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To Be Or Not To Be A CET?
maxdamage asks: "After reading an earlier Ask Slashdot article and the responses, I am very worried about my future career plans. This fall I am going into CET, which is essentially a cross between a CS and an Electrical Engineering degree. According to these responses, CS majors are doomed to spend their lives waiting tables. Does a computer related engineering degree give hope or should I change to a more general engineering program, before its too late?"
If you hope to be making decent money in the ensuing years, you've basically got two choices. One is to get a service oriented career -- like a mechanic or a plumber, or anything that requires your presence. Alternatively, you can own a business of some sort. Either way, keep in mind that any job that can be done somewhere else cheaper will be . This does include just about any kind of engineering degree, too, except for maybe onsite work. Your best bet if you're looking for a career with decent money is a trade that requires physical presence or a management/business-ownership path.
He who laughs last is stuck in a time dilation bubble.
I have degrees in both Electronics and computer network systems. Unfortunately, finding a job in either field seems to be rather difficult. Then again, I live in a state that was by far one of the hardest hit in the recession. I'm open for relocation but I haven't had much luck. I'm thinking about starting my own company because between the economy sucking for so long and employers playing games, I'm tired of messing with it.
I originally earned an EE degree in '87, then returned to school for a CS degree in '92 while working. Even back then, I found that hardware was boring as hell without the intelligence that could be realized through software.
Pure CS folks have a lot of difficulty communicating with HW and EE's tend to write crap code or end up with very tedious jobs.
The combination opens up a whole realm of opportunities such as autonomous vehicles, home automation, simulation. It's F'ing great!
As for a career choice, there is only one answer - Do what you enjoy and be agile. We can only imagine what the next 20 years will bring.
Often, I have to tell my employer that this stuff is hard work, If they knew work was fun, I'de get paid squat! Geccie
> According to these responses, CS majors are
> doomed to spend their lives waiting tables. Does a
> computer related engineering degree give hope or
> should I change to a more general engineering
> program, before its too late?
There is always room for another good engineer. If you take your education seriously and apply yourself, you'll be able to differentiate yourself from your peers. Then you won't be stuck waiting tables.
There is always room for another motivated engineer. If you take a job out of school that isn't quite the job you imagined, but are agressive in pursuing every opportunity at work - you volunteer to finish off that project that no one wants to do, you offer to lead the project thats the opposite of glamorous - you'll differentiate yourself from your peers. Then you won't be stuck waiting tables.
The world is always lacking honest, competent people who will go the extra mile to get work done. If you're one of those people, there will be work for you in the current economy. It might not be the job you want, or even the one you were trained for, but there will be one.
Outside of a dog, a book is a man's best friend. Inside a dog, its too dark to read.
I agree... regardless of the degree type 4 years is the way to go. 2 year or 4 year, you're still going to be a newbie when you get hired, and you may or may not be a brilliant programmer. What the boss is looking for is how you coped with dealing with a 4 year program and if you learned "how to learn."
I went right from highschool to a computer engineering program. After my first year I got an internship, and then I was hired by my employer and I started finishing up my last 3 years of school at an online university. I am just about to graduate and my position is greater then that of the college hires and I've been making a good salary since 19.
In the end, college is only really going to get you in the door somewhere, and after that it's all up to you. Sure, MIT or Devry will judge how good your salary is at that starting point, but that doesn't mean the Devry person is going to be the first one laid off either.
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Free your mind.
I graduated with a degree in Music composition and performance, which I very much enjoyed. I took other classes all across the board, trying to get everything I could out of college. When I graduated I got a job as a Java developer (based mostly on non-academic programming projects I did). Now I'm doing quite comfortably.
I may get an MBA a bit down the road, since it would make a nice complement to my programming experience (and what I've already learned about how business works, on the job)... but the point here is that if you're bright and hard-working and show some initiative, you can get *something*, which will give you experience, which is what most employers want.
Yes, degrees matter (and can affect your salary), but having or not having one doesn't doom you to failure.
There are only 10 types of people: those who understand decimal, those who don't, and, uh, 8 other types I forget.
Anyways, my point is, Be Careful; otherwise, you are just another lamer with a fake engineering degree.