<p>“I don’t think foreign languages are overvalued. They open up a lot of job opportunities.”</p>
<p>If that were true then fewer foreign language majors would find themselves working at Taco Bell, KFC, and McDonalds. The only job opportunities they open up are with the government and in foreign countries. The government probably demands less than 1% (yeah I picked an arbitrary value, still probably pretty close) of the foreign language majors from the top 25 universities. Most of the rest aren’t leaving the country.</p>
<p>95% of foreign language majors end up working at Taco Bell, KFC, and Mcdonald’s. Yeah, I picked an arbitrary value, but it’s probably pretty close. Because I said so.</p>
<p>You should probably double major with something if you’re gonna major in a language, unless like Qwerty said you get a job as a linguist in the government.</p>
<p>Being fluent in a language is always helpful though, especially if it’s something like Spanish, Chinese or Arabic.</p>
<p>FBI and CIA are probably the biggest hirers. </p>
<p>[Foreign</a> Languages Jobs in the Federal Government<a href=“274/year”>/url</a>
I couldn’t find a number for the CIA, but it has about 60% of the number of employees as the FBI, so I would guess at MOST 300 new hires/year.</p>
<p>Sorry, this is not false, this is the truth. BTW what is the BLS?
I will have to say lumping all C.S. in general into this category isn’t fair, but it is happening in various sectors of C.S.; anywhere the corporations can commoditize software development.</p>
<p>Yes, you can still make monies in areas such as:</p>
<p>I just had to throw that in there because it is happening, and it’s pretty amazing how cheaply decent resources can be had. I know you can definitely be a more efficient coder, but when someone has 3 days to do what you need to do in an hour, it’s hard…</p>
<p>I’m not saying you can’t get a job in C.S. in the U.S. that pays well. Those jobs certainly still exist. Also, the transfer of jobs to overseas isn’t something that doesn’t happen overnight, this has been going on for years, and will continue for many more…</p>
<p>Not all jobs will go overseas for various reasons.</p>
<p>1: High security jobs, government, sensitive IP, sensitive data
2: Jobs requiring close contact to the customer
3: Mid to small companies that don’t need an army of developers.</p>
<p>C.S., is still marketable, I just worry for the future. Think about how the semiconductor business has gone. At one point in time, all of the chips where made right here in the U.S., over the past 15 or so years, the U.S. has gone fabless, very few chips are actually made here in the U.S… We still do the design here, but not the fabrication.</p>
<p>Since we’re talking BLS, do a search in google for </p>
<p>computer science average salary india</p>
<p>The first link should be for payscale India. Click on it and see
the chart. Software Engineer/Developer. It shows 298 thousand average salary.</p>
<p>Be aware that is in Rs. Which converts to ~ 45 RS. That translates
to 6623 USD.</p>
<p>Also note that the Indian school system in math and science is very strong. It was established by the British Crown. This is part of the reason they can also speak English. Albeit not perfect. This is who you’d be competing with in the future.</p>
<p>^I don’t think you understand what CS is about. It is a lot more than just coding. Low level programming is shipped out to india, but thats about it. High level software engineering and design work is done here in the US. Again, americans could really self-fulfill their own predictions of CS knowledge/research going overseas if we have people with the misconception that CS is dying in america.</p>
<p>QwertyKey, I was referring to foreign langauge as a skill and not a major. Having a foreign language major/minor along with something more practical would be very useful.</p>
<p>I’m not saying CS is going to completely die in America. If you have the right level of talent, it can definitely work here in the U.S. It’s just not going to be as “easy” as it was in the past.</p>
<p>Also recognized the design work is here in the U.S. because at one time that high paid designer was a low level coder or at least a person with some development experience. This entry level experience is what helps us get to that next level. IMHO U.S. companies are shooting themselves in the foot by not cultivating that level of the business in the U.S. They are looking at how can I cut costs today.</p>
<p>I should stop my ranting. I’d like to see if there are any other opinions on marketable degrees.</p>
<p>“QwertyKey, I was referring to foreign langauge as a skill and not a major.”</p>
<p>Ah, okay. I misunderstood you, sorry.</p>
<p>“I’m not saying CS is going to completely die in America. If you have the right level of talent, it can definitely work here in the U.S. It’s just not going to be as “easy” as it was in the past.”</p>
<p>From your original post, it seemed like you were trying to imply CS was a poor major whose job prospects were all going overseas, which is what I was trying to refute. Not that it was better in the past than it is now. I guess I misunderstood you as well.</p>
<p>I didn’t mean to be overly negative, I was trying to make a point via a little shock value.
There are majors which can be hot today, but not so hot tomorrow. I was hoping to get suggestions for majors that are on the way up the “easy” money…</p>
<p>I looked it up. “Computer Software Applications” and “Network Systems and Data Communication Analysts” have by far the best job growth of any field that requires a bachelor’s degree. There are a lot of jobs out there for people who can work with data and program.</p>
<p>In other news, as we all knew, Silence_kit is right, and panamamike is wrong.</p>
<p>Bio is other really, really big field right now, I think. There will be lots of old people, and there’s going to be a ton of money spent on research, which is definitely good for bio majors. I think that’s actually the next big field. Bio field should become considerably better in the next few years.</p>
<p>Other than that, accountants, auditors and analysts will be in pretty high demand, still.</p>
<p>Looking at the stats, those are the jobs with the biggest growth expected.</p>
<p>BLS says that “Computer Software Applications Engineer” (read: Computer programmer) is going to post ~20% growth rate over the next ten years.</p>
<p>Yeah, you’re going to have competition from India. But there’s just way too much work out there, Computers as a part of society are simply growing too fast for it to matter, at all.</p>
<p>CS definitely has a bright future, even in the USA. </p>
<p>But you need to be comparing the industry’s growth rate (BLS’s stats will be a great estimate) to the growth rate of CS majors! Just because the industry is booming doesn’t mean the rate of computer science graduates isn’t booming as well.</p>
<p>In the end, it’s the number of potential employers vs. the number of job openings. Regardless of how many job openings are available. Obviously, for very niche areas you need to consider the fluctuations and lack of transferability if you get laid off. That should not be an issue for CS.</p>
<p>I’d just like to point out that the BLS is a very common source of information for college students…As long as it keeps projecting major job growth, it’s reasonable to assume that more and more people are going to start majoring in CS</p>