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Wall Street's Collapse Is Computer Science's Gain

Posted by timothy on from the portable-skills dept.

dcblogs writes "Thanks to Wall Street's implosion, the chairman of Stanford University's Computer Science Department says he is seeing more interest from students in computer science. Ditto at Boston College. Computer science enrollments crashed after the dot-com bust as students turned to hedge fund majors. And are computer science grads getting jobs? The professor at one university program that graduates about 45 students a year with CS degrees, wrote in a comment: 'Last year 87% of our seniors were employed before graduation. The median starting salary was $58,500. A majority of CIS students had multiple job offers. From where I sit, there is a huge demand for entry level IT professionals in IS and in CS.'"

5 of 435 comments (clear)

  1. You're new here, aren't you? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Informative

    "From where I sit, there is a huge demand for entry level IT professionals in IS and in CS.'"

    Where have you been sitting lately?

  2. Computer science needs it... by Aeron65432 · · Score: 2, Informative

    I worked at a recruiting firm that specializes in IT for the last two years, and let me tell you, we could not find enough programmers, specifically in Java. The firms we were working with constantly were upping the pay to try and attract workers to our city but in general, the demand for labor was much, much higher than the supply.

    1. Re:Computer science needs it... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

      WTF. I work Java and I started in 2000 at 52kpy my salary has increased an average of 1kpy. WTF? Bull shit. You're recruiting firm is full of the morons who stand up at my JUG and ask: "We are looking for developers with the JAVA. We need the JAVA at junior or senior. If you have the JAVA and know a J2EE please talk to us." You recruiting firms are all effing useless. You can't find talent because you can't identify talent. You can't identify talent because you have no talent.

      Programmers are the only people qualified to evaluate other programmers.

  3. Re:passionless technician by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

    The number of faculty positions at top universities is VERY limited. Most faculty positions at research universities have a large component of the salary as soft money. Meaning you are expected to bring in the money for it with grants. The funding rates in my particular field are 8% right now. It's hard to get a grant, many labs I know have had to let go of some/most of their staff.

    It's not a career I'd recommend. Most of the other faculty at my university say the same.

  4. Re:Damnit!!! by Electrawn · · Score: 2, Informative

    Exactly - just look at alcohol.. why the number of gin-runners and speakeasies is through the roof since the lifting of prohibition..

    Gin-runners still exist. They just don't carry gin much anymore and like to go around in circles. Something called NASCAR, originally boosted by white lightning runnin'.