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Computer Science
Hey!
I am a high school senior and learning c++.
Not sure if I want to go into IT or electrical engineering. Can I get some feedback? #computer
2 answers
adarsh raj
adarsh’s Answer
It's quite a generic thought to have before you head on in your chosen career.
I was also facing a similar dilemma when I was a student.
Being a working professional in an IT MNC, one thing I can surely suggest is that the first thing you need to work on is your interest. What interests you, do that.
If Electrical Engineering is what excites you more, go for it. If working more on the hardware side is what you enjoy, you can prefer electrical engineering. It also has software tech exposure to it but not to a level it would be in computer science
If your interest is more towards software and programming skills, where you would want to code stuff and make cool, awesome software, IT is to go for.
Also, Computer Science is also a very broad spectrum. As you will go deeper with your understanding, you will realize about which one of that you would want to prefer, maybe you would want to work with Database management or you would want to work with cutting edge technology of IoT or Machine learning. This would require you to learn more and more new skills in computer science to implement these complex technologies.
Or you may want to go to DevOps( Infrastructure Management), which is w.r.t Kubernetes, Docker, Containers and lot more. There is a wide range. Networking with programmability is also a defining skill to possess as you go forward.
Data Science is picking up and is the most used and desirable skill to have. All the major MNC, startups, companies need people who know Data science. Facebook, Google, Amazon and all the big market players want folks who are expert in DS.
Solving solutions through your code and software is what should excite you. You should be ready to take problem statements and analyze on them and then design your solution and implement it.
Decide on your interest and choose the best option suited for you.
adarsh recommends the following next steps:
Charles M Hurd
Charles M’s Answer
Choosing between EE and CS depends on what kinds of problems you like to solve and how you like to think.
I have a degree in electrical engineering, but I've been around more software folks that hardware folks.
I suggest you get a Raspberry Pi www.raspberrypi.org and play around with it, do both the software side and the hardware side.
software https://www.raspberrypi.org/magpi/issues/essentials-games-vol1/
hardware https://www.raspberrypi.org/blog/new-magpi-essentials-book-simple-electronics/
You will soon discover what you like best, playing with the wires and making things happen in the real world, or playing with the commands and making things happen in the virtual world.
I also suggest you research the internet of things, as that mixes the software and hardware as well.
Electrical Engineering is a very broad subject that deals with the physical properties of things. It ranges from radios and antennas (microwave ovens) to semiconductors, from lasers to generating and transmitting electrical power, and from digital circuits to optics (liquid crystals). Research and find out more about it. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electrical_engineering
Computer Science is also very broad. (within a computer hardware). It deals with how to figure out the answer to questions in an effective, and logical way, (i.e. how to quickly and accurately sort a list of symbols). It ranges from developing application software that are used by huge corporations to small applications that are run on your phone. From creating operating systems (Windows, Linux) to firmware (the software inside a chip that does a specific function in a device.) and also from networking (getting digital messages to far away places, to mathematical simulations of the real world (including, but not limited to computer graphics) Research and find out more about it. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_science
You also need to learn about yourself and the kinds of ways that you think. I can recommend three ways to do this.
One is the Meyers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI). This measures how you (as a person) take in information, how you process it, and how you output it. Engineers fit into certain categories of personality types. A good book to read about this is Do What You Are: Discover the Perfect Career for You Through the Secrets of Personality Type by Paul D. Tieger and Barbara Barron-Tieger. Your school career center may know how you can take the MBTI assessment, and may be able to provide help in interpreting it. Even without taking the assessment, the book can give you a good idea of the personality type you have, and you can read about the kinds of careers that people with that personality type do well in.
Another resource is Strengths Finder 2.0 by Tom Rath. The cost of the assessment is built into the cost of the book, so if you get a used one, be sure it has an unused access code. The basic idea of this book is that you come into the world with certain strengths, and it won't make much difference on how hard you work on your weaknesses, you will get a lot more results by putting the same effort into working with your top five strengths. Page 9 says, "You cannot be anything you want to be, but you can be a lot more of who you already are. " It does not give as much advice about what careers to choose, but if your strengths are different from those that are supportive of engineering, you should look elsewhere for a career.
Third, in his book, Goals, How to Get Everything You Want - Faster Than You Ever Thought Possible, Brian Tracy tells how to find your special talents. On pages 123 and 124 he lists 8 ways to discover what your special talent is. Notice how one of them is "easy for you to learn and easy for you to do"
1. You love to do it.
2. You do it well.
3. This talent has been responsible for most of your success and happiness in life up till now. (Something you have enjoyed doing from an early age.)
4. It is easy for you to learn and easy for you to do.
5. It holds your attention (naturally you talk about it, you think about it, you learn about it).
6. You love to learn about it and desire to excel in this area.
7. When you do it, times stands still for you. You can go for long hours without eating or sleeping because you are so involved in it.
8. You really admire and respect those who are good at what you are most suited to do. You want to emulate them.