Help me pick my major - what do you do for a living?

lol. well it seems all my friends are doing CS, and I once thought I would love doing that but networking has just become a hobby for me, wireless to be exact. And now I have found graphic design. One think you will find is that most graphic designers dont end up retiring, why should they? Its a run job where you get to work and be creative. IT is fun though too, sometimes, as for job market, I know some guys that have all those certs and work for $11.00 an hour, not so good for IT, if you are not specializes though it helps greatly. Man I wish I was working durring the dotcom days :(

anyways I'm pretty tired so if none of this makes sense, just disregard.

cheers,
Michael

Nos, don't expect $80k-$100k out of college.

Right, i meant eventually. Starting for CCNA is about $45,000 give or take.

Nos.

Well, do your friggin homework buddy and get a B! Haha, I get straight A's and a B in math, which is wierd because the only subject I like is actually math...

and if you are going into networking, you might look into some other field, like business, get at least a 4 year degree. If you are planning on being a tech, you most likely will never reach 80K+ in networking. But if you get into management and into the administration part of networking you will make that much after a while. But there are requirements besides experience to get those jobs, and having a business degree or something akin to that is one of them.
Emphasis should also be put on network security as well as networking engineers with that as a solid background are more hireable.
I know several networking engineers that work for good organisations and none of them make that much. One good friend of mine works for the securities commission and after being there for a few years I would be surprised he makes more than 60K (CA) a year. But at a minimum you will need your certifications to get a job in IT, unless you are lucky. Don't believe all those statistics that say, "You will be getting out of here and the average blah blah makes $45K a year starting...." when you hear that, tell your self it's BS and realistically half that and figure it might be like that for a few years. You have to pay your dues for a few years and get some experience. No one will hire you at top salary off the street with nothing but some certifications, unless you are lucky and you can sell yourself well. Not to sound negative, but trying to be a little realistic. and as for programming, I think it's pretty evident that market sucks and the salary went way down after the dot com crash. Places like Electronic Arts here in BC pick and choose nothing but the best programmers out of thousands and pay them decent wages, but you have to be like a top honors grads to get a job there. for example. I know web dev programmers make a livable salary if you get in with a good company, and a lot of "real" programmers (not scripters) don't necessarily like doing web programming, so the market isn't too saturated yet. * oops I re iterated Stevie's post*

I'm pretty sure i can really rip into those classes. When i set myself on doing something, i do it well.

I'll have to keep thinking about the specifics, but i'm most likely going to get a BA in computer science.

Nos.

Which colleges are you looking at thus far? And what kind of colleges are these that require you to declare a major in your first year?

Also, for what it's worth, here's what I know:

Originally Posted by Deker
Also consider that the IT job market is absolutely terrible right now, and even highly experienced, insanely qualified network engineers are having a terrible time finding a job, let alone someone fresh out of college.

Definitely. IT blows right now. The market's just too saturated with them for it to be particularly lucrative. CS seems like a good bet, but I dunno how the market will be in 4 years. It seems like everybody and their mom is in computer science right now. Also, yeah, I do believe that it may not be the best idea at the present to go into graphic/web design as a major being that you can do those things without a degree. Those jobs, and your skills at them will always be there, so use them as a fallback, unless you're planning on making a career out of it, in which case you'll have no time for school per se.

Some of the other markets which might be worth looking into are Mechanical Engineering, and Bio-Informatics, although the latter is more medicine than information.

Mechanical Engineering is pretty much designing the internal workings of computers, including circuit board architecture, as well as any of the other aspects of hardware engineering.

Either way, don't get too wrapped up in it just now. No one expects you to know what you want to do with the rest of your life at the age of 17, so don't worry about it too much just yet. Also, it's pretty stupid that your school's making you choose a major on the application. In fact, are you entirely sure that they are actually requiring it, or just trying to get an idea of what youre interested in? Also, keep in mind that you can change your major any time, and may quite likely find that you hate the major that you chose as a freshman.

Most CO university's make you declare your major before you enter the school.

Nos.

well im majoring in graphic design, but if you are into programming and computer stuff go with computer science. A friend of mine is majoring it in, and he enjoys it.

Try particle astrophysics.. ;)

Realistically consider what you'd love to do if you were already independently wealthy. Now work toward being the best you can be at that.

Find a job you love to do and you'll never work a day in your life.

Follow your passion and you'll always be rich.

Do what you love and the money will come.

They sound like clichés, but they hold a large measure of truth.