Advice needed!!

At national 5 I received 7A's

I'm currently in s5 studying:

-higher human bio
-higher chemistry
-higher computing science
-higher english
-national 5 maths

In s6 I plan to study:
-Advanced H biology
-Advanced H chemistry
-Higher maths
-crash higher physics

I originally wanted to study medicine but as I don't meet the entry requirements for most Scottish universities for medicine I'm unsure now what to study. I emailed the University of Aberdeen for medicine and they replied they would consider an application from me and if they were to make me an offer I would have to have a strong academic performance in s6. So now I don't know if I should apply for medicine but only at the Uni of Aberdeen as now I have confirmation that they would consider an application from me. Subjects I'm interested in include biology, chemistry, maths, and computing science. These subjects are quite different from each other so that is why I believe I am having a difficult time choosing my career options. Some courses that I am interested in are pharmacy, software engineering, and ai and robotics. I don't know what path to go down and would love to hear some advice.

Reply 1

taskmgr1

For computer science:

The biggest misconceptions in computer science usually are: it's impossible to get a decent job as a software engineer and AI is going to make software engineers redundant.

A career in computer science requires a good amount of dedication into building your own portfolio and gaining valuable experience. It doesn't matter that you managed to graduate from university, what matters is that you have the adequate amount of work experience (internships) to show your future employer that you're the best candidate for the role. This is the case for a majority of career choices, not just computer science. From now compared 5-10 years ago, you will probably need more than the average amount of experience to land a decent job but as soon as you land that job the opportunities increase tenfold (and perhaps your salary).

It's good that you're interested in AI because if you are, then you'll know by now that AI is far from taking over any competent software engineer's job. It's just not quite there yet, and it won't be for many more years. That being said, the world of AI is increasingly getting bigger and everyone can witness how important it's getting because it's even affecting global stock markets. Anyone looking into software engineering should definitely research AI as much as possible. The entirety of Big Tech (most people will know them by the acronym FAANG) all invest in/develop AI products so it is a serious money maker (for both CEOs and employees)

The most common reason why people choose software engineering (not saying that this is yours) is due to the salary opportunities. You can look into reported computer science salaries at https://www.levels.fyi/. The highest paying companies are the Big Tech companies and these are the jobs that the majority of software engineers aim for, not knowing that it is incredibly hard to land a job there with no former experience (hence misconception 1).

In summary, I definitely recommend computer science as a career choice. If you put in the work, you will be handsomely rewarded in a few years time.