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Nebs
Apr 22, 2008

Hello, I hope this is the appropriate forum, if not please let me know where to post this. My situation is thus: I spent 3 years doing a CS degree in a fairly good UK University, graduated with first class honours (the highest qualification for those outside the UK) in June last year. My course focused exclusively on Java and as such I've only been applying for Java related jobs. After a year of unsuccessfully trying to find work, I am now basically unemployable (no good answer to the 'what have you been up to the past year' question) and as such, am forced to do a Masters course in order to prove I've done something to employers, as well as get a bit more qualified.

I applied to two courses, one for Advanced CS and one for Cloud Computing and was accepted for both, so now I have to decide which one to actually do. I'll give some information on both in case it helps: the Cloud course consists of a selection of mandatory modules and a dissertation while the Advanced CS course has mostly optional modules and again, a dissertation. Given the choices in the latter, I've estimated that I'd do about 80% of the same modules, so really the only difference is the dissertation, a couple of modules and the degree name. In addition, it seems the Cloud course has higher chances of netting a dissertation within an industrial setting, which might help me a lot with connections etc.

So this is my dilemma, to go with the 'safer' general degree in Advanced CS. or the more risky (as I know nothing of 'Cloud Computing' or how useful it actually is) Cloud degree. Any sort of experience from people in IT would be of great help as I haven't been able to find enough information via Google.

Nebs fucked around with this message at 17:28 on Aug 7, 2014

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skipdogg
Nov 29, 2004
Resident SRT-4 Expert

Go with the safe degree.

Circling back though... I'm not sure how it is in the UK, but the market here in the states for Java is pretty drat good. Did you participate in any internships or anything while at school? Do you have examples of code you've written? Java is an in demand skill set, there is something else up if you haven't been able to find work for an entire year.

Nebs
Apr 22, 2008

skipdogg posted:

Go with the safe degree.

Circling back though... I'm not sure how it is in the UK, but the market here in the states for Java is pretty drat good. Did you participate in any internships or anything while at school? Do you have examples of code you've written? Java is an in demand skill set, there is something else up if you haven't been able to find work for an entire year.

The safe degree isn't supported by IT companies like the Cloud degree is and I do think lack of work experience is one of my biggest problems. The safe option is probably the smart choice but something keeps telling me to take a bit of a risk with the other, it would be great to know if it's a garbage degree or not.

No, I hosed up and ignored everything but getting grades during my undergraduate time. Didn't even start looking for a job until 2-3 months after graduation - most people I found start looking around 6 months before graduation. I'm not a great coder or anything, I did well in assignments but outside of coursework I have no motivation to do anything CS related and I'm not good at self-learning. I also got hosed over by recruiters a lot during the year, they called me every month with a promising job, signed me up for it and then never called back, this went on for several months. That's pretty much the gist of why I failed at getting a job.

Knyteguy
Jul 6, 2005

YES to love
NO to shirts


Toilet Rascal
I recommend checking out the Cavern of Cobol subforum, specifically the "Newbie Get a Job Megathread" thread (similar).

I'm in the field and I say go with the CS degree. No one really cares about cloud computing because it is a marketing term. Like sure using remote servers for computing is useful, but the term itself is just dumb. I wouldn't base my degree around it just because of that. In 10 years it could be a relic of the past that everyone finds stupid (likely).

Also if you can't find a job in this industry you're doing something wrong. You need to write code and put it up on Github or something. Again all of this and way more is in the CoC subforum.

edit: Here is a link to the newbie programming thread: http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3376083 now you don't have an excuse to not look at it.

Knyteguy fucked around with this message at 18:38 on Aug 7, 2014

Nebs
Apr 22, 2008

Knyteguy posted:

I recommend checking out the Cavern of Cobol subforum, specifically the "Newbie Get a Job Megathread" thread (similar).

I'm in the field and I say go with the CS degree. No one really cares about cloud computing because it is a marketing term. Like sure using remote servers for computing is useful, but the term itself is just dumb. I wouldn't base my degree around it just because of that. In 10 years it could be a relic of the past that everyone finds stupid (likely).

Also if you can't find a job in this industry you're doing something wrong. You need to write code and put it up on Github or something. Again all of this and way more is in the CoC subforum.

Thanks, I'll have a look.

That's my biggest fear as well, it being useless a few years down the line. Although by then I'd hopefully have job experience which is more important than a degree title. Should you really base a degree around it's title though, even though most of it is literally identical to the other degree?

I don't think I'll ever be able to compete with the kind of people who love coding in their free time, or run blogs or just care and like CS enough to consider it a hobby. Is there nothing else I can do with my degree besides being a programmer? Like I said, my code is nothing special (I haven't even coded anything in the past year, nor would I know what to code anyway) and I don't think would net me a job. I realize now I probably should have never picked CS, but it's a little too late for that.

Knyteguy
Jul 6, 2005

YES to love
NO to shirts


Toilet Rascal

Nebs posted:

Thanks, I'll have a look.

That's my biggest fear as well, it being useless a few years down the line. Although by then I'd hopefully have job experience which is more important than a degree title. Should you really base a degree around it's title though, even though most of it is literally identical to the other degree?

I don't think I'll ever be able to compete with the kind of people who love coding in their free time, or run blogs or just care and like CS enough to consider it a hobby. Is there nothing else I can do with my degree besides being a programmer? Like I said, my code is nothing special (I haven't even coded anything in the past year, nor would I know what to code anyway) and I don't think would net me a job. I realize now I probably should have never picked CS, but it's a little too late for that.

You're right that job experience is going to be what is really important. But if they are mostly literally identically why would you not pick the one that actually makes sense?

Re non-programming: Well I mean formal CS is pretty math heavy so you might qualify for jobs that require heavy mathematics. I guess you segue fairly OK into electrical engineering w/ embedded programming (which I find pretty fun) if you wanted to pursue another degree.

Knyteguy fucked around with this message at 18:55 on Aug 7, 2014

Nebs
Apr 22, 2008

Knyteguy posted:

You're right that job experience is going to be what is really important. But if they are mostly literally identically why would you not pick the one that actually makes sense?

Re non-programming: Well I mean formal CS is pretty math heavy so you might qualify for jobs that require heavy mathematics. I guess you segue fairly OK into electrical engineering w/ embedded programming (which I find pretty fun) if you wanted to pursue another degree.

As I mentioned, on the University website it mentions the Cloud MSc is sponsored in a way by local IT companies (it lists about 7 of them) and that there's a chance to do your MSc project within industry with one of these companies, assuming you're good enough and don't gently caress up the interview. That's probably the only reason I considered it.

Those aren't really options, we only covered math for 2 of the 3 years and not in depth. The degree was too high level for any kind of Electrical Engineering related courses.

I'm afraid the people at CoC are mostly focused on programming and they would tell me to do just that. I am rubbish at being a programmer without some sort of guidance from a lecturer or school assignment. Anyway thanks for the help, it has steered me quite a bit towards the general CS option.

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Nebs
Apr 22, 2008

Bump. Would love to get a few more opinions if possible.

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