le...&amp;keywords=java

 

[Ruptga]

Learn whatever looks interesting, you'll still be thrown in a freshman level class (likely c++) that assumes you don't know bools from strings. Knowing particular languages isn't nearly as important as understanding how they work and being able to figure out new ones. Most all languages bear at least a passing resemblance to each other, so just pick one to get started and learn whatever else you need as you go.

Also you shouldn't need to buy anything to learn a language. There are a ton of resources out there, from things like Codecademy to colleges that have made their online materials available for free, like this one.

 

[Leros]

Not at all.

I was in an ECE program where you decide on EE or CE after the first 2 years. I ended up going the CE route, specializing in software engineering and embedded systems. I had the same basic background (data structures, algorithms, operating systems) that a CS student would get in their lower level courses. I did not get the more specialized courses (e.g. networking, graphics, artificial intelligence) that a CS student would have.

When I was in school, I had no problems getting interviews with good software companies. The big ones (Microsoft, Google, Facebook, Amazon, etc) would attend the engineering career fair. In addition, CE students could attend the computer science career fair.

After I started working, I went back to get a masters in software engineering (this was considered a subset of computer engineering at my school). While doing that, I took a few specialized CS courses. After working for 3 years, I feel like getting the basics background is more than sufficient for preparing your for industry. I'd say the latter 2 years of a CS program is probably very interesting but not applicable to 99% industry jobs.

 

[Gizmo j]

Sorry I meant to post this book in my last post

http://www.amazon.com/C-Programming-...ywords=c%2B%2B

 

[postmortemIA]

Sorry I meant to post this book in my last post

http://www.amazon.com/C-Programming-...ywords=c%2B%2B

that book is not for a beginner, it is tough read. And more of a reference.

 

[Leros]

reverse question.

If I major in Computer Science would I be qualified to be a Computer Engineer?

No.

If you major in computer engineering, you're going to get the basic fundamentals of computer science (data structures, algorithms, etc). That's enough to get you a job alongside a CS major.

If you major in computer science, you're not going to have hardly any computer engineering knowledge. You'll probably take a basic computer architecture class, but that's about it.

The main difference I see between the two fields is the amount of background required to get into "industry-applicable" information.

After taking a few low-level computer science classes (data structures and algorithms), you have enough knowledge to get most entry-level software jobs. That little bit of background gives you enough foundation so that you can look up and teach yourself whatever you need.

Computer engineering is very different. You spend your first 2-3 years of college just taking the background theory courses that you need before you can actually start taking industry-applicable courses. I felt like I was just starting to take real-world applicable classes my senior year. For example, the list of prerequisites for intro to integrated circuit design is something like the following (this would take 5-6 semesters):
- intro to electrical engineering
- intro to computer engineering
- calculus 1
- calculus 2
- linear algebra
- differential equations
- linear systems and signals
- electronic circuit fundamentals
- digital logic design
- electromagnetic physics
- electromagnetic engineering
- quantum theory in electronic materials
- solid state electronic devices

source: I double majored in CS and CE for two years, before dropping the CS program. I now have a software job.

 

[Gizmo j]

I was watching this Computer engineering introduction and I don't understand a lot of this.....does anyone have a recommendation on how I can understand what he is taking about?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3S4cNfl0YF0