Computer Science or Info Tech? 380
An anonymous reader writes "I am currently completing my final year of secondary schooling, and in the next few weeks I need to submit my university (or college to all you Americans) preferences for processing. I've decided that I want a career in the IT industry, but am unsure of whether to apply for a Computer Science course or an Information Technology course. I understand the difference between the two courses (CS being the study of the principles and concepts involved in Computing at a more fundamental, and often more sophisticated level, and IT being a more practical, application based approach to computing), but would like to know from anybody who has studied either or both of the courses what kinds of careers each course would lead into and what would you recommend for someone such as myself, having a broad range of interests and wishing to dabble in everything before deciding where to specialise?"
choose scientist over technician (Score:1, Interesting)
This at least gives you the dream that you will not just be reinventing wheels for company XYZ.
depends, of course (Score:3, Interesting)
Comment removed (Score:5, Interesting)
MIS (Score:2, Interesting)
Cherry-pick! (Score:3, Interesting)
If you really want to understand the subject, take overlapping courses from both specialties. You'll need to know how both communities think to do well in either.
I had to do this in math: to understand calculus, you needed both the practical eamples, taught only in the engineering course, and know how the theroms worked, taught only in the "pure" maths courses. So I took one and audited the other, and and aced them both after getting an F in the previous term (;-))
This worked for computer science and software engineering too, and in my current job consulting in IT, I use a lot of science...
Re:Depends (Score:3, Interesting)
That's a horrible metric. I work in the financial services industry (i.e. not the tech industry). I'm not even in a programming position (I'm in network engineering), and myself and a lot of the people I work with have either engineering, computer science, or math degrees. When you move into the developers, I would say that 85-90% of them have a degree in one of those three fields. Information technology degrees are highly uncommon.
Re:choose scientist over technician (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:choose scientist over technician (Score:3, Interesting)
I've met both UNIX and Windows sys admins in the real world who are products of some of these courses -- and let me tell you, they leave a lot to be desired. Even UNIX admins often fail to understand fundamental UNIX concepts like awk and sed; they find vi confusing; and they can't fathom how pipes work. These are the same ilk who write shell scripts that look like they were written using some poorly-written DOS
It makes me wonder: how do these people even get these jobs?
1) aim high and 2) learn a profession (Score:4, Interesting)
Translating this to CS/IT: a programmer can easily become a sys-admin, but I don't see that happen so quickly the other way around. BTW, I'm saying all this with 25 years experience behind the belt. I've even been a short while on the other side of the fence, teaching CS/IT at the university.
The other part --aim high-- is simple. Which of your two options would be the biggest challenge to complete. Pick that one!! You can always downgrade, it's much tougher to upgrade.
Re:choose scientist over technician (Score:1, Interesting)
What's your personality type? (Score:1, Interesting)
The reason this falls along the "iNtuiting" vs "Sensing" axis is very simple and obvious when you think about it from the perspective of CS being about concepts and IT being about practical application.
Keep in mind that N's make up about 25% of the general population, but here at Slashdot N's are the vast majority. That's why nearly everyone is telling you to choose CS. However, there is no "right answer" when it comes to N vs S. It's something you have to decide for yourself.
Folks who prefer N (myself included) will tell you that EE > CS > IT > MIS. However, folks who prefer S (75% of the general population) will prefer the opposite order.
p.s. The fact that you even have to ask, and the way you asked both tell me that you will probably struggle if you choose CS; therefore, I would recommend IT for you.
Uh, no. Study CS if you want a career. (Score:4, Interesting)
A degree in IT requires the study of how to use and apply computers. A degree in CS requires the study of how to program computers.
If you get a degree in IT, you'll be able to get jobs in IT. If you get a degree in CS, you'll be able to get jobs in CS or IT. So, that CS degree gives you a lot more job options. Further, a lot of people in IT burn out on it, so if you got a degree in IT, you could end up stuck doing a job you hate, while if you get a degree in CS, you can transition back and forth between IT and programming jobs as you like.
To clarify further, while a programming manager won't hire an IT person as a programmer at any level (they didn't study it, after all, so theyd have to learn years of programming experience on the job), an IT director will generally hire a CS person as an entry level IT person, and then once you have that job experience it's easy to move up the IT ladder as you change jobs. (I went directly from lowly IT grunt in a larger company to IT director in a smaller one.) You really can learn how IT is done on the job, and since there are few barriers to moving up in the field (with so many burnouts there isn't as much experienced competition as you'd expect) it's much better to have that CS degree and then if you want to do IT, work your way up in it.
Re:choose scientist over technician (Score:2, Interesting)
Or better yet, skip the idea of programmer completely, as it is a shitty career choice, and work on your MBA so you can make good money while all the CS/IT majors and High School grads (a.k.a. sales) do all the work.
Re:Essentially correct (Score:4, Interesting)
What you are saying may hold some truth at the entry level and that is only because entry-level IT jobs have a fuzzier skill requirement than entry-level CS jobs. And that may largely be a function of IT being more of a trade field with many specializations possible; CS jobs tend to share the same horizontal underpinnings.
The hard parts of IT are learned on the job, much like the hard parts of software engineering. A fresh CS Ph.D. could be equally worthless as a software architect or IT architect.
How often do you see a classically trained computer scientist (with no IT experience) hired to design and implement worldwide data center operations for an international Internet company serving hundreds of millions of users per day?
About as often as you see a CIO hired to design the search algorithm that's going to be deployed in those data centers.
Any interchangeability of IT and CS for IT jobs goes away after you move up from grunt work. A key difference is that it's easier to bullshit your way into higher-level CS work because society has been conditioned to accept inferior software as the norm. In contrast, when IT doesn't work, companies can't do business, and when the company can't do business, people get fired.
Re:Essentially correct (Score:2, Interesting)
The main thing you have to do is check out the universities of your choice. The most important thing is to like the professors' personalitys and make sure they have intellect. Thats why I choose my university. Generally CS is in the school of engineering (a good cs department will share alot of classes with industrial engineering). And IT is usually a shootoff from and established CS department (since its a newer field), so you will be able to switch majors without being required to spend any extra time past a traditional four years. Choose science your first year and if you really like the tech stuff more than the theory, than go the technician route.