"Comp Sci (and the people that study it) as a degree discipline pisses me off sometimes. It's a generalist degree that trains you in a thin veneer of everything, so that after 3 years, you know how an operating system works and how to do basic for loops in a piece of code. It does not qualify you to do anything. A couple of modules does not an expert make. What employers are looking for is a level of dedication and expertise from the people they're hiring. Software developers are highly in demand, but what are not in demand are apprentice software developers that take 4 weeks to write a 2 day piece of code, don't know how to interpret requirements and read a design document, and haven't got the first clue about delivering projects and working in the real world. It frustrates me that people, especially from more traditional universities, see: good honours degree + skills shortage = £££££££ This is not a true reflection of the real world at all. Similarly, it annoys me that the same people don't consider less traditional disciplines in IT. I personally think that you have to start specialising your skills in this field at an early age to progress. Yes, it closes doors, but if you pick sensibly, you can end up with essentially a job for life and rapid career progression. Programming is boring, in my personal opinion. As is working with DB's and web development. Some people find this interesting, so I'm not going to criticise people for wanting to get into these (relatively financially rewarding) fields. However, there is more out there than this, but you have to specialise and commit to it. Infosec/Cyber is an area that is grossly under-resourced at the moment. Companies are offering silly money for people with the right skills in this area, but yet so few people are even considering it because it doesn't fit with the cookie cutter Comp Sci graduate prospectus. Half the trouble here is that if you're smart and have good A-Levels and are into IT, you're funnelled in to the Comp Sci path, especially where top unis are concerned, yet these courses teach you very little in the way of practical employability, skills and certainly don't give you any specialism, which causes you then to miss out on the opportunity to pursue specialist careers, as, ironically, you get pipped to the post by people like me, from (comparatively) lowly universities doing non-traditional, practical degrees. "
Netizen
