Surprised to not see computer tech majors on here. I have a degree in IT and have to compete with people more experienced than me for jobs that pay a dollar or two an hour more than retail jobs. I’m going for a degree in computer engineering now but I’m starting to doubt if this is a good path.
It’s either not considered a major or it’s a part of the Liberal Arts degree path, like most math and science courses before specialization often are. Sometimes degrees for specific professions and technical training require a major, but they themselves are not majors in the USA.
A big part of this is lack of centralization. The federal government requires schools to have federally accredited coursework for tax purposes, and the accrediting process is done by several non-public entities, beyond that they can technically structure their courses, credits, and degree paths however they like.
For example, Physics and Aerospace Engineering require Liberal Arts majors like math and science as prerequisites, and the same is true for Commercial Art and Graphic Design’s relationship to Fine Arts majors.
I am having a hard time believing someone would group Computer Science & Computer Engineering with Liberal Art.
It’s also possible these computer tech majors are not as badly unemployed as the other ones. I noticed that while the chart includes the underemployment rate, it doesn’t sort by it.
Yeah, well, what I’m trying to say is that the tech majors might have huge underemployment, but don’t make the cut to this chart due to not that many who are completely unemployed.
I have a degree in IT and have to compete with people more experienced than me for jobs that pay a dollar or two an hour more than retail jobs
In my experience the places paying barely more than retail wages are not hiring people with extensive resumes but mostly hiring people straight out of college. Places paying ~$20+ are where you’re probably competing with more experienced folks
Make sure you’re on LinkedIn, and also don’t discount uploading your resume to Indeed and marking yourself as looking for work on both. For as long as I’ve been working in the industry I’ve had recruiters contacting me on both platforms with various opportunities for contracts and employment.
Also work with your college/university and your instructors to be referred for openings. Often employers will reach out to colleges with IT programs when there’s openings in IT
IMO, it’s a lack of diversity in the computer science field as a major.
Everyone I know who has gone to university for a computer related program has been taking development/programming.
Certainly programming is important in computer science, but there’s substantially more disciplines in computer science than development. Any courses in computer science that are not development are few and far between. With the volume of CS programs being so small, can you really be surprised that it didn’t make the list?
As related as they are, though, CS and IT are still separate disciplines so idk, as much as some CS people are struggling to find work too, I feels like CS people specializing in development isn’t super relevant to the struggles of an IT person looking for IT work since only a minority of IT grads go on to become developers.
Although one way that CS specializations can affect the IT world, anecdotally at least, is that I noticed at least where I am locally that fresh CS grads are preferred over fresh IT grads for IT roles, and often better paying ones. But more experience plus having the right certifications can give anyone an edge on either side.
To be clear, I don’t disagree with what you said just wasn’t sure how it relates to IT.
Where I’m from IT is usually a 2 year diploma at a vocational college, or at most an associate’s degree and there wouldn’t really be a path to further that academically by doing, like, a master’s degree or whatever which limits the options of IT grads but also makes them less desirable I guess as the education isn’t as rigorous.
Yeah IT specifically is pretty rough. Part of the challenge is that for pretty much every company it’s considered a cost center that they want to do everything in their power to minimize, rather than an important part of their business (obviously some exceptions apply, e.g, the company provides IT services to other companies as a service offering).
Assuming you want to go into software/hardware development of some kind, computer engineering should be a solid bet, I wouldn’t worry.
Surprised to not see computer tech majors on here. I have a degree in IT and have to compete with people more experienced than me for jobs that pay a dollar or two an hour more than retail jobs. I’m going for a degree in computer engineering now but I’m starting to doubt if this is a good path.
It’s either not considered a major or it’s a part of the Liberal Arts degree path, like most math and science courses before specialization often are. Sometimes degrees for specific professions and technical training require a major, but they themselves are not majors in the USA.
A big part of this is lack of centralization. The federal government requires schools to have federally accredited coursework for tax purposes, and the accrediting process is done by several non-public entities, beyond that they can technically structure their courses, credits, and degree paths however they like.
For example, Physics and Aerospace Engineering require Liberal Arts majors like math and science as prerequisites, and the same is true for Commercial Art and Graphic Design’s relationship to Fine Arts majors.
I am having a hard time believing someone would group Computer Science & Computer Engineering with Liberal Art.
It’s also possible these computer tech majors are not as badly unemployed as the other ones. I noticed that while the chart includes the underemployment rate, it doesn’t sort by it.
It sorts by unemployment on the left side of the line, it’s just that the underemployment on the right is a much larger graph.
Yeah, well, what I’m trying to say is that the tech majors might have huge underemployment, but don’t make the cut to this chart due to not that many who are completely unemployed.
In my experience the places paying barely more than retail wages are not hiring people with extensive resumes but mostly hiring people straight out of college. Places paying ~$20+ are where you’re probably competing with more experienced folks
Make sure you’re on LinkedIn, and also don’t discount uploading your resume to Indeed and marking yourself as looking for work on both. For as long as I’ve been working in the industry I’ve had recruiters contacting me on both platforms with various opportunities for contracts and employment.
Also work with your college/university and your instructors to be referred for openings. Often employers will reach out to colleges with IT programs when there’s openings in IT
IMO, it’s a lack of diversity in the computer science field as a major.
Everyone I know who has gone to university for a computer related program has been taking development/programming.
Certainly programming is important in computer science, but there’s substantially more disciplines in computer science than development. Any courses in computer science that are not development are few and far between. With the volume of CS programs being so small, can you really be surprised that it didn’t make the list?
As related as they are, though, CS and IT are still separate disciplines so idk, as much as some CS people are struggling to find work too, I feels like CS people specializing in development isn’t super relevant to the struggles of an IT person looking for IT work since only a minority of IT grads go on to become developers.
Although one way that CS specializations can affect the IT world, anecdotally at least, is that I noticed at least where I am locally that fresh CS grads are preferred over fresh IT grads for IT roles, and often better paying ones. But more experience plus having the right certifications can give anyone an edge on either side.
To be clear, I don’t disagree with what you said just wasn’t sure how it relates to IT.
Where I’m from IT is usually a 2 year diploma at a vocational college, or at most an associate’s degree and there wouldn’t really be a path to further that academically by doing, like, a master’s degree or whatever which limits the options of IT grads but also makes them less desirable I guess as the education isn’t as rigorous.
Yeah IT specifically is pretty rough. Part of the challenge is that for pretty much every company it’s considered a cost center that they want to do everything in their power to minimize, rather than an important part of their business (obviously some exceptions apply, e.g, the company provides IT services to other companies as a service offering).
Assuming you want to go into software/hardware development of some kind, computer engineering should be a solid bet, I wouldn’t worry.