My Plans....

[Kdar]

I thinking to go to 3d/animation field (kind of my dream).. They don't really have many schools that teach this stuff in my area... But they got one college, "Virginia College" in my town, and they have Animation and Game Design : 4 Year - Bachelor of Applied Arts Degree
here is curriculum :
http://www.vc.edu/dbmedia/huntsville/agd.pdf

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if not... I probably will have to stick with CS... they don't have software engineering here.
But there just too many programmers now.. I probably will not get a lot of money for just CS... if they had software engineering, it would be better, but they don't.


So what you think?
Which will pay off better?
Which should I chose?

 

[raross]

I thinking to go to 3d/animation field (kind of my dream).. They don't really have many schools that teach this stuff in my area... But they got one college, "Virginia College" in my town, and they have Animation and Game Design : 4 Year - Bachelor of Applied Arts Degree
here is curriculum :
http://www.vc.edu/dbmedia/huntsville/agd.pdf

-----

if not... I probably will have to stick with CS... they don't have software engineering here.
But there just too many programmers now.. I probably will not get a lot of money for just CS... if they had software engineering, it would be better, but they don't.


So what you think?
Which will pay off better?
Which should I chose?

CS is software engineering, it depends what school you go to, some call it software engineering, but most just call it computer science. It is obviously not just programming, I could teach an 8 year old how to program.

I do not know much about getting into the game design industry, but I would imagine its hard and you probally have to have a lot of work to show the company afterwords. On the other hand, software engineering is the #1 job in the US right now with a 50% growth rate and average pay is 80k a year.

 

[jaeusm]

I probably will not get a lot of money for just CS... if they had software engineering, it would be better, but they don't.

High school students seem to be misinformed about the relationship between a college degree and specific career fields. You can be a software engineer with a degree in CS, CE, SE, EE, ME, etc. If you have a technical (or engineering related) degree and you can adequately perform a software engineer's job duties, then it doesn't really matter what your degree focus was on.

Also, a degree will only provide you with a thorough understanding of the fundamentals. It gives you a solid base that you will build on for the remainder of your career. After you have earned your degree, the learning process will continue. Basically, it's the starting point. Retirement is the ending point.

 

[raross]

I do not agree with that. CE is the only related engineering field, as it contains a few basic programming classes. Maybe if you had your masters in one of those and an under grad in the other you would be considered a software engineer. But finding a job as a software engineer with just an EE or ME would be very challenging to say the least.

 

[jaeusm]

Not really. Just start pulling job postings. When I was interviewing with several companies, it really didn't matter what the degree was, as long as it was technically rigorous. Your experience and abilities is what will ultimately land you the job. If I have a degree in EE and another potential candidate has a degree in CS, the one who gets the job is the one that nails the interview questions. You're always going to meet with someone from HR, who isn't really concerned about your technical abilities, but then you're going to meet with your potential manager and peers. They will thoroughly test your technical abilities. If you can impress them, your field of major is immaterial. That said, obviously, a degree in CS will best prepare you for a career in software engineering. Also, it's not as challenging as you might think for someone with an EE degree to move into an SE field. The EE ciriculum at my alma mater has a rigorous programming component.

Below is a list of current job postings on Dice.com for my area. I'm only considering those whose specific title is "software engineer" and posted in the last 30 days.

Software Engineer - Education Required: "BA or BS degree in CS, IT, Computer Engineering , or a related field required"

Software Development Engineer - Education Required: "Minimum BS in Computer Science / Computer Engineering / Software Engineering or equivalent."

Senior Software Engineer - Education Required: "Requires Bachelor's degree in Computer Science or related field and 5+ years related experience. "

Software Engineer - Education Required: "BS in computer science, electrical engineering or related technical field"

Sr. Software Design Engineer - Education Required: "Candidates with CS/EE training or experience strongly preferred."

Software Engineer - Education Required: "MUST have a Computer Science or EE degree. Master's is preferred"

Software Engineer - Education Required: "A Bachelor's Degree or equivalent experience is also required."

Software Engineer - Education Required: "BS in technical field preferred"

The list goes on. I have no reason to lie about this. I've been through it already.

As far as being considered a software engineer, that's what job titles are for. A degree doesn't automatically qualify you as a software engineer.