Thinking of changing major's at WGU looking for input

boxerboy1168

So I am currently in my second year at WGU in the networking and security degree plan getting ready to finish up my CCNA in about 4-6 weeks.

I have been thinking about changing my major to software and applications development from networking and security. From my location there is a lot more opportunity in devop's than networking and security.

How many of you experience the same in your location and do you think there's more opportunity in Java and SQL than networking and security??

*****Let me also point out that I already know people will say you should do what your passionate about and let me clear this up ahead of time because that really doesn't help anybody. *****

I have bills to pay and I am not going to spend my time devoted to a skill set that's not going to pay those bills. So although I know where you are coming from with that position IT DOESN'T HELP.

Thank you.

Danielm7

boxerboy1168 wrote: »

*****Let me also point out that I already know people will say you should do what your passionate about and let me clear this up ahead of time because that really doesn't help anybody. *****

I have bills to pay and I am not going to spend my time devoted to a skill set that's not going to pay those bills. So although I know where you are coming from with that position IT DOESN'T HELP.

I know what you're saying, but it does matter. Either role has jobs in certain areas. In busy areas dev and security are both super hot right now. But, have you written code before? Do you enjoy it? Do you read security news? Do you watch talks and play with tools on your own time? I know you're saying it doesn't matter, but you're going to have to dig really deep in either career and put in a ton of hours, you should show some degree of interest one way or another.

FWIW: In my area I know security jobs are hard to fill, I know because I try to hire them at my workplace. Devs, honestly I'm not sure because that's not my niche, but no software engineers that I know are hurting for jobs either but they are all well within their careers.

Also, your major isn't like the only direction your career is going to take you. There are tons of developers with no degrees, or totally unrelated degrees, but they love coding and have been doing it forever for fun and they show their portfolio or past jobs and get future jobs easily. Same with security, I'm looking to hire another security engineer in a few weeks, if someone shows up who is actually personable, knows what I need them to know and are passionate and love learning new things, their college major is going to be just about the last thing I care about in the evaluation process.

yoba222

My major (sort of) was software engineering and I ended up doing network and security. I got a brief taste of software development in the beginning and soon learned that software development is not for everyone. It's not even for most people. I still code in my spare time a bit, but I'd be miserable doing it full time at any salary.

An inexpensive litmus test would be to acquire a copy of the book titled Cracking the Coding Interview from your public library or wherever. If that material is going to be over your head come graduation, I'd seriously reconsider changing majors. That book is over my head.

EANx

Before making a real switch, have you tried learning a language? Maybe sign up for the Pro version of Codeacademy and give one or two a try.

DatabaseHead

EANx wrote: »

Before making a real switch, have you tried learning a language? Maybe sign up for the Pro version of Codeacademy and give one or two a try.

Exactly

It's not for everybody...... Like Yoba said it's not for most people. These have been my findings as well.

What's ironic is the city I am in is looking for engineering types for systems, networking etc....

gespenstern

I'd suggest doing a few challenges on codewars and see how you compare with others and do you enjoy the process.

If you do, then divide it by 10 as actual software development work is much less exciting than doing those challenges, in a modern enterprise it's boring and grueling gruntwork for the most part.

boxerboy1168

Thanks for all the input. I've taken VB and learned some Python in the past as well as automating MUD games when I was younger through scripting which is obviously much different than working in a real engineering position.

I've decided to reach out to some recruiters in nearby cities to find out where the market is at, the networking recruiter has multiple jobs starting at 35-45 an hour which is fantastic and I'm waiting to hear back from the data admin recruiter to see really what's worth my time.

I can honestly do anything I'm very results oriented and enjoy everything technology.

DatabaseHead

Sounds like a smart plan Boxer, good luck