Career as a computer scientist

[deathbow2134]

I want to be a computer scientist, (either a professor or a industry one) are there alot of jobs/demmand out there for them?

[Zeroth]

http://www.google.com/intl/en/jobs/

[DemonWasp]

Quick answer: Yes!

Long answer: Holy sweet various gods yes. I'm a second-year university student and even I'm in demand. It may be a bit of a recession (cough cough) but for some reason IT seems to be doing just fine at the moment.

I should mention, to be fair, that the amount of demand varies wildly, and pure proficiency with computers isn't necessarily the best way to get hired. You'll need teamwork skills and people skills and you'll need to demonstrate problem-solving capability.

If you end up going to certain universities, like U of Waterloo, they'll even help you get a job in the field with their co-op program.

[jbking]

Could you elaborate a bit more in terms of what part of Computer Science you are wanting to study? To me there are at least a handful of different things that can involve someone that studied Computer Science such as:

Software Design & Development - Which would include Windows Applications, Web Applications, Windows and Web Services, console applications(Windows/UNIX command line or game console) - Jobs would include Analysts, Designers, Developers, Programmers, Testers, Quality Assurance, System Integrators, Build and Install, Adminsitrators, project managers

Hardware Design & Development - Which includes CPUs, GPUs, sound cards, Peripherals for your computer like printers, scanners, fax machines, or even some new controller for a video game

Networking Design & Development - Which includes telecommunications as well as computer networks and various hardware involved here like load balancers, switches, hubs, routers, etc.

Database Design & Development - Which would also include Business Intelligence and Data Warehouses.

Symbolic Computation and Numerical Analysis - Which covers almost anything involving numbers.

Operating Systems - Which includes embedded devices like cell phones or calculators to distributed operating systems trying to take multiple computers and act as one.

So there is a rather wide group that falls under what one can study in Computer Science without getting too deep into various Information Technology/Information Systems work that can also be rather varied in its own class of job titles.