Thread: Future Career

  1. #1
    Student legit's Avatar
    Join Date
    Aug 2008
    Location
    UK -> Newcastle
    Posts
    156

    Future Career

    Hey guys and gals!

    I'm now at the crucial stage of choosing a university course to study, and a university to study it in. My heart is set on software engineering me thinks. I've looked at many other programming courses and this just seems to fit. I'm nearing the end of my first year at 6th form/college, and the staff are now pushing us into starting our personal applications, it's all happening so fast! I can't wait until I go to uni, I can do what I love to do and have been doing on and off for the past 3 years, just 1 more year to go! I'm going down to Huddersfield in October to check out their university. It has a great 5 year Software Engineering sandwich course, giving a Master of Engineering degree, which I think is pretty sweet! The downside is that I need 300 UCAS points to get in - 3 B's or an A, B, C - although if I can work hard enough I'm sure that I'll get the grades that I want. I'm posting this because I want students that are planning on going to uni, already at uni or graduated and in a career to share what information they hold about university and software engineering. What made you pick it? What uni did you study at? Did you enjoy it? etc... C'mon, share, I'm real excited on going!
    MSDN <- Programmers Haven!

  2. #2
    Registered User
    Join Date
    Sep 2001
    Posts
    4,912
    As long as you have a degree, and it's somewhat related to your field, I think your degree is less important to prospective employers than what you have done - projects, experience, etc... So when picking a degree, I think one should just pick something they're going to find interesting, and something that will teach them a lot of things they didn't already know - those are things that vary greatly from person to person.

  3. #3
    Officially An Architect brewbuck's Avatar
    Join Date
    Mar 2007
    Location
    Portland, OR
    Posts
    7,396
    You never know... I was talking to a coworker during lunch today and he told me about a guy he knows who worked at Tektronix for many years. Then he decided to switch professions -- now, he's a ferrier, meaning he provides professional care for the feet of ungulate animals (replacing horseshoes, shaving the hooves of cows, etc).

    He said the guy was much happier after the switch.
    Code:
    //try
    //{
    	if (a) do { f( b); } while(1);
    	else   do { f(!b); } while(1);
    //}

  4. #4
    and the hat of sweating
    Join Date
    Aug 2007
    Location
    Toronto, ON
    Posts
    3,545
    Quote Originally Posted by brewbuck View Post
    You never know... I was talking to a coworker during lunch today and he told me about a guy he knows who worked at Tektronix for many years. Then he decided to switch professions -- now, he's a ferrier, meaning he provides professional care for the feet of ungulate animals (replacing horseshoes, shaving the hooves of cows, etc).

    He said the guy was much happier after the switch.
    A developer at my previous company quit and became a chicken farmer.
    "I am probably the laziest programmer on the planet, a fact with which anyone who has ever seen my code will agree." - esbo, 11/15/2008

    "the internet is a scary place to be thats why i dont use it much." - billet, 03/17/2010

  5. #5
    and the hat of copycat stevesmithx's Avatar
    Join Date
    Sep 2007
    Posts
    587
    Quote Originally Posted by cpjust View Post
    A developer at my previous company quit and became a chicken farmer.
    Alas!The economic depression at its cruel best. . Or was he interested more in poultry?

    @OP,
    I think it is a very good choice that you have decided to go for higher studies during these troubled times and the fact that you are going to take the subject you love still makes it better . I personally think the freshers should go for higher studies rather than search for a new job during the economic downtime because nobody today can guarantee that job security. It's a personal opinion though, and i do hope the economy becomes better by the time you graduate after 5 years. All the best.
    Not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted
    - Albert Einstein.


    No programming language is perfect. There is not even a single best language; there are only languages well suited or perhaps poorly suited for particular purposes.
    - Herbert Mayer

  6. #6
    Registered User
    Join Date
    Mar 2007
    Posts
    416
    I originally picked Computer Engineering with a software focus, couldn't be happier. I have 2 years left of studies, but work part time (internship) as a software engineer. As far as studies go it can be tough, and there's plenty of times when I think "I will never use this after this course", and I probably won't but it's good to know anyways. As for the job aspect, well that can be boring/tough/exciting/variety of things depending on what I'm programming. Do what you love and you never work a day in your life.

  7. #7
    Registered User
    Join Date
    Jun 2009
    Posts
    2
    My advise, what value it may have , is similar to sean, pick somethimg you dont already know, a degree now a days has less value to experience, think of it as opening the horizon on knowledge.

    Because out there what counts is work and making money dont fall in the pit of i know more, knowing is not making money.

    Compliments

  8. #8
    Student legit's Avatar
    Join Date
    Aug 2008
    Location
    UK -> Newcastle
    Posts
    156
    So I should pick something that I know nothing about in place of something I've been enjoying? That's twisted! :P
    MSDN <- Programmers Haven!

  9. #9
    and the hat of sweating
    Join Date
    Aug 2007
    Location
    Toronto, ON
    Posts
    3,545
    Quote Originally Posted by stevesmithx View Post
    Alas!The economic depression at its cruel best. . Or was he interested more in poultry?
    No, this was years before the depression. I guess the stress was too much for him.
    "I am probably the laziest programmer on the planet, a fact with which anyone who has ever seen my code will agree." - esbo, 11/15/2008

    "the internet is a scary place to be thats why i dont use it much." - billet, 03/17/2010

  10. #10
    and the hat of int overfl Salem's Avatar
    Join Date
    Aug 2001
    Location
    The edge of the known universe
    Posts
    39,660
    More graduates 'out of work' - Telegraph
    Students with arts, history, philosophy. business, building, computer science and physical sciences degrees were more likely to be unemployed than the national average.
    So much for this govt's "knowledge economy" rhetoric.

    One wonders what was "above average", since the second part of the list pretty much covers what might be called productive work.


    Wanna make money - choose business law.
    You rake it in in good times doing takeover deals.
    You rake it in in bad times picking over the bones as administrators during insolvency.
    If you dance barefoot on the broken glass of undefined behaviour, you've got to expect the occasional cut.
    If at first you don't succeed, try writing your phone number on the exam paper.

  11. #11
    'Allo, 'Allo, Allo
    Join Date
    Apr 2008
    Posts
    639
    Quote Originally Posted by Salem View Post
    One wonders what was "above average"
    Those with degrees in Beckham-, SuBo-, and quango-nology, political correctness, and health and safety. Probably haberdashers too, because lord know Simon Cowell needs a steady stream of armpit length trousers given his perpetual omnipresence.

  12. #12
    spurious conceit MK27's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jul 2008
    Location
    segmentation fault
    Posts
    8,300
    Quote Originally Posted by Salem View Post
    One wonders what was "above average", since the second part of the list pretty much covers what might be called productive work.
    I think you mean "productive organizing" (aka pushing paper), since the people who actually do "the work" usually do not have or require a degree. I am pretty sure the world does not need any new thinking in *any* of those fields, altho when it can be afforded we may like it. Hence the art of painting murals and the art of writing software and the art of selling products are all prone to suffer the same consequences this way.
    Last edited by MK27; 07-06-2009 at 04:52 PM.
    C programming resources:
    GNU C Function and Macro Index -- glibc reference manual
    The C Book -- nice online learner guide
    Current ISO draft standard
    CCAN -- new CPAN like open source library repository
    3 (different) GNU debugger tutorials: #1 -- #2 -- #3
    cpwiki -- our wiki on sourceforge

Popular pages Recent additions subscribe to a feed

Similar Threads

  1. Perhaps sometime in the future...
    By Stonehambey in forum A Brief History of Cprogramming.com
    Replies: 7
    Last Post: 07-28-2008, 12:15 PM
  2. To Program or Not to Program. Career Advise.
    By SoLost in forum A Brief History of Cprogramming.com
    Replies: 7
    Last Post: 05-05-2008, 02:58 PM
  3. programming career in future?
    By JaWiB in forum A Brief History of Cprogramming.com
    Replies: 10
    Last Post: 04-24-2003, 06:40 PM
  4. Future of C++ and Windows Programming :: C++
    By kuphryn in forum Windows Programming
    Replies: 4
    Last Post: 03-26-2003, 09:53 AM
  5. Future of COM Architecture :: COM
    By kuphryn in forum Windows Programming
    Replies: 1
    Last Post: 03-24-2003, 10:21 AM