Ask me anything (Comp Sci Degree Edition!)
Hey all!
I've seen quite a bit of questions on here recently regarding Computing, Networks, AI, Cyber and Software Dev related courses so wanted to take the opportunity to answer any direct questions you may have regarding these.
Some background info: My name is Aura and I study at the University of Staffordshire. I'm currently in my final year, predicted a first with a graduate role in cyber secured, having done a placement in tech and later an internship in cyber, all at major UK companies. I came from the A-levels route from the age old era of COVID-19 with an A*AA. I'm the manager of the nationally recognised Staffs Computing Society and volunteer for the UK Cyber Council Youth Advisory Board alongside various national STEM schemes.
If you have any questions about University life, my journey, tips or other, feel free to reply and I will give my honest answer. Looking forward to hearing them!
I've seen quite a bit of questions on here recently regarding Computing, Networks, AI, Cyber and Software Dev related courses so wanted to take the opportunity to answer any direct questions you may have regarding these.
Some background info: My name is Aura and I study at the University of Staffordshire. I'm currently in my final year, predicted a first with a graduate role in cyber secured, having done a placement in tech and later an internship in cyber, all at major UK companies. I came from the A-levels route from the age old era of COVID-19 with an A*AA. I'm the manager of the nationally recognised Staffs Computing Society and volunteer for the UK Cyber Council Youth Advisory Board alongside various national STEM schemes.
If you have any questions about University life, my journey, tips or other, feel free to reply and I will give my honest answer. Looking forward to hearing them!
Reply 1
hey, i dont do comp sci at alevels so how much am i behind with the content?
thank you
thank you
Reply 2
Original post
by PreciousDiamondhey, i dont do comp sci at alevels so how much am i behind with the content?
thank you
thank you
Hiya!
Brilliant question. From my experience you will not be too far behind as the content at University, particularly Staffs, assumes 0 knowledge to start with. Your first year of University will likely cover basics in nearly all topics and fill in any gaps you may have, this is particularly important as not every student comes from the same background (including age), exam board (OCR, AQA, Edexcel...) or course.
In my experience, the only edge A-levels gave me was with the programming side as I already had some knowledge in 2 languages, however you can teach yourself almost any language to prep using online tools like Codecademy or basic bootcamps. Check out the modules for the Uni you are applying to see what languages you'll be covering to prep if needed! The things A-levels teach you about networks, cyber and other fields are so low-level, that you may be better off learning them at University instead to prevent confusion.
If you'd like to prep regarding the basics, I would highly recommend having a read through of the materials for CompTIA Security+, Cisco Skills Academy CCNA prep (or Jeremy's IT Lab), free coding bootcamps of your choice and taking on some basic A-level maths questions in regards to matrices, integration and differentiation. Google is your superpower!
Apart from this academic writing can come as a major shock for many, feel free to have a look at the various resources to help you learn to do this. Hope this helps, let me know if you have any further question.
Thanks,
Aura.
Reply 3
Hi everyone — I’m deciding between BE/BEng Computer Systems Engineering and BSc Computer Science.
•
If you study Systems Engineering, do you feel it limits you, or is it still flexible for general software jobs?
•
How heavy is the electronics/hardware side vs programming?
•
How are the placements: what % get them, which companies, and what roles do people usually land?
•
Any advice on which course is better for careers (software/finance/tech) based on your experience?
Reply 4
Original post
by StaffsRep AuraHiya!
Brilliant question. From my experience you will not be too far behind as the content at University, particularly Staffs, assumes 0 knowledge to start with. Your first year of University will likely cover basics in nearly all topics and fill in any gaps you may have, this is particularly important as not every student comes from the same background (including age), exam board (OCR, AQA, Edexcel...) or course.
In my experience, the only edge A-levels gave me was with the programming side as I already had some knowledge in 2 languages, however you can teach yourself almost any language to prep using online tools like Codecademy or basic bootcamps. Check out the modules for the Uni you are applying to see what languages you'll be covering to prep if needed! The things A-levels teach you about networks, cyber and other fields are so low-level, that you may be better off learning them at University instead to prevent confusion.
If you'd like to prep regarding the basics, I would highly recommend having a read through of the materials for CompTIA Security+, Cisco Skills Academy CCNA prep (or Jeremy's IT Lab), free coding bootcamps of your choice and taking on some basic A-level maths questions in regards to matrices, integration and differentiation. Google is your superpower!
Apart from this academic writing can come as a major shock for many, feel free to have a look at the various resources to help you learn to do this. Hope this helps, let me know if you have any further question.
Thanks,
Aura.
Brilliant question. From my experience you will not be too far behind as the content at University, particularly Staffs, assumes 0 knowledge to start with. Your first year of University will likely cover basics in nearly all topics and fill in any gaps you may have, this is particularly important as not every student comes from the same background (including age), exam board (OCR, AQA, Edexcel...) or course.
In my experience, the only edge A-levels gave me was with the programming side as I already had some knowledge in 2 languages, however you can teach yourself almost any language to prep using online tools like Codecademy or basic bootcamps. Check out the modules for the Uni you are applying to see what languages you'll be covering to prep if needed! The things A-levels teach you about networks, cyber and other fields are so low-level, that you may be better off learning them at University instead to prevent confusion.
If you'd like to prep regarding the basics, I would highly recommend having a read through of the materials for CompTIA Security+, Cisco Skills Academy CCNA prep (or Jeremy's IT Lab), free coding bootcamps of your choice and taking on some basic A-level maths questions in regards to matrices, integration and differentiation. Google is your superpower!
Apart from this academic writing can come as a major shock for many, feel free to have a look at the various resources to help you learn to do this. Hope this helps, let me know if you have any further question.
Thanks,
Aura.
thank you so much
Reply 5
Original post
by MarkAntHi everyone — I’m deciding between BE/BEng Computer Systems Engineering and BSc Computer Science.
•
If you study Systems Engineering, do you feel it limits you, or is it still flexible for general software jobs?
•
How heavy is the electronics/hardware side vs programming?
•
How are the placements: what % get them, which companies, and what roles do people usually land?
•
Any advice on which course is better for careers (software/finance/tech) based on your experience?
As someone in their final year doing Computer Science - the most flexible software job is Software Engineering. You can pick a city and find a job in the city you want. For the other ones you mentioned, you usually have to move to wherever you find a job (and unfortunately its usually in the middle of nowhere or London as only specific companies need hardware engineers etc wheras pretty much any company you start naming will have Software Engineers - even Tesco was going a graduate software engineering scheme lol.
Reply 6
Original post
by MarkAntHi everyone — I’m deciding between BE/BEng Computer Systems Engineering and BSc Computer Science.
•
If you study Systems Engineering, do you feel it limits you, or is it still flexible for general software jobs?
•
How heavy is the electronics/hardware side vs programming?
•
How are the placements: what % get them, which companies, and what roles do people usually land?
•
Any advice on which course is better for careers (software/finance/tech) based on your experience?
Hey! Unfortunately, I do not study Computer Systems Engineering side as I am on Computer Science. University of Staffordshire offers Aeronautical Systems Engineering and Mechanical Systems Engineering, however I have worked on placement with students from other Universities who have done Computer Systems Engineering. From what I have spoken to them, they mentioned it is quite hardware/electronics heavy though this will heavily depend on the University you go to as some will have entire modules on the programming side. Please bare in mind that the programming you will do for systems engineering will not be identical to what you will cover in a computing degree e.g. C++ and Java versus C# and JavaScript. Python and Rust can be a good bridge. Have a read of the different modules you University options will have you do to decide.
For placements, lots of different companies will look more kindly on certain courses when it comes to their applications. You can learn more about the companies and what fields they accept through using Gradcracker and filtering in the "hardware/electrical/software" categories. While I cannot speak for Computing Systems Engineering, students from Computing in my year achieved placements in: Systems Engineering, Technical Support, Software Development, Network Engineer, Website Development, SOC Analyst and more at major UK companies such as Barclays, IKEA, Cisco, Radius, Halo I.S, Clickdealer, G Research, Kainos, Goldman Sachs, bet365, Synectics Solutions... the list really goes on and varies by year! Placements are very competitive and really vary on the quality and number of applications.
In computing you can open yourself up to a lot more roles due to the fact that you are not specialised, a broad knowledge can also be useful when applying for rotational roles, if that is what you prefer. My placement year was rotational, where I spent 4 months each in 3 different departments including IT, Info Sec and Project Management. I then did an internship in pure cyber, so I had a lot of wiggle room!
If Systems Engineering is your passion, do go for it as certain companies like Arm, NVIDIA, GSK may favour it depending on the role. However if you see your future in pure software or fintech, you may need to do a lot of revision/learning on the side to catch up. If you are truly set on those, I personally recommend Computer Science more as it will likely cover things like Back-end, Front-End and Full-stack in more detail than with Computer Systems Engineering. Find some examples here of common Software Placements! Alternatively, you may end up finding that Cyber or Networks is more your niche through generalising in Computer Science, all things you can easily go into with that degree.
At the end of the day, please think about where your interests lie as there will always be opportunities for roles no matter what you do, the most important part is that you are happy with where you end up and the degree you achieved along the way.
Hope that helps, do let me know if you'd like for me to go further into anything mentioned.
(edited 2 months ago)
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