Five Reasons to Major in Computing*
1. Expertise in computing enables you to solve complex, challenging problems.
Computing is a discipline that offers rewarding and challenging possibilities for a wide range of people regardless of their range of interests. Computing requires and develops capabilities in solving deep, multidimensional problems requiring imagination and sensitivity to a variety of concerns.
2. Computing offers many types of lucrative careers.
Computing jobs are among the highest paid and have the highest job satisfaction. Computing is very often associated with innovation, and developments in computing tend to drive it. This, in turn, is the key to national competitiveness. The possibilities for future developments are expected to be even greater than they have been in the past.
3. Computing jobs are here to stay, regardless of where you are located.
There actually are more computing jobs than qualified people to fill them in the United States. U.S. IT employment was 17% higher in 2004 than in 1999. The Bureau of Labor Statistics says computing has the greatest potential for new jobs through 2014. Yes, some IT jobs have gone overseas. If you consider the expected growth in computing, it’s easy to see that companies simply need more talent. Don’t miss out on pursuing the large number of open positions available right now, here in the United States.
4. Expertise in computing helps you even if your primary career choice is something else.
Having a computing major or minor will provide you with a foundation of knowledge, problem solving and logical thinking that will serve as a competitive advantage to you in your career, in whatever field you choose.
5. Computing has space for both collaborative work and individual effort.
Computing is often about being part of a team that requires people with many different kinds of skills. Yet there is also plenty of space for individual flair and imagination.
As you can see, the computing field is one of those fields where it is almost impossible to predict what will happen next. This is why we cannot even begin to imagine all the ways that you can make a contribution to it and it can make your life’s work exciting and real.
* Association for Computing Machinery, http://computingcareers.acm.org/?page_id=4, 9/5/2008
