Computer Science and an unrelated second major (like French)

[Leela]

Ok, I'm looking into back-up plans if I only succeed to get into a Comp.Sci. major, instead of a specialist. How do you guys think it will look if I choose something like French language as my second major? Will it seem odd? Is it only related second majors that aren't frowned upon?
I just thought the ability to speak, read and write French might be an asset on the Canadian job market. <del>and I'm good with languages and already know some French, so it might be good for my GPA as well</del>
P.S. How come HTML tags don't work here?

[jernst]

I know that some companies pay a bonus if you can be considered a bilingual person, especially if they have dealings in Quebec. For example I worked at a warehouse part-time while I finished undergrad and they had positions where they would pay 20-30% more if you could communicate fluently in both languages. Of course these positions were not computer related, but I imagine the same is probably true at any company that deals across Canada. Just a quick browse through jobs at RIM with the keyword bilingual shows many results.

I think any second major will be an asset to your degree when a company is looking at you compared with other cs grads. It shows you are able to do other things well and are not the stereotypical anti-social computer geek. That being said you might want to think about how taking a second major will affect your studies in cs. You will likely be restricted more and have fewer electives, or even have an extra year of school (at least thats what ended up happening at WLU for double majors i knew).

[jbking]

I think the key is how you plan to use what you gain from that second major and being able to show an employer why it is a good thing that you have this other major. French could be useful if you plan to use it to show that you are good at speaking multiple languages and comfortable changing back and forth. I remember taking a couple courses in French and Russian when I was in university and they were fun and easy to get good grades.

What would you consider to be an "unrelated" major? I'm just wondering as I think almost any major can be seen to complement CS, but then I'm not sure what you meant here. Be prepared for anyone to ask, "Why did you do that program?" as even if you just had a Computer Science major, there may be some employers that would like to know what courses you took and see whether or not you have a passion for this kind of field.

[Leela]

jernst @ Wed Mar 25, 2009 7:53 am wrote:

I know that some companies pay a bonus if you can be considered a bilingual person, especially if they have dealings in Quebec. For example I worked at a warehouse part-time while I finished undergrad and they had positions where they would pay 20-30% more if you could communicate fluently in both languages. Of course these positions were not computer related, but I imagine the same is probably true at any company that deals across Canada. Just a quick browse through jobs at RIM with the keyword bilingual shows many results.

I think any second major will be an asset to your degree when a company is looking at you compared with other cs grads. It shows you are able to do other things well and are not the stereotypical anti-social computer geek. That being said you might want to think about how taking a second major will affect your studies in cs. You will likely be restricted more and have fewer electives, or even have an extra year of school (at least thats what ended up happening at WLU for double majors i knew).

Thanks. I have checked and it seems that at least at UofT they require the same amount of credits for a either a Comp.Sci. Specialist or two majors (one in Comp.Sci. and one other). It doesn't add any extra time. Yes, I will be less specialized in CS (hence, the designations). But again, I will only consider it if I don't into the specialist (software engineering) program. Just in case, so to speak.

[Leela]

jbking @ Wed Mar 25, 2009 8:00 am wrote:

I think the key is how you plan to use what you gain from that second major and being able to show an employer why it is a good thing that you have this other major. French could be useful if you plan to use it to show that you are good at speaking multiple languages and comfortable changing back and forth. I remember taking a couple courses in French and Russian when I was in university and they were fun and easy to get good grades.

What would you consider to be an "unrelated" major? I'm just wondering as I think almost any major can be seen to complement CS, but then I'm not sure what you meant here. Be prepared for anyone to ask, "Why did you do that program?" as even if you just had a Computer Science major, there may be some employers that would like to know what courses you took and see whether or not you have a passion for this kind of field.

Thank you.
Well, unrelated, I'm thinking - a humanities major and a science major are pretty unrelated.
I think my answer to the question why I took French would be exactly that - being able to speak multiple languages.

[jbking]

Just to give a few other thoughts on how to combine humanities with CS:

Take a look at "What about us liberal arts majors" that has a few people that have humanities degrees as well as "Undegraduate programming" that talks about the idea of a Fine Arts degree in programming that I find kind of interesting.

If you take something like geography, there is a field known as Geographic Information Systems that could be where some with geography degrees could end up if they have an interest in using computers for geographical purposes like GPS. Philosophy can teach critical thinking and logic that can be useful for various information technology jobs and I remember hearing about the story of someone with a Philosophy degree picking up programming on his own, using some of the skills he developed while in school, to get a job and that worked out well from what I remember though I was told this ~15 years ago.

Most language majors could be useful if you want to get into linguistics or natural language programming which I think could be where some could put some of their education to use.

[Leela]

jbking @ Wed Mar 25, 2009 9:16 am wrote:

Just to give a few other thoughts on how to combine humanities with CS:

Take a look at "What about us liberal arts majors" that has a few people that have humanities degrees as well as "Undegraduate programming" that talks about the idea of a Fine Arts degree in programming that I find kind of interesting.

If you take something like geography, there is a field known as Geographic Information Systems that could be where some with geography degrees could end up if they have an interest in using computers for geographical purposes like GPS. Philosophy can teach critical thinking and logic that can be useful for various information technology jobs and I remember hearing about the story of someone with a Philosophy degree picking up programming on his own, using some of the skills he developed while in school, to get a job and that worked out well from what I remember though I was told this ~15 years ago.

Most language majors could be useful if you want to get into linguistics or natural language programming which I think could be where some could put some of their education to use.

Geographic Information Systems - what a fantastic idea! Huge thanks for it!