computer science
 

Im a college student at San Francisco State University with a major in Art and an emphasis in Photography and Conceptual Information Art (aka New Media Art). I am from and live in the silicon valley, more specifically San Jose, CA.

I saw and felt the effect of the .Com crash. At the time I was going to a local Jr. College and noticed a large number of students compared to the previous year and a large shift to the medical program. I took an intro to nursing class and met alot of people from the computer industies. That scared the shit out of me, and pressured me to stay away from that direction, which brings me to where I am now. I know for a fact that I have to go back to school after I obtain my degree. Now that the economy is much more stable and on the rise, I do not feel as much pressure as before to stay away from computers, but the idea still lingers.

I have great interest in computers and technology, and taught myself everything I know right now on my own time and not through school. One of my HS friends earned a degree in Computer Science and finds himself without a job. Im not sure if thats because he got caught up in the hype of the .Com era figuring that it was easy money and/or maybe he's just not talented.

A few days ago I ran into this article on slashdot.com:

http://it.slashdot.org/article.pl?si...id=146&tid=218

I found it to be very insightful.


Now a days "young adults" are taking longer to move out of their house, get a real job, and be "responsible." There is a big article in Time magazine about this. "Betwicksters," I think or something similar, is the term that was coined to those "yound adults."


I find myself in a similar situation, but would going back to school to obtain a degree in CS be all in vain becaue I would not be able to find a job, assuming I have the talent?

i think go with your strengths/tallents/interests
there might be alot of hard things to do in America but making money isn't one of them

I never went to college for computers either, however, I would say that a CS Degree or any knowledge obtained for that matter is never in vain.

KC

If computer science is your thing it certainly makes sense to get the degree.

There was certainly a bit of a lull in there where work was a bit harder to come by... The market isn't like it was in 1996-99 but it has recovered pretty well. I recently came across a new job and my company in particular has tired 4 new developers for the R&D department in the past month with more hires likely to be coming by the end of Q3 '05.