I always wanted to pursue CS as my majors but due to the recent news of SWE getting fired changed my mind
Now I’m confused about what to opt for my bachelors. Should I take CS or a Management degree?
Go after what you love.
If you want job security pursue database and Cobol.
I would go with CS. It’s very easy later to switch to management with a CS background, but it’s im possible to switch to CS with å management background.
A degree in management is useless. “Management” isn’t a job, it’s a title. You still need to be skilled at something useful to manage other people. These kinds of degrees are for football players that have to have a degree and the party crowd that needs training on how to be a functioning human. This is a perfect degree if you want a soul-sucking job in megacorp HR or banal white collar office management leading a team of minimum wage temps. IMO, learn a productive skill instead.
The CS market is very saturated (at least in the US). I’m a lead software dev responsible for hiring and probably 90% of the resumes I get are from people needing H1B sponsorship; this is where the saturation is coming from. Most of the candidates are pretty weak with an increasing over reliance on AI assistance, so if you have a knack for programming using your own brain, you should go for it. Just be prepared for a long and draining job hunt.
Management is managing people and/or processes. If you don’t think it’s a productive skill, it’s because you’ve never done it or understand the value it brings.
Good luck completing a product or being profitable without any.
You’re missing a key point here: Management is a secondary function, in the sense that management doesn’t in itself produce anything of value. When done correctly, it enhances the productivity of those actually producing something.
In order to be effective at management, you need to have a good idea of what the people you are managing do. Otherwise, you won’t be able to appropriately manage resources and help people be effective by moving support to the right places. “Management” as a degree aims to teach people how to manage resources they don’t understand, and more often than not ends up producing managers that have no idea what the engineers and technicians they’re managing actually do. These managers are usually more of a burden on the people they’re managing than anything else. Every good or decent manager or leader I’ve come across has a background from the field of the people they’re managing.
I already know java from my high school (cuz I was interested back then) but after looking at the current number of layoffs I’m scared to opt for CS
And is it true that AI is going to make SWE’s work more efficient and create more jobs? Or is it just people coping?
IMO AI is a bubble and it will burst in the next year or two. We use AI at work and there are benefits, but I do not believe AI will be replacing anyone other than the absolute bottom of the talent pool. It’s mostly going to accelerate the productivity of developers (creating more value for the company with no increase in wages for you, of course).
Mass layoffs happen every couple years in the software world. One of Microsoft, Google, Salesforce, Oracle, etc. will do layoffs and the rest will do it too “because market conditions”. They’ll then rehire that many people 6 months later. It’s a tool they use to clean out lower performers and replace them without having to go through the arduous process of firing someone for performance reasons. The US economy is going to shit right now, so that’s giving them an excuse to do it; it’s not a sign that the software industry is in trouble.
What makes you happy to do? It may be neither.
I’m an Ops and HR manager (weird combo I know) because I love the #s game and clean processes and also get a kick out of helping people develop and succeed.
I love computers but didn’t want to kill my joy in tinkering so I didn’t pursue them in higher education. I’m self taught in that regard.
If your goal is money, become an investment banker. I kind of wish I knew about this option when I was young. Those people are all millionaires at age 30.
Your life will suck for 10 years but you’ll have enough of a nest egg you can retire at 35 if you want.
But for that you gotta be in one of the top 10-20 unis of the QS ranking. And I can’t be even in top 50 so investment banking isn’t a option for me
That’s what I heard and read from everywhere. If you know some other way then you may suggest some
What are you going to believe? Something you read everywhere or advice from a random trustworthy guy on the internet?
