To Be Or Not To Be A CET? 86
maxdamage asks: "After reading an earlier Ask Slashdot article and the responses, I am very worried about my future career plans. This fall I am going into CET, which is essentially a cross between a CS and an Electrical Engineering degree. According to these responses, CS majors are doomed to spend their lives waiting tables. Does a computer related engineering degree give hope or should I change to a more general engineering program, before its too late?"
If you hope to be making decent money... (Score:3, Interesting)
I have an EET and CNS degree (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:If you hope to be making decent money... (Score:3, Interesting)
Yes, the offshoring of technical jobs is disturbing but its still a small chunk of the overall jobs available. The people who are out of work, by and large, are because of the economy and increased productivity levels. Not because of offshoring.
Even if your outlook were true, if all the good paying technical jobs dry up there won't be anyone left to pay for the plumbers andmechanics.
Excellent Combination (Score:2, Interesting)
Pure CS folks have a lot of difficulty communicating with HW and EE's tend to write crap code or end up with very tedious jobs.
The combination opens up a whole realm of opportunities such as autonomous vehicles, home automation, simulation. It's F'ing great!
As for a career choice, there is only one answer - Do what you enjoy and be agile. We can only imagine what the next 20 years will bring.
Often, I have to tell my employer that this stuff is hard work, If they knew work was fun, I'de get paid squat! Geccie
There's always room for another good engineer (Score:4, Interesting)
> doomed to spend their lives waiting tables. Does a
> computer related engineering degree give hope or
> should I change to a more general engineering
> program, before its too late?
There is always room for another good engineer. If you take your education seriously and apply yourself, you'll be able to differentiate yourself from your peers. Then you won't be stuck waiting tables.
There is always room for another motivated engineer. If you take a job out of school that isn't quite the job you imagined, but are agressive in pursuing every opportunity at work - you volunteer to finish off that project that no one wants to do, you offer to lead the project thats the opposite of glamorous - you'll differentiate yourself from your peers. Then you won't be stuck waiting tables.
The world is always lacking honest, competent people who will go the extra mile to get work done. If you're one of those people, there will be work for you in the current economy. It might not be the job you want, or even the one you were trained for, but there will be one.
Re:CS/EE does NOT equal CET (Score:3, Interesting)
I went right from highschool to a computer engineering program. After my first year I got an internship, and then I was hired by my employer and I started finishing up my last 3 years of school at an online university. I am just about to graduate and my position is greater then that of the college hires and I've been making a good salary since 19.
In the end, college is only really going to get you in the door somewhere, and after that it's all up to you. Sure, MIT or Devry will judge how good your salary is at that starting point, but that doesn't mean the Devry person is going to be the first one laid off either.
My example (Score:5, Interesting)
I may get an MBA a bit down the road, since it would make a nice complement to my programming experience (and what I've already learned about how business works, on the job)... but the point here is that if you're bright and hard-working and show some initiative, you can get *something*, which will give you experience, which is what most employers want.
Yes, degrees matter (and can affect your salary), but having or not having one doesn't doom you to failure.
Accreditation is the name of the game (Score:3, Interesting)
Anyways, my point is, Be Careful; otherwise, you are just another lamer with a fake engineering degree.