Unsure of what career to go in to

[deathbow2134]

I am 15. I really like computers and technology. I don't know what career to go into. I know I either want something in computer science or engineering. I want to be something more then a programmer, I don't want all of the bad stigma with that. I want to be something that people actually respect, like an engineer. Either aerospace, computer, or electronic engineering. I would want to be a software engineer/programmer, but they aren't real engineers. I want a career that people won't make fun of. And also, I don't want a job that will be out sourced.

But I think I might want to go into computer science more, but if I do, I don't want to just be a programmer, I want to be a researcher or something. But I am interested in engineering too, I just don't know what I want to do. What should I do?

[Tony]

People don't respect Engineers either, because they don't know what Engineers do beyond "bridges and stuff".

Software Developers are not "real Engineers" in Ontario (by name), but either of EE/CE/SE/CS degrees can land you in the same SDE (Software Developer Engineer) position in the States.

Software Engineering is not outsourced. People who tell you otherwise don't really understand the industry and have made wrong assumptions. You are aiming at a high-skill position, and those are extremely rare, even in a global market.

Computer Science _does not teach you to program_, it's mostly Math, Algorithms, Theory, etc. Though there are a limited number of research positions outside of academia, so software development is the most common application (as computer scientists often make excellent developers).

Some questions you need to answer right now:
- who's respect are you looking for?
- why does that matter?

[Dan]

I think you relay need to stop caring about what other people will think of you and starting thinking about what you enjoy doing. If you are planing on getting a university education in what ever path you chose you don't want to spend thousands of dollars and years of your life training for something you hate just because some one told you it is a respected job.

If you want respect become a lawyer or doctor, if you want to enjoy what you do think of something you cloud do every day of your life and still be excited to come to work each day.

[X Abstract X]

No matter what you do, you won't be able to impress everyone. I know a lot of people that wouldn't be impressed by any sort of academic achievements at all - so what does it matter? Do what you enjoy! Seriously though, people are obsessed with themselves, most people will not care what you studied or what job you work.

[Homer_simpson]

X Abstract X @ Tue Mar 30, 2010 10:09 pm wrote:

No matter what you do, you won't be able to impress everyone.

I'm not sure that's a good way of looking at it. i say try and be the best that you can be in whatever it is you chose to do.
and as for what it is you want to do, you may want to try an undecided major that allows flexibility. since many people end up changing their school major after first year, its good to take courses that maybe prerequisite to things you may be interested in i.e. math or cse.
hope this helps

[DarlynRoger]

Yeah i am agreeing that don't think about what people thinks about you or your profession/passion. just do it what you want.

[jbking]

I have yet to know of a job that someone can't make fun of in one way or another. For example, there are doctors known as proctologists who deal with all kinds of issues involving someone's rear end and there was an episode of Seinfeld that noted that all proctologist jokes end with the line, "It was a million to one shot, doc! A million to one!" There are a bazillion lawyer jokes out there, so I'm not sure how much credit I'd want to put into someone saying that their job isn't something that can be mocked in some form or other.

There is a difference between outsourcing and offshoring, that I'm not sure if you know the difference. Outsourcing is merely when a company uses another company for a function, e.g. IBM may outsource delivering packages to UPS so that IBM doesn't have to maintain its own internal package delivery division. Outsourcing some stuff can be common as one place I work had outsourced most of the IT as the rare times that a sysadmin was needed someone would come in but otherwise why pay someone to just sit and watch a few servers? Offshoring is where those jobs go to another country and I have seen that as well. Even where I work now, some of the companies that are used for some projects will have a mix of on-shore and off-shore talent doing the work, so it can interesting to see what can result from that.

Just as something to point out here: I turned 15 in the year 1990, which was before the World Wide Web was created and what was my first job out of university? Being a Software Design Engineer for a dot-com in the US, which I'd call a Web Developer position. My university years were when the web really took off and Yahoo! and Netscape became big names so do be aware that what you work with isn't yet created possibly.

What do you like you about computers and technology? Do you realize that most jobs will involve using technology in one form or another? Just as a final thought, you don't think researchers aren't mocked?