Printable View
When I grow up I think I might want to be some kind of computer techy. What are some good computer techy fields to get into? What kind of classes do they involve? How easy is it to get a job in these fields?
I would also like to be able to fall back as a High School World History teacher. What kind of classes are involved in that degree?
How much of this can be learned at a community college level and at what point would I have to go to a university?
History classes.Quote:
I would also like to be able to fall back as a High School World History teacher. What kind of classes are involved in that degree?
Networking. And you can probably get all of your certs and a bachelors in CS at the community college level.
hci is very nice. and doesn't involve sitting in front of a comp screen all day either.
software designing is good as well. i'm doing a computer science degree and after these 5 years (it's a masters) i never want to see a computer again.
you can do a software engineering degree as well which is good. doing a combined honours might be good as well.
if you want to teach you need a teaching degree.
NO, A TEACHER! WHERE HAS THAT ROCKER SPIRIT YOU HAD GONE?
Someone has to manipulate the impressionable youth.
I think that the software engeneering field is about the most versitile. Once you get started, you would be suprised how little time you actually spend in front of a monitor. (Well, its still a lot of time, but more like 60% of you work week :) )
Web design, is just a small step away from programming. Both very fun fields imo.
Bipper
IMHO, computer engineering is a great field because you can do just about anything a computer science graduate can, as well as build computer hardware, circuits, and useful embedded systems.
However, if you don't enjoy electronics and circuits themselves, stay away from the major.
Do what you enjoy. Do you enjoy coding? Then be a programmer. I'm one. It's tons of fun, but you need to have a certain kind of personality for it. It's not for everyone.
Do you like to build things? Do you like to learn how things work just to satisfy your curiosity? Do you enjoy 8-10 hours a day, every day, staring at a computer, searching thousands of lines of seeming gibberish for the single misplaced letter that's been causing your program to fail for two hours? Do you have an obsessive attention to detail, unhealthy amounts of perfectionism, and an inhumanly long attention span? Do you think that spending an hour writing a program to solve a problem you could do by hand in 10 minutes is not at all a waste of time? Do you want to invest in learning new skills and programming languages on a constant basis for the the rest of your life, just to keep up with technology? If the answer to most of those questions is "no", then don't be a programmer.
The good things about being a programmer: You will know a lot about something extremely useful. You will make lots of money (for a reasonable definition of "lots"). You will be doing something highly enjoyable (if you enjoy computers). Programmers wrote the MB on which we're posting. Programmers wrote the browser with which you're reading this text, and the internet protocols by which that information was delivered to you. Computer science is in its infancy; you can easily do something no other human being has ever done. Computers make a difference in this world like few other things can.
You will be able to read this and think it's cool:
+$++s+\\\s q\\\+++s+s$\$$\$\$$s/s\\\s.s.{q`!^\/s\.`^q\s.\. \s.s.s q\d*q\q*\*`}(*^\q`\`!-\``qes+q _es)/$_+s _$\_$_$\_$\__s+s+++s+print
How easy it is to get a job should only matter to a limited extent. If you don't enjoy your job, it doesn't matter if it pays well and is easy to get.
[qq=Samuraid]IMHO, computer engineering is a great field because you can do just about anything a computer science graduate can, as well as build computer hardware, circuits, and useful embedded systems.[/qq]
I disagree. Computer engineering and computer science are different fields. CS is not a subset of CE. They overlap on the assembler language level, if that; they're looking at it from entirely opposite directions. I was a CS major; I was roomates with a CE major. I took as many architecture classes as he took programming classes. I could as much design a CPU as he could write an XML parser. Hardware vs. software is a fundamental and important difference.
On the other hand engineers tend to make much more money.
:)Quote:
Originally Posted by Dr Unne
You described it well. I didn't mean CS was a subset, I meant that it shares a lot of material with CS (minus the really high level stuff). I have numerous friends who are studying computer science degrees (one of my roommates included) and we take many of the same courses.
I work in a purely computer science oriented job so I just get used to doing both engineering and pure science and often don't see the difference, even though there is one.
Hardware > Software :)
Both are interdependent on each other these days given the complexity to which both have grown. :)
What I meant is that I enjoy working with hardware more than software.
Ah. :) Hardware is a lot of fun.
Software > hardware
Bipper > _____
Thanks. Now I have a few ideas of some things I can do. I just need to look them up to figure out exactly what they are now :p Dr Unne did a pretty good job describing Programming though. Sadly, I'm not a perfectionist.
Software is easier that's why it's better lol.
I fancy archaeology not techy stuff though I cannot resist learning coding.