What Do You Do For A Living

[Rico]

Atm a student doing A-levels. Then I'm doing Computer Science at Bath (or do you think Mathematics would be better in light of all this outsourcing?)

My aim is to be some sort of developer, web designer, or game designer. I have a lot of ideas and motivation and skills with a variety of languages, plus experience, which I would hope might save my ass when the revolution comes and all the jobs move to India.

 

[Twimfy]

Atm a student doing A-levels. Then I'm doing Computer Science at Bath (or do you think Mathematics would be better in light of all this outsourcing?)

My aim is to be some sort of developer, web designer, or game designer. I have a lot of ideas and motivation and skills with a variety of languages, plus experience, which I would hope might save my ass when the revolution comes and all the jobs move to India.

Just pick something which gives you alot of scope in the long run. I have hundreds of mates all doin computer based courses, as far as I can see they're gonna be screwed. I on the other hand am doing Geography which means I have plenty of doors open to me when I leave....I decided not to do a computing course because I've found in the past that when you mix a hobby with education, all of the passion for it soon fades.

So I would go for mathematics.

 

[johncross85]

I decided not to do a computing course because I've found in the past that when you mix a hobby with education, all of the passion for it soon fades.

That's pretty much the reason I bought a GP32... After a full day sat in front of a PC the last thing I want to do is boot up my PC to play an emu or something when I get home!

J(ohn)

 

[johncross85]

My aim is to be some sort of developer, web designer, or game designer.

I'd steer clear of being a web designer. The market is completely flooded and as a result the pay has dropped significantly. Contracts now pay almost half of what I could get a few years ago. I've even seen contracts advertised in the centre of London paying £10/hour. You could earn that stacking shelves in Aldi!

J(ohn)

 

[lizard808uk]

I think theres a gap in the market for people who can do both computing and business. i.e. you can talk and express ideas to both business people and to more technical people. This was what my course was all about. I could take modules in stuff like Artificial Intelligence and play about with Flash and Director and then do modules in Business and market analysis and interpretation.

Rico, I would go with the mathematics. That stuff will stick with you for a long time. In computing you can become outdated very quickly. Also mathematics gets you into a crapload of professions other than just computing.

Plymouth was a great place to be at Uni, far better than sodding Milton Keynes!

 

[Tempus]

Alright folks,

I'm a n00b as you can see. Just felt the urge to inform you all that I work as a Sandwich Artist in a Subway Restaurant. India... :lol:

 

[Rico]

Thanks for the responses people.

Well I took out courses in Maths, Computer Science, and Maths with Computing at Bath and got accepted for all of those with the same conditions. I think Maths w/ Computing might be best...

But I see your points. Studying computer science might actually be fun, but in the long term ( that is, 40+ years of employment compared to 4 years of Uni ) actually WORKING with computers is going to drain away any passion for doing my own projects

Also, outsourcing and all the other stuff. But I feel that I need to keep at least some of my computing knowledge useful.

As for £10/hour for web design, doesn't sound that bad to me. I web design and script now for nothing because I enjoy it. Besides, my saturday job is at a supermarket and I get paid £4.40 an hour, that's their base 'stacking shelves' rate for 18+, so £10 would certainly be an improvement. If I could get away with it beneath the horrible competition, I would be doing web design as a part time job instead of checkout operation.

 

[woogal]

Don't forget, if you code for a living then you can develop your own projects at work and no-one will ever know (to a manager one piece of code looks just as meaningless as another)

 

[starwarsnerd]

Just felt the urge to inform you all that I work as a Sandwich Artist in a Subway Restaurant. India...

Sandwich Artist?.....

I've heard that part of the job interview for that is singing the Subway jingle.

 

[Magellan]

I am Controller and Chief Technology Officer for a Shoe Company in Minneapolis.

 

[rcx21000]

(to a manager one piece of code looks just as meaningless as another)

*supposed to be coding database thingy*

void GameLoop() {
  for(;;) {
    DrawBG();
    PollControls();
    DoAI();
    DrawSprites();
  }
}

MANAGER: Why does your code have "GameLoop" in it?
YOU: Becaouse the combobulator of the gamma loop need to be bobulated...
MANAGER: Aha...

 

[johncross85]

As for £10/hour for web design, doesn't sound that bad to me. I web design and script now for nothing because I enjoy it. Besides, my saturday job is at a supermarket and I get paid £4.40 an hour, that's their base 'stacking shelves' rate for 18+, so £10 would certainly be an improvement. If I could get away with it beneath the horrible competition, I would be doing web design as a part time job instead of checkout operation.

£10 ain't bad for a full-time job but for contracting it's pretty poor. Contractors don't get the advantages of a 'proper' job like pension, national insurance contributions, PAYE (means doing your tax return of course), sick pay, holidays, job security and so on.

I was holding it up as an example of how an influx of web designers has brought the money down in general. As I have only done contracting and freelance for the last 4 years I don't know how general salaries have changed but I would imagine they've gone the same way. What I'm really saying is that you shouldn't assume that a web design job is going to be well payed as they just aren't these days.

J(ohn)

 

[Rico]

Whoops, I forgot it was contracted. Thanks for the info thought John. Woogal - your statement also makes me feel a lot better about doing computer science I have decided that since any job I'd want to do would appreciate a degree in maths, computer science or the mix of them, I might as well do the one I'd enjoy the most.

 

[mattmagoo]

I work in OFFICE WORLD. Big whoop, as for £4.40 and hour, wher eu work i get a fiver and im only 16!!

Oh plus i go 2 college, incase u thought i worked 9-5 @ office world allday, and I don't recommend doing anything in computing at UNI, coz computers are gonna change, and by the time u finish all the stuff u learnt in the 1st few years will be useless!!