Is my degree's name going to hurt my employment oppurtunities? (CS/IT/MIS)

College Majors
1

<p>Hey folks,</p>

<p>lurker, first time posting here.</p>

<p>I’m 23 years old and I’m a student at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC).</p>

<p>I’m current an Electrical Engineering student but I’ll be switching majors next year. I’ve always considered working on computers as a possible career option.</p>

<p>Like many people who make a career from computers, I grew up surrounded by computers hardware, software, games, and people who need help to fix those things. IT seemed like a natural place for me to go to. I selected Engineering because I wanted to learn how to work with and design those components. However, the engineering program was very intense. I realized I would not be content with myself working with engineering as a career and that it was something that I was only interested in learning as a hobbyist or entrepreneur.</p>

<p>I took a few months to look in the CS program. While I haven’t had much coding experience, I’ve always had a curiosity about it. However, I had no intentions on making a career out of heavy software development. The more I looked into CS the more I realized how heavy it was in mathematics (something I’m don’t particularly excel at) and computer theory. While I have a deep appreciation for both of those topics, It was not something I wanted to go into. Compounded with the fact that I have already completed my Gen-ed requirements and would have to take 2.5 years of courses purely in core computer science and mathematics, I decided against CS and a life of coding. (I know I can learn coding in my free time provided I remain focused on my career, however it might not be as in depth as a someone who is a CS, which is okay with me).</p>

<p>I continued searching for a major that suited me and I have found one (in the college of Business Administration) that seemed to fit me well. It was a mix of business administration and information technology (I also have an interest in business and entrepreneurship). However, the name that the degree carriers is quite unusual. In most colleges I believe its called Information Technology (IT) or even Management Information Systems (MIS). At my school the undergraduate degree for this topic is called Information and Decision Sciences (IDS). Additionally, if I complete the IDS undergraduate program at my school, I can go to graduate school for an additional year to get my masters in Management Information Systems (MIS).</p>

<p>The IDS program appeals to me, however the name seems a bit uncommon and like something that a Human Resources person might skip by while looking at a resume. I’ve Googled the program name and have only found about 2-3 forum/discussions about it. None have been helpful or informative. Additionally, I have found that only about 3-5 colleges have their IT/MIS program by this name. These facts have me thinking twice about taking this program and I’m now seeking advice.</p>

<p>Would I be better off transferring to another college in my area that has the IT program by a better name? Or should I apply myself to this program and get the degree? Would I be better off going the extra year and getting the masters in MIS? If so, should I do that while working or after I become employed?</p>

<p>Thank you very much for your time in responding to my questions!</p>

<p>Additionally if you’re a CS major please refrain from heckling me about my choice of career. I understand that the CS degree is a stronger degree but its embodied in something that I cannot completely engulf myself in for 2.5 years (mathematics and computer theory).</p>

<p>Optionally, if you respond, it would be very helpful if you could add some authority and weight to your response by sharing some credentials or some experience you have had. Sorry if this sounds picky but I’ve read so many forums where people just jump in and say something absurd. It becomes impossible to tell if they’re someone who should be taken seriously or not.</p>

<p>Here’s the program at my school: [BS</a> Information and Decision Sciences](<a href=“http://business.uic.edu/programs-and-degrees/undergraduate-programs/bs-information-and-decision-sciences]BS”>Business | University of Illinois Chicago)</p>

<p>Once again, thanks a lot folks!</p>

<p>TL;DR</p>

<p>Is a BS degree in Information and Decision Sciences (IDS) a credible and reconzible degree compared to something like Information Technology (IT) or Management Information Systems (MIS) or even Computer Science (CS)? Thanks!</p>

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<p>Firstly, I would consider IDS to be equivalent to IT and MIS. IDS is absolutely not the same as CS. The name should not be a problem.</p>

<p>From reading the course catalog, it appears IDS is basically an IT major. Meaning the classes you take deal with logistics, statistics, implementation of databases/computer systems (not actual creation/design), and business forecasting. You can also take roughly 1-2 classes in programming “for business” (whatever that means I don’t know).</p>

<p>For a better illustration what the degree entails, see the list of companies who have hired people with this degree before: [IDS</a> Careers](<a href=“http://business.uic.edu/programs-and-degrees/undergraduate-programs/bs-information-and-decision-sciences/ids-careers]IDS”>http://business.uic.edu/programs-and-degrees/undergraduate-programs/bs-information-and-decision-sciences/ids-careers).</p>

<p>As you can see, most of these companies are not strictly “tech” companies (and of the tech companies that are on the list, it’s not clear if the person was actually hired for a software role). It seems clear to me that the IDS degree is a “business analytics,” or “information technology” degree. So an example of analytics would be if you worked for Walmart, you would analyze their supplier/inventory data to find inefficiencies in the supply chain.</p>

<p>Your best bet is to talk to whatever academic adviser there is for the department, and other professors in the department, and ask them what kind of jobs you get. Ask people currently in the program what kind of internship roles they get and what they do during those internships.</p>

<p>There are other things you state which are very unclear so it would be very helpful for you to clear those up:</p>

<p>You mention an interest in entrepreneurship. What do you mean by that? Would would you see yourself doing specifically?</p>

<p>Also, CS is not purely math and computer theory. Yes, a significant portion of a CS degree is math/theory, but you could probably limit the math/theory workload to about 5-6 classes in total in your major, with the rest of your classes being software engineering classes. As a career, you can easily pick software engineering jobs that only involve basic algebra and involve absolutely no complex software theory. Examples would be smartphone app development and website development. For example, I work in smartphone/website app development, and the most complicated math I ever had to do was some basic probability stuff (dealing with random numbers) and high school algebra. This is probably even less math than a business data analyst would use (not exactly an apples-to-apples comparison, though). The highest level of software theory I’ve ever had to do is understand the difference between an array and a set and understand what a queue and dictionary is.</p>

<p>The bottom line is that it all depends on what you want to do SPECIFICALLY as a career. “Entrepreneurship” and “business” are way too vague.</p>

<p>My background is that I work in software engineering (CS major).</p>

3

<p>Most software jobs prefer Computer Science or even Math majors. MIS/IT/IDS will put you more doing business logistics, maybe some light database SQL stuff, maybe one/two classes in Intro Java/C++ or something. But usually not much more. Honestly for your interests you might consider Econ or do IDS like you intend to, then an MBA. Something to think about. </p>

<p>Doing MIS/IDS/IT you would be more qualified for Business Analyst, QA, Project Management, possibly a Database Administrator but probably not DB Dev or anything heavy. You could then move up to Sr in that position, then possibly a Management position.</p>

<p>I also wouldn’t trust that you can just pick up coding by yourself… I mean, yeah you can, but you can say that about any other college class too. If you take a CS course it will accelerate that by far and you will learn proper syntax and not get bogged down following tangents you don’t need to focus on.</p>

<p>They are all credible degrees, they are just for different careers.</p>