Career Advice

[asif49]

I feel like I'm in need of a career mentor or atleast some guidance in which field to pursue.

Within 2 years I will have a degree in Computer Science. Without being too arrogant, I'm quite sure it will be a 1:1 or at worst a 2:1. Software Development is something I enjoy but I feel like I am more of an ideas person and may not get all the satisfaction I require from work by simply writing code for years on end.

My ideal job would be one which allows some variety of work. I'm not sure how many companies offer this but getting paid to travel around the world at sites would be something I would really prefer, I wouldn't even mind if the salary was slightly lower as long as the travelling aspect was involved.

From my limited understanding to have a job with variety that my degree would allow me to attain - would either be a management role within Software Development which will include quite a bit of variety and travelling may also be involved if there are several software developing teams scatterred across several cities/countries. The other possibility I can think of would be with a career as an IT consultant which might require me to visit a lot of sites and businesses in order to diagnose problems with their systems and so on.

I'd really like it if someone with industry experience or knowledge about the job market could give me some advice on which path to venture into in order to get the type of job I've mentioned above.

[JorgeM]

If you are really interested in the travel, then the IT Consultant may be a good option for you. You can be part of a development team, project managment, or sales. Many organizations look for consultants to help them get projects implemented because they do not have the time or expertise. You may not be too concerned with the lower salary as these types of positions pay well because the travel can be quite demanding. It is difficult for many who have families and other commitments which make the travel part challanging.

[Stuugie]

Hi asif49, I am also working on my degree in computer science, specifically information systems. I landed a darn good job as an information systems analyzer/support 2 years ago (as a student). I have done a fair bit of coding for the department I work for but have now moved into the database world of coding and absolutely love it. In saying this, I have been primarily about analysis and design. There are some nice people in the company I work for from the IT department that have helped a lot with implementing my designs. I have a freedom in this position that I never thought was possible and my department loves having a guy like me around managing their data.

As for travelling the world, I haven't but I am content. Are there really CS positions out there where travelling is possible? I would have figure that our line of work isn't travelable (made that up) because we can do our work for another company in a completely different country from the security of our own homes, thus making travel moot. Any how, this probably isn't the answer you are looking for but I am board while waiting for my post to be solved in another thread.

Cheers and Good Luck!

[Trentacle]

My industry experience is not impressive and not in your industry, so take the following with a grain of salt.

I once knew a developer for a major company who would often travel to deliver training lectures for corporate clients. You might research companies that offer training for their product lines, and look into what it takes to be successful at that. Even if it's not what you end up doing, good people skills and clear goals will make you stand out and help you establish yourself in a position to determine how much you want to travel.

Sidenote: As a student, I enjoyed IEEE membership and learned a lot of interesting things from attending meetings and conferences. You should investigate joining ACM or a similar association for software folks -- student memberships are usually cheap and come with great benefits, like access to discounted software, online libraries, jobs boards, and conferences where you can talk to real professionals about questions like yours.

[Rashakil Fol]

Software Development is something I enjoy but I feel like I am more of an ideas person and may not get all the satisfaction I require from work by simply writing code for years on end.

This is code talk that says you suck at programming. So I perused your posting history, and four months ago you couldn't write a recursive factorial function without asking for help. So indeed you do suck at programming and computer science in general.

What you need to do right now if you want to not suck at your job, be it in a management role that you eventually get, or a job as a programmer, is to stop sucking at programming. That's the path you need to venture on, otherwise you will be an incompetent who gets in other people's way. I don't know if you will actually achieve this, some people manage to improve themselves and others do not. Another option is to avoid software development as a career altogether.

[PrimeOutsourcin]

Just know what is in your heart to work for passion! :)

[asif49]

Rashakil Fol, why don't you tell me more about how you've known programming since the day you were born.

[Wandaga1]

I absolutly envy you guys, how have you made it so far, i just started to study software development and i kind of wander how people talk about coding and so on, and i ask my self if i will be able o also talked or code by myself one day.
what should i do, how should i learn, what are the secrets behin coding. hoping to hear your opinions. thanks for sharing you idears here.

[jackstone444]

You can try in the wed development and webdesign.Here you can get more information and ideas about the webdevelopment and webdesign.

[Wandaga1]

thanks a lot