>>17118755
4chan might not be the best place to ask. I've been to /biz/ who will call CS an oversaturated meme degree, and /r9k/ and /b/ who worships the ground CS walks on.

I think the best thing to do would be to research the job situation in areas you'd like to live and see how much is there.

>>17118755
What is your other alternative?

>>17118818

Mechanical Engineering

>>17118840
Is it possible for you to go for Electrical Engineering?
It's a much safer bet and you'll still got a chance to try IT line of work later on; some software company even accept EE candidate if you're good with coding.

You do you, I am doing it because I think what you can do with coding is really cool, not really for the money

It's only a good idea if you like it.
Also since it is a fairly crowded field you will need to network a lot so look forward to that

>>17118755
>Is majoring in CS a good idea? I plan on doing it as well as learning a few languages while I'm in college. The thing is that I hear people get outsources like crazy, and that job security blows.
It depends. What languages are you planning on learning?

The thing about CS is that it's extremely competitive. The grunt work does indeed get outsourced like crazy. But if you can demonstrate that you're more than just a grunt, you can escape that trend.

There are three big things to consider here:
1) Portfolio. Get yourself a GitHub account, and do one or two small, but genuinely useful projects in every language you know. Open-source them, so that you can be sure you can show them to potential employers without causing trouble (you can do other work that isn't open-source, but don't put closed stuff into your portfolio).
2) Breadth and adaptability. It sounds like you're trying to go polyglot, and this is good. You need to be able to keep up with the state of the art. If your program has any kind of classes about the concepts underlying languages, take it. "Seven Languages in Seven Weeks" (and its sequel) are awesome in this area too.
3) Soft skills. These aren't directly related to programming, but they're becoming more and more valued among programmers. Keep your relateability and social skills high: the person your employer can call on to work with other teams will survive longer than anyone else.

you get outsourced if youre shit, thinly skilled or know an 'easy' language (such as java). in general, pajeets are slightly above shit in java, thats where all the outsourcing goes

basically, learn something other than or at least in addition to java and youll b fine

>>17119141
Me again. Sorry; one last thing. I generally avoid telling people to follow their passions into the workplace. I advise against that because it makes it far too easy to fall into the trap of doing only one thing with your life, which inevitably leads to burnout.

CS is one of those majors that lends itself particularly well to falling into the trap, making it very dangerous. But despite all this, you should not major in it UNLESS it is your passion. It's simply too competitive to do otherwise. Not only that, but it's a very dry and technical field: definitely not everyone's cup of tea. Turnover and burnout rates are way too high, even among people who went into CS thinking it was their passion.

But because this is dangerous, you need to be doubly careful maintaining your non-CS-related interests. Pry yourself away from the screen if you must. This will keep you sane.

>>17119167
>you get outsourced if youre shit, thinly skilled or know an 'easy' language (such as java).
Java is many things, and not all of them are good, but it isn't easy. Don't try to learn it first if you can possibly avoid it. That experience sours way too many people on CS entirely. Learn it eventually -it's so common that being able to read it is highly useful- but not first. Same goess for C++, or anyting else that starts with C (with the possible exception of C itself).

>>17119188
i think its certainly the easiest 'serious' language although with newer shit like rust and even c# coming in and fixing stupid shit java does it might fall off from that, my point is that java is the absolute number 1 pajeet special; the team i work on has about 18 engineers in india and they all but one only know java (and python but thats different). so if you do go into java you have to really become the king cos there are literally millions of much cheaper curry coders available

>>17118755

I love your enthusiasm, but you sound like a dilettante. If you major in CS you will learn a few programming languages, but learning a few linguistic languages??? Learning the first 2000 words is easy enough and if you're sticking to the same family of languages that's not so hard, but actually achieving fluency in different languages takes a lot of work and that will eat into your depth of knowledge in CS. I think programming is getting outsourced, but if you know legit CS AND you're an exceptional programmer then you should be fine, all the more so if you go to a top 40 school, if not just get good grades a land a decent internship your junior year.

protip: don't be a dilettante

>>17119141
listen to this anon, op

>>17119172
>>17119141

Bless you, Anon. I was planning on learning C, Java, Python, and maybe C++. It's either CS, engineering, finance, or economics. But CS seems like the most versatile.

>>17119538
You could do computer engineering and get to try ee courses out while learning how to program and then focus on the area you like more.

>>17119216

I don't know why this post made me laugh

>>17118755
> I plan on doing it as well as learning a few languages while I'm in college
better learn some math, you'll learn like 20 languages while studing cs anyway.

Depends on your location but a cs degree can net you anywhere from 45-70k starting depending on your skillset and the job scenario locally.

I'm a Software Engineer (basically CS), and the market certainly does not seem saturated where I live. There is a perpetual shortage of 4 year degree programmers, so it's been pretty easy to find a job, and I'm pretty average.

If outsourcing has taken a toll on the profession, I certainly haven't felt it. Indian and Chinese programmers don't work for pennies on the dollar like they used to, and the timezone difference is a major headache for project managers. And if you work on anything government related, it's virtually guaranteed they can't outsource it for security reasons.

Obviously, you have to be able to sit in a cube for 8 hours a day and stare at a screen. I don't mind it, as long as the project is interesting. I put on some headphones, play some music or a podcast, and churn out code.

As far as languages, I would say C, C++, Java, C# (.NET), web (HTML, CSS, Javascript, etc...), and a healthy dose of SQL will get you pretty far. Look at job websites to see what kind of programmers the companies in your desired area are hiring.

>>17119810
dont spread yourself too thin though, for example most jobs will not see a mix of say C and javascript; think about what field you want to go into (embedded, enterprise, web, etc.) and then pick the big languages relating to that and get good at them

I'm not OP, but I'm planning on majoring in CS. Would Computer Engineering be a better degree ? It's much less convenient for me, so I was thinking that CS is better, but this thread is making me question that.

>>17119898
where do you live? would you like to/be willing to move?

>>17119898

CE is alright. But, EE is better. ECE is the best. But just be willing to work your balls off.

>>17119926
what is ECE?

>>17119919
I live in Maryland, but I'd be willing to move pretty much anywhere. I would prefer to stay out of South Asia, the Middle East, and Africa, though.

>>17119926
What is ECE ?

>>17119810
It depends on what you want to do. If you want to program hardware, then electric engineering. If you want to program software, then CS or SE. If you want to do something in between the two, then Computer Engineering.

This might be a controversial statement, but I think most engineering degrees and CS degrees pay about the same. Where you work and what you is what makes the difference.

Over time, the disciplines tend to blur anyway. I work with a lot of Electrical Engineers that are doing straight up front-end programming.

>>17119982
ok well try and stick around in the us, best salaries. like the other guy said, EE is better than CE, but it depends what you want to do. if you want to make programs, applications, etc. then pick CS. if you want to design physical computer machines, do EE

>>17119947
Early Childhood Education.

>>17119994
I want to make programs but people are saying that CS is too competitive and CE puts me on the market for software jobs as well, and ones that might not be available to CS majors.

>>17119995
I worked as a preschool teacher and every single one of them told me to do something else.

Job happiness is through the roof though. Just pays like shit.

>>17120007
no no, every job you can get with CE you can get with CS, but not the other way around. CS is fine, as above the oversatuation is a slight meme and just comes from retards who thought they could idle through a course, learn one language (let alone architecture, design, principles etc.) and walk into a 80k job

>>17119926
>ee is better
Depends on your focus, but outside my transistor courses ee was dull as sin. In my experience pure EEs make shit programmers and their standard courses barely cover computer architecture.

>>17120021
What? You have it backwards. CE can do more than CS. Anything a CS person is qualified for, a CE person is also qualified for. Don't spread misinformation.

>>17120377
Gonna agree with this, but it's more about your experience and area of focus. If you are trying to get a job, no one will differentiate CS and CE as long as you have relevant experience. CE will cover more hardware, but nothing is stopping you from taking specialized CS classes if you want. CS might have trouble taking EE classes, but they can still do it.

The thing to understand is that cs is not a magic bullet for success. You still need to network, get experience about what kinds of work exist out there, which employers are worth sticking with, and HOW you want to work.

Sure, there are a lot of different opportunities but there are also a lot of bad ones. There are the shitty ass-backwards corporate employers where you just become a cog in the machine and then there are frazzled start-ups that have no idea what they're so if or what they want to be.

>>17118755
CS is a fucking meme degree filled with kids who just heard it will get them a good job, and guys who are getting their 2nd bachelors after their english degree failed to pan out.

if you like computers, go EE (or if your school has it, CE/ECE)

if not that go math