As a Software Engineer/Web dev. How do I transition more to this or find jobs in this field? Its definitely the part of software engineering I've enjoyed most when dealing with clients. It's far more rewarding than building the sites myself.
-
Ever wanted an RSS feed of all your favorite gaming news sites? Go check out our new Gaming Headlines feed! Read more about it here.
-
We have made minor adjustments to how the search bar works on ResetEra. You can read about the changes here.
In demand majors that are relatively unknown to high school students
- Thread starter AppleBlade
- Start date
In the future? When more universities start offering courses specifically in the area, probably Human Factors and Ergonomics - essentially applied psychology and sociology in engineering contexts. Public transport, aviation, defence (both government and contracting) all employ human factors teams in vast quantities. Currently the field consists of people who have sort of just floated into the area as a result of experience and career trajectory but there is something of a push to establish a coherent educational basis for HF.
Also, this might be out of left field but a degree in International Relations (specifically a Masters from a good university) is extremely marketable at the moment, particularly when paired with strong financial literacy, due to the rapid growth of political risk and due diligence analysis in both dedicated firms (Eurasia Group, IHS, Control Risks etc) as well as in major banks and consultancies (Citi, Deloitte, KPMG, etc).
Also, this might be out of left field but a degree in International Relations (specifically a Masters from a good university) is extremely marketable at the moment, particularly when paired with strong financial literacy, due to the rapid growth of political risk and due diligence analysis in both dedicated firms (Eurasia Group, IHS, Control Risks etc) as well as in major banks and consultancies (Citi, Deloitte, KPMG, etc).
Last edited:
It really isn't. In Australia tradies can easily be on sex figure salaries, zero debt, and have their education paid for. I've heard of carpet layers on $4000 a week. It's very hard work on your body but they earn so much they can retire early or run their own business with younger staff doing the heavy lifting.
My wife's experience was that most places wouldn't take her in without MLT certification, which you aren't eligible to stand for unless you graduated from an ASCP accredited program (Well, there's a couple of other paths, but none of them apply to her).
So now she's in a two-year program at our closest Community College, just so she'll be eligible to be certified as an MLT. And since she already has a BS in Biology, hopefully she'll be grandfathered into MLS with a couple of years of experience as an MLT.
An office job as an engineer also gets you 6 figures, tons of benefits, vacation time, opportunity to grow and you can actually enjoy your life as you age instead of destroying your body in your 20s. Trades are harsh and will ruin your body, theres a reason people avoid them.
She applied to anything with "lab tech" in the description. Most required MLT certification and didn't get back to her; a couple led to job interviews that didn't lead to a job offer. We're in MD, right between Baltimore and DC, if that makes a difference.
In the end we decided it'd be a good investment for her to just go through the two year program. A lot of her classmates seemed to have gone the same route as her. Thankfully, I make enough money and it's inexpensive enough that I can comfortably cover her tuition (averages out to about $300/mo). Helps that the Community College seems to be one of the better Community Colleges nearby. Very well funded and adequately rigorous.
Yep, and I never said it wasn't. The original advice was to skip college and go into trade. I said it was awful advice because it is, if that's your face value advice.
Do you like working in jobs that are considered trade? Are you a very hands on person and love making hella money? Trade jobs bruh. All day.
But do you also want a piece of paper that opens tons of doors for you as well? College, bruh. All day.
And yeah, I sympathize with plenty of people who went to school and have tons of debt. But I also know that plenty of them would rather be where they are now with that debt than doing something else they aren't passion about it.
Both roads are viable. Going to college doesn't automatically guarantee you a shit load of debt. Trade jobs aren't always going to guarantee you an enjoyable life just because you make 4000 a month.
See above. I'm not shit talking trade jobs, I'm shit talking the surface level advice with no nuance added to it.
This is what I'm doing. The pay is fucking crazy.
In South Korea, I have a friend who is taught on a one year contract, was paid $45K a year, had housing and lunch paid for, was a 5 min walk to work, and since its Korea with its incredible transport system, nothing was ever too far. She paid off $15K worth of student debt with that.
I'm going to get my degree in English or Technical Writing, take my TEFL, and be off.
What office engineering job is getting you 6 figures out of college?
This is a big one. I work a project management job and you do have to deal with some bullshit and need the right personality for it, but it's very in demand and if you get your certs, you can make a lot of money.
A red seal arguably opens way more doors than almost all college degrees.
Some kids aren't really cut out for college, and that's ok. You can get to journeyman wages 5-6 years time if you're a union tradesman. In Chicago, carpentry will get you just under $50 an hour. Get your foot in the door at a large GC and you're basically guaranteed 40 hours every week. Tradesmen also get paid weekly. You could be a journeyman tradesman grossing just under $2k per week at the age of 24. Being in the union will get you health coverage and you can earn pension credits for retirement.
Let's say you're one of the smarter guys on the job. Oh hey, you'd make a great Foreman or Project Manager. Enjoy that bumped up wage scale and less physical labor.
Seriously ... the trades offer an incredible route for young guys who aren't book smart that would only use college as an opportunity to take on a massive loan with nothing to show for it.
Let's say you're one of the smarter guys on the job. Oh hey, you'd make a great Foreman or Project Manager. Enjoy that bumped up wage scale and less physical labor.
Seriously ... the trades offer an incredible route for young guys who aren't book smart that would only use college as an opportunity to take on a massive loan with nothing to show for it.
I think it would be more helpful to let them know college isn't the only option available. Trade schools and technical programs are a viable and sometimes more readily lucrative field. People think if they don't do a 4 year college they will be destitute losers.
Seconding this. UX designers/researchers are in demand and it's a very poorly understood profession
Yeah, my step dad installed A/V systems in houses and dudes knees are fucked because of it. You can make good money with trades, but it's hard work and it's rough on your body.
I got pretty lucky with my biology degree but I totally fell backwards into things and in the 15 years since I've been out of school I've never used a single thing that I learned in college. My degree probably helped a little getting my first couple of jobs but they were short term contract jobs (I didn't have any luck getting into a standard lab, they all wanted specific experience on equipment that I never used in college) so they weren't exactly career builders. I definitely thought I would have an easy time finding just a lab tech job out of college and that wasn't the case at all.
Something that high schoolers should be taught more about is community college. Some people look down at it like it's for people that can't get into a "real" college, but it's a crazy great way to save thousands. There are some downsides to attending, like how it's much harder to transfer to a 4-year that's out-of-state, but in-state 4-years usually have an agreement with the state's community colleges that makes it easy af to get accepted/transfer credits.
For context, I don't have the exact number yet, but I'm fairly certain that I will only owe $40k after I graduate, with a bachelor's in CS (community college + 4-year).
For context, I don't have the exact number yet, but I'm fairly certain that I will only owe $40k after I graduate, with a bachelor's in CS (community college + 4-year).
Software Engineers in places like CA, NYC, Austin, Seattle, etc. I made $89k as a Computer Engineer straight out of college in MD. Easily over 6 figures in total compensation. My favorite: 200% 401(k) matching up to 8% of salary, plus 2.5% non-matching base contribution. Essentially, I put in 4%, they put in 12.5%. They also paid for my Master's, and gave me a raise when I finished it.
Last edited:
Community colleges are fucking amazing. They also are a very good way into university if you didn't do well in high school. Saved me a shit ton, let me figure out what I wanted to do, and I got into the school I wanted to go to because I kept my GPA up
We know that trade jobs - on median - right around the US' national median income. So somewhere - on median - between $35,000 to $41,000. People making $100,000 in any skilled trade are outliers and extremely lucky.
Completely fine and better than some other long-term options like retail but there's been a reason so many people who are skilled trade workers push their kids to college.
This is definitely a great route for some skilled trades.
Completely fine and better than some other long-term options like retail but there's been a reason so many people who are skilled trade workers push their kids to college.
This is definitely a great route for some skilled trades.
Easily 6 figures in those markets.
In my graduating class alone, one dude got $175k *base* salary at Apple, another got ~$130k at Bloomberg LP with a $30k signing bonus. A bunch more got like $120k base salary at Google and Facebook.
You're being strangely obtuse about this. A CS major with good LeetCode skills can very easily land a 6 figure job at a big tech company. You can conceivably get halfway into $200k if you get multiple offers and negotiate.
Your CS engineering friend got a base salary of manager at Apple right out of university? That's some hustle.
These are the 24 highest-paying jobs at Apple
Who makes more, engineers or software developers? We've ranked the highest-paying jobs at Apple, according to salary information found on Glassdoor.
www.businessinsider.com
His offer letter said base salary of $175k. Granted, he had internship experience at NASA, Boeing, and LinkedIn, and competing offers from a couple of FAANGs. The average new grad at Apple can expect $120k base salary.Your CS engineering friend got a base salary of manager at Apple right out of university?
These are the 24 highest-paying jobs at Apple
Who makes more, engineers or software developers? We've ranked the highest-paying jobs at Apple, according to salary information found on Glassdoor.
Your numbers are low. There is no way a manager at Apple is only making $50k more than what the average new-grad (ICT2) is making. At least not in CA.
Apple Software Engineer Salaries | $162K-$768K+ | Levels.fyi
Software Engineer compensation at Apple ranges from $162K per year for ICT2 to $768K per year for ICT6. The median compensation package totals $257K. Get a look into the base, stock, and bonus package breakdowns as well as Apple's standard stock vesting schedule.
www.levels.fyi
Again, you are being strangely obtuse about this.
Yeah, that's quite true. A lot of people have told me that a Master's is the bare minimum to do decent benchwork research with bio or chem.
I would echo what others have said about healthcare degrees. You don't have to go to med school and be a physician to be in health care and have a great career, though I think a lot of high schoolers get stuck with that mentality. Nursing can be a fantastic choice and has many different avenues including higher level degrees if desired. If willing to do grad school it opens up options for PT, PA, dental, optometry, psychology, etc. And just about all those options will get you out of school far earlier than you would have with med school +residency and fellowship.
Your CS engineering friend got a base salary of manager at Apple right out of university? That's some hustle.
These are the 24 highest-paying jobs at Apple
Who makes more, engineers or software developers? We've ranked the highest-paying jobs at Apple, according to salary information found on Glassdoor.
I have an electrical engineer friend that is working on the server-side power supplyies at facebook and makin $250k right now. Not even a software developer, just the guy making sure the PSU work without doing weird things.
Your CS engineering friend got a base salary of manager at Apple right out of university? That's some hustle.
These are the 24 highest-paying jobs at Apple
Who makes more, engineers or software developers? We've ranked the highest-paying jobs at Apple, according to salary information found on Glassdoor.
What argument are you trying to make? The original post didn't state that engineering degrees guarantee a 6 figure salary straight out of university.
It's not like tradies jump directly into six figure salaries either. Tradies are paid well in relative terms but 6 figures are largely reserved for people with a decade of experience, likely running their own business - with the exceptions of specialty trades or in certain industries such as mining. Even in Australia, where tradies are paid exceptionally well, experienced electricians (i.e. the most lucrative of the mainstream trades) with 10 years on the job can expect 85kish.
The point is that there is a hard limit on career progression in the trades.
Writing specialization can make an English BA pretty useful. I agree. I'm an English BA with a writing specialization, and it's helped me get a lot of tech writing jobs, as well as marketing copy writing jobs.
Can I suggest hospitality? You will always need food and lodging and it's a degree that can take you in many different directions.
Any humanities/liberal arts course that have interdisciplinary training as one of the tenets is something that I can suggest (so courses like Comparative Literature, Interdisciplinary Studies, etc.). I'm not sure how it works in the US, but the course I took here gave me the opportunity to choose electives and tracks which I thought I needed and which I thought I wanted to learn about. I was able to mix several fields (communication, psychology, literature/english, and a bit of socio-anthropology) during my college years and I got a lot of job opportunities from different fields that way (media corporations, telecommunications, even non-profit organizations offered me jobs). I ended up in media and even became a translator at one point, but I mostly do digital ads now.
These are just the ones I've seen on the first page.
Whilst I wholeheartedly endorse demonstrating cyber security as a career (and as someone has said, broadening that view beyond just pentesting) in my experience employers are less keen on undergraduate cyber security degrees.
If anything, study something like an engineering discipline or computer science to build the overarching foundation and then adorn that with a cyber security master's degree or other technical certification.
This is based entirely on my experience in the UK, but the standard of cyber security degrees simply doesn't seem to be considered as high as traditional compsci or other technical degrees.
That said, early exposure to cyber security is absolutely an advantage and students should be encouraged to pursue it in any way they can, just as for college majors / university degrees go I'd recommend a more traditional course and then enhance it with certs or a post-grad qualification.
Can't speak for the US or elsewhere though.
Still does. Great field to work in and you can easily build your portfolio through programs like ArcGIS. NGA also is a great place to get your feet wet with great opportunities.
GIS experience is always needed for military/federal agencies so it is easy to find work once you land one or at least know where to start. Highly recommend for those interested in anything geographical.
Should also mention this as well. If you can land a TS, you have to TRY to not land a job. There are always companies or federal slots open once you can get a clearance.
Last edited:
This is me. I studied Electrical Engineering in university but now work in CyberSecurity field.
I had a much bigger gap between my college graduation and my entry into clinical/medical laboratory science work so don't get too down. I don't know how things work in Canada wrt requirements but if it's anything like it is here, you're not going to be able to waltz into a clinical lab and get a skilled job without any clinical lab experience. A regular bio degree doesn't give you the background you need in hematology, clinical chemistry, blood banking, etc for clinical lab work. So unless you can find an employer willing to train you from scratch, you'll probably have to take some classes or attend a program before you're a more qualified candidate. See if there are any post-baccalaureate programs that get you certified in a year or so and do some online research to see if that's something you'd like to do and if it's worth the time/$$$ investment. Maybe see if there are volunteer positions or shadowing opportunities inside a clinical lab that can help you decide. Because the environment can be very different from the university/research labs you're used to.
Getting your foot in the door can be tough but don't lose hope.
Yeah, you pretty much need to be ASCP certified unless you can find an employer willing to train you and hire you with the expectation you'll get certified in the near future. In some states, board licensure is an absolute requirement.
As someone who started at a community college (and now works there too!), 100% agree with this. I work at our CC's Transfer Center and while I can't speak for other community colleges, we definitely try to encourage students to look beyond local universities and have sent a good number to Ivies. Plus, we just got two years free tuition here in California so there's even more of an incentive!
Correct, but that's because good PMs are very hard to find. If you can get the basics down you're totally invaluable
Almsot exactly the same for me. The graduates and colleagues I worked with in my first security role all came from different technical fields including Maths, Computer Science, different engineering disciplines and Physics.
I've met one graduate with a straight up cyber security degree, but anyone else with formal education in the field either has a master's in it or has attained other certification.
This isn't to say cyber security degrees have no value, but from a strictly getting-the-first-job standpoint I'd suggest otherwise until they proliferate further.
I did this in Taiwan after I finished my degree without a TESOL cert about 15 years ago (but you definitely want the cert now) and got around $25k take-home a year + free apartment. Not quite as good, but Taiwan cost of living is cheaper than South Korea and I was working at a cram school (you generally get better pay & benefits at actual schools).
Basic accounting is, technical accounting and systems program management in accounting is not any time soon
