Think about the things you do online every day: posting on your social profiles, streaming music, checking your class schedule. Do you think it would be cool to design the technologies that make these everyday tasks easier? Then maybe Computer Science is the right path for you!
First, let’s set some things straight. Computer scientists aren’t the people you call when your printer stops working, and they don’t sit in dark cubicles all day without talking to anyone. So what do they do? Computer scientists use technology to solve problems. They write software to make computers do new things or accomplish tasks more efficiently. They create applications for mobile devices, develop websites, and program software. And you can find them everywhere, from big tech firms and government agencies to start-ups and nonprofits.
Bobby Schnabel, Dean of the School of Informatics and Computing at Indiana University Bloomington and chair of the Association of Computing Machinery's Education Policy Committee, says some students go into Computer Science because they like working with computers. Others want to solve problems with technology. Whatever your passion, a CS degree is a great foundation for all kinds of jobs. Consider some of these Computer Science graduates and the career paths they pursued.
Yaw Anokwa, entrepreneur
Yaw Anokwa was nine years old when he first programmed a computer. It was his father’s, who used it to teach Journalism at Butler University in Indianapolis, and Anokwa wasn’t allowed to touch it—but he did anyway, entering an online competition to win a faster modem. By high school, he had started a business repairing computers for his classmates’ parents. In college, he earned two degrees: one in Computer Science from Butler and one in Electrical Engineering from Indiana University—Purdue University Indianapolis. There, Anokwa began to think that people could use computing to change the world for the better. After all, computers are everywhere: on your desk, in your pocket, and inside devices you use every day. “Software is very powerful,” he says.
During graduate school, Anokwa spent six months volunteering with a public health organization in Rwanda, where he helped introduce an electronic medical record system that’s now used nationwide. That experience inspired him to develop Open Data Kit (ODK), a platform that replaced paper forms with smartphones and tablet computers. Its tools are used all over the world. Election observers use it to monitor polls in Egypt, health workers in Kenya use it to track efforts to combat HIV, and Brazilians use it to measure illegal logging in the rainforest. Anokwa and a partner eventually started a company called Nafundi, which consults clients using tools like ODK. “These days, day-to-day, I don’t do a lot of programming,” Anokwa says. “Those skills are in my head. All the skills I need now, I learned in my first couple of years of undergrad.”
Joey Brown, software engineer
Joey Brown meant to study Philosophy when he enrolled at Washington and Lee University in Lexington, Virginia—but he also liked tinkering with computers. The summer after graduating with his Computer Science degree, he went back to his hometown of Memphis, Tennessee, and got a job lifeguarding at a country club. Through someone he met there, he found his next job in which he helped other companies find new employees for their information technology departments. Outside of work, he joined some informal groups for programmers, which is how he met the founder of a website called MyRepresentatives.
MyRepresentatives makes it easy for people who live in the Memphis area to find out who represents them in local, state, and federal governments. Brown started working for the site as its lead developer. It was an unpaid but valuable position. He had been working for the organization for a few months when he landed a paid job as a software engineer with Lindsey Software, a company that designs programs for public housing agencies.
Related: What Kind of Engineering Do You Want to Major In?
Eileen Lynch, technical analyst
The computer programming class Eileen Lynch took in high school was one of her favorites. “I liked knowing step-by-step logic and understanding how things work,” she says. “How does this work, and how do you solve this problem?” She majored in Computer Science at Saint Michael’s College in Colchester, Vermont, where she learned a little bit of everything about computing: programming languages, the mathematical principles behind technology, managing a website, and more. “The biggest thing my degree did for me is give me the perfect foundation to build on for my career,” Lynch says. “In my experience, it was a general degree—a technical degree, but a very general degree.”
Later, she became a technical analyst for Esri, a software company that uses Geographic Information Systems (GIS). Lynch didn’t even know what GIS was before she joined Esri, but she couldn’t imagine working in any other industry. Among other things, her company’s software was used to map the damage Hurricane Sandy left on the East Coast and illustrate where the federal government sends money for different projects. Lynch designs applications for companies that use Esri’s software, and she likes that there is something new happening every day. “Every few months something changes, and I get to be at the cutting edge of what’s happening in our field,” she says.
Rick Umali, web engineer
Umali might not have played video games all day, but since his company, Turbine, develops some of the world’s most popular online role-playing games, he sometimes would play to make sure everything worked correctly. Founded in 1994, Turbine makes games like Dungeons & Dragons and The Lord of the Rings. Umali worked behind the scenes to keep games running smoothly, making sure users could sign in when they wanted to play and that the list of top players was up-to-date. “It’s a very energetic and dynamic environment,” he says.
Umali graduated from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in 1990 with a Computer Science degree. He went on to hold several jobs in the software industry, managing data so people could access it when they needed it. Technology continues to change a lot, but Umali says that being a Computer Science major taught him timeless skills, like how to examine and process information. Overall, Umali says studying Computer Science can lead to cool jobs in a wide range of industries. “It’s such a broad field,” he says. “Pick something that you’re interested in and just embrace it.”
Related: 3 Lucrative STEM Careers and Great Majors to Get You There
Computer Science is a highly desired field that will only continue to grow as our online lives evolve. Whether you want to work in finance, publishing, marketing, or something else, most fields need web developers, software engineers, and other Computer Science–based roles. In other words, your options are numerous and far reaching if you decide Computer Science is the path for you. Who knows? You could be lauded for your innovation like these hard workers someday!
Was this not enough to convince you? Well, what if we give you our Top 10 Reasons to Major in Computer Science? The benefits may help you make up your mind.
