Which way to go ...

Society Business and Career
1

It’s been a year or so that I graduated, earning a Computer Science Degree with a Math minor. I was hoping to make some money & then go into a PhD program somewhere else but with the responsibilities I see ahead in life, I don’t see me following that path. I tried to carry on with a Master’s degree in CS at the same school but the program doesn’t excite me very much. Same teachers, teaching the same courses makes me feel that I am not learning anything new. Tried to move out & find a job somewhere else so I can carry on with my masters but that didn’t work out either with the job market on the slow. If I keep taking my Master courses and say by next year summer I find a job in another city, most probably all my courses will go down the drain, as it’s a pain to transfer graduate courses.

So, lately I have been thinking about doing something business related as the business school at my university is far better accredited than the computer programs. If nothing else I will find it interesting as I will be learning something new. I have to do some foundation courses because I didn’t take any business courses during my undergrad. These foundation courses can be about 6-7 and I can spread ‘em out to 2-3 semesters. So, even if after a few months I find another job somewhere else or have to move for some other reason, I still will be able to transfer my foundation courses.

All suggestions keeping a few above points in mind will be greatly appreciated.

2

AJ

the biggest question is, all things being equal would you have pursued a masters in comp sci or a masters in business?

lets look at that first and then figure out what may be your path.

are you giving up CS just because the university that you are taking it at is not offering you anything new?

or..

would you feel the same even if you go to a different uni for you CS masters.

and..

how important is timing..do you want to get the degree that is right for you, the degree that you can get quickly or a degree which you can start somewhere and transfer to another uni later.

for a non business bachelors degree u have to do 60 credit hours for an MBA, thats 20 courses part time it will take close to 4 years. just to give you some perspective.

what if you start your classes transfer your foundation courses, and maybe another 9 hours ( I beleiev 9 hrs is the limit of credit hours u can trasfer from one aacsb accredited school to another after the foundation).. but you will still have several semesters to go after that, can you guarantee that you will still be with teh same company for that period or in the same city.

a few things to think about. if you want to discuss call me as well (plus u owe me a return call from eid..lamer)

3

Or AJ, you can just go speak to a career counselor who can give you proper perspective.

I am not sure if any one here is a registered career counselor. Never know though!

4

ahmedjee...
I myself graduated in CS major and looking for MS Phd sort of thing. For a while, i also considered buisiness in my masters. But dropped it for two reason...
It wil ltake more tiem as myself havent done buisiness foundations.
plus there are many fields in CS tself and you can look for selective specialized courses in your field of interst like programming, networking, databases etc....
Thats why i m gonna stic to MS thing for now...

My advice to you, thinki rationally
1) if you have enough time for MBA thing.
2) If your uni offers specializec courses or if you can look elsewhere for that!
3) If you have any idea how business courses will go down with you, i mean if you are going to be ble to comprehend with them.??

5

No one here is a career counselor, nor a political pundit or religious scholar, dunn keep us from giving people our personal opinions though ;)

AJ a career counselor will tell you career stuff, cant help ypu with life decisions, and here u have a mix of both, not just what, but where and when. career counselor, plus academic counselor, and more than anything..yourself, would be able to answer these questions

6

I have suggested almost everyone to have some other major/career as a backup plan. If one thing doesn’t work you have key/foundation of another door.

I don’t think it would hurt you to pursue your degree in business. Business! One of the areas in majors always comes in handy. All those management, marketing, financial and leadership skills that you learn are necessary in any field.

Thanks for posting this thread. I am going through similar dilemma.

Brother Fraudia is right career counselors are no help sometimes. They will listen to you but they dont want to hear whats going on with your financial life.

7

Ahmadjee,

I am also inshallah finishing up my undergrad in Computer Science this year and am in kind of a confusion too about what to do next. The fact that we have ALL options open is alhamdulillah a blessing but makes the decision so much more difficult.

Anyways, if you want to do a masters in CS why don’t you apply to CS masters programs all over the US? I wasn’t sure from your post what was stopping you from doing that?

About the job situation, I know the situation is bad but a lot of ppl I know have gotten jobs this past year, some in Computer Science, some in consulting, some in i-banking and so on. I don’t think it should be that difficult for you to find a job if you expand your job search to all over the US and really devote yourself to finding a job. People are still hiring believe me and if you have a CS degree its not impossible to find a job.

I think you should apply to one of the UC’s for a masters in CS, there are more CS jobs around the UC’s and you can work and study at the same time then.

If you decide to continue working at your present job though, you might as well keep taking the CS masters courses in your college, atleast you’ll learn some new skills. I think you should go for that rather than the business courses, they don’t sound too useful to me.

If you want to go to a business school, I think you should aim for one of the high ranking business schools, otherwise I wouldn’t really recommend taking business school classes over CS ones. You might as well spend the whole two years and get the masters from that college in CS, rather than take those business courses for one year. Because, for CS jobs, as compared to business jobs, your school does not matter all that much.

Eventually, you can apply to a good business school for an MBA, but for that you’ll need a good work experience (3-4 yrs) which demostrates some leadership skills and other things MBA prgs look for.

So, maybe you should apply to CS grad programs all over the US. If money is what you are worried about, there are tons of things you could do, you could get research assistantships and teaching assistantships at the school, you could do something where you work part-time or do software consulting etc and get money from that. There’s millions of options. The thing to get first is your admission in the academic program, worry about finances later.

Hmm…hope the above has been useful, I wasn’t completely sure about what you were asking but anyways, these were me thoughts :slight_smile:

Good luck :k: