Should we keep pushing college kids to go to CS majors?
When I was in college, it was all the hype- get a CS major and you’re set! We were told that 80% of needed CS jobs in the US are unfilled. Now, there’s 100K+ folks laid off, clearly the 80% unfilled number is bogus. What jobs should we recommend folks do instead? Edit: It’s not just parents doing the encouragement, but universities themselves and all the programs like Women in Computing, bootcamps targeting women like Hackbright Academy, Grace Hopper Conference etc. that tried to convince folks like me that being a woman in tech is like the most glorious and safe career. I went into tech for other reasons luckily but have friends who are very upset as women in STEM who were encouraged by these orgs.
“This field is screwed” anyone voting for that care to explain?
Decreases the competition, makes me more valuable
100K+ unemployed people? Imagine the competition for jobs right now. New grads don’t stand a chance.
Only if they update their curriculum. Most universities seem to be on the same curriculum from 20 years ago. Also getting rid of useless mandatory subjects like chemistry and physics, replacing it with math subjects with a data science focus.
useless mandatory subjects like chemistry and physics.... bruh that shits actually pretty important. i thought you were gonna mock shit like gender studies.
Really? When have you used chemistry 2 and physics 2 as a SWE? I would’ve found required classes from other majors more useful like Stats or Forecasting Algorithms. But yes let me learn about thermodynamics bc SWEs use it every day. Smh
Still a good career, I didn’t know I liked coding after 4 years of college and 2 years of being in the industry. It’s all about finding what interests you, coding is such broad term, almost anyone can find a niche they like in this area.
Where’s the option, “Don’t go to college” ?
I think embodied by Other :)
Coding is a tool, just like math. As coding becomes more of a standard skill set, pure CS will go the way of pure Math (I.e. more academic than practical). We’re seeing already that no-code or low-code tools are exploding, and kids who are able to apply these tools to penetrate markets and create value will be the ones who do well.
Don’t push kids, let them do what they like!! Don’t spoil their life, let them enjoy
A lot of people don't work on things related to their major. I don't think there's a downside to majoring in CS if you enjoy the coursework - maybe you end up working in operations or accounting or data analysis or something if there isn't an engineering role for you. I know there's this push for trade schools, but realistically, the people with an interest in CS would never consider that anyway. Like they might want to do finance or law otherwise.
Yeah my CS class population did not look cut out for plumbing, or electrical work- or really anything that required them to use their body or hands in any physical way
You want the people that actually love what they’re doing to work in this field. More and more low quality devs do it for the money and it’s showing.
Yeah the guys in it for the cash can’t keep up with the grind. No other career requires this level of training and retraining. We’re gonna lose a lot of these cats over the next twelve months.
I would even doubt anyone using the word “grind”. If you think it’s a “grind” then you’re probably in the wrong field.
Too much supply for dwindling number of positions. Reduction in number of CS grads will happen organically. New grads will struggle to get jobs they had dreamt of. People in college will add another major. People entering college will get counseled to not go into CS because it is saturated with not as much demand. Something similar happened after the 2000 crash; number of CS grads decreased steadily for almost a decade. But the peak number of grads was in 2003, almost 4 years after the peak in tech industry. So brace for insane supply of grads over next 3-4 years coupled with reduced demand. But things won’t change right away. It will have to backpropagate over time.
Yep! This I agree with.
Need is still there. It’s just not dominants by 5-10 employer anymore (honestly still is once things recover)
Is it though? Why are so many struggling to find a job then?
There are jobs, just not a lot of positions at the big companies. Anyone who can’t get a job in defense right now is probably just a shitty engineer