Choosing an IT Major

[d3kst3r]

Well it's that time at Uni when I have to choose a major for my IT degree and at this point I have no clue. Any advice from those who understand the industry?

[dozer]

networking or project management seems to be where cash is constantly thrown.

[hazza]

do what your best at

fuck off software though ugh

[Zomgie]

major in bittorent porn

[d3kst3r]

yeah software engineering looks like a shit job. writing code all day and drinking coffee sounds like hell. i might go with networking.

[exekewtable]

as an employer a degree with a networking component might be useful, but you would be better off with a years worth of experience than a years worth of uni.... I don't think the degree is worth much... I employ 15 people...

[Hired Goon]

as an employer a degree with a networking component might be useful, but you would be better off with a years worth of experience than a years worth of uni.... I don't think the degree is worth much... I employ 15 people...

true, except if you're going for a job with a large corporate and a prerequisite is having a degree.

as for the best subjects, well, I did an IT degree and pretty much all the programming subjects sucked. Sounds like you're not into software dev much, so maybe networking is a good bet as others have said.

Personally, I think getting your degree is important, but trying to get some more hands on part time work in the "real" IT industry will help a lot more, as exe said.

[still life]

If you're able to be a programmer, there's certainly steady work in it and it's a good place to start learning if you want to go into project management. If you DO a programming course as part of your degree, try for a university or course structure that teaches fundamentals as a part of the course rather than "employable skills".

In my experience people coming out of vocational universities tend to have more trouble adjusting to change, and in the industry change is fairly frequent.

Also remember that progamming is steady constant work, and doesn't mean you have to be there when no one else is, as you would as network admin or DBA.

[locust]

Well, what would you like to do?

[d3kst3r]

I was thinking business commerce etc. but then figured there would be no money in that. I know software engineering gets easy work but I hate doing it so right now I'm looking at networking.

[s3raph]

I went with Software dev/Data comms dual major. Nice and versatile. Where are you going, I go to QUT.

[locust]

If you hate software engineering, then don't do it :)

If you hate programming, then in larger places there are roles for technical writers, analysts, testers etc. Not sure what the situation is in terms of jumping straight into those roles as a graduate though, versus having to start out as a code monkey.

For systems or network administration, you may want to consider more specific accreditations alongside your university degree. I know at least one of the universities here in WA puts their IT/Networking students through one of the Cisco certs.

Whatever you end up gleaning from talking to people, this forum, teh intarweb etc, talk to your course controller/careers counsellor whatever at uni and go through your decision and reasoning with them.

(That said, the enrolment advice officer who handled my uni course was fucking useless)

[dwarfthrower]

yeah software engineering looks like a shit job. writing code all day and drinking coffee sounds like hell. i might go with networking.
All day and all night thankyou very much. Software is only good if you're a natural born programmer. If the mindset for writing code hasn't clicked for you yet, you'd be well advised to steer clear of it.

[Vardsy]

All day and all night thankyou very much. Software is only good if you're a natural born programmer. If the mindset for writing code hasn't clicked for you yet, you'd be well advised to steer clear of it.

Amen to that Dwarfy

I am doing my IT degree at the moment and I have about as much fun doing the programming subjects as I would putting cigarettes out on my tounge.

That said though they have to be done, but there is no way I would doing any for my major.

I am lucky enough to have worked in the industry as a Network Administrator for the last 5 years - so the networking and database stuff really clicks in my everyday job.

I think regardless of whether you enjoy it or not things like .net and java are going to explode over the next few years, as well as security and data management.

Then again I have a friend you works in IT sales and he kills it.

[Ash_Housewares]

If the mindset for writing code hasn't clicked for you yet, you'd be well advised to steer clear of it.

yeah, i'd second that. if you've done anything more than just an intro programming course and don't think coding is way-cool, chances are you never will.

in fact even if you've done an intro programming course that probably applies!

you'll just end up bored and frustrated and write crappy code that some poor bastard has to try and maintain :)

[Al]

All day and all night thankyou very much. Software is only good if you're a natural born programmer. If the mindset for writing code hasn't clicked for you yet, you'd be well advised to steer clear of it.
Fucking oath.

I love coding, and I'm fucking good at it. If you're not, don't do it. There are enough shit programmers already.

If you think coding all day and drinking coffee sucks, you'll LOVE networking!

[Vardsy]

Yeah being a Network Admin means no working nights and no coffee

/sarcasm

[Ic3]

Or you could do what I did and also studying some business management and get into consulting. I plan to do my MBA in a few years and add to my IT/Business degree for an executive IT position. Those are in demand at the moment as a lot of corporate companies realise now that non-IT can't manage IT projects!

[d3kst3r]

I went with Software dev/Data comms dual major. Nice and versatile. Where are you going, I go to QUT.

I go to QUT GP campus lol.

[d3kst3r]

Or you could do what I did and also studying some business management and get into consulting. I plan to do my MBA in a few years and add to my IT/Business degree for an executive IT position. Those are in demand at the moment as a lot of corporate companies realise now that non-IT can't manage IT projects!

Thats exactly what I had in mind except I keep hearing people rant about how business with IT isn't very easy to get employment with.

[Kindred77]

A lot of Uni's now are incorporating vendor certifications into their programs so you may want to look into Microsoft, Cisco and Novell certs on top of your networking and project management component.

[Ic3]

Thats exactly what I had in mind except I keep hearing people rant about how business with IT isn't very easy to get employment with.

Make sure your major is in IT and that any business courses you do are just elective types. Also remember, you have to start at the bottom of a company, very hard to come out of uni and go straight to the top.

So when you go for jobs, apply for the lower end ones first, get at least 5 years of experience before you even try to step into a full consulting job. I'm still doing a lot more development than consulting at my work, as I don't have heaps of experience first.

[Guest.]

I don't know if any degrees contain a SAP component but if you happen to come across one that does I would definately give it thought. SAP consultants get paid very well indeed.

I agree with the comments of becoming a code jockey, unless you truly like programming then steer clear.

Still_Life makes a good point also, it's important to look for a course that teaches good base foundations.

[d3kst3r]

I've signed up for Intelligent Systems as my first major. The top three I looked at were Multimedia, Network Security and IS. Hopefully I've made a right choice.

[jasebert]

Network security is always the right choice. Multimedia for me is a pain the ass but people do find it heaps of fun, and IS.

Dude, I am sure you have made the right choice for you. Tell me how you do with network security though, because I would be interested to hear first hand how somebody goes in it.

[bronco]

I did software engineering at QUT and I really enjoyed it, but when I finished there was fuck all work for programmers, but for anyone with experience in networking or databases, there was plenty of work.

Just don't specialise too soon. You may like something now, but if you have to do it everyday you might sick of it pretty quickly.