Computer Science and Information Technology

[goddamnit]

I have very tentative ideas about these two majors in my head that is likely flawed in at least some respects. I will describe it. If it sounds wrong, feel free to contest so that I update my ideas. My friend Emailed me and asked if I have any thoughts about the two majors (a BS), so I thought it would help to get some atheists brainstorming with me.

When I think of Computer Science, I think of an engineer of the abstract world who takes relatively heavy math. The major involves a lot of programming principles that transfer across languages and will also apply to future languages. The skill set is rock solid in the sense that most of it will not become obsolete. The stereotypical graduate seems like someone who programs and wears a T-shirt on the job.

When I think of Information Technology, the major is not so monolithic and the direction a graduate goes can vary (due to diverse options for specialization). Overall, contrasted with Computer Science, there are more programs that have courses in Microsoft business applications, networking on Microsoft operating systems, and less math. There is no stereotypical graduate, but when juxtaposed with Computer Science, more of them would end up in management or wearing a collared shirt. Some of them go on the be hardcore geeks in security. Others become network administrators and live lucrative lives that most people envy. While the IT positions can be highly analytical and difficult, far more IT graduates (than CS graduates) get stuck at entry-level jobs that disappoint them.

[Reforged]

I'd love to help but this is about all I know about IT:

[Autumnlicious]

Software developers are more valued than IT monkeys.

[Tiberius]

Believe me, you won't find any decent computer security guys who started out majoring in IT, unless they went on to do computer science or information security at some level.

In general though, I tend to think of IT as learning how to administrate Windows by using the applications. Computer Science is learning how computers work, how protocols work, etc. It is hard to go from IT to CS, but it is piss easy to go from CS to IT.

[Angrboda]

I know zilch about an IT degree and my experience is seriously out of date, but I would make two observations.

First, despite the technical nature of a CS degree, a goodly portion of your actual education will come after you leave school and start getting "retrained" by your employer. Second, the math isn't all that scary, at least from my perspective. Granted, math was already my specialty before college, but a year of calc, some numerical analysis and the like, mostly just to satisfy the requirements of your major — the actual math involved in CS is far more modest; off the top of my head, the only real math is understanding logarithms and their integrals in calculating the big O of an algorithm. If it's changed, I apologize for the misinformation, but I rather doubt it has.

[Oldandeasilyconfused]

When I think of IT,I think of Alvin Toffler's book "Future Shock" which I think was more prescient than he could have imagined.

Future Shock is a book written by the futurist Alvin Toffler in 1970. In the book, Toffler defines the term "future shock" as a certain psychological state of individuals and entire societies. His shortest definition for the term is a personal perception of "too much change in too short a period of time". The book, which became an international bestseller, grew out of an article "The Future as a Way of Life" in Horizon magazine, Summer 1965 issue.[1][2][3][4] The book has sold over 6 million copies and has been widely translated.

A documentary film based on the book was released in 1972 with Orson Welles as on-screen narrator.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Future_Shock

[LastPoet]

Since I'm fucking unemployed, I can't complete my CS degree. Around here, if you don't have a college degree, you won't get past the usual 2.5 Euros per hour wage, and even those are scarce today given Portugal's problems. I feel that I'm waist deep into shit. For the longest time my mind tries to tell me that I suck, that I can't do anything right, that I wasted my shot. Its partially true, some decisions weren't the wisest, but what the fuck, regarding life I reached the point of "Have at me, bro". /fucking rant

On topic: CS definately is a broader course that allows for an easier later specialization, IT is too much specialized for my taste.

[Napoléon]

IT is too specialized? Wtf? I'm currently in the process of changing onto an IT course at university rather than a computer science course because it is a hell of a lot broader and gives me more choice in what I want to specialise in.

[Autumnlicious]

IT is basically internet electrician/plumber.

You get to construct a beautiful layout (network) only to have shit flushed through it repeatedly until it clogs. Then it's your job to fix it.

Would you like fries with that?

I couldn't think of a more opportunity-limited tech job, except high tech janitor or something.

Branching out to software and hardware engineering allow you to escape that box while still being able to interact with it. All my coworkers are capable of researching and setting up basic networks; I'm one of the few who actually knows how to make special case networks that work.

IT is like a special use case of engineering. However, many IT techs couldn't tell you, if say there was a badly written device driver interacting with the kernel. A software engineer who has to make the product function will eventually figure that out and have to work around it.

The most you'd reasonably expect from IT is "buy another box".

[LastPoet]

WTF? Is there a war between IT and CS? I never knew that!