Bad and Good news for Computer Science

[AIBob]

I was looking around for some computer science things when I came across this article from August 2004.
http://techrepublic.com.com/5100-22_11-5306830.html
It says that Computer Science is a about half as popular as three years ago.
This is good because it will raise the pay for people like me that are going into computer science, but it is bad because it will raise the cost of many things considering that there are so many things that require computer scientists.

[kutty18]

Considering that I too am going into CS, this article is a little disheartening. I think outsourcing jobs has some effect in this. It probably scared away many people. But also not only does this mean more pay for those who decide to take CS but also less "competition" for jobs and research...let's hope

[Alan Anderson]

I'll take a contrarian view and say I don't expect a lack of "CS people" to increase the cost of goods. It doesn't take a Computer Scientist to program a microwave oven or water conditioning system. Most embedded system programmers learn their craft either in EE classes or by practical experience, not in CS classes.

The Computer Scientists these days are needed to develop algorithms and techniques and tools. That way, other people with more knowledge of the problem domain can develop specific applications without needing a CS degree.

[Chris Hibner]

Originally Posted by AIBob

This is good because it will raise the pay for people like me that are going into computer science, ...

I hate to break this to you, but...

The reason that everyone is abandoning computer science is becuase the pay is dropping so fast. I recently read an article in which most people with computer science degrees (typically IS/IT people) are making something like 40% less money today than 5 years ago.

The real issue is that people in India and China can do the same job for a lot less pay than we do here in the US. That means that companies are not paying for IS or IT people here - they outsource it to India for much cheaper. And when they do hire people here, they do it for much less than they used to pay. The job market and pay scale have gotten so bad that a lot of people with computer science degrees are looking for another career.

[MrToast]

Very interesting, because I'm a CS major at BYU. One of the things we were told in the introduction lecture is that CS majors (from BYU at least) are among the top 3 highest paid graduates.

Oh well, I love what I do. I don't really care how much I get paid for it in the future, just as long as it's enough to live on.

Dave

[probizzle]

Originally Posted by MrToast

Oh well, I love what I do. I don't really care how much I get paid for it in the future, just as long as it's enough to live on.

This development is most likely good news for Computer Science.

Because I think the people who are dropping out are the people who would have been in Computer Science (only) because it is a high paying field. And the more the people like that, the more of a devaluation the entire field gets.

It's people like Dave (MrToast) that should be sticking around, and it looks like that is what is going to happen.

No?

[Chris Hibner]

Just to let everyone know, I didn't make my post to be a jerk or to scare the crap out of people. I just wanted to be sure people knew what was going on. Here at TRW, we eliminated our entire IS department about 2 years ago and outsourced the whole thing to India. The only person left from the old IS is the head of IS - he is still around. Other than that, we have two or three people from India on site here and we have a call-in number (to India) to report problems. They do whatever they can remotely and if they can't do that, they send one of the on site people to our desks.

Also as a side note, my brother has a computer science degree. He's still doing pretty well, but I don't know exactly what he's doing these days (I mean, I know where he works, but he's switched job functions a few times so I don't know exactly what his job entails now).

[AIBob]

Originally Posted by Chris Hibner

...I just wanted to be sure people knew what was going on....

That is why I made this thread.
To see what people thought of whats going on with computer science field..
I am sure we all understand, at least I do.

[Eugenia Gabrielov]

Though I wouldn't say I'm going into computer science as a career, I think I'm gonna agree with Mr. Anderson on this one. It seems to me like technology is improving at a very high rate (just take a look at all the stuff in the news page, progress in medicine, etc.). With these improvements comes a need for all sorts of people to work with them. Yes, the job market fluctuates.

For example: Those entering the nursing and medicine fields will have a huge advantage in the next few years (projected by many career articles) due to the current retirement rate. However, as the job climate changes, you may want to stay optimistic about opportunities for CS majors. If you want that job, you just have to distinguish yourself from others. I'm sure you all can do it.

By the way...I'll be the first to hire you, because well...I am awful with that sort of thing. Go find people like myself who have a natural tendency to mess up anything computer-related but are planning to go into a science field, and you'lll be set .