Computer Science graduates have the highest unemployment rate in the UK?

Ugh I'm hoping to go into Computer Science.... Do I take any of this seriously :/

Don't. Just make sure you attend loads of events and do some projects outside of university and you'll be fine.

okay, any suggestions for projects/events?

okay, any suggestions for projects/events?

What was it for? Web Dev? .NET Dev?

Java, C, Javascript.

What was your role? Looks like a mix of web dev and low-level stuff.

The highest starting salary for a grad techie is around £45 k in UK and £60k in US (100k $ (Silicon Valley))

Comp Sci (and the people that study it) as a degree discipline pisses me off sometimes.

It's a generalist degree that trains you in a thin veneer of everything, so that after 3 years, you know how an operating system works and how to do basic for loops in a piece of code. It does not qualify you to do anything. A couple of modules does not an expert make. What employers are looking for is a level of dedication and expertise from the people they're hiring. Software developers are highly in demand, but what are not in demand are apprentice software developers that take 4 weeks to write a 2 day piece of code, don't know how to interpret requirements and read a design document, and haven't got the first clue about delivering projects and working in the real world.

It frustrates me that people, especially from more traditional universities, see: good honours degree + skills shortage = £££££££ This is not a true reflection of the real world at all. Similarly, it annoys me that the same people don't consider less traditional disciplines in IT. I personally think that you have to start specialising your skills in this field at an early age to progress. Yes, it closes doors, but if you pick sensibly, you can end up with essentially a job for life and rapid career progression. Programming is boring, in my personal opinion. As is working with DB's and web development. Some people find this interesting, so I'm not going to criticise people for wanting to get into these (relatively financially rewarding) fields. However, there is more out there than this, but you have to specialise and commit to it. Infosec/Cyber is an area that is grossly under-resourced at the moment. Companies are offering silly money for people with the right skills in this area, but yet so few people are even considering it because it doesn't fit with the cookie cutter Comp Sci graduate prospectus. Half the trouble here is that if you're smart and have good A-Levels and are into IT, you're funnelled in to the Comp Sci path, especially where top unis are concerned, yet these courses teach you very little in the way of practical employability, skills and certainly don't give you any specialism, which causes you then to miss out on the opportunity to pursue specialist careers, as, ironically, you get pipped to the post by people like me, from (comparatively) lowly universities doing non-traditional, practical degrees.

My friend's Google offer (he goes to Stanford) was ~$105k + 15% bonus + 250 Google stock units (or ~$150k at the time, vesting over 4 years so: $37.5k/year). All-in about ~$158k first year which is pretty close to what banks are paying for first year top performers in NY.

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Yeah, it's mental haha. The top tech firms/startups will all pay similarly (+ or - like $30k) in Silicon Valley. Competition is tough though, he had 2 45 minute programming phone interviews.

..
I would assume you'd have to be the best of the best to land something like that..

Nah, you just have to be good enough to a) pass the CV screen and b) perform well in the interviews. Oh yeah, Google have a 1st year (2nd of a 4 year course) internship programme if you're interested for when you start uni. I'll probs be applying for it too.

Yeah, it's mental haha. The top tech firms/startups will all pay similarly (+ or - like $30k) in Silicon Valley. Competition is tough though, he had 2 45 minute programming phone interviews.

What you fail to grasp in all this is that the cost of living in the Bay Area, Zurich etc are so mental that you can spend an entire $120k salary on very basic living expenses and any corporate job pays like this. Even a five year veteran cop in San Francisco is on $90k. How does nearly $50k in rent a year sound? (What someone was paying in rent at a place in Zurich I had an interview for.)