College Major decision

I am in my second year of college. I have recently selected my major as CIS, before that i was undecided. I chose this because computers interest me, and I know that CS is more math based where as CIS is more business. I will admit I do not know much about computers, I have only taken a few basic programming classes, but I enjoy learning and am motivated in my classes to learn when it deals with computers. I am not sure what I want to do when i graduate. What kind of jobs are available for a CIS major? Would CS be a better choice, for job availabilty when i get out? I appreciate any help!

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Comments

garv221

Getting a job may be hard without experience (as in any industry). CS or CIS, it really makes no huge difference to an employer. They see them as the same. It is experience that will determine what type of job you will get.

Go Bucks

Try to get an internship with a company or see about working in the school labs. Anything to get experience. I would also advise to work on your certifications in the Summer or during Winter break if you are lucky enough to be on quarters and get all of December off. With a degree, some certs, and a little experience you shouldn't have too much trouble finding a decent job.

raross

garv221 wrote:

Getting a job may be hard without experience (as in any industry). CS or CIS, it really makes no huge difference to an employer. They see them as the same. It is experience that will determine what type of job you will get.

I disagree with this. An intelligent employers will not think a CIS or CS degree is the same. As what he said, CIS is more business oriented and less programming. CS has a lot more math and algoritmic design classes. These two degrees are a lot different.

I think you are better off getting the harder degree which is ofcourse the CS degree.

sjbllr15

Thanks guys! Does anyone else have anything they would like to add? What kind of jobs are there to go into with a CIS major?

int80h

If you want a career in computers, you best bet is to major in electrical engineering.

jaeusm

If you want a career in computers, you best bet is to major in electrical engineering.

Why?

certificationjourney [ban

Electrical Engineering? Not really. I just dropped out of it.

raross

According to the department of labor the fastest growing computer related job is computer engineering. However this job is in high demand, because of the lack of engineers graduating in the united states. In 8-10 years you will see the whole industry shift towards Biotechnology. I believe this will become the most needed job in the computer world.

bighusker

There is a huge difference between CIS and CS. CIS/MIS/IS is generally a business degree with some IT classes thrown in the mix. CS is a programming/theory/math major. The closest business-related class I've had was "software engineering", which taught process models for developing software within an organization. Speaking as someone who was originally a CIS major, CS is a much harder degree (part of the reason why I chose it).

bighusker

raross wrote:

According to the department of labor the fastest growing computer related job is computer engineering. However this job is in high demand, because of the lack of engineers graduating in the united states. In 8-10 years you will see the whole industry shift towards Biotechnology. I believe this will become the most needed job in the computer world.

My school (University of Nebraska-Omaha) recently started offering an undergraduate degree in Bioinformatics. Seems pretty interesting.

JDMurray

bighusker wrote:

My school (University of Nebraska-Omaha) recently started offering an undergraduate degree in Bioinformatics. Seems pretty interesting.

It is if you like writing SQL statements that sift through huge databases of biochemistry data looking for patterns. You can do the same for financial data as well.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bioinformatic

kevozz

Not totally sure about the other people with a CIS degree. I have a CIS degree, which they described it as a "CS degree, CIS option" in my course of study. Other colleges may gear their courses towards business such as a MIS degree. There were many similarities with CS except for the high level mathematics and programming theory. There were several business classes (accounting, project Management, economics ect...). Five to seven programming classes (Pascal, Cobol, C++, Java, Visual Basic). Four to six Database type classes and two in Software Engineering. I took a networking minor. I would say if your the programming type who can pound on a keyboard all day and enjoy it, go for CS. If you prefer the business side, less coding, and like to work with a database, go CIS. Either way, a degree is a major accomplishment.

raross

jdmurray wrote:

bighusker wrote:

My school (University of Nebraska-Omaha) recently started offering an undergraduate degree in Bioinformatics. Seems pretty interesting.

It is if you like writing SQL statements that sift through huge databases of biochemistry data looking for patterns. You can do the same for financial data as well.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bioinformatic

lol, it is nothing like that. Infact biological databases are totally different then regular databases. If it was that easy, there would not be a field. Bioinformatics deals mostly with data classification which in turn is brought by learning computers using neural networks and hidden markov models. There are thousands of profiles which classify different types of sequences etc. It is truly too complicated to explain briefly. The only bioinformatians currently working in the field are scientist with PhD's because no one else is trained at the under-grad level. There is such a big demand for this, but in order to work in the bioinformatics industry you will need a graduate degree =/.

jaeusm

lol, it is nothing like that. Infact biological databases are totally different then regular databases. If it was that easy, there would not be a field. Bioinformatics deals mostly with data classification which in turn is brought by learning computers using neural networks and hidden markov models. There are thousands of profiles which classify different types of sequences etc. It is truly too complicated to explain briefly. The only bioinformatians currently working in the field are scientist with PhD's because no one else is trained at the under-grad level. There is such a big demand for this, but in order to work in the bioinformatics industry you will need a graduate degree =/.

Actually, the demand for bioinformatics programmers is not that big right now. That will probably change in the future. I was able to learn about bioinformatics in some of my graduate courses, and like many fields, it sounds cooler than it actually is. I thought it was boring, but some people really like it.

raross

jaeusm wrote:

lol, it is nothing like that. Infact biological databases are totally different then regular databases. If it was that easy, there would not be a field. Bioinformatics deals mostly with data classification which in turn is brought by learning computers using neural networks and hidden markov models. There are thousands of profiles which classify different types of sequences etc. It is truly too complicated to explain briefly. The only bioinformatians currently working in the field are scientist with PhD's because no one else is trained at the under-grad level. There is such a big demand for this, but in order to work in the bioinformatics industry you will need a graduate degree =/.

Actually, the demand for bioinformatics programmers is not that big right now. That will probably change in the future. I was able to learn about bioinformatics in some of my graduate courses, and like many fields, it sounds cooler than it actually is. I thought it was boring, but some people really like it.

Maybe, programmers like you said. That is not what I am talking about though. Bioinformatics in general is in high demand, and will continue to be in high demand for years to come, because of the lack of educated people in the market. Like I said before, the only people currently working in the field are PhD's because no one else is trained yet. Which is also going to change, because of all the world class schools making graduate programs, not only in the US, but the world. This field is like how computer science was 50+ years ago, so it will ofcourse bring you upon the cutting edge of technology in all of its good graces