It's starting to look like majoring in computer science isn't the road to the promised land of money and job security after all
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You have to also be good at it.
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The world is increasingly becoming interdisciplinary. When I was young, engineering and medicine/biology were considered opposites; nowadays they are becoming complementary. And computer-science/software is an enabler; it is therefore better to be a domain specialist in some engineering/biology field with knowledge of software implementation. Unless one wants to become a "Theoretical Computer Scientist", if at all such a thing exists.
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I haven't seen the inside of an "It department" in years. Security implies "big departments". Like ... (oops).
"Before entering on an understanding, I have meditated for a long time, and have foreseen what might happen. It is not genius which reveals to me suddenly, secretly, what I have to say or to do in a circumstance unexpected by other people; it is reflection, it is meditation." - Napoleon I
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The world is increasingly becoming interdisciplinary. When I was young, engineering and medicine/biology were considered opposites; nowadays they are becoming complementary. And computer-science/software is an enabler; it is therefore better to be a domain specialist in some engineering/biology field with knowledge of software implementation. Unless one wants to become a "Theoretical Computer Scientist", if at all such a thing exists.
Quantum computing is pretty theoretical: the theory that there are problems just waitng to be computed.
"Before entering on an understanding, I have meditated for a long time, and have foreseen what might happen. It is not genius which reveals to me suddenly, secretly, what I have to say or to do in a circumstance unexpected by other people; it is reflection, it is meditation." - Napoleon I
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In my area, property brokers are making good money than computer scientists, and seriously :)
"Coming soon"
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I have a BS, MBA, PHD. Alas, I have no JOB :(
>64 Some days the dragon wins. Suck it up.
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Quote:
majoring in computer science isn't the road to the promised land of money and job security after all
Was it, ever? 'cuz you have to have the right reasons to be there. I remember during my first semester of college, there were plenty of people who told me - literally - they weren't really interested in it, but liked the prospect of a good paycheck. IOW, they were in it only for the money. I thought at the time, you don't build a career out of that. More than half of the population was gone before the second semester started. Good riddance! At the end of our 3 years, I think 8 of us graduated.
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I haven't seen the inside of an "It department" in years. Security implies "big departments". Like ... (oops).
"Before entering on an understanding, I have meditated for a long time, and have foreseen what might happen. It is not genius which reveals to me suddenly, secretly, what I have to say or to do in a circumstance unexpected by other people; it is reflection, it is meditation." - Napoleon I
Gerry Schmitz wrote:
Security implies "big departments"
Right, 'cuz you need the collective knowledge of a lot of people to really be any good at it. But reality is, security is a cost center, not something that generates revenue. So it's always underfunded and kept to a minimal size. Ummm, I'm sure I had a point...? Where was I going with that...
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Gerry Schmitz wrote:
Security implies "big departments"
Right, 'cuz you need the collective knowledge of a lot of people to really be any good at it. But reality is, security is a cost center, not something that generates revenue. So it's always underfunded and kept to a minimal size. Ummm, I'm sure I had a point...? Where was I going with that...
I meant "job security". Old boys' networks and the like.
"Before entering on an understanding, I have meditated for a long time, and have foreseen what might happen. It is not genius which reveals to me suddenly, secretly, what I have to say or to do in a circumstance unexpected by other people; it is reflection, it is meditation." - Napoleon I
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I have a BS, MBA, PHD. Alas, I have no JOB :(
>64 Some days the dragon wins. Suck it up.
You're between contracts.
"Before entering on an understanding, I have meditated for a long time, and have foreseen what might happen. It is not genius which reveals to me suddenly, secretly, what I have to say or to do in a circumstance unexpected by other people; it is reflection, it is meditation." - Napoleon I
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Quote:
majoring in computer science isn't the road to the promised land of money and job security after all
Was it, ever? 'cuz you have to have the right reasons to be there. I remember during my first semester of college, there were plenty of people who told me - literally - they weren't really interested in it, but liked the prospect of a good paycheck. IOW, they were in it only for the money. I thought at the time, you don't build a career out of that. More than half of the population was gone before the second semester started. Good riddance! At the end of our 3 years, I think 8 of us graduated.
(As a consultant) I was coaching an intern on the job: she asked if was going to be a "programmer" "all my life"? She was going to be a "manager".
"Before entering on an understanding, I have meditated for a long time, and have foreseen what might happen. It is not genius which reveals to me suddenly, secretly, what I have to say or to do in a circumstance unexpected by other people; it is reflection, it is meditation." - Napoleon I
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In my area, property brokers are making good money than computer scientists, and seriously :)
"Coming soon"
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(As a consultant) I was coaching an intern on the job: she asked if was going to be a "programmer" "all my life"? She was going to be a "manager".
"Before entering on an understanding, I have meditated for a long time, and have foreseen what might happen. It is not genius which reveals to me suddenly, secretly, what I have to say or to do in a circumstance unexpected by other people; it is reflection, it is meditation." - Napoleon I
Gerry Schmitz wrote:
She was going to be a "manager"
So? In the vast majority of companies that do tech the only real career promotion path is via management. A CTO might have started as a programmer but they were likely a manager and VP before they became a CTO. To be fair most industries are that way. I have even worked for companies that restricted the amount of income that the sales people could make to insure that they did not make more than the managers.
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Gerry Schmitz wrote:
She was going to be a "manager"
So? In the vast majority of companies that do tech the only real career promotion path is via management. A CTO might have started as a programmer but they were likely a manager and VP before they became a CTO. To be fair most industries are that way. I have even worked for companies that restricted the amount of income that the sales people could make to insure that they did not make more than the managers.
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jschell wrote:
In the vast majority of companies that do tech the only real career promotion path is via management
The day I'm forced out of a coding job and "promoted" into management is the day I retire.
Welcome to my world, I dodged management for the last 10 years of my working life, eventually got bored with dodging and retired. The only problem is I thought I loved coding but it turns out I only loved the money - I have not touched VS in a number of years.
Never underestimate the power of human stupidity - RAH I'm old. I know stuff - JSOP
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Welcome to my world, I dodged management for the last 10 years of my working life, eventually got bored with dodging and retired. The only problem is I thought I loved coding but it turns out I only loved the money - I have not touched VS in a number of years.
Never underestimate the power of human stupidity - RAH I'm old. I know stuff - JSOP
Mycroft Holmes wrote:
I have not touched VS in a number of years.
I practically burned out when I was coding day in (for work) and day out (the rest of my free time - evenings and weekends - on my personal pet projects). Nowadays it's very rare I fire up VS to work on my own pet projects - I have to have something very specific in mind to do it, and the end product has to be something relatively small in scale. I keep telling myself once I retire, I'll probably start using VS for my pet projects again - I still have the belief it would be fun; I just don't want to do it again in parallel with work - that's just too much. I honestly don't know what I'd be doing with myself if work was no longer a thing, and couldn't bring myself to code. I truly hope I won't feel the same way you do. No offense.
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Mycroft Holmes wrote:
I have not touched VS in a number of years.
I practically burned out when I was coding day in (for work) and day out (the rest of my free time - evenings and weekends - on my personal pet projects). Nowadays it's very rare I fire up VS to work on my own pet projects - I have to have something very specific in mind to do it, and the end product has to be something relatively small in scale. I keep telling myself once I retire, I'll probably start using VS for my pet projects again - I still have the belief it would be fun; I just don't want to do it again in parallel with work - that's just too much. I honestly don't know what I'd be doing with myself if work was no longer a thing, and couldn't bring myself to code. I truly hope I won't feel the same way you do. No offense.
I felt the same - a goody I can do any pet projects I want with no pressure from management or users - except there are no pet project I feel motivated to do. You will be astonished how easy it is to fill your time when it is just you and the wife/partner to satisfy.
Never underestimate the power of human stupidity - RAH I'm old. I know stuff - JSOP
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I felt the same - a goody I can do any pet projects I want with no pressure from management or users - except there are no pet project I feel motivated to do. You will be astonished how easy it is to fill your time when it is just you and the wife/partner to satisfy.
Never underestimate the power of human stupidity - RAH I'm old. I know stuff - JSOP
Mycroft Holmes wrote:
except there are no pet project I feel motivated to do
That's not a problem, I still have a ton of ideas, and feel motivated enough to do them - just not when I've already worked a full day. And I need my weekends.
Mycroft Holmes wrote:
You will be astonished how easy it is to fill your time
I keep seeing that, people retiring and now saying they're more busy than they've been in years... TBH there are times where I don't quite know what to do with myself on a Saturday or Sunday afternoon...that's when I most often feel like I could put in a few hours on a side-project, but I know I'm gonna want a bigger block of time sooner rather than later. So any project I already had underway stagnates... The only time (in the last couple of years) where I've actually invested significant chunks of time coding for my own projects is during Christmas holidays. I usually take more time off then than during the summer months, so that's primarily when I allocate big chunks of time coding.
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It's sad when parents and school counselors push kids into computer work when the kids have no interest or aptitude for it. And people shouldn't talk about salaries for non-supervisory people- hourly is what matters.