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Job Prospects with a Computer Science Degree

I'm planning on getting a computer science degree (masters) at university and then possibly becoming a software engineer. However, I'm slightly worried I won't be able to land a good job after university. My hopes may be quite ambitious, but I'm looking to get a salary of maybe £60k a year that can scale up as I get more experience, at least getting 6 figures at some point in my career. How realistic is this, especially if I get a place in one of the top universities (Oxford, Imperial, UCL)? Also, I've read that salaries in the US are higher, how easy is it to get a job in the US from a UK university? I would appreciate any knowledge on this topic.

Reply 1

Firstly, when you say you are planning on getting a Masters, are you a school student who has yet to go to uni and plans on doing a 4 year integrated masters, or a current undergraduate? If you are an undergraduate, what subject are you looking to do? These are lofty ambitions and I think it's best to plan them a bit more clearly with more info :smile:

Reply 2

£60k is very optimistic as a salary straight out of university. Also with the number of computer science students having exploded in the past few years I suspect it'll become quite a saturated job market. Maybe I'm wrong, it's not a field I have looked much into.

Reply 3

Original post by AnaaaElec
Firstly, when you say you are planning on getting a Masters, are you a school student who has yet to go to uni and plans on doing a 4 year integrated masters, or a current undergraduate? If you are an undergraduate, what subject are you looking to do? These are lofty ambitions and I think it's best to plan them a bit more clearly with more info :smile:

I'm an A level student right now, I was planning on doing an integrated master's but I may just do a bachelor's, I haven't fully decided yet. What is a realistic salary as a new grad?

Reply 4

Original post by Sinnoh
£60k is very optimistic as a salary straight out of university. Also with the number of computer science students having exploded in the past few years I suspect it'll become quite a saturated job market. Maybe I'm wrong, it's not a field I have looked much into.

That is mainly the thing I'm worried about. I believe it's only going to get harder to find a good job in tech as more people try to apply for ones. Also, advancements of AI is not really helping. Do you know what a realistic salary is as a new grad?

Reply 5

Original post by Iby28
I'm planning on getting a computer science degree (masters) at university and then possibly becoming a software engineer. However, I'm slightly worried I won't be able to land a good job after university. My hopes may be quite ambitious, but I'm looking to get a salary of maybe £60k a year that can scale up as I get more experience, at least getting 6 figures at some point in my career. How realistic is this, especially if I get a place in one of the top universities (Oxford, Imperial, UCL)? Also, I've read that salaries in the US are higher, how easy is it to get a job in the US from a UK university? I would appreciate any knowledge on this topic.

Unironically I think as long as you are not awkward in the interviews you will be fine. A lot of my friends from sixth form who did CS are pretty socially inept and really struggled in interviews, and despite being really good (in terms gettings firsts, producing many high quality projects and obtaining various acolades from extracurricular activities) at what they do, they struggled to land jobs anywhere.

In contrast people like myself (pretty lazy, no degree at the time and mediocre A-Levels) fell into relatively kushy jobs by being blithering idiots who can maintain eye contact.

From my understanding however the job market is pretty wack right now, so all I can say is good luck :biggrin:

Reply 6

Original post by Iby28
That is mainly the thing I'm worried about. I believe it's only going to get harder to find a good job in tech as more people try to apply for ones. Also, advancements of AI is not really helping. Do you know what a realistic salary is as a new grad?

From high 20,000s to about 40,000 is more likely.

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