career change to CS

[phalynx24]

not sure if this the right place for this question so here goes. I am currently a Truck driver who had atleast 3 years of college work completed in Computer information systems. I have went back to school and want to change my major to Computer science because someon told me that the future jobs would be in Software engineering. Here are my questions.

Am i to old to get into the industry i am currently 38 and will be about 41 when i graduate with my BS?

Will i atleast be making $50,000 a year or will i need to start as an intern somewhere?

[jbennet]

You will need to start at the bottom but it will be paid (low level coder, tech support, something like that)

Computer Information Systems or COmp/Sci are both equally employable in my eyes, but different companies like different ones, e.g some like CIS as you recognise the practical business aspect of systems instead of just the theory, wheres software development companies will want comp/sci as methods and coding are important.

Experience is key. If your into coding, get into an opensource project or something, it looks good on your CV.

I dont know how things are in the US but i will be going to university next year to study a computer-related degree and this is what ive been told (im in england)

[jbennet]

wtf rashkil you gave me a bad rep. As is said, I dont know how things are in the US but i will be going to university next year to study a computer-related degree and this is what ive been told (im in england)

I have heard thosr sort of things from 4 seperate universities now so i assume that it is the truth.

[iamthwee]

Like jbennet I have never used programming professionally nor do I ever intend to. In fact the only times I program is after school to occasionally help people here.

So maybe I don't have any substance behind any advice I offer. But I think programming is over rated and probably underpaid. There is so much competition generated by cheaply paid overseas labour it would be practically impossible to compete locally with them.

The kind of work probably prohibits you socially. I wouldn't like to be stuck in an office, predominantly full of geezers.

In fact I feel sorry for anyone pursuing that line of study. I know I certainly won't be doing CS when ( and if )I go into further education. But of course, there are success stories. Some people actually make good money and enjoy what they do.

As with all things in life there is no black and white answers. Just shades of gray.
And you can bet your life that behind every success story, is probably a tale of hard graft and disappointment.

Good luck.

[jwenting]

you're rather old to start in the field, especially on the technical level.
If I were you I'd try for things like business analyst instead, it's easier for older people to get (and hold on to) jobs there. It also pays better (despite being less skilled work (well, business analysts consider programming unskilled labour)).

As an utterly inexperienced programmer, you're not going to make 50K a year. In fact you'd likely be happy to make 30.
But things are different depending on where you are, salaries vary wildly with geographic location (but of course so does cost of living, and in many areas the two are related).

Your experience as a trucker can also help you if you do decide to go to the analysis side of the game and focus your job searching primarilly on companies doing business in the trucking (or general logistics) industry.
You know the lingo, you're already a domain expert (to some degree), which gives you an edge there over snotnosed kids competing with you who're just out of school.
In the non-technical side of things age can also work as an advantage, you'll spend more time dealing with managers and end users, people who tend to look on age as a sign of experience and trustworthiness rather than (as happens a lot on the technical side) as a sign that you're getting old and will soon drop dead (or at the very least obsolete and should be replaced with the next generation programmer).