[valley_girl1919]

I am about to start at a university in the fall, going for Information Systems/Technology. My question what is the best computer job for people with SA? Who all on here works with computers? I need some insight into this field

 

[Classified]

Computers are a pretty big field. There is web design, robotics, game design/physics, mainframes/parallel/supercomputers, C++ Windows programming, Mac programming, Java programming, AI, Office productivity, Visual Basic/Excel, and a whole lot of others.

Then again, I got a degree in computer engineering, but my job was not something I ever imagined doing or really needing a lot of computer guys for. Half the time, I don't even use a computer.

 

[kenny87]

I wanted to, but it seems almost every young male that is an outcast or has some problem seems to be doing it or wanting to be doing it which turned me off.

Personally I was also put off by constant reminders on forums that the education itself was worthless, and that getting certifications and degrees are usually a joke and real knowledge would have to be learned on your own. And you generally have to work your way up for experience, which means going from whatever cheap high school/college job you had to another cheap computer job you pulled off with your educational experience( no matter how high) until you worked you way up to decent pay. I don't know how true it is, but that's the generally attitude I got when researching the IT field. Its seems that everyone was told computers were the way to a nice career, and everyone followed it, and now there are too many out there and you wouldn't stand a chance unless you could prove yourself being above the average who know nothing other that what they learned on tests and such.

not to try to put you off, but the whole "computer" community seems to have the opinion that education is a scam and you won't get anywhere without learning it yourself. I read a post from one guy who said if someone actually put on there resume they had a A+ cert, he would automatically not consider them, simply because he thought you would be a fool to put a meaningless cert on a resume.

Again, I have never done this kind of work, but this is what I generally get when I have looked into it.

 

[hyacinth_dragon]

My advice to you is learn what you are interested in. The economy sucks right now so its hard to get a job in any field. If you like computers and programming, chances are you will find a halfway decent job in that area.

 

[Classified]

I agree with Kenny to an extent. A my first job, I had to take over a project from a homeschooled kid that at my age was a programming genius. The education system wants to hold your hand and tell you how to program, but if you are interested in it on your own, you make it work in the easiest way that you can figure out. Since you are doing things that interest you, so you are going to work harder at it, and will have the time to work at it.

I spent 5 years getting a degree, in my job interview I was asked to explain 2 programs I had written at home to do pretty basic things for me, one small assignment project, and one team programming project that we had to come up with an idea and implement it from my senior year. Education has it's place, but it also held me back from being able to learn on my own and play around with things. The trial and error method of learning should be used a lot more in school.

The certs are for a certain type of computer job. If I were going to setup a Cisco network running SAP, I would be looking for experience or certification that they know what they are doing.

It's hard giving advice on what field to go into to, there are a lot of niche markets where there may not be a lot of demand, but there isn't a lot of competition either. Or you can always go at it on your own, or figure out how you can use computers/IT to help another industry do things better.

 

[millenniumman75]

I am in Quality Control, but I write and maintain programs to help me with my testing. Eventually, I will be writing testplans for the CAD program I work on, based on code I see from development.

My schooling did not teach me about PERL, but it taught me about the schema that ges behind all programming languages - software engineering and learning to break up tasks into smaller components. Interesting stuff. It's learning about data handling and then the languages behind it (almost like speaking languages).

 

[Paul]

The best computer job for someone with SA is probably something you can do on your own, like web design. Except web design is more of an artist job that happens to use computers and markup languages.

Education is useful for becoming a good programmer. You can learn on your own, but it's easier to learn in school -- the self-taught often tend to just learn languages and miss out on the conceptual background which separates the skilled from the hacks. I don't know if education is much use for other computer fields or not. Basic IT jobs probably wouldn't need education if you know your way around.

Certainly hyacinth is right that you should go with what you're into. It's so much easier to learn to be good at something when you enjoy it.