Best Degree to Pair w/ a B.Sc. in Computer Science?

VeryCleverHandle asks: "I have held a Bachelor's degree in Computer Science for about two years now, and I want to further my education, and increase my marketability. I am wondering what kind of degree makes a good pair for my existing one. At first, I thought of a Master's, but in my searches for a job, I've rarely (read: never) seen a Masters degree required. I am also researching what kind of degrees others, who have obtained their Bachelor's, received to help complement their education. So I ask you, Slashdot: Which degree(s) do YOU think will go well with a Computer Science Bachelors?"

best degree to compliment comp sci

[dmf415]

While at high school I was aware that there were many different areas of computing, but what made me focus on a degree combining both computer science and electronic engineering was how well they compliment each other. When applying for a place at university, La Trobe courses were listed as my top 4 preferences. I was and still am very impressed with the quality of the course, industry collaboration, the focus on industry-accredited projects, the lifestyle and environment.
One of the most important aspects of my undergraduate course was that it focused on making people more employable by providing many opportunities to develop communication, research, practical and team working skills.
I completed my undergraduate course last year and immediately found employment as a graduate engineer with Vision Systems Limited. While working for Vision Systems, I decided to pursue a postgraduate qualification by research at La Trobe. Because of La Trobe's commitment to encouraging industry collaboration and research, I was able to arrange to undertake a research topic that was of interest to my employer. Thus, currently I am doing my Master of Engineering by research, while working part time as an engineer. La Trobe is flexible enough to allow me to develop both academically and professionally.

I can think of a few...

[Jhon]

A Business degree. After your 40th birthday, you may find it difficult to find new employment if the need arrises. If you've got a business degree and have moved in to managment, you'll probably find it easier. The pay will be better, too.

A Mathematics degree "plays" nicely with a CS degree, too.

Depends..

[ackthpt]

What area would you like to employ your Computer Science skillz in? It's actually a great companion degree for Business, Bio-Sciences, Engineering, etc. as it give you greater insight into how you may either create tools to aide your work or be well informed when selecting vendors. This of course assumes you don't just want to be a code or systems jockey.

I find even discussions with a friend in a branch of advertising is hardly served by some of the applications available to him and after an hour talking about what he does and, seeing what he really needs to get through a day, could probably whip together something simple that would do it, rather than the garbage in MS Office he has to wrestle with.

Consider the pros of taking a respectable understanding of technology into a career in law or politics, even.

.. all base of the party of the first part will become property of the party of the second part ..

Re:Three Letters:

[Anonymous Coward]

Pick your school carefully. Some MBAs aren't worth the paper they're printed on and others are excellent.

Depends on where you wanna go...

[ABaumann]

You could go with another science degree: Physics, Biology, Chemistry, or Math and work at a national lab.

If you don't actually like programming and you want to be a project lead, go with the MBA.

If you want to go towards hardware development, maybe linguistics would be a good area of study.

Indeed

[dsginter]

Carly [hp.com] had a Bachelors in medieval history but was able to become the CEO of a once impressive company because of her MBA. Not that she was any good at it but she did get a hefty severance package [cnn.com].

Re:Three Letters:

[Dr. Evil]

An MBA with no management work experience is worthless... monitarily speaking.

Many universities won't even accept you into their program you unless you're in a management role.

What do you like to do?

[Gil-galad55]

It all depends on where you want to go with your career. If you really enjoy computer science, I'd recommend a maths degree, as this will take you a long way with theoretical computer science. That having been said, a PhD in compsci would probably be even better.

I myself have CS and physics bachelors, but my primary aim is at physics. I found the compsci degree helpful when I was doing work in particle physics, as I was writing tons of analytical code. Also, if you planned on doing development for government labs, an ability to create accurate models is a good thing, and physics will help with that.

Management, obviously MBA. I'd also consider a humanities (particularly English) degree; we always complain about the plight of the illiterate programmer/engineer/scientist. Well-spoken and clear-writing employees look good and go a long way. 3-4 years is a major commitment to polish up your writing, though! That having been said, I find I need the humanities to stay sane, so it's probably time well spent...

No need for another degree...

[Psiren]

While I respect you for wanting to further your education, I would argue obtaining another degree is the wrong way to do it. It's been said a million times, but there really is absolutely no substitute for experience, and 3 years of it is worth far more than another piece of paper. Knowing the theory, and being able to put it to use in real life situations are two different things. I suspect you already know this as you obtained your degree two years ago, and hopefully have been employed for at least some of that time.

Unless of course you are looking to learn something totally unrelated to Computer Science in order to provide an additional route for employment. If that's the case, only you can make that choice, and asking people here is silly. If you're not interested in the subject, you're highly unlikey to be motivated enough to do the best you can at it.

Re:Mathematics

[scovetta]

Most pairable degree with Computer Science: Mathematics. Affinity for math tells employers you're capable of high level, abstract thought. I agree-- I've got a dual BS (comp sci/math), and then a masters in comp sci. It's good if you want to stay technical for a while. If you're intent is to manage, you might as well go for an MBA or a communications degree. I've heard from people in similar positions that MBA programs are a joke compared to the hardcore science classes (but I'm sure some /.ers will mod me down for that.

Comment removed

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Re:Three Letters:

[bfizzle]

And that is why you go for the Masters in CS or Project/Systems/Process Engineering. You can still get the management position, but it is much more rare.

Economics

[Dr. Transparent]

An MBA isn't a *bad* idea, but personally I think that in economics you learn more of the why of general business principles than your mba counterparts.

I would say the biggest caveat is that economics programs really depend on the professors. Spending 1 or 2 years in an econ program with cruddy profs will be rather painful.

The biggest gain with an econ background (or even MBA or the other general business degress people are throwing around here) is that you can make decisions in your programmer box that will positively affect the business as a whole. Too many programmers are idealogues with no sense of why implementing feature X is a bad idea when it will cost Y but only increase sales by Y - $20,000. The ability to make suggestions about how development can better help the business as a whole will make you more valuable, and probably make for a better working environment.

Re:Best thing to pair with a degree in Comp. Sci?

[jd]

Oh, definitely. Especially broad experience. Specialists are paid the best but are only needed until the PHB's mood shifts. A generalist gets less to start with, but is needed forever and therefore gains stability and respect. Too generalized, though, and you'll start way too low to get anywhere.

After experience, membership of a professional society (eg: IEEE, or whatever) is better than most certifications, costs less, and is more exclusive.

Certifications are third on the list. They're OK but most people have them and they're not really as good as they're supposed to be. If you do go for a cert, go ONLY for the top ones. The vast majority are just a waste of money.

The computer industry needs designers badly

[Anonymous Coward]

First of all, take something you like. You can do anything with computers really. Find something else you enjoy and study that, and then find a way to tie that into what you want to do with computers, there's got to be a way.

Failing that, take design. Go into graphic design or (better still) industrial design. There's so much crap in the computer industry that could be improved if only a designer had some input. And well-designed products (which is not something CS education prepares you to make) do make an impact on the market (the iPod being the most obvious example).

I got so tired of fighting against the computer industry and it's arrogant attitude toward designers that I quit, and am now going back to school to get a degree in industrial design. I really don't intend to go back to the computer industry, but I think if I had pursued design in the first place, I would've been better prepared for what I encountered there.

Most people don't realize that good design is a serious discipline and not just the result of taking a lot of art classes. I really would like to see more people take industrial design seriously in the computer industry, I think current attitudes have really held the whole industry back for years and I wouldn't mind if the newer CS grads started preparing to change all that.

And don't fall prey to the talent myth/trap (replacing religious determinism with scientific/genetic determinism -- how progressive). You don't have to be good at art or whatever other crap someone has fed you to be good in design. It's a discipline like any other and skills can be developed with time and effort.

No Kannada (was Hindi)

[Lulu of the Lotus-Ea]

Hindi is not the principle language of Karnakata, the state where Bangalore is located; Kannada is its official and largest language. Of course, in practice, tech workers in Bangalore come from different regions of India--or indeed, the world--so probably English is even more common in technical workplaces.

Re:Law

[Macadamizer]

"This is bullshit. First off, you don't need to pass the patent bar to be considered a patent attorney."

You need to have passed the patent bar in order to hold yourself out as a "patent attorney." You don't need to have passed the patent bar to litigate patent infringement case, or to even write and prosecute patents (as long as you are work under the direction of someone who HAS passed the patent bar), but you can't use the title "patent attorney" unless you have both been admitted to a state bar in any state AND have been admitted to the patent bar.

Re:Three Letters:

[Psychofreak]

Medical Doctor? That's 8 REALLY EXPENSIVE years of your life. Better make sure it is your calling. Don't just look at the MD degree though, Investigate the DO degree as well.

Now Law you say? Well that is an expensive 2 to 4 years of your life that will teach you quite a lot about the world. Again, Not for everyone.

The MBA is good, but a general MBA isn't much. Try seeing what sub-specialties are available. There may be something that is more focused that YOU may be able to use. Knowing WHY your manager is a prick is useful too.

Grain of salt: This is from a person in retail sales with a Mechanical Engineering degree.

Have fun
Phil

No magic silver bullet degree

[wintermute42]

There is no magic degree bullet. I went to school with a lot of pre-meds (my undergrad degree is in biology). A number of the premeds wanted to go into medicine because they thought that the degree would be the magic carpet to a high income and job security.

As it turned out, things were not so simple. HMOs put pressure on doctor's fees and medicine is a field where there is more burnout than people want to admit. For people who are not good at relationships with other people (most of the premeds I knew) seeing people for the same kind of thing year after year becomes a huge bore. By the time they hit their forties some doctors would like to do something else, but it is too late to easily change professions and they are used to making a lot of money.

Since there is no degree that I know of that will guarantee a good income, job security AND interesting work, you might was well go for a degree in something that interests you and might improve your job prospects.

If I were to get another degree I'd get a degree in quantitative finance. That is, the application of mathematical techniques to financial modeling and trading of stocks, bonds, foreign exchange and so on. Having a solid software background and the ability to handle the math is a big asset. Of course for some of us the downside is that you may have to live in or around New York city (but this is a feature for other people).

Re:Three Letters:

[grumpygrodyguy]

Yep, same thing with Boston and Rage Against the Machine. Ivy league schools will do that to you.

Re:Three Letters:

[OwnedByTwoCats]

Tom Sholtz, of Boston, went to MIT, not an Ivy League school. Engineering, not Liberal Arts.

Re:Three Letters:

[Pete (big-pete)]

MBA. You've learned how. Now learn why.

This story has come at a good time for me, as I was pondering the exact same issue, I am considering studying an MBA with the Open University [open.ac.uk], and the course starts in May so I need to move fast...

They have two MBAs that I'd consider as options though - and I'm somewhat undecided about which to go for:

• MBA (Technology Management) [open.ac.uk]
• Master of Business Administration [open.ac.uk]

I am a process engineer and process manager, involved in process control and improvement, particularly ITIL, ISO9000, and Business Continuity related disciplines. I also own my own consultancy company, and would like to take some big steps forward over the next 10 years or so. I'm not sure really which of the two would benefit me most, they're both quite expensive, so I want to make sure I get the most value from the course. I'm still 29 now, which I think is probably a good age to be thinking about an MBA - old enough to have some experience of business, but still young enough that I haven't completely forgotten how to study yet...

Anyone out there have experience of these courses, or any ideas on what the benefits of each are?

Cheers,

-- Pete.

Requirements vs desired assets

[jcdill]

At first, I thought of a Master's, but in my searches for a job, I've rarely (read: never) seen a Masters degree required.

Although very few job reqs state that a Master's degree is required this doesn't mean that a Master's degree isn't a valuable asset when evaluating job candidates. If a company has several candidates for a position and one has a Master's degree, the Master's is going to be a big plus for that candidate.

The best way to find out what type of further education would be most valuable to YOU is to interview people who are doing the type of work you want to be doing in 10-15 years. Ask them what education they have that A) enabled them to be hired for that job and B) best prepared them for that job. (These may not be the same thing.)

Re:JD

[Chibi]

On the other hand, lawyers are the grease of the economy -- nothing much happens without them. When things go well, you need lawyers. And, when things go poorly, you need lawyers. Not too many legal jobs being outsourced to Bangalore.

I was going to mod you up until I got to the last line of your comment. Legal work is actually starting to get outsourced in this country (the US, since this is a US site, blah, blah...):

http://money.cnn.com/2004/10/14/news/economy/lawye r_outsourcing/?cnn=yes [cnn.com]

A number of U.S. companies, including members of the Fortune 500 and some of the country's largest law firms, are now embracing the idea of outsourcing routine legal work to India, South Korea, Australia and other locales with far lower labor costs.

The article mentions that lawyers have more protections for them than the average tech worker (unions, anyone?), but there is still some outsourcing happening in this area. Whether this picks up steam or not, we'll have to wait and see...

Re:Three Letters:

[MagicDude]

As a medical student, I have to point out that one can't really just "decide" to get an MD degree. There are a lot of hoops to jump through just to get into medical school. Consider that throughout the US, there are 16000 seats in all the medical schools per year, and there are 48000 applicants vying for them. Then, the requirements for admitance to any medical school are as follows - 1 year of biology with lab, one year of chemistry with lab, one year of physics with lab, one year of organic chemistry with lab, one year of english/literature. Those are the requirements for EVERY medical school in the US. Then there are certain schools which require you to have taken biochemistry or calculus as well. More than likely, a person who majored in comp sci hasn't taken biology or organic chemistry, or for that matter, chemistry and physics either. So that's a minimum of 1 year of post bac work before even applying to medical school. Then there's the matter of the MCAT, an eight hour standardized exam from hell testing physics, chemistry, biology, O-Chem, reading comprehension, and writing 2 essays. Oh yeah, it's only offered twice a year (April and August), and it costs about $200 to take. Then there's applying to schools. The harsh reality of applying to med school is that there's no "safety school" that one can apply to that they are garunteed admission like you could do for undergrad. Thus, most people will apply to about 10-15 schools in order to get 1 or 2 acceptances (unless of course, you are L33t with a capital three). Application costs for that many schools will easily run about $1200. Then there's the costs of going out on interviews (med schools do not reimburse you for travel expenses unlike every other civilized interview on the planet). And then once (or if) you get an acceptance, it's four grueling and expensive years (med school has painfully little in common with the wild and hedonistic lifystyle of an undergrad). Then it's 4-8 years of poorly paid residency, though a few do turn to the "dark side" where they pass on the residency and instead work for insurance companies or some other kind of corporation, where they make big bucks, but aren't licensed to practice medicine, but instead use their degree to lend credence towards whatever project they are assigned to. So if medicine is a path you choose, more power to ya, but it's not a decision you can just make one day and be like "Hmmm, I think I'll become a doctor today". All that being said, there is a nationwide shortage of nurses, and male nurses are always in demand. Nursing is a 4 year degree, but with your degree, I'm sure some credits would transfer and you could finish in less time. And with medicine becoming more and more computerized, someone with a strong background in comp sci and medicine/nursing could probably find some pretty good work in hospital IT. But again, medicine is a calling, not a backup plan.

Re:No Kannada (was Hindi)

[spamspamspamspam]

I work for the Australian arm of a very large Indian IT company and I can confirm that English is by far the most common language used in IT outsourcing companies. Remember that English is an official language of India.

I wonder how successful Indian outsourcing would have been had the English had not set up a colony and left their language there.

Re:English!

[wintermute1000]

A caution, though; as a woman who lists a few writing prizes on her resume alongside her math and computer science degrees-in-progress, I have found that a least one interviewer I spoke to tried to pigeonhole me as a technical writer. Now, I'm good at writing, but I'm not in CS to be a goddamn technical writer and the fact that I've got CS research and hardcore electronics jobs on my resume can attest to that. I don't know if this is just because the guy who interviewed me was more comfortable thinking of me as a girl writer than as a girl coder or what, but it can definitely be dangerous.

So, maybe it's just a girl thing, and maybe it isn't, but if you've got anything remotely fuzzy on your resume, people might try to steer you away from coding and into something more customer or documentation oriented. If that isn't your sup of tea, think twice.

MIS Degree

[Zakir]

MIS or Management of Information Systems. This will give you more of the business part of it, but still keeping it mostly technical. and some certifications....

Re:J.D. Patent Lawyer IAMAPL

[Anonymous Coward]

If you have a comp sci degree with some EE or experience in the hardware world its more like top-50. Patent law is split between the megafirms and boutiques right now with the megafirms swallowing the small shops at a very fast pace. Megafirms are a bit stricter in their hiring standards, small places may be founded by an attorney from a lower tier schoool and hire heavily from that school. Salarywise there isn't much of a difference (with bonuses there is).
Even if you don't have EE skills there is still a market for people who understand computer languages/protocols. It may mean that you spend months reverse engineering firmware or reading design specs at first.
To answer some other posters, you don't have to take the patent bar unless you plan to prosecute patents,
attention to detail is the most important asset in law school (the B types are the ones that get summa).

Re:What about law?

[richieb]

At a Linux user's group meeting, maybe two or three years ago, we had a lawyer talk about IP, patents etc. He said that there are law firms paying premium ($50K startup bonus), for lawyers with technical degrees.

Re:Three Letters:

[I_Love_Pocky!]

College is a waste overall, but even moreso at the grauate level.

Have you been part of a graduate program? I find it to be rather rewarding. If you haven't experienced it, then I question why you feel that way? If on the other hand, you have been to graduate school, I'd be even more interested in why you feel that it was a waste.

1-in-3 odds?

[Shag]

16000 seats, 48000 candidates? That's only 3 applicants for each available slot - not bad. The astronomy folks I work for (one department within the graduate division of one university) have 30 applicants per slot.

Admittedly, successful candidates do get to play with big shiny toys, but I think they make less than doctors. :)

Have I mentioned that Astronomy goes well with CS?

Re:Three Letters:

[eno2001]

Actually, that was poorly worded, but I was in a hurry. The wife and kid were coming down the stairs for family time. ;P

What I meant is that it depends on this guy's goals. If he wants to arm himself with knowledge, then staying in academia is the way to go with the caveat that things are very different in the real world because you're usually not working with people who went to graduate school. If the guy just wants to get into a great job, he'd be better off leaving school and just pounding the streets trying to hustle his current knowledge, gaining experience by taking side jobs, etc... and trying to keep up with technology trends on his own. Again... higher education is usually the wrong place to learn technology since you don't usually experience the stupid limitations that the "real world" enforces you within an academic setting.

Working in a Cisco networking lab, Linux/Unix lab or AD domain in a college setting is nothing like working on the real thing. The real thing is usually quite lackluster and poorly implemented. It's just that the corporates don't realize how poor the skills of their employees are or they don't care. They make the mistake of assuming that if their main business isn't IT, they shouldn't put much stock in it.

Re:Three Letters:

[LnxAddct]

Err... My university required me to take just about all those courses that you mentioned, not too mention a hell of alot more math courses, tons of physics from newtonian and quantum, to astrophyics, not to mention chemistry and biology all with labs. Don't underestimate a CS degree, just underestimate the school. The requirements for anything vary greatly from school to school, I just happened to choose one that challenged me, but taught me more then ever imaginable.
Regards,
Steve

Re:Indeed

[sanshovel]

Carly held more than a bachelor's degree in medieval history. She has a bachelor's degree in medieval history and philosophy, an MBA, and a masters in science. Not to stick up for her...but the facts need to be straight.