Is a computer science minor enough to make someone employable?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Just to clarify, I'm not asking if someone can get a GOOD job with a CS minor. Just something better than one could get with just a liberal arts degree. Basically I'm wondering if a CS minor could be a bit of insurance for someone who wants to major in the liberal arts.

Computer science is a liberal art, FYI.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I majored in sociology. I worked for a temp agency for a while, got married, had two kids and now I work full time as a preschool teacher for 40k and I’m stuck. I don’t make enough to pay for grad school, or even tech school. This is what I will likely be doing until I retire.

I told my kids that their major for their bachelors degree should have a clear path to a worthwhile career. Accounting, IT, statistics, journalism, engineering, economics, etc.

If you major in things like history, biology, poly sci...you’re going to need at least a masters to start a genuine career path.

Your career trajectory is your responsibility. You worked for a temp agency for a while, you got married, you chose to work as a preschool teacher. You made those choices along the way, and now you are experiencing the consequences. It is not about your degree, it is about you.

I know a Harvard grad who is extremely under employed, making the occasional money as a freelance guitar teacher. Obviously he could’ve done better, but chose not to.

It is not about the degree, it is about the individual and the career trajectory he chooses to create.

Is it that difficult to understand that it's much easier to create a successful career trajectory if starting from 3rd base as opposed to 1st? Using your logic, why go to college at all? Just start working somewhere at the bottom, bust your a** , and create your own awesome trajectory.

[Anonymous]

I know plenty of gals from college who parlayed so called slack degrees into tech jobs with huge stock options, so I honestly don’t think it even matters. Probably more to do with attitude and personality. I’d think the minor would help get foot in door for internships. But tech jobs are sooooo much broader than coding bros or whatever.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Just to clarify, I'm not asking if someone can get a GOOD job with a CS minor. Just something better than one could get with just a liberal arts degree. Basically I'm wondering if a CS minor could be a bit of insurance for someone who wants to major in the liberal arts.

I was wondering if you are an idiot but now I’m sure.

Because no one worries about their kid getting a liberal arts degree.

I cannot tell if you are being sarcastic, but I have two kids getting liberal arts degrees, and I hold one myself, and no, I'm not worried at all. Why would I be?

Because you have 2 kids with liberal arts major and they have mom who can’t not support them when they need help because mom has liberal arts degrees too!!

Mom earns $200k/year. We are good.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I majored in sociology. I worked for a temp agency for a while, got married, had two kids and now I work full time as a preschool teacher for 40k and I’m stuck. I don’t make enough to pay for grad school, or even tech school. This is what I will likely be doing until I retire.

I told my kids that their major for their bachelors degree should have a clear path to a worthwhile career. Accounting, IT, statistics, journalism, engineering, economics, etc.

If you major in things like history, biology, poly sci...you’re going to need at least a masters to start a genuine career path.

Your career trajectory is your responsibility. You worked for a temp agency for a while, you got married, you chose to work as a preschool teacher. You made those choices along the way, and now you are experiencing the consequences. It is not about your degree, it is about you.

I know a Harvard grad who is extremely under employed, making the occasional money as a freelance guitar teacher. Obviously he could’ve done better, but chose not to.

It is not about the degree, it is about the individual and the career trajectory he chooses to create.

Is it that difficult to understand that it's much easier to create a successful career trajectory if starting from 3rd base as opposed to 1st? Using your logic, why go to college at all? Just start working somewhere at the bottom, bust your a** , and create your own awesome trajectory.

PP blames her sociology degree for her difficulties, while noting that she chose temp work and motherhood post college.

What did she expect?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Just to clarify, I'm not asking if someone can get a GOOD job with a CS minor. Just something better than one could get with just a liberal arts degree. Basically I'm wondering if a CS minor could be a bit of insurance for someone who wants to major in the liberal arts.

I was wondering if you are an idiot but now I’m sure.

Because no one worries about their kid getting a liberal arts degree.

I cannot tell if you are being sarcastic, but I have two kids getting liberal arts degrees, and I hold one myself, and no, I'm not worried at all. Why would I be?

Because you have 2 kids with liberal arts major and they have mom who can’t not support them when they need help because mom has liberal arts degrees too!!

Mom earns $200k/year. We are good.

That’s not enough to support two adult kids

[Anonymous]

I am writing from the perspective of being head of software development and product management for a medium sized company. While our headquarters is not on either coast, we are in a high tech area and competition for employees is high. My company employs approximately 80 staff in dev/pm, 40 of whom are software engineers. Other staff in my department include product management, QA (another opportunity for computer science grads), documentation, project managers, etc.

Your DC with a minor in CS could be a pretty good candidate for a company like ours. We often do look for recent graduates as we cannot always compete at the salary levels candidates with more experience command in our area. If we interviewed your DC, DC could expect to spend some time doing some basic skills tests, typically for Java, and if DC’s basic skills were promising, would then move on through interviews and potential hire. We usually offer $45-$60K for entry level engineers (recent college grads) depending on skills. We spend a lot of time training them during the first 12-18 months. At that point, if they develop the necessary skills, we typically need to pay $20-$30K year more to retain them and of course they can usually find other employment readily. Staff stay with us as we have good working conditions—staff very rarely find themselves in 50+ hour work weeks—our products are interesting to our staff, and we are small enough that a great engineer can make a difference and move up.

If your DC’s minor is structured to provide good basic skills, and if your DC is looking for employment in a high tech/high competition for staff area, I expect DC will find something interesting that pays reasonably well.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Just to clarify, I'm not asking if someone can get a GOOD job with a CS minor. Just something better than one could get with just a liberal arts degree. Basically I'm wondering if a CS minor could be a bit of insurance for someone who wants to major in the liberal arts.

I was wondering if you are an idiot but now I’m sure.

Because no one worries about their kid getting a liberal arts degree.

I cannot tell if you are being sarcastic, but I have two kids getting liberal arts degrees, and I hold one myself, and no, I'm not worried at all. Why would I be?

Because you have 2 kids with liberal arts major and they have mom who can’t not support them when they need help because mom has liberal arts degrees too!!

Mom earns $200k/year. We are good.

That’s not enough to support two adult kids

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am writing from the perspective of being head of software development and product management for a medium sized company. While our headquarters is not on either coast, we are in a high tech area and competition for employees is high. My company employs approximately 80 staff in dev/pm, 40 of whom are software engineers. Other staff in my department include product management, QA (another opportunity for computer science grads), documentation, project managers, etc.

Your DC with a minor in CS could be a pretty good candidate for a company like ours. We often do look for recent graduates as we cannot always compete at the salary levels candidates with more experience command in our area. If we interviewed your DC, DC could expect to spend some time doing some basic skills tests, typically for Java, and if DC’s basic skills were promising, would then move on through interviews and potential hire. We usually offer $45-$60K for entry level engineers (recent college grads) depending on skills. We spend a lot of time training them during the first 12-18 months. At that point, if they develop the necessary skills, we typically need to pay $20-$30K year more to retain them and of course they can usually find other employment readily. Staff stay with us as we have good working conditions—staff very rarely find themselves in 50+ hour work weeks—our products are interesting to our staff, and we are small enough that a great engineer can make a difference and move up.

If your DC’s minor is structured to provide good basic skills, and if your DC is looking for employment in a high tech/high competition for staff area, I expect DC will find something interesting that pays reasonably well.

My DC is working for a company like this this summer. Double major in CS and a humanities subject.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I majored in sociology. I worked for a temp agency for a while, got married, had two kids and now I work full time as a preschool teacher for 40k and I’m stuck. I don’t make enough to pay for grad school, or even tech school. This is what I will likely be doing until I retire.

I told my kids that their major for their bachelors degree should have a clear path to a worthwhile career. Accounting, IT, statistics, journalism, engineering, economics, etc.

If you major in things like history, biology, poly sci...you’re going to need at least a masters to start a genuine career path.

Your career trajectory is your responsibility. You worked for a temp agency for a while, you got married, you chose to work as a preschool teacher. You made those choices along the way, and now you are experiencing the consequences. It is not about your degree, it is about you.

I know a Harvard grad who is extremely under employed, making the occasional money as a freelance guitar teacher. Obviously he could’ve done better, but chose not to.

It is not about the degree, it is about the individual and the career trajectory he chooses to create.

Is it that difficult to understand that it's much easier to create a successful career trajectory if starting from 3rd base as opposed to 1st? Using your logic, why go to college at all? Just start working somewhere at the bottom, bust your a** , and create your own awesome trajectory.

PP blames her sociology degree for her difficulties, while noting that she chose temp work and motherhood post college.

What did she expect?

PP didn't "choose" temp work. It's all she could get with her Sociology degree. You really think she had better options, but just chose to temp instead?