IT degrees with good prospects

Hi,
I am planning to do a BSc in Computer Science next year, but I was just wondering which IT/ Computing degree has the best prospects, in terms of emplyment. I am also strongly considering progessing and doing a Masters afterwards, does that change things? Another thing, if I did a computer science degree, will that also cover .NET, C++, etc. not just Java? Because most of the jobs I saw, involved ASP .NET etc.

Thank you!

Reply 1

Arturo Bandini

Computer Science and IT are very different degrees. As is software engineering/programming.

If you just want to program, do a software course. Computer Science is usually largely programming but with other modules such as maths/logic/networks/hardware etc to give you a solid background in a range of disciplines. And what language you learn is always gonna be course dependent, although most will teach java/c++ with some basic html/php/machine code and other things alongside it. The point is, you may not go into .NET deeply during a degree, but once you know how to program in any language, picking up another language is fairly simple, because you just have to get used to the different syntax. So I wouldn't worry about it too much. What's more important is that you're learning the concepts of programming and practising a lot.

As for IT, that's just some excel spreadsheet **** so I wouldn't know about that.

(edited 13 years ago)

Reply 2

polar_wrath11

Out of the IT degrees, Computer Science has the best prospects. But it also depends which uni you go to. Make sure the course content isn't one of those Microsoft Access taught courses. But otherwise CS is the best :biggrin:

and you may as well go for the straight undergrad masters (MEng/MSci)

Reply 3

sunspoon

Pc Guy

A lot of the Computer Science departments do most if not all of their programming based teaching on Linux/Unix machines (for flexibility and cost reasons). Hence .NET, which requires Microsoft Windows, is usually overlooked because once you know Java and C++, then C#/.NET becomes almost trivial to pick up.

Reply 4

gbuchanan

Many CS degrees do have some elements of .NET in them now - but as sunspoon said, the stuff you learn on the course will make getting up to speed in the area of MS coding isn't hard.

The job prospect thing breaks down (roughly) as follows: CS rather than a Multimedia/IT degree ; the institution AND department matter (strong departments in OK universities are much better than OK departments in "prestigious" universities); and a good degree result. It also depends a bit on the department's fit with employers; e.g. York (where I did my BSc) has very strong links with defence and aerospace - but less so with the finance industry.

Few employers recruiting fresh BSc graduates will be concerned about your specific programming languages - they'll expect you NOT to know what they use, the large majority of the time...

Reply 5

mikejpb

sunspoon

You'd be surprised.

Firstly, most good Computer Science departments enforce Linux/Unix on students, but there are a lot of places that stick with Windows and NetBeans for next to all programming needed throughout the degree.

On the subject of C#/.NET, it is naive to think that once you know Java that you know C#. Yes, you can pick it up and be somewhat useful in it, but you're really only scratching the surface. C# has really evolved beyond what the Java language can do. The .NET framework is a fantastic bit of kit, and the likes of Lambda expressions and LINQ make programming so much easier, not to mention Visual Studio being probably the best IDE of recent years. It'd take at least a year for a good Java developer to be a good .NET developer, simply because they'd need to learn the framework and the differences in the language.

Reply 6

sunspoon

mikejpb

I didn't realise that there were actually any computer science departments stay away from UNIX at all. Probably just my naivity :smile:

On the subject of adapting to C# from a Java background - as is the case with learning new programming languages - there are always unique aspects of every new language that comes around which acts as their main selling point to the dev community - but my point was that the semantics, syntax and general programming style is so similar to Java that those who have been trained and reared in C-like syntax should be able to pick it up quicker than those who have only been exposed to, for example, functional languages, or no programming experience at all.

I fully agree that the .NET framework is brilliant - I'v recently started making an Xbox Indie game, and Microsoft really deserve a pat on the back for making such a great environment for developers.