How do you guys feel about Computer Science/Software Engineering Degree? - Page 2

Lol, no one mentioned Computer Engineering. Btw, i know about the singularity. I've read Ray Kurzweil's "Singularity is Near" book, and i regularly follow his website on the latest science/tech breakthroughs : kurzweilai.net

I didn't get offended, but simply stated that you didn't know what this field truly is like, as you come as someone majoring in Political Science or something. And also, most of the jobs in this field usually state Computer Science as a qualification. They've never specifically stated a "Software engineering" degree. If you choose software engineering, you're stuck in the software field (which is the probably the best field but...), in the CS field, you can specialize in things like artificial intelligence, robotics, network security, etc (although artificial intelligence and robotics need grad degrees for good job prospects).

There is a lot of confusion here and I'll try to shed some light maybe because I have a Computer Eng. degree and has worked in a company similar as IBM/HP IT departments.

Computer Science: lots of coding/programing. Not much new software is developed but there is a lot of updating, debugging, retrofitting with old and existing technologies.

Computer Engineering: The academic curriculum varies from one school to another. The basic idea is to create an engineer to combine the ideas/concepts of hardware and software in one. So ideally you create a chip and also the software to control it but in reality most people focus in one field or the other ie you either work at Mircosoft or Intel.

A Computer Eng is a mix of an Electrical Eng and a Computer Scientist in most academic programs. For example your classes can be Circuits I-III, Java I-III, Solid State Devices, Logical Circuits, Software Design, Data Structures (I so hated this class), Unix, Parallel Programing, etc. The list goes on so your classmates will either be on your same program or be EE or CS.

Soft Engineers: This is a whole different ball game at least in some programs. This is the guy known as "The Architect" yeah from the Matrix... but it is an actual role in IT. The Architect designs the whole structure of a a program/project. All the ins and outs. If you like flow charts this is something you do day and night. It is all about the design of the software but also might involve hardware. Some curriculum have software and hardware integration but I think it is not very commun as it would overlap with Computer Eng.

Work related: well the world is your oyster but not in the US as we thank Bush for giving companies tax breaks for outsourcing jobs to Asia and India. So most companies in the US that hire CS, CE and SE are government companies and required you to have a US citizenship.

For a non US fellow, I would recommend focus more on the Hardware part of the career path. Computer Eng is great but find a program with heavy hardware aspect. Some Electrical Eng have CS mentions. Now you may ask why a hardware heavy career because Software can be develop by any one any where in the world for $5 an hour while hardware can only be taken care physically where it is needed to have that someone to take care of the problem. While it is true manufacturing occurs oversees. Maintenance, troubleshooting, repairs, upgrades, etc happens locally.

Hopes this helps,

Lou

For a non US fellow, I would recommend focus more on the Hardware part of the career path. Computer Eng is great but find a program with heavy hardware aspect. Some Electrical Eng have CS mentions. Now you may ask why a hardware heavy career because Software can be develop by any one any where in the world for $5 an hour while hardware can only be taken care physically where it is needed to have that someone to take care of the problem. While it is true manufacturing occurs oversees. Maintenance, troubleshooting, repairs, upgrades, etc happens locally.*



Thanks a lot for your input. This will greatly help others. I think I am going to do the same with my story.

Shit software can be developed at the price of $5/hour. Good developers are at least 6 times more expensive. Indian developers are catching up and charging more, a good india developer will charge $30/hour. There will always be sweatshop code but it will always be shit code.

That is why I am starting to study nanotechnology...All this programming bussiness makes my head hurt lol. No offense to anyone. I admire people who go into any field of science. They work hard for the advancement of civilization. Oh the joys of scientific aspirations.

If you're interested in programming and find out that it is something that you love to do, you don't really need a degree. I've spoken to many friends who are professional coders (a few are in charge of coding) and they say that undergraduates with CompSci/SoftE degrees who aren't passionate about programming limp through school and graduate with just bare minimum knowledge. Those that are passionate didn't even really need the degrees in the first place since they went above and beyond their curriculum and developed their own games, website backends, etc. Getting a job in those fields is really more about having a portfolio and showing what you can do. If you're applying for a game programming position, show that you've made games before. If you're trying to do web stuff, you better show that you have done web stuff before. Save your self some money and spend four years working on programming on your own and you'll already be four years ahead of the average CS/SoftE graduate.

I wish I would have posted first.

Look, the reason why some people can't find jobs with a Computer Science degree is because they are shitty programmers. If you are a good programmer, you will find a job, as simple as that.

Computer Science will help give you the theories behind the code and the how and why it works the way it does. However, unless you are good with logic (more important than math imo), you won't be anything special.

I am currently not that great, I only PHP, which sucks. I am currently working on a project with a couple of other people (one of them is teaching us other two). I am not too familiar with programming outside of the web to be honest, but I will have to learn Java and C++ since we have to create Android and iOS apps.

Software engineering is a great field to get into right now! There is a growing need for workers, and the pay is really great. The Bureau of Labor Statistics shows just how great a job as a software engineer can be. You could also check out my website to find out more about the job outlook for software engineers and the demand for employees in this field.

The $5 an hour comment/example is a bit exaggerated but not far fetch from the truth. One Dreamer some time ago on a another thread comment about this site www.freelancer.com there you can get an idea of the "real market" and what profit and how many hours of work you would have to put in to make a decent salary.

I still make a big emphasis on going heavy towards hardware. Also you make more money http://www.bls.gov/ooh/architecture-...-engineers.htm. In addition the other statistic that is very sad at least for some of us that are Hispanics/Latinos http://www.bls.gov/emp/ep_table_304.htm
Also there is this one: http://www.bls.gov/news.release/forbrn.htm.

Like it is mention in other threads if you have been on this forum for some time now. Do your high school, if you can and have good opportunities do your Bachelors but I would suggest hold your Masters for either Canada or Australia or where ever you please. That way you can qualify for the graduate visas those two countries have to offer recent graduates. They usually entitle work visas, internship opportunities, co-ops, etc. There is a lot of information about that on these forums. At least you have opportunities if you still waiting for something to happen about the Dream Act but then decided you have waited enough and decide to leave the US.

Just my 2 cents of what I would do if I could do all over again.

Lou