Non-Programming Jobs For a Computer Science Major?

An anonymous reader writes "I recently graduated from a 'major' university in America with a BS degree in Computer Science. I unfortunately must admit that I am not very skilled with programming. I finished with the degree, and I've spent much of my college career working a job doing technical support (fixing laptops, troubleshooting Windows problems, etc). What jobs can I get with a computer science degree that are NOT mainly programming jobs? A little programming wouldn't be bad, but none would be preferred. And what kind of salaries do these jobs typically fetch?"

Geek Squad

n/t

Program Manager

You could get a job as a Program Manager or similar position. They do more design work than actual programming. Those positions pay about the same as programming positions.

Re:Program Manager

Where I work (large company), Program Manager is in the business and writes requirements. Project Manager is the I/T function that deals with the schedules. Program Managers need to understand the processes in the business in order to document them.

If you want to continue in a more technical vein, then System Engineering, DBA, Network Administrators, etc. all would be a good fit.

Incidentally, Project Management is the fastest way into people management around here. So if you have aspirations in that direction, go get your PMP certification (Project Management Professional). While it's "just a piece of paper", for some reason people like it.

Layne

Waiter at Denny's

$2.13/hr

Re:Waiter at Denny's

Actually, you have a point.

The person asking the question tells us about skills he lacks more than skills he has. Makes it awfully hard to make a useful suggestion.

The little offered is that he's done some tech support. If that's your strong suite, then the answer for a newly-minted college grad from Comp Sci is...

tech support.

Then again, if you don't really like that work you should just go find something completely different to do. A solid technical degree has appeal to employers even when it has nothing to do with the job.

Hmmm... if you're just starting out then go find a job (any job!) related to what you really want to do. Worry less about the money or benefits. Fresh out of college you just want a foot in the door of the career you really want even if there are long hours and little pay. After three years in the workforce potential employers care EVERYTHING about your experience and NOTHING about your degree.

Accenture...

Accenture is always looking for fresh faced graduates who can't actually do anything.

Re:Accenture...

Why is this modded "funny"? It's insightful as hell.

Re:Accenture...

As a former Accenture employee I can tell you that this is 100% true, but a few years at Accenture right out of college sure looks good on your resume.

Re:Accenture...

You were modded funny, but your comment is right spot on. Also, their pay is commensurate to actually doing nothing.

If I had a nickel for every smart Accenture consultant I've ever met, I'd had me a whole dime.

Re:Accenture...

Accenture is a good place to start out of college, they baby you, but it can teach you how to work in the corp world. Although, I know of people who are complete failures in life/work that have been there for years and years and can't get fired for some reason. It's the place to be if you want to learn how this world works these days with off shoring, project management at an enterprise level, etc.

Accenture's projects range from $10-$1000 Million, yeah that's billion. So you have a chance to work on some huge projects.

The other good part is, if you are bored, you can bounce around to do other things.

Depends

What else besides Computer Science do you know something about? Your degree is only limiting if it is the only experience you actually have. If you have some real world experience then do whatever you know how to do.

BS?

with a BS

Looks like you'd be perfect for management.

Anonymous

Yes, anonymous was probably the right way to go with that submission on this site ;)

Entry level QA

You can probably get QA easily enough, especially if you can write automation scripts or programs.

Pay is probably 3/4 of a programming position.

Re:Entry level QA

Just wish people quit pushing the ones that can't hack in CS to QA. I work for a software company as a developer, but so wish the QA people aren't just CS rejects. They need to be good at what they do and good QA people are hard to find. There can be a lot of scripting and programming in QA in the right environment and not just script monkeys that runs what they are told. QA really is a calling.

There are lots of possibilities

Testing
Project Management
Product Support
Software Sales
Systems Administration

Programming is just one part of computer science; there are needs for all of these other areas as well.

Off the top of my head...

What jobs can I get with a computer science degree that are NOT mainly programming jobs?

A lot of jobs you could get with any or no degree: financial services; screenwriter; salesman; etceta. If a job doesn't require a specific degree, and few do (accounting, law, medical fields, anything that requires certification), then you could probably get involved even if it's unrelated.

That all depends on you

You are in a unique position; us programmers can't stand to be in management, we simply cannot do our jobs there (not to mention we're slightly introverts!). If you are skilled and don't mind managing, you can bring home a decent wage. Especially if you know how to manage programmers! Good management for a development team is a sorely needed position.

Just my $0.02. Any fellow programmers want to back me up or dispute my claims?

Lawyer

If your grades were decent, consider law school. People who are successful there aren't only good BSers, but have a strong sense of logic, generally something you possess if you're into programming or math.

Of course, if your grades in programming weren't that good, don't let that stop you. The practice of law is overrated. :-)

Nothing wrong with support jobs

I do enterprise level tech support for a tech company you most certainly have heard of, supporting $M+ installations of computer storage. I've done this for just under a decade, and make pretty excellent money doing it. My salary right out of school was in line with the students that did take dev jobs.

Before graduating, my experience was identical to yours, doing PC work, a little bit of web work here and there, etc.

Except for a couple of scripts here and there, I have not written a line of "real" code since day one.

I was actually pretty decent at programming, but didn't enjoy it. (I was a CompE, not a CompSci.)

I am pretty concerned that it is July and you don't have a job yet. The "college hiring cycle" is kinda over... That means you may be stuck with true entry-level jobs, instead of the "college hire" jobs, which in my company anyway, are a bit different. (An entry-level support tech is going to be working the call center, while a college-hire tech is going to be working in Level 2 or 3, right off the bat (with a whole lot of OJT, of course.))

SirWired

People skills

Well, you could take the specification from the customer, to the programmers.

If you've got people skill that is.

technical writer

If you did good in english, you could write documentation.

You Won't Get Very Far

A little programming wouldn't be bad, but none would be preferred.

If you want to succeed in IT, you NEED programming. You may not be building enterprise-level programs - but when comes to pushing updates, creating a simple Intranet, building or troubleshooting a compiled/interpreted application or just plain keeping yourself sane*, having a programming background goes a very long way.

Perhaps IT is not a best fit for you.

*For some of us, it may be too late. :D

THANK YOU!

Sarcasm...off. I mean this:

Thank you for admitting that programming isn't your thing. Thank you for not subjecting your fellow programmers to years and years of bad code, grumpy job performance, and being a drag on other coders' lives. Thank you for letting our managers hire people who want to do this job, instead of those just killing time.

I'm sure you're a fine person, but thank you for not working here as one of my developers. You are too honest for management or sales, but I'm sure you'll find something good to do.

Now if we can only get other CS majors who shouldn't be programming out of the trenches, life might improve.

Re:Tech Support?

He didn't say he didn't know how to program, only that he wasn't that good at it. There are plenty of bad programmers out there who are content to churn out bad code. It would be nice if more of them acknowledged their shortcomings and looked for something they were better suited for.