<p>Sometimes a CS grad could be narrow-minded in their job selection. They might have used all of their electives to specialize in some “niche” area but many times, those niche areas feel the impact of a bad economy.</p>
<p>The following is my own personal opinion of being in software engineering 20+ years, but MOST software jobs will relate to the manipulation (programming), distribution (networks) and storage/retrieval (databases) of DATA. Well, there are your MUST-HAVE CS electives: Databases and Computer Networks. Add to the fact that ALL 3 areas need to run over an operating system pretty much tells where most of the jobs are in:</p>
<p>Programming - C++, Java, Ruby, C#
Databases - Oracle, SQL Server, Hadoop, Data Modeling, Data Warehousing
Networks - Network design, administration, information assurance
Operating Systems: Deep knowledge of Unix/Linux or Windows</p>
<p>Sometimes, one may have to take a job in above areas UNTIL that artificial intelligence or graphics or gaming or quantum computing job opens up.</p>