Word of caution for aspiring CS majors

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Just returned from a college reunion, and my friends' kids who majored in CS and graduated last year and this year are all un- or under-employed. It seems pretty obvious to me that low-level CS jobs are the first to be gobbled up by AI. If you go to a top school, it truly does not matter what you major in. Most of those kids who want top jobs in tech, finance, consulting will get them. Majoring in something skill-based is more important if you attend even a slightly lower-ranked school. This is why people work so hard to secure spots in the Ivy-plus schools.

Most low level IT jobs have been offshored for a while. But, yea, most grads from T20 CS schools will be ok. Maybe not the $150K starting salary with $80K bonus, ok, but they will get something decent that pays more than most humanities majors.

CS majors are not applying for low level IT jobs. CS is not IT.

So, what are CS majors doing? What kind of jobs are CS majors getting?

I’d love to know.

My CS major is doing Cybersecurity for Lockheed Martin.

[Anonymous]

You don’t need a CS degree to do cybersecurity, cloud or most of that stuff.

My degree is in theater and I am the program manager of a huge IT project on a government project. I started at one of those computer training places I’ve hired many who do not have a CS degree. They are not all technical positions.

My just hired a project manager and they have a degree in psychology and minor in English.

I also have another project manager who does IT training and has a degree in European History and German.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You don’t need a CS degree to do cybersecurity, cloud or most of that stuff.

My degree is in theater and I am the program manager of a huge IT project on a government project. I started at one of those computer training places I’ve hired many who do not have a CS degree. They are not all technical positions.

My just hired a project manager and they have a degree in psychology and minor in English.

I also have another project manager who does IT training and has a degree in European History and German.

Whatever happened to the Computer Learning Center?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You do not need a degree in CS to work in IT.

That’s why the market is saturated. Get a degree in finance so you can have a background in financial applications. Get a degree in English and do technical writing.

Get a degree in math and be an analyst or SME.

You don't need a degree in finance to understand financial applications, either. Of course, it all helps, but it's not necessary.

You could get a CS degree and minor in finance. Works both ways.

I have a CS and business back ground.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You don’t need a CS degree to do cybersecurity, cloud or most of that stuff.

My degree is in theater and I am the program manager of a huge IT project on a government project. I started at one of those computer training places I’ve hired many who do not have a CS degree. They are not all technical positions.

My just hired a project manager and they have a degree in psychology and minor in English.

I also have another project manager who does IT training and has a degree in European History and German.

The job market has changed since you were in college. There are so many graduates now with a CS or Business background. Why would they be hiring theater majors for PM roles? Or, English or Psych majors? I guess government pays so little they are getting the bottom of the barrel or something. So, maybe that's why our government doesn't run as efficiently.

I would never hire someone from one of those IT training places unless it was for a helpdesk role (which are all offshored, btw). All of the PM jobs I see require either a background in IT, CS, business or finance. I never see a PM role where the "degree required" says "English or Psych"; certainly not theater.

I worked in SV including FAANGs, never worked for the government. Maybe that's the difference.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Just returned from a college reunion, and my friends' kids who majored in CS and graduated last year and this year are all un- or under-employed. It seems pretty obvious to me that low-level CS jobs are the first to be gobbled up by AI. If you go to a top school, it truly does not matter what you major in. Most of those kids who want top jobs in tech, finance, consulting will get them. Majoring in something skill-based is more important if you attend even a slightly lower-ranked school. This is why people work so hard to secure spots in the Ivy-plus schools.

Most low level IT jobs have been offshored for a while. But, yea, most grads from T20 CS schools will be ok. Maybe not the $150K starting salary with $80K bonus, ok, but they will get something decent that pays more than most humanities majors.

CS majors are not applying for low level IT jobs. CS is not IT.

So, what are CS majors doing? What kind of jobs are CS majors getting?

I’d love to know.

One of my brilliant friend's brilliant CS major kid didn't get any offer from any company a CS kid wants to work for. He'll be working at American Airlines. Two years ago, kids of his caliber were trying to decide between several top offers.

The landscape is very different now compared to a few years ago, but CS majors can still get jobs in that industry. They just aren't getting the big paycheck type FAANG jobs with multiple offers. That doesn't mean the CS industry is not hiring. It just means it's no longer the crazy hiring frenzy of years ago. Still better to be a CS major than an English major.

I worked in SV during the boom in the 90s. We went through a dip in the early 2000s, then again in 2008. I was still able to find work, but my rate was lower than it had been in 90s. It's cyclical. But we will always need CS majors, even with AI. Who do you think programs and fixes the AI? And then, we will need software to identify AI generated content. It will be a constant battle to one up.

[Anonymous]

My son is a current CS major at a T10 with a minor in Entrepreneurship and considering a minor in finance. The market is cyclical and currently not great for any college graduate but I have no fear that his degree and education will serve him very well in the future and that he will be in the best position for a great career. He may have to “settle” for a starter job (like most of us did back in the day) but his brain and his ability to logically analyze problems and create solutions will serve as a very valuable asset. I have no fear that his CS major will only help, not hurt, him.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You do not need a degree in CS to work in IT.

That’s why the market is saturated. Get a degree in finance so you can have a background in financial applications. Get a degree in English and do technical writing.

Get a degree in math and be an analyst or SME.

Not really. Majority of the IT jobs will have simple education requirement. BS in CS or Information Systems. Sometimes in Math. I work in large IT firm and the only times we’ll even consider interviewing someone with non tech degree is if they have years and years of experience. A degree in English will not help you in any way to become a technical writer. You would need to have deep technical knowledge of systems architecture, software design, information security, etc etc.

That’s not true. A tech writer does not necessarily have to have deep technical knowledge of systems architecture, software design, information security. There are tech writers doing user documentation and online help, etc.

I’m a tech writer who didn’t take a single college course in English or technology. It’s a broad field.

[Anonymous]

I’m not in the DMV now, but I lived there a few years ago. I keep coming back because there’s not a similar anonymous message board in my community. It’s a smaller town, so a generic username doesn’t provide enough camouflage.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I just can't figure out why you would spend time on this site if you don't live here.

To be fair, I live here and can’t understand why I spend time on this site.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You do not need a degree in CS to work in IT.

That’s why the market is saturated. Get a degree in finance so you can have a background in financial applications. Get a degree in English and do technical writing.

Get a degree in math and be an analyst or SME.

Not really. Majority of the IT jobs will have simple education requirement. BS in CS or Information Systems. Sometimes in Math. I work in large IT firm and the only times we’ll even consider interviewing someone with non tech degree is if they have years and years of experience. A degree in English will not help you in any way to become a technical writer. You would need to have deep technical knowledge of systems architecture, software design, information security, etc etc.

That’s not true. A tech writer does not necessarily have to have deep technical knowledge of systems architecture, software design, information security. There are tech writers doing user documentation and online help, etc.

I’m a tech writer who didn’t take a single college course in English or technology. It’s a broad field.

This does explain why most technical documentation is quite poor. Even my company's product documentation is horrifying. No one uses it, they just open a support ticket for how to do X.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You don’t need a CS degree to do cybersecurity, cloud or most of that stuff.

My degree is in theater and I am the program manager of a huge IT project on a government project. I started at one of those computer training places I’ve hired many who do not have a CS degree. They are not all technical positions.

My just hired a project manager and they have a degree in psychology and minor in English.

I also have another project manager who does IT training and has a degree in European History and German.

Have you tried turning it off and on?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You don’t need a CS degree to do cybersecurity, cloud or most of that stuff.

My degree is in theater and I am the program manager of a huge IT project on a government project. I started at one of those computer training places I’ve hired many who do not have a CS degree. They are not all technical positions.

My just hired a project manager and they have a degree in psychology and minor in English.

I also have another project manager who does IT training and has a degree in European History and German.

The job market has changed since you were in college. There are so many graduates now with a CS or Business background. Why would they be hiring theater majors for PM roles? Or, English or Psych majors? I guess government pays so little they are getting the bottom of the barrel or something. So, maybe that's why our government doesn't run as efficiently.

I would never hire someone from one of those IT training places unless it was for a helpdesk role (which are all offshored, btw). All of the PM jobs I see require either a background in IT, CS, business or finance. I never see a PM role where the "degree required" says "English or Psych"; certainly not theater.

I worked in SV including FAANGs, never worked for the government. Maybe that's the difference.

Nice dig on gov't employees, but the poster didn't say he/she was a fed. It was a "government project".

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You don’t need a CS degree to do cybersecurity, cloud or most of that stuff.

My degree is in theater and I am the program manager of a huge IT project on a government project. I started at one of those computer training places I’ve hired many who do not have a CS degree. They are not all technical positions.

My just hired a project manager and they have a degree in psychology and minor in English.

I also have another project manager who does IT training and has a degree in European History and German.

We need to stop hiring people without computer or technical degrees, hard stop on these posers. Make it a rule for govt contracts

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You don’t need a CS degree to do cybersecurity, cloud or most of that stuff.

My degree is in theater and I am the program manager of a huge IT project on a government project. I started at one of those computer training places I’ve hired many who do not have a CS degree. They are not all technical positions.

My just hired a project manager and they have a degree in psychology and minor in English.

I also have another project manager who does IT training and has a degree in European History and German.

Very interesting.

This is not the norm.