Question for you CIS majors

[Subjugation]

Sorry this is such a poorly structured question, but that comes from my ignorance about the field. Please bear with.

I was wondering what made you decide to pick Computer Science as a major? What kind of personality does it take to be successful?

Also, I'm guessing there are a lot of different types of jobs working in that field, but what's the practical application in the job world? Like..what are the responsibilities of the basic jobs for CIS majors when they enter the workforce?

[inertube]

All depends, I just take CIS classes because I'm bored. But pretty much a CIS degree will get you into a computer related area. It could be programming, if your into that, HelpDesk, Janitor, etc.

[Rab]

you dont have to do a job related to what you major in.

i chose my course because i'm into web design but i realise most of the jobs out there are in programming.

Edit: and btw this is what i'm doing: http://www.cic.hull.ac.uk/bsc/bscIC.php

[Arikel]

Sorry this is such a poorly structured question, but that comes from my ignorance about the field. Please bear with.

I was wondering what made you decide to pick Computer Science as a major? What kind of personality does it take to be successful?

Also, I'm guessing there are a lot of different types of jobs working in that field, but what's the practical application in the job world? Like..what are the responsibilities of the basic jobs for CIS majors when they enter the workforce?

Well i might help you a bit in that field, im at the 2nd year of computer engineering so i think its a bit similar to that course... (im not sure since im not familiarized with the terms in english for graduations and stuff )

Well either way i can say something to you... you will probably need to learn a computer language probably "C" and then an object oriented computer language probably C++ Java or Smalltalk more probably Java...
About the more theoretic part of it its about calculus and electronics... it depends on either they have a strongh emphasis i ntheory or not... "either way you wont need that in your future job..." but it helps you to improve your way of seeing things ...
About the pratical use of it, well having a major in CIS will probably make you stand in front of a desk programing for a company or helping them maintaing their database or something... either you like it or not.... most people end doing that (i wont hide it from you). About personality... well you just have to like what you do and have lots of patience... programing requires patience and the capacity to stay calm and analyse all the things vey carefully, althoug the course is not just about programing... programing is just the basis for the rest... you can decide what to do after ... a good programer can always find work in the "services dept", education, consulting...

I myself want to take an mba after the course to do consulting

[Epinephrine]

What's CIS? Sounds like 'computer information systems' or something. Like one of those Devry courses. If it's like one of those 'learn about computers' courses, where you learn some basic programming, networking, some stuff about hardward and probably some business stuff you probably won't get much from it. In the end it will make you a rote programmer for some company. Or maybe some guy who designs websites for a living. Salary around $30,000-50,000/year. It's not bad, but unless you really love computers, not so great.


If you're talking about CS (Computer Science) then that's completely different. Taking computer science at a good university significantly changes your job prospects and what you will be learning.

Computer science is highly math based. Most programs will usually teach you the fundamentals of programming in the first year. In your second year, the program will move more to theoretical programs that can be solved by programming. After that the majors usually become much more theoretical. While some classes will still have programming in them, almost all the classes will become very heavily math based, or will be very specific in it's computer or programming application (operating systems, artificial intelligence, graphics, electronics/logic gates/microchips).

Computer science is basically learning to apply mathematical methods to solve problems. The further you get into it, the more you realize that computer science isn't about programming at all. Basically all programming languages are the same. There will be courses that use different languages for sure, but because they are all about the same, most upper year classes won't even bother to really teach you various languages. It's more up to you to learn about them if you want to get a lot out of it. What you do instead is learn various algorithms to solve problems.

The final part of computer science is the pure math. Every year you should have just pure math courses. Calculus, linear algebra, statistics, discrete mathematics, advanced mathematics for computers (i.e. NP-Completeness, greedy algorithms, etc.).


The idea of computer science is for you to have a large theoretical background in order to do research in the field. Alternatively if you don't do a Masters or a Ph.D, you can also use it for work. Basically a guy who comes out of a community college who knows 'programming' can only do things they are instructed to. A computer science grad would have the knowledge to design entire systems, manage larger projects and so on because they have the theoretical framework with which to work from. You also get 'the university experience' where you learn how to learn by yourself instead of more high-school type courses where you are just doing rote learning.

So what kind of jobs would you get? Programmer of course, but probably more highly paid ($45,000 - 80,000), systems architect, software design, consultant, and many more. The job opportunities are much better and are much better paid. It's also slightly harder to replace these people with grads from India as they can take on a larger variety of jobs.

How do you know you will be good at it? Well, are you good at math? Have you programmed before, and are you actually good at it? Do you LIKE programming and working with computers? Can you see yourself working for the rest of your life in the field or at least until you get promoted to management?

If you really are good at math and programming and you have a solid interest in the field, then go right ahead. If you're okayish at math, and you've tried basic programming before and you had a pretty hard time figuring things out, well unless you're willing to put LOTS of work into it, computer science may not be for you. It's the easiest field in the world if you're just good at it. Requires no effort even if you're doing it at MIT. If you're not good at it, you will struggle for a very long time.

I used to be in computer science, and a lot of my friends/family are in it, so that's my credibility in the field :P I realized that I didn't want to spend the rest of my life in front of a screen (except when having fun) though so I got out of it.

[hogo]

I'm enrolled in CIS right now

CIS = Computer information systems (see Epi's post)

CS = Computer Science

[Subjugation]

I wanted to say thanks to all those that contributed, esp arikel and epinephrine. That's exactly what I was wondering. The reason I was asking was I'm taking an html class at school and I find it to be really easy and fun, and I'm still trying to pick a major that I will stick with.

However, I suck at math, so I now realize it's probably something that isn't for me, beyond web publishing or rudimentary programming. I really appreciate everyone's feedback, because it was very helpful in answering all my questions.

Thanks.

[hogo]

I wanted to say thanks to all those that contributed, esp arikel and epinephrine. That's exactly what I was wondering. The reason I was asking was I'm taking an html class at school and I find it to be really easy and fun, and I'm still trying to pick a major that I will stick with.

However, I suck at math, so I now realize it's probably something that isn't for me, beyond web publishing or rudimentary programming. I really appreciate everyone's feedback, because it was very helpful in answering all my questions.

Thanks.

hey man i suck at math too and so far the CIS classes I'm taking have very little math. Just because your not good at something doesnt mean you shouldn't try it :turned:

[Mr. Peanuts]

Rab, me and my friend are applying for enrolment there.

[Sleepy Weasel]

Just don't confuse CIS with CS. Personally I'm getting my masters in CS right now. Math isn't that important for CIS. Any advanced CS work is going to have a ton of math though.

If you would never consider being a math major, then I wouldn't consider being a CS major.

As for me I was a very strong math student in highschool. I won't brag about my scores but they were quite good, and still I struggle with the math in CS. Computer graphics is something I enjoy but the advanced graphics classes the math was just too much and I had to drop it. Epi is right, if you do become a CS major, be sure to take additional math classes besides what is required so that when you get to the advanced computer science classes you'll be able to handle the advanced math. I've always been pretty good at discrete math, but I really could have benefited from more advanced calculus and linear algebra.

Right now I'm mainly into Data Mining/Machine Learning/Artificial intellgence as well as machine vision. A very large percentage of the work I do is just doing math. Honestly my programming skills are pretty poor there are highschool kids that know more about programming than me, because all my classes have been focused mainly on the math, algorithms,and concepts behind programming. The actual programming itself is not something that's really taught, at least at Cornell, it's just kind of assummed you'll pick it up on your own.That's where the "enjoying programming on your own" part comes in. Something I lack, and why CS probably wasn't the right major for me.

[Epinephrine]

That's where the "enjoying programming on your own" part comes in. Something I lack, and why CS probably wasn't the right major for me.

And why I got out of CS even if I'm damn good at math

[ConcreteSchlyrd]

I'm currently sitting with a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science and meditating on going to grad school.

The job that I ultimately ended up taking has very little resemblance to the degree coursework. However, I use a lot of the core methodologies and coding skills in small day-to-day issues. My official title is Senior Network Administrator (which automatically means I'm writing lots of little code snippets here and there for automation), although I'm also snagged for a lot of straight-up coding projects where they need extra eyes/minds/hands. It's also useful that I can troubleshoot developers code when they blame software malfunction on hardware ("Uuh, my script doesn't work. Must be Windows."). My job's a little different from normal network admins, since I also manage a small group of IT workers, maintain our computing budget (which runs into the millions, anually) and also maintain and expand the audio system for the simulator. More or less, I've ended up with my self-applied title of Network Admin/Senior Audio Simulation Engineer.

As far as personality goes, I'd say having a "normal" personality is huge (at least for the field I'm working in). I know for a fact that being a well-adjusted person who can talk to people in layman's terms (as well as converse with peers on a technical level) was a major contributing factor in landing my current job. Unless you're working in a coding sweatshop with lots of "translation" layers inbetween developers and clients, employers want someone who can communicate on all levels. (They also want someone who can code fluently in 47 different languages, but that's another story.)

Like Sleepy and Epi have said, unless you like sitting in front of a computer at all hours of the day, DON'T take up the "programming" banner. I get paid well for what I do, sure, but that's not saying that I don't work insane hours as well as hold the on-call hours of your average doctor. And unless you're good (more than decent, I'd say) at math, don't declare CS as your major. If you're middling at math, go for something like an MIS major instead.

Overall, I'm extremely happy with my decision on CS.

[pv=nrt]

do you get OT Concy?

[ConcreteSchlyrd]

Hells no, not right now--I'm a salary slave. I do, however, get fantastic benefits, including (but not limited to) full medical, dental, life, TIAA-CREF, full reimbursement for cell phone (which I use about a quarter for work, 3/4 for personal), payment for my home DSL connection (which would otherwise be another $150/mo), and all my computer stuff is more or less free.

Yay for academia.

Side question to all you working folk out there: the university that I work at is being besieged by union to have professional & scientific staff (that's me) join the union. Being totally unfamiliar with what that means (besides collective bargaining and all that jazz), do you think unions are decent things for non-blue collar work?

[T3l Ca7]

I don't know about CS major, because I have an engineering degree (and will be getting my finance postgrad degree soon). But since I work as a software developer, I guess my words is somewhat worth listening to

Computer Information System is an easy degree, the problem is that ... everyone in the profession knows that so it won't get treated seriously.

Computer science degree is a lot harder. Elec/Telco/Comp Engineering students here have to take all the core CS subjects. Although we don't have to do the electives. Work is somewhat different. The most important thing at work is 1) problem solving skills 2)ability to learn. Assuming you are already a decent programmer.

Unless you plan to work only for big companies, you usually need to know more than 2 programming languages well. This is my 3rd professional job so far, and I have already programmed in 10+ languages. Sometimes, you just have to learn a whole new language in a week, and you can't ask too many questions.

On the upper side, pay for experienced software engineer is good ... if you are highly intelligent and willing to sacrifice your leisure time for work, 100k is not a hard target with 5 years experience. That is not to say 5 years after you graduate, since you can work while you study.