Lets say I want to become a computer hardware engineer and I get accepted to Caltech.

sakky
Mon, 21 Nov 2005 20:22:44 +0000

Comp Sci, EE, Comp Eng, the fact is, in the working world, nobody really cares. For the purposes of hiring, what is far more important is your work experience (as evidenced by summer internships, co-ops, research projects. etc. ), what you know about the industry and how your interview skills are. No computer company is going to say “Your technical qualifications are great, your experience is your interview is great, you know the industry well, but since you have a EE or CS degree but not a computer engineering degree, we’re not going to hire you”. Never happen.

Which gets to something I’ve been saying many times - just because you major in something does not mean that you can only get a job doing that thing. I knew a guy with an English degree who got offered a computer job. Of course it should be said that he did a lot of computer work as a hobby and to make extra money, and by the time he graduated, he probably had more practical computer experience than even some of the CS/CompE grads did.