Looking for some advice for a college major

[ranvier]

Hi I'm in Texas in the United States and I go to a Regular state university nothing too nice, good enough though I'm sure. Ive been wanting to major in MIS (Management information Systems), I just worry that its a bad degree. I'm already a business major, almost all of my business core is done, I just want to work with computers its the only thing I can see myself doing. Accounting is in heavy demand right now, and everybody tells me I should do it, and don't major in anything IT. I don't really want to be a programmer either, so i figured information systems may not be a bad bet.

So how bout it guys, is MIS really as bad as everyone says. I mean people make it sound like I'll never find a job and if I do it'll be like a 10 dollar an hour job, that I'll probably get laid off from. I have really good people skills, and I like to talk to people about technical things. I recognize this may not be the right place for this, but this is by far the best community on the Internet. Surely somebody here has an opinion on this, I'd like to hear it. :confused:

[Derxst]

Complete your business major and then go get some certifications instead.

[samalex]

I'm also in Texas and doing some of the same research as you, except I need to find a college that either caters to night-time students or has everything online. I actually just did a blog post (http://samalex.blogspot.com/2011/04/back-to-school.html) today about this with the two degree plans I'm looking at, one from Tarleton and one from UT Brownsville, both being offered through our local community college.

I think getting any IT degree is a great move, but if you can supplement it with Accounting or Business that would definitely be a Pro because though the IT training you get will eventually become outdated, most of the accounting and business techniques will be around for a while. I mean NPV, IRR, Amortization, etc are tried and true formulas that are pretty static in the accounting and financial worlds.

So do either a Major and Minor in Accounting/Business and IT or choose a degree that focuses on both, like the BBA in CIS on my blog post (see link upstream).

And for state schools, there's nothing wrong with those. A&M and UT, in my opinion anyway, have the best Computer Science programs around. I live in Waco and went to a technical college for my AAS, and we had lots of CS majors at Baylor take classes at my school, specially Unix and C++, because they said Baylor was too hands off. Granted this was over 10 years ago, but I just see the state colleges getting more funding and extra perks for technology than private schools. Plus state schools are cheaper :)


Complete your business major and then go get some certifications instead.

I don't have any problems with college students getting certifications, but honestly certs only benefit someone who can augment them with experience. Wait until you get hired into an entry level position and get certified on the stuff you use daily. That way when you decide to move up, whether within or elsewhere, you have experience and certs to backup your resume. If someone spends the time and money getting certified on something they don't use daily that knowledge will slowly disappear over time.

Take care and post some updates as your path progresses.

Sam

[celsdogg]

i have been in technology for over 10 years. I chose IT because I love technology (always and forever, lol). I also love working with similar people, however, this is becoming a rarity in todays IT environment. More and more folks are selecting technology in college just like they would choose <insert random major here>.

I worked in several different IT positions before going to college. I went and got a BS in CIS-Networking. this has helped me gain positions in large fortune 500 companies as opposed to startups and the like.

In my case, sometimes I come home and i hate to look at my own machines/network/etc., simply because I have been doing it all day/night/whatever. Sometimes I wish i did construction so that when i get home I could embrace technology instead. it really depends on the day i guess, some days are awesome, some days are aggravating.

As for job security? my first job out of college was for a finance firm you probably have heard of. Then the market crashed. the first place they cut the fat was in the new folks. everywhere i have been, there are a good amount of folks approaching 10 years with whatever company. i have no doubt that you will be able to find a job, and it will probably pay well. the important thing is to make sure you are visible among the other folks coming out of college who, when they got to admissions, just checked off IT because it was there.

Im not sure if this made a whole lot of sense, its just my experience thus far.

Regards.

[ranvier]

I'll figure something out, Its nice to see people saying something positive about IT for a change though.

[bsharp]

I would recommend not becoming a code monkey though...those jobs are easily outsourced and I firmly believe that within 10 years 90% of today's programming jobs will be in India and China. It costs nothing to email source code across the globe and keeping a skeletal full-time staff of code maintainers would be cheaper than keeping an entire team on the payroll.

If you live in one of those countries, on the other hand, programming is probably a pretty good bet for you.

[JDShu]

I recently read this (I guess its a famous article). It mirrored my own thinking lately really well, so I think its awesome advice:

http://www.paulgraham.com/love.html

There is a bit of advice at then end about how to figure what you like.

As a side note, UF (like most tech forums, probably) is rarely a good place to ask about jobs as I have seen many of these threads with the same snobbish answers every time.

[linuxforartists]

Lots of good advice in this thread! Coming from my own experience with studying web design, sometimes I wish I had studied IT instead. I see new jobs for system administrators every day. For web designers, not so much.

I think the business model lends itself to ongoing employment. You don't just build a system, you need to hire someone to manage it and do troubleshooting. It's a more long-term investment. With web design, it's mostly freelance on a project-by-project basis. Only wish I'd realized this a year ago when deciding what to study ](*,)

As for the person who said low-level programming will be outsourced to India and China, I can definitely see that happening. You really need to focus on where the innovation is happening to stay marketable. Mobile development is really hot, for example.

Regardless of the major, the best advice I can give is to start producing great work samples and do lots of networking. If I were an employer and an applicant walked in with a portfolio of awesome projects and a letter of recommendation from an industry pro, I'd hire him on the spot.

The other advice I'd give to check out this: The Recession-Proof Graduate (http://www.slideshare.net/choehn/recessionproof-graduate-1722966).

By the way, kudos to JDShu for bringing up Paul Graham. His writing is pure gold! One of my all-time favorite pieces is his essay Why Nerds Are Unpopular (http://www.paulgraham.com/nerds.html).

[ErikNJ]

There's a big difference between a "code monkey" and a good computer scientist/engineer. A code monkey is someone who can recite java docs and knows APIs, etc - there is value there. However, a computer scientist or an engineer knows how to think and solve problems creatively.

What would be of a real value would be someone who understands business, can communicate well with other business-minded people, yet can creatively design software that solves new business problems. You'd also need to be able to market yourself as someone who is not just a typical IT guy or "code monkey."

Having the business background may be of a real value if you're able to combine it with engineering and science. However, it won't be easy - you'll need to study a lot of abstract concepts and understand theory. You likely wouldn't be able to churn out functioning applications as quickly as the guys who get a few certifications but that just comes with practice. In other words, most people are capable of memorizing some documentation or some libraries, packages, or whatever. That simple stuff is the stuff that can be outsourced (for better or worse).

[ranvier]

Yeah I suppose thats why software engineer got ranked the best job in the united states, There seems to be a demand for highly skilled programmers, everybody else is at risk. I'm more interested in like a system admin like position though, thats why I kinda figured MIS wouldn't be such a bad degree.