mrdude108

Thanks for the advice guys.

Yeah I am going to UTD, this is my first semester. I've been at TCC, Collin, UTA and now UTD. I was thinking about majoring in Pysch but it seems like everyone is majoring in Psych so I figured MIS would be useful and I would gain some skills rather than a regular BA or something like that. I may end up trying to find an IS/CIS degree somewhere but right now I'm taking Accounting, Marketing, Intro to MIS, Prof Development and Econ. I agree, I wouldn't be an accountant.

I was initially and still kind of am interested in the medical field but I just don't know what to do, I have no interest in going to medical school which is basically what I'd have to do to get a job I would want. I wouldn't wanna be a rad tech or any kind of assistant forever you know? Nursing is a great option but as a guy, not really interested. Then there was Pharmacy but I heard and read terrible things about the money/jobs vs money and time it takes to become a Pharmacist.

imeldareyes8

I am in (almost) the same boat youre in. Ive transferred schools 3 times. Rockhurst, UMKC, UTA and in the next semester, UTD. I really dislike UTA. Anyway, I was(AM) an engineering major but I find myself really hating the classes, and the internship I'm in. It's just not for me. I will be turning 22 next year and I also need to figure my life out. I was thinking in doing business since UTD is 2 spots below SMU in the business area but I also really love technology ( I like troubleshooting and software/programming) But i also want something that will pay well and I won't just be doing technical. Which is why i stumbled onto MIS. I agree that an internship in IT is vital and there are plenty of great programs that offer internships- if you need advice on that i can help since i currently intern at Lockheed Martin as a systems engineer- but I would like to stay in the Plano/Richardson area for my baby's and husbands sake- travelling 2 hours a day can get exhausting.

So I will be joining MIS and like that one guy said- its not what you know, its who you know. So as long as your willing to put the effort into finding a job related to your field or an internship( with Pepsico, HP, Dell, etc.. if you want to stay up north) then you shouldn't have a problem. I know that I am a natural leader and would like to both manage(lead) and work technical stuff so an MIS degree is ideal- I hate programming ( i was a physics/ CS major) and programming kicked my butt.

So to answer your question- anything is possible if your willing to put time and energy and to network. Which isn't all that hard when you know the "right" people. And like i said, I could help you with that. Networking was ingrained into me at a young age(18) So don't give up if that's what you want to do and ignore what any disgruntled worker has to say. You have to have the right mindset and never set goals lower than what you're ultimate goal is because in life and in reality- you will go as far and as high as your psychological mindset has determined for you to go.

Lol so if you have any questions or comments feel free to messag me( I'm new to this thing)

fendergirl

i have an IS degree. if you are able to get an internship, I would highly recommend it. We usually have several interns a year.

I didn't start out with an IT position at my company.... I rotated around from department to department gaining different experience with how the business works before transferring to the IT department... and that's where I plan to stay.

If you decide to major in it just keep sending a resume to places and try to get your foot in the door.

SeminoleTom

mrdude:
I agree with a lot of what GoalsOriented said. I don't mean to be harsh but the MIS degree is almost a complete waste. The reason is MIS does not prepare students to be technical enough to do the jobs that companies want.

Here is a little truth that to this day makes my blood boil. When I was graduating in 1997 with an MIS degree the career advisors said MIS grads make good consultants. The truth is not one company or consulting firm is going to hire an MIS grad (or really any college grad) to design business solutions for technical problems. What an Accenture will do, for example, is put you on a team where you will go to the client site to do the grunt work (i.e: programming). This is what an an entry level 'consultant' does in the real IT world. The career advisors that say "consultant" in terms of telling companies how to do things really did not know what they are talking about.

This leads to the next problem with an MIS degree. It does not prepare students to have the technical skills necessary to adequately do the job of a programmer or network engineer, for example. You already said you don't like math. Math and programming require very similar analytical though process. So, if you don't like math or are not good at it I would bet money that you aren't good at programming.

Now with all this said, the MIS curriculum is good for an MBA with concentration in MIS. Why? Because if you already have the technical undergrad degree (CS) and can prove you can do the techincal work then this MIS/MBA is a good addition for people that want to go into IT Management or be a true "Solutions Consultant".

So in a nutshell, be careful about majoring in MIS. If you can't do the technical work that companies are looking for you could really be setting yourself up for disaster down the road.

The only thing I disagree with Goals is the need for IT jobs. In Atlanta it's pretty strong... I guess that just depends on what part of the country you are in.

Good luck...

SeminoleTom

Looking back at what I wrote I have many second thoughts. The MIS degree is good for a BA (systems analyst), Project Manager and QA roles. I've been in QA since I graduated and am not a manger.

But if you are looking to do the heavy technical work like programming and database work your best option is CS. MIS is still strong for the above though...

fendergirl

Mis would be great for qa, ba, pm roles. My job is a hybrid between tier two and three help desk and system administrator and i think my degree was great for this. We also with very closely with the qa, ba, and pm teams on system releases and ungrades.

I always see job openings for that kind if position on career builder.

We had two IS tracks available at my college. One for end user support and one for development. The dev one took extra programming and networking courses. All of the people i graduated with in that track are working in networking or are programmers. The people in my track mostly do support.

That being said, i also freelance as a Web designer and developer. I've contemplated moving into development at my work. It's been awhile since I've played with a non Web based language but i think if i started doing it all I'd have to do I'd learn a new syntax since object oriented programming is based on the same concepts. We will see what the future has in store.

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GoalsOriented

I have yet to come across a Quality Assurance job listing that did not require (in the job posting) almost as much technical skills as a programmer, engineer, etc... I really don't know where you guys are finding all these supposedly entry-level non-technical IT jobs that do not require technical proficiency.

fendergirl

It's not like MIS grads have no Technical proficiency. We're not completely un technical... Well, I'm speaking for myself here... nobody is saying an English major who knows how to type up a story in word but nothing beyond that should go post for IT positions. But if you've taken courses on programming, databases, networking, etc... Why not?

And most job descriptions are made to sound extra hard to "scare" people out of posting so they get a good list of well qualified applicants who are confident in their abilities. You may not need everything they are asking for in the posting. Ask someone that does hiring. That being said, just because someone has sold video games at game stop doesn't mean they should be applying too be a developer for blizzard.

If you're in qa and writing automation scripts sure you need additional technical skills.... But to run those scripts created by someone else and find defects... Or to write test plans... You may not need as much technical knowledge... You may need more business knowledge on what the expected outcome is and what steps must be taken to rectify the issue. I'm sure its different from place to place.

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jahall05

MIS majors should have some foundation in programming and technology, but we are not involved in the hardcore IT stuff. We are more of a translator. We translate information from IT to Management to figure out what is needed for IT systems. It is a great major if you want to combine business and IS. At my school we have to take a 4 credit hour course in "Programming and Problem Solving" as well as a systems maintenance course (3SH). We also take various mgt courses that involve MIS disciplines. We are also required to take specialization courses. I plan on taking the courses involving Cisco networking, because once you complete them you can be certified in Cisco, which is in demand.

mrdude108

I just wanted to thank everyone for your input and detailed responses, they were VERY helpful and I appreciate it. I ended up taking MIS classes for a semester at my school and talked with a lot of different people in my classes as well. I decided to go in a different direction for my undergrad.

hikaru12

I agree 100% with GoalsOriented. I was almost stuck doing MIS but I'm glad I didn't. For most of the jobs you may want, they prefer a CS degree. A Network Administrator requires a CS degree. Why? I don't know. Maybe because it's in demand like people have said.

BA's do require some technical knowledge because while they may be required to run scripts and do some debugging or testing, a strong programming knowledge helps that out tremendously. A Business Analyst must be able to make software recommendations for people and design the solutions. Most BA positions I've seen require you to know Case Diagraming, Databases, SQL, and be able to quantative analysis very well. MIS does not prepare for the heavy analytical thinking as much as programming does because the programmers are the one who live analysis!

The thing is though I've seen Business Analysts come from Economics, Accounting, Management, and all sorts of other backgrounds. That's not to say that the good jobs should be limited to CS majors but it's hard to write system specs for a program when you don't know the first thing about a Business Requirement Document or a Use Case Diagram. These are things you learn in CS classes but not in MIS courses. I don't know why MIS does not include these courses into their curriculum. They're essentially for even the most business-oriented MIS major.

fendergirl

I'm very confused by the above post.

In my IS program we did databases, sql, c++, php, networking, business analysis, workforce computing, did tons of use cases and created every type of chart possible, a ton of gantt charts, hardware and software architectute, process flows, etc... And i wasnt even in the development track. They took even more programming and networking... By the time i graduated i wanted to beg Microsoft to discontinue visio!!

If you're not getting these things out of an IS program then i agree it's not a very good program.

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hikaru12

I'm sure it depends on the program. When I was in MIS, I only had two Java classes and an Object Oriented Concepts class, the rest were business courses. I had the choice to take about 4 electives from CS but that's about it. Four computer courses is not enough to claim any sort of specialty.

@Fender: Did you guys learn about the software development cycle or take any Calculus classes?

fendergirl

Yes to sdlc and we took business calc which was basically very similar to the calc i took in high school but with a focus of how it is applied for businesses.

We even did assembly language programming.

This was part of why i picked my school. A lot of hands on projects and different things were studied. I also did an internship as an analyst and my php/web dev prof got me a freelance Web development job. I would say my program was probably 40 percent computer stuff and sixty percent business. I also graduated eight years ago so it probably has changed a bit as far as what's offered. I keep in touch with the people i graduated with and we are all in IT jobs. Business analysts, project managers, system admin, help desk, and some are developers or architects.

I'm not a developer at work but i do write sql for my team and work closely with the dba team and Dev team on things because i have the IS technical background.

I think people really need to investigate the major itself as well as the school to make sure it will prepare you for what you want to do as a job.



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