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Education IT

How Valuable is a Minor in Computer Science? 93

Posted by Cliff from the it's-worth-in-IT dept.
DenmaFat asks: "I'm an IT person finally finishing my BA (in Psych) at a big state U. For a few dollars (and about a semester) more, I can also minor in CS. I'll probably do it anyway, because I love the subject matter, but I'm wondering what the value of a CS minor is in the job market. Are there any CS minor holders who can speak from experience on this one?"
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How Valuable is a Minor in Computer Science? More

How Valuable is a Minor in Computer Science?

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  • Probably not much (Score:5, Insightful)

    by MerlynEmrys67 ( 583469 ) on Thursday May 19, 2005 @07:41PM (#12584324)
    Experience matters...

    Having 5 years of experience matters more than what the exact degree is.

    That said - having something that says CS on your resume will get you through a lot of HR screens. Remember for each job a company posts, 100s of resumes come in. They might phone screen 4-5 candidates and bring in 1-2. The job of your resume is to get you from the door to the phone screen.

    Once you are past the HR droid - your degree doesn't matter, your technical skills do... And trust me - I can tell if you have what I am looking for, and I don't care if you have a minor in CS, a partial degree, or a degree in animal husbandry.

    • Re:Probably not much (Score:4, Funny)

      by c ( 8461 ) <beauregardcp@gmail.com> on Thursday May 19, 2005 @08:48PM (#12584806)
      I don't care if you have a minor in CS, a partial degree, or a degree in animal husbandry.

      Translation: Knowing how to deal with bullshit is a heck of a lot more important than being able to write Hello World in Java.

      c.
    • How much does any minor matter? Or any major for that matter. Plenty of people don't end up doing what they majored in college. Otherwise there'd be about a billion anthropologists running around everywhere. If you enjoy the subject, then by all means go for it. That's what a minor is for. Don't rush out of college, because you've got the rest of your life to not be in college.

      On an unrelated note, it's a little sad that college has become nothing but vocational training. You should go to college
      • How much does any minor matter?

        teaching. it allows you to teach a whole other subject, which helps when you want a job. for example, i don't have a minor in math, but accumulated liek 24 units of math via math and econ (stats and enometrics cross linked to math classes) in college (almost 20 years ago, so don't ask me any tough quesitons!!) and it helped me get my first job teaching. well, actually the first job offer. well, actually, the first job someone wanted me for. my degree is econ, and i te

        • Re:Probably not much (Score:2, Flamebait)

          by bluGill ( 862 )

          I was with you to the end. Right at the end you suddenly start to sound like a typical teacher - loved most of school, but hated math. Like a typical teacher you can do it, but are unable to pass on the pure beauty that is truth math. (Not to be confused with arithmetic)

          Reading and writing are foundations, it would be a mistake to forget them. However math is as important as philosophy, and both are more important than history. (History is the grounding you need to understand philosophy, while scie

          • I would say that math is the grounding of science, not vice versa.
          • I never said I hated math. In fact, I actually loved it when I had a use for it: economics. ( I actually have as many math units as my wife who teaches math. including 3 semesters of calc, linear algebra, finite math, and stats and probability. of course that was 15 years ago. math is not like riding a bike!!) The moment I "discovered" that the point of diminishing returns, i.e the inflection point, was also the second derivative=0 of the marginal revenue curve (I think I got that right!!) suddenly m

  • Maybe, I think (Score:5, Interesting)

    by sribe ( 304414 ) on Thursday May 19, 2005 @07:43PM (#12584338)
    I don't have good experience to answer from. But as a business owner with a highly technical background, I would indeed value a CS minor for sales, marketing and support type of positions. I think it would be quite helpful to have people in those not-strictly-technical positions who could have an understanding of the technology that was deeper than the typical "salesworm" grasp. I don't know what your job plans are, but I think I remember reading somewhere that people with psych degrees can often be successful in sales.

    Of course if I were hiring you to be my shrink, I wouldn't give a flying one whether or not you had a minor in CS ;-)


    • Just how much knowledge can a person glean from a semester of CS courses? Enough to be able to answer your customers' questions without looking silly? Usually with highly technical products, the sales people can do pricing and paperwork, but any serious questions quickly get routed to engineers, at least in my experience.
      • It may just be that he only has another semester left in order to get the minor. This seems more likely since he said he enjoys the subject material.
        • More like three semesters left without the CS minor, four semesters with. I'll be one of those five-year people either way (except that I spread it out over almost thirty years).

          • Re:Maybe, I think (Score:2, Interesting)

            by c0reboarder ( 885528 )
            I recently graduated with a major in CS and a minor in Mathematics from a not so major university. But, I did manage to land a great job at a major healthcare software company. I know quite a few people in my same position that did graduate from big name universities that don't have majors in related fields, but minored in CS. My company looks for BRIGHT individuals with at least SOME background in CS, and then trains you for your role. This is because so many roles are things that are new to the industry a

  • *Sigh* (Score:5, Insightful)

    by lbmouse ( 473316 ) on Thursday May 19, 2005 @08:07PM (#12584553) Homepage
    This comes up on slashdot all the time. As a relatively long time (15+ yrs) non-pointy-haired boss who hires developers, the degree does not matter as much as the person. Some of my best programmers barely finished secondary school.

    Common sense, the ability to work with others *gasp*, work habits, and organization skills are more important than the quality of a piece paper you bring into my office. We can teach any other skills that are required if someone is passionate enough about technology.

    • Re:*Sigh* (Score:3, Insightful)

      by cperciva ( 102828 )
      the degree does not matter as much as the person

      Absolutely. On the other hand, if you don't go ahead and get the minor in computer science, what do you answer when someone asks "so, you claim to be really interested in computers... why didn't you take more computer science courses at university?"
      • On the other hand, if you don't go ahead and get the minor in computer science, what do you answer when someone asks "so, you claim to be really interested in computers... why didn't you take more computer science courses at university?"

        I hate those kinds of questions, which might be one reason why the credential (no matter how modest) of a minor is attractive.

      • answer (Score:2)

        by mattdm ( 1931 )
        Absolutely. On the other hand, if you don't go ahead and get the minor in computer science, what do you answer when someone asks "so, you claim to be really interested in computers... why didn't you take more computer science courses at university?"

        "I'm interested in computers, not computer science."

        And then explain the statement. I know CS professors that have no idea if the system on their desk is from Sun or SGI. And they don't need to -- they work in abstractions and barely need actual software, let
    • the ability to work with others

      On that subject, I always look for inspiration to my heroes in open source, like D.J. Bernstein and Theo De Raadt [monkey.org]!

    • As a relatively long time (15+ yrs) non-pointy-haired boss ...

      In other words, now you are just plain bald...

  • No one really gives a, um, care, about what your degree is in when you are already an IT guy, just that you have enough backbone to finish something you start.

    If, however, you are interested in the coursework, then by all means do it.

  • Go for it. (Score:4, Interesting)

    by HotNeedleOfInquiry ( 598897 ) on Thursday May 19, 2005 @08:11PM (#12584582)
    It will mean next to nothing in a small to medium company, but might make a big difference someday in government or a large corporation.

    • Re:Go for it. (Score:5, Informative)

      by tverbeek ( 457094 ) on Thursday May 19, 2005 @09:35PM (#12585105) Homepage
      I can't see a person's "minor" making much of a difference beyond their first job out of college. It's kind of like how no one looks at your high school GPA except college admissions departments and maybe your first post-college employer, how you might as well drop the extra-curricular college activities from your resume when you go shopping for your second or third job, and after 10 years in the working world they might not even bother looking at your college GPA at all.

      I was on track for a Math minor as an undergrad, but flunked a class (didn't bother doing the homework, which turned out to be essential to passing the tests), and suddenly had to think about whether I really needed to dig myself out of that hole and struggle through the last couple courses. I didn't. They really didn't interest me enough. And no one has cared. My employers have all been far more interested in my work experience and abilities, not whether I took Differential Equations.

      I also didn't major in Philosophy, but was only a few courses short of that as well. I don't regret that either... both taking the classes and not taking them all. The point is that I took the non-major classes I took because I wanted to learn the material (and I mentioned them in my interviews to make sure my potential employers knew that). Getting a formal minor to put on my resume didn't really matter.

      • No one except college admissions ever wanted to look at my high school GPA, and no one at all has ever wanted to look at my college GPA. Good thing I guess, since I failed Calc 1 before I decided to become a Math major. I did actually minor in CS. The stuff I learned in the courses has been helpful, but it's never mattered to an employer.

        What has mattered to my employers? Let's see, in school I worked a little for the computing center, and my boss there recomended me to a friend who gave me a summer j

  • If you are, then get your B.A. and get out. The last thing you need is another semester (another 12%!) on your school loan payments. Your degree gets you your first job. Your first job gets you your second job. And so forth. So, if you want your first job to be CS-related, that's one thing, but otherwise save your money for better things.

  • Who fucking knows (Score:1, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward
    I got my programming job because I have a minor in psychology, and my boss is an emotional nitwit.

    If you like the courses and are challenged by them, take them. Same applies to basket weaving. You can make a living doing lots of stuff.

  • Human factors (Score:5, Insightful)

    by molo ( 94384 ) on Thursday May 19, 2005 @08:42PM (#12584777) Journal
    You should look into studying human factors engineering/human-computer interaction. Having both psych and CS/programming skills makes you pretty quickly employable, especially if you have a master's. Good luck.

    -molo
    • You must mean in academia, because HCI is not even a consideration in the business world I live in.

      • [Regarding the importance of Human Factors engineers]
        "...You must mean in academia, because HCI [Human Computer Interface] is not even a consideration in the business world I live in..."

        Do tell what business world you live in. Is this the business world where all HCI's are utter ass?

        Just because you haven't heard of it, or don't understand it, you really shouldn't be so shortsighted as to dismiss out of hand a whole domain of IT endeavour which can significantly affect your bottom line.

        I've seen UI'
      • is a legally mandated area of analysis in the chemical, heavy industrial, nuclear, transport and defence industries. Theres plenty of work out there. What you say is a truism; HCI is an academic term not used outside. As the grandparent gets right first time, Human Factors (or some variant with the word "safety" in often) is the industrial term, but much of it will be HCI in nature (where its referred to as Human Systems Engineering btw).
  • Comment removed based on user account deletion
    • Comment removed based on user account deletion
    • That certainly surprised the hell out of me, but apparently their skill set wasn't up to par from what my boss tells me! (what are they teaching you GT guys over there anyway?!?!)

      The co-ops seem to do fairly well, and believe me, the school loves tooting their horn about that.

      And I might be taking CS, but I definitely want to end up with more than just a CS degree and a job in IT.
    • I agree for a lot of jobs like networking or database management or even programming, a CS degree is not really needed. However, get the CS minor. It will make you a better person for it. Also, you will meet people of similar interest which may lead you to contacts in the future. Would a piece of paper that says minor mean anything? Probably not. I have a Math minor and probably qualify for a CS minor if my school offered it and I don't think I got anything concrete out of it, but the fact that I met inte

  • Who cares? (Score:4, Insightful)

    by John Harrison ( 223649 ) <johnharrison@[ ]il.com ['gma' in gap]> on Thursday May 19, 2005 @09:21PM (#12585000) Homepage Journal
    At this point, if you enjoy it, take it. I have never used my minor and I have never regretted it. You will probably actually use yours given that it is more useful than your major. :)

    I encourage every college student I know to take as many courses as they can in CS. Not because they will use them, but because almost any job these days requires interacting not only with computers but with computer people and it is good to have some clue as to what the computer is really doing and what the computer people are doing as well.

  • just a little joke (Score:5, Funny)

    by Bill Dog ( 726542 ) on Thursday May 19, 2005 @09:42PM (#12585161) Journal
    For a few dollars (and about a semester) more, I can also minor in CS.

    For a few dollars more, you can learn about C++ (the good), Java (the bad), and Perl (the ugly), get a job, and barely make from it all a fistful of dollars.
  • Offtopic I know, but certainly pertinent to many I'm sure...

    A must read : Undergraduation [paulgraham.com]. ( and feedback from anon professors on this essay [paulgraham.com] )

    Yet Another College Advice Essay [joelonsoftware.com]

    Grab some microeconomics [joelonsoftware.com] before you leave.

    The following is from http://www.paulgraham.com/hiring.html [paulgraham.com]

    ...
    Have you ever noticed that when animals are let out of cages, they don't always realize at first that the door's open? Often they have to be poked with a stick to get them out. Something similar happened with blogs. People could have been publishing online in 1995, and yet blogging has only really taken off in the last couple years. In 1995 we thought only professional writers were entitled to publish their ideas, and that anyone else who did was a crank. Now publishing online is becoming so popular that everyone wants to do it, even print journalists. But blogging has not taken off recently because of any technical innovation; it just took eight years for everyone to realize the cage was open.

    I think most undergrads don't realize yet that the economic cage is open. A lot have been told by their parents that the route to success is to get a good job. This was true when their parents were in college, but it's less true now. The route to success is to build something valuable, and you don't have to be working for an existing company to do that. Indeed, you can often do it better if you're not.

    When I talk to undergrads, what surprises me most about them is how conservative they are. Not politically, of course. I mean they don't seem to want to take risks. This is a mistake, because the younger you are, the more risk you can take. ...

    Actually college is where the line ends. Superficially, going to work for a company may feel like just the next in a series of institutions, but underneath, everything is different. The end of school is the fulcrum of your life, the point where you go from net consumer to net producer.

    The other big change is that now, you're steering. You can go anywhere you want. So it may be worth standing back and understanding what's going on, instead of just doing the default thing.

    All through college, and probably long before that, most undergrads have been thinking about what employers want. But what really matters is what customers want, because they're the ones who give employers the money to pay you.

    So instead of thinking about what employers want, you're probably better off thinking directly about what users want. To the extent there's any difference between the two, you can even use that to your advantage if you start a company of your own. For example, big companies like docile conformists. But this is merely an artifact of their bigness, not something customers need. ...

    A Public Service Message

    I'd like to conclude with a joint message from me and your parents. Don't drop out of college to start a startup. There's no rush. There will be plenty of time to start companies after you graduate. In fact, it may be just as well to go work for an existing company for a couple years after you graduate, to learn how companies work.

    And yet, when I think about it, I can't imagine telling Bill Gates at 19 that he should wait till he graduated to start a company. He'd have told me to get lost. And could I have honestly claimed that he was harming his future-- that he was learning less by working at ground zero of the microcomputer revolution than he would have if he'd been taking classes back at Harvard? No, probably not.

    And yes, while it is probably true that you'll learn some valuable things by going to work for an e

  • I think of a minor as potential icing on the cake with one's degree. For example, I got a Business Administration minor (2 additional semesters) while I got my BSCS, because I thought it would suggest to employers that I wasn't just a one-sided nerd, but had some business sense/appreciation for what goes on in "the real world".

    In general I would say a CS minor looks very good accompanying a non-technical major, because it shows you have an interest in and can handle an increasingly technological world and
  • I have over a decade of experience in the IT field, and from what I've seen, degrees are almost meaningless.

    I've personally seen far, far too many employers treat a degree like a check box on a form - either you've got one, or you don't. Experience is much more valuable than your major/minor is.

  • I happen to be a Systems/Networking person, and I ended up *not* minoring in CS because the CS track at the school I was attending was 95% programming. I took 1 CS course (C++), learned nothing except syntax (which I learned mostly from online HOWTO's), and never took another.

    If there were more courses in focusing on Networking or System Administration, I'd have taken more. So, check what is offered before you leap in!

    • Quite right. Take a look at the course catalog and decide if the courses are applicable to your vocation.

      That being said, I do feel that everyone working in IT should have some knowledge of programming (even if it is just the knowledge that they hate it). This means learning at least one programming language and a course in data structures. If your minor offers you the ability to get an introduction both the hardware and software side of things, plus theory, I'd say go for it.

  • I took the extra courses that I needed for a CS minor, and it was totally worth it. The classes provided me with a background in programming that is useful for any technical professsion. You learn how to reason more logically and break down problems into easily solvable segments. Aside from the programming knowledge, you also gain an understanding of tools like ssh, vpn and samba that help you work more effectively in a connected office..... and MOST importantly it got my foot in the door. No companies w

  • Is a CS MAJOR even worth anything? (Score:3, Insightful)

    by pyite ( 140350 ) on Friday May 20, 2005 @12:47AM (#12586089)
    Sadly, I don't even consider a BS in CS to be worth much these days. My feeling in talking with graduates is that the dot com bubble watered down most Universities' CS programs... and I say that coming from a pretty highly ranked CS school [rutgers.edu]. In my opinion, CS programs should focus on less programming and more CS/Math as they seem to just be churning out programmers, not scientists.
  • Disclaimer: I majored in computer science and am currently employed as a software developer (lead programmer on a significant project).

    Computer science, in and of itself, isn't particularly commercially viable anymore, what with outsourcing, offshoring, H1-Bs and L-1's getting most of the jobs... You shouldn't look at the question of whether to study computer science as an economic one. It isn't going to make you a penny, unless you major in it and leave the private sector, or go all the way and become a f
  • I wouldn't worry about the minor. If you like it, go ahead and take it. More subjects will do you good. But I mean that in a personal growth kind of way - don't expect a future employer to care much, if at all.

    I graduated as a CS major, and to be honest I'd have been better off if I'd taken something else. I'd probably still have my unix sysadmin job, and I've have had the chance to take some more interesting courses.
  • i don't think having a minor around while doing cs is a necessity...

    this reminds me of a bash quote btw:

    #352172 +(3506)- [X]

    NHBoy: I broke my G-string while fingering a minor :(
    rycool: ...
    NHBoy: I was trying to play Knocking on Heaven's Door.
    NHBoy: Oh well, time to buy new strings.
  • 1. People (especially self-proclaimed techno-geniuses) often look down on Psych majors trying to play with technology. The minor will help with that - especially if 2 years from now you decide to work in IT.

    2. Perhaps more importantly, people hiring into positions that would entertain a psychology degree are very happy to have someone on their side to help them deal with those nasty nerds. Perhaps reason 1 has something to do with this feeling?

    3. Most positions require a level of computer savvy these da
  • Quickly breezing through the replies to your post, it looks like I might be the first person to reply who can actually speak from experience.

    I graduated during the downfall of dot-coms with a BA in Economics/Finance, and a minor is CS. Being stubborn, I shunned the i-banking jobs my fellow Econ majors were taking and still went for a job in technology (even though they were in scarce supply). I ended up finding a great company that was more interested in hiring smart people than what letters they had on
  • Thank you everyone who commented, especially those with CS minors (or those fingering them). This is exactly the kind of reality check I needed. I'm still going to forge ahead with the minor, but not out of the hope that it will land me a job (though it was heartening to hear that it may have made the difference in getting a couple of people jobs).

    The HCI tangent really interests me, and I googled upon the HCI Bibliography:

    http://www.hcibib.org/ [hcibib.org]

    That's enough to keep me busy for a while. Maybe in a c
    • I just finished freshman year as a physics major (which also starts with p, just like psych. I took Programming I and II this year (C++) and loved both of them. I've been talking to my advisor about getting a C++ minor. He highly recommends it. I know we'd be in different fields, but he said that with a CS minor with physics, I'd be in a good position for internships and graduate school and jobs. He said if you can come right in to a physics lab and be able to program your equiptment and be ready to go, and
  • I am a mechanical engineer with a 2nd major in mathematics. I took Choas/Dynamical Systems, Linear Algrebra, and Complex Analysis to get the double major. I think this actually hurt me while interviewing to work in industry as a M.E. The stereotypical math nerd doesn't possess the hands-on, get-it-done attitude that a sucessful engineer has. I'm glad that I got the 2nd major but I would have played it off as trivial when job hunting if I had it to do over.

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