Colleges

[emcyroyale]

Hey everyone,
I'm interested in the software engineering field (The kind of software engineer I would gear most towards is making and maintaining computer software.), but when ever I search for colleges most of them only have the major that says Computer Engineering, General. Only a few that I have seen like Michigan Technological University have a specific major called Computer Software Engineering.

Do other schools just provide the general field and have software engineering within it?

What are the other majors in which you can still become a software engineer?

What are some good universities to become a software engineer?

Also ...just for future reference...What are some nice places for a software engineer to work?( benefits, job security, the kind of programs made)

Thanks

[Zinderin]

Hey everyone,
I'm interested in the software engineering field (The kind of software engineer I would gear most towards is making and maintaining computer software.), but when ever I search for colleges most of them only have the major that says Computer Engineering, General. Only a few that I have seen like Michigan Technological University have a specific major called Computer Software Engineering.

Do other schools just provide the general field and have software engineering within it?

What are the other majors in which you can still become a software engineer?

What are some good universities to become a software engineer?

Also ...just for future reference...What are some nice places for a software engineer to work?( benefits, job security, the kind of programs made)

Thanks

Schools you'll need to forage through on your own to determine which is best for you, in your situation.

What you want is a Computer Science degree. Don't pigeon hole yourself in strictly software development. There are simply too many facet to Comp Sci to just tie yourself to one aspect.

As someone who got their EE in an era when they didn't even offer Comp Sci degrees, I find the entire concept of a degree in computer science rather silly. No one with a degree more than 10 years old is working with anything they trained on in college, and just because someone has a degree from 10 years ago doesn't mean they have a clue what they are doing with today's technology and languages.

When I was looking at potential employees, I was more concerned about their certifications and recent schools they'd attended that I was their base education.

But unfortunately even certification programs are deceiving. Just because someone can pass a test of book knowledge, doesn't mean they have the skill set for practical daily applications of that knowledge.

Also ...just for future reference...What are some nice places for a software engineer to work?( benefits, job security, the kind of programs made)

The question is just too broad. Like any profession there are great places to work with great benefits, and there are sweatshops that treat you like crap.

Job security is 100% your talent ... it is an industry where you are constantly challenged to keep improving your skills, because the industry is continually changing and there is always some hot-shot breathing down your neck that wants the job you have.

There is a lot of gypsy work in the software business. People hire you for x amount of time to get a specific job done, and then you turn that over to a maintenance team and move on to the next job (and typically the next employer). This is why there are so many contractors in the business.

Unless you want to spend your career competing with third world software contractors offering programming services at $10 an hour, you need to find your place in the business where its important for your employer (customer) to have your eyes and ears on-site.

Don't get me wrong, there are companies out there that hire software developers for the long haul ... because its never going to be like a cabinet-maker where once you've learned your trade you're done learning. You will spend the rest of your career learning, read trade rags, playing with the latest tech/language ... or you'll become stale, and be replaced.

What kind of programs are made? Phfffft. What business / industry doesn't use software today? Today the hot tickets are web-site development, development for portable devices, and game development ... who knows what it will be tomorrow.

Over my 30 years, I've seen it go from centralized processing (main frames) being the hot ticket, to distributed processing being the end-all solution, back to tiered solutions (centralized / distributed), to the web boom, the video game boom, and now the portable apps.