Ask Slashdot: Finding an IT Job Without a Computer-Oriented Undergraduate Degree

An anonymous reader writes "Contrary to what many individuals think, not everybody on Slashdot went to college for a computer-related degree. Graduating in May of this year, my undergraduate degree will be in psychology. Like many undergraduate psychology students, I applied to a multitude of graduate programs but, unfortunately, was not given admission into a single one. Many are aware that a bachelor's degree in psychology is quite limiting, so I undoubtedly have been forced into a complicated situation. Despite my degree being in psychology, I have an immense interest in computers and the typical 'hard science' fields. How can one with a degree that is not related to computers acquire a job that is centered around computers? At the moment, I am self-taught and can easily keep up in a conversation of computer science majors. I also do a decent amount of programming in C, Perl, and Python and have contributed to small open source projects. Would Slashdot users recommend receiving a formal computer science education (only about two years, since the nonsensical general education requirements are already completed) before attempting to get such a job? Anybody else in a similar situation?"

Comments

Re:WTF

[lightknight]

Hush. Some of the more interesting CS professors out there dual-majored in Psychology. They usually end up doing Human/Computer Interfaces.

With a Psychology degree alone, they end up doing a lot of Lisp / Scheme.

And what more, I see it as a good thing that someone wants to expand their understanding of other fields, if only for monetary gain. That's something to be encouraged, not mocked.