Non-Programming Jobs For a Computer Science Major?

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Non-Programming Jobs For a Computer Science Major?

Posted by timothy on Tuesday July 1, 2008 @05:10AM from the not-quite-what-you-expected dept.

An anonymous reader writes "I recently graduated from a 'major' university in America with a BS degree in Computer Science. I unfortunately must admit that I am not very skilled with programming. I finished with the degree, and I've spent much of my college career working a job doing technical support (fixing laptops, troubleshooting Windows problems, etc). What jobs can I get with a computer science degree that are NOT mainly programming jobs? A little programming wouldn't be bad, but none would be preferred. And what kind of salaries do these jobs typically fetch?"

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Geek Squad by Anonymous Coward · 2008-07-01 05:11 · Score: 5, Funny

n/t
1. Re:Geek Squad by Anonymous Coward · 2008-07-01 05:54 · Score: 5, Insightful
  
  Funny, but pretty accurate.
  A CS major who can't (and doesn't like to) program? I don't want him pretending to be a programmer. I don't want him blindly leading a group of programmers. There's not much left aside from IT and help-desk jobs.
2. Re:Geek Squad by ePhil_One · 2008-07-01 06:50 · Score: 5, Insightful
  
  There's not much left aside from IT and help-desk jobs.
  And what is wrong w/ IT and Hemp Desk type jobs? Ok, personally, I avoid Help desk work, but I consciously chose IT over programming because I didn't want to work in a cube interacting w/ a computer all day any more than I wanted to be an actuary working in a cube interacting w/ a computer all day (Double major, Math & Comp Sci). And since he's already held jobs in tech support, it should be easy to get hired.
  Of course, I leverage my programming skills a LOT writing scripts, etc. and could probably out program a lot of the developers I work with, but thats not a strict job requirement. Figure out what you are good at, and what you enjoy doing, then go after that job. Nothing wrong w/ a CS major selling insurance.
  
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3. Re:Geek Squad by ZiggyStardust1984 · 2008-07-01 07:01 · Score: 5, Funny
  
  IANAL, but a hemp desk job is probably illegal in most of the U.S.
4. Re:Geek Squad by mike_c999 · 2008-07-01 07:54 · Score: 5, Interesting
  
  Got to agree with these last two posts... there's nothing wrong with helpdesk/IT/sysadmin/network admin jobs at all for someone with a computer science degree.
  After I completed my CS degree I started in helpdesk/user training. Fixing most problems before the more senior guys get to them lead on to a sysadmin job in the same company. I've now recently switched to a job as a network admin for the same university I studied at and couldn't be happier.
  Over this time I've had 5 satisfying years of work, used/setup/fixed more deferent technologies than you want to hear about. And all on salaries that I've been more than happy with.
  Oh and I do program. But for a hobby not for my job.
  Just my 2c
  
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5. Re:Geek Squad by Chode2235 · 2008-07-01 08:05 · Score: 5, Insightful
  
  Are you crazy. There are a ton of opportunities for people with technical aptitude, and the abstraction and logical problem solving ability a CS program teaches you.
  I am now in Customer Relationship Management marketing, where we do database marketing, customer behavior modeling, segmentation etc.
  We desperately need people who know there way around large data warehouses, can hack some basic SQL and code, and can figure out how to get the data that is locked up by IT into a format that we can use to drive meaningful customer experiences.
  I imagine there are plenty of other professions where the ability to manipulate data, and drive business objectives based on it, is a highly demanded skill and can be highly rewarded financially.
  CS != programming. In fact I would discourage any CS students from going into IT. IT is dead, its just the 21st century equivalent of paper pushing. Most IT shops are big bloated bureaucracies. They totally kill creativity. Go into the buisness side and actually have an impact and some influence.
6. Re:Geek Squad by centuren · 2008-07-01 08:31 · Score: 5, Insightful
  
  We are all operating in areas that are subsets of CS. As a network admin I get to use a lot of cool technologies and watch them come together to do what I need. You use your CS knowledge a lot in an abstract sense.
  I lol'd @ this description of subsets of CS. Programmers, skilled in computer science, wrote a bunch of cool technologies that come together to do what people need, and you as a network admin get to watch (apt-get install cool-technology).
  I've always loved server/network administration and security (more so than programming), but I don't really buy your romanticism of it. All the useful tools in the admin arsenal have been created by very talented programmers and engineers.
  Admins have a lot of hard work to do like anyone else, but really, there's no pretending it's on the same level as the work that was put out to create all those admin tools (including the operating system itself).
  Of course, that's not the bulk of programming jobs; there is plenty of demand for programmers who will never get to do anything particularly interesting for their company.
7. Re:Geek Squad by vidarh · 2008-07-01 09:48 · Score: 5, Insightful
  
  Having been on both sides of the fence (28 years since I started programming, still actively doing it, 12 years of assorted development and operations work and managing both engineering and ops teams):
  Your attitude is very common with programmers - I'm surprised to hear it from someone saying they love server/network admin etc. more -, and it's one of the reasons why programmers usually make exceedingly bad network admins / sysadmins / operations engineers.
  Far too many programmers tends to think they do all the cool stuff, and everyone else are just useless fluff (witness the flood of "wow, Google sounds like heaven since the project managers don't get much say" posts to an earlier article), and that lack of understanding means that a lot of programmers have no clue what (often trivial things) they can do to make life simpler for everyone else, and show scarily little appreciation for the amount of work people around them do to work around the problems caused by primadonna programmers that deliver poorly documented, badly written pieces of shit and refuse to acknowledge there are problems with their code.
  I write this as someone who much prefers programming - I love it - but who very often ends up picking up the pieces, because I actually also care about operational issues, cost issues, usability issues etc. which programmers seems to like to pretend doesn't exist.
Program Manager by MarkPNeyer · 2008-07-01 05:12 · Score: 5, Interesting

You could get a job as a Program Manager or similar position. They do more design work than actual programming. Those positions pay about the same as programming positions.

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1. Re:Program Manager by metlin · 2008-07-01 06:21 · Score: 5, Insightful
  
  Indeed.
  I'd imagine that a CS degree teaches you algorithms, theoretical CS (e.g. complexity, graph theory etc.), graphics (once again, algorithms, physics, etc.) and assorted things. Even networking would be more about routing algorithms and packet handling etc.
  All the "hands on" parts of CS usually fall under other categories -- for example, networking hands on is more ECE, systems engineering could fall under industrial/electrical/electronics & communication/computer engineering, but not necessarily computer science.
  An ideal CS degree would be very close to a very applied math degree, because of the similarities between the two subjects. You can teach someone who's strong with fundamentals a programming language quite easily (even a monkey can program); however teaching someone critical thinking skills, good design skills and designing appropriate algorithms and the like is very, very hard.
  IMHO, that is what a CS degree should do. A little programming is fine, but I'd be loath to respect any CS degree that focussed on programming. Anyone can be a programmer - hell, even physicists program. A computer scientist is not the same thing as a programmer, and that's the way it should be.
Waiter at Denny's by swb311 · 2008-07-01 05:13 · Score: 5, Funny

$2.13/hr
1. Re:Waiter at Denny's by gunnk · 2008-07-01 05:46 · Score: 5, Insightful
  
  Actually, you have a point.
  
  The person asking the question tells us about skills he lacks more than skills he has. Makes it awfully hard to make a useful suggestion.
  
  The little offered is that he's done some tech support. If that's your strong suite, then the answer for a newly-minted college grad from Comp Sci is...
  
  tech support.
  
  Then again, if you don't really like that work you should just go find something completely different to do. A solid technical degree has appeal to employers even when it has nothing to do with the job.
  
  Hmmm... if you're just starting out then go find a job (any job!) related to what you really want to do. Worry less about the money or benefits. Fresh out of college you just want a foot in the door of the career you really want even if there are long hours and little pay. After three years in the workforce potential employers care EVERYTHING about your experience and NOTHING about your degree.
  
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Accenture... by Kr3m3Puff · 2008-07-01 05:13 · Score: 5, Funny

Accenture is always looking for fresh faced graduates who can't actually do anything.

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1. Re:Accenture... by Anonymous Coward · 2008-07-01 05:19 · Score: 5, Insightful
  
  Why is this modded "funny"? It's insightful as hell.
2. Re:Accenture... by Anonymous Coward · 2008-07-01 05:24 · Score: 5, Insightful
  
  As a former Accenture employee I can tell you that this is 100% true, but a few years at Accenture right out of college sure looks good on your resume.
3. Re:Accenture... by dedazo · 2008-07-01 05:28 · Score: 5, Funny
  
  You were modded funny, but your comment is right spot on. Also, their pay is commensurate to actually doing nothing.
  If I had a nickel for every smart Accenture consultant I've ever met, I'd had me a whole dime.
  
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4. Re:Accenture... by all5n · 2008-07-01 05:57 · Score: 5, Informative
  
  My main problem with accenture is that they will take someone with a psychology degree, send them to a 2-3 week training camp on how to program in C, Java, whatever, and then send them to the client to rack up the billable hours.
  It amazes me that companies let them get away with staffing such underqualified individuals at their expense.
  Also, having dealt with such individuals, it is maddening to try to get any work out of them. The most basic computer science concepts are missing...
5. Re:Accenture... by TheOnlyJuztyn · 2008-07-01 06:49 · Score: 5, Funny
  
  No... you'd have two nickels.
BS? by AllIGotWasThisNick · 2008-07-01 05:14 · Score: 5, Funny

with a BS
Looks like you'd be perfect for management.
Anonymous by daliman · 2008-07-01 05:14 · Score: 5, Funny

Yes, anonymous was probably the right way to go with that submission on this site ;)
There are lots of possibilities by kgb1001001 · 2008-07-01 05:15 · Score: 5, Informative

Testing
Project Management
Product Support
Software Sales
Systems Administration
Programming is just one part of computer science; there are needs for all of these other areas as well.
1. Re:There are lots of possibilities by Jerry+Coffin · 2008-07-01 06:14 · Score: 5, Insightful
  
  Testing
  Project Management
  Product Support
  Software Sales
  Systems Administration
  
  Programming is just one part of computer science; there are needs for all of these other areas as well.
  
  Computer science has to do with research into computing, algorithms, etc. Programming, for the most part, is related to software engineering (though some programming also involves computer science). Most of the other jobs you mentioned have nothing to do with either one though.
  The simple fact that a job is involved, to some degree or other, with computers, does not mean it has anything to do with computer science. In fact, more often than not, computer science is done with a pencil and paper. Software engineering is typically done with a computer, but primarily to run a text editor or (possibly) something like a UML editor.
  Let me give one small example: from a viewpoint of computer science, graphics cards really only come in two varieties: those that you can program, and those that you can ignore. From a viewpoint of software engineering, there's more difference between cards, but it's expressed primarily in terms of the shader model the card implements. If you care much about things like how fast of RAM it has, chances are that neither computer science nor software engineering has much to do with that interest (which isn't to say that a computer scientist can't also enjoy playing a game now and again -- just that he knows the difference between the two).
  The OP should really sit back and think about what he wants to do. The simple fact that he hasn't done much, or been taught much about, programming shouldn't be a major handicap if he honestly has a desire and aptitude for doing so.
  It's a bit belated, of course, but if he doesn't want to program, he should sit back and think about 1) what he's good at, and 2) what he enjoys. He should then try to come up with jobs that are at least somewhere close to the intersection between the two.
  Until or unless he does that, he's pretty much setting himself up for misery, failure, or most likely both. Most people have a hard time enjoying being bad at something for very long, and most people have a hard time caring enough to do things well if they don't enjoy it to at least some degree.
  
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That all depends on you by Gazzonyx · 2008-07-01 05:16 · Score: 5, Informative

You are in a unique position; us programmers can't stand to be in management, we simply cannot do our jobs there (not to mention we're slightly introverts!). If you are skilled and don't mind managing, you can bring home a decent wage. Especially if you know how to manage programmers! Good management for a development team is a sorely needed position.

Just my $0.02. Any fellow programmers want to back me up or dispute my claims?

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People skills by BorgDrone · 2008-07-01 05:19 · Score: 5, Funny

Well, you could take the specification from the customer, to the programmers.
If you've got people skill that is.
technical writer by Maglos · 2008-07-01 05:21 · Score: 5, Funny

If you did good in english, you could write documentation.
You Won't Get Very Far by ibmjones · 2008-07-01 05:24 · Score: 5, Insightful

A little programming wouldn't be bad, but none would be preferred.
If you want to succeed in IT, you NEED programming. You may not be building enterprise-level programs - but when comes to pushing updates, creating a simple Intranet, building or troubleshooting a compiled/interpreted application or just plain keeping yourself sane*, having a programming background goes a very long way.
Perhaps IT is not a best fit for you.
*For some of us, it may be too late. :D
Re:Entry level QA by RazorBlade99 · 2008-07-01 05:30 · Score: 5, Insightful

Just wish people quit pushing the ones that can't hack in CS to QA. I work for a software company as a developer, but so wish the QA people aren't just CS rejects. They need to be good at what they do and good QA people are hard to find. There can be a lot of scripting and programming in QA in the right environment and not just script monkeys that runs what they are told. QA really is a calling.
Comment removed by account_deleted · 2008-07-01 06:20 · Score: 5, Interesting

Comment removed based on user account deletion
I agree by copponex · 2008-07-01 06:55 · Score: 5, Funny

I mean, if Frank Gehry doesn't know how to weld or install a toilet, fuck his buildings, man. Architecture degree my ass.