[ale] [OT] Observation on "Screwed"

[Bao C. Ha]

On Sun, Aug 25, 2002 at 11:56:59AM -0400, tfreeman at intel.digichem.net wrote:

It is true that many people will not be in the academic areas they
are studying in college.  However, I don't like that fact to be
abused by diploma-mills.  There is a reason why starting salaries of
technical degrees are very high compared to other college graduates.
There is also a reason why Microsoft or IBM is heavily recruiting
CS degreed people from Carnegie Mellon or MIT.  

You will see that many engineers can cross over and do other things, 
including programming, law, business, medicine.  I doubt very much 
that you will see business analyst or tech-certified people to be 
able to do engineering works like chemical, mechanical, civil, 
electrical, ..., not even the ones with a bachelor degree in 
engineering technology.  

One of the characteristics of people who have been able to change 
from original careers of choices is their very strong background in 
math and sciences.  We are trained to do critical and logical 
thinking in our college engineering education.  Another characteristics
is the ability to learn new things and to take chances.  

My degrees are in Chemical Engineering.  I have changed from a petro-
checmial engineer to nuclear engineer and now a software engineer.  I
have seen an example of a person with a master degree in Mechanical
Engineering to be trained and to become proficient in Java in about
6 months.  I have also seen some supposedly Java heads who do Java like
I was doing Fortran a long time ago.  Forget about object-oriented!

My advice is that if you have a choice, go for a technical degree. If
you like computer, a CS dgeree will be more likely to land your first
job in the computer areas.  In a bad economy situation like right now, 
it will also make a world of differences.

Bao

> 
> Looking over the "Screwed" posts (hope I got that right - posting 
> from memory here)I'm seeing a dicotomy of opinion. There are many who hold 
> that if a program doesn't lead more or less to a goal, it is of little 
> value to the participant. In contrast, and with very few/none taking an 
> intermediate position, some hold the value is in "study what you love", 
> with a subset also holding the position of "stick your nose into other 
> subjects to see what else to love". (Well, I paraphrase there)
> 
> I wish I could bring forth relevant statistics. My one statistic is thirty 
> years old, and the durn thing was word of mouth to begin with. I was told 
> that in Math, after five years of employement, only 1 in 5 Math majors 
> will still be performing a job function related to Math. Something similar 
> appears to happen with the other technical fields, although I lack 
> sufficient experience to be sure.
> 
> -- 
> =============================================
> If you think Education is expensive
> Try Ingnorance
>                    Author Unknown
> ============================================
> 
> 
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-- 
Bao C. Ha                    voice: (310) 980-3805
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