College Major

[parker13]

Hello! I'm looking into going to college for computers. I want to start a business around computers. I want my career to be based around building computers. I'm still quite confused but does anyone know what major I should choose? I was thinking computer science with a minor in business. I know this is messy but I don't have anyone to talk to about this dream lmao

 

Computer Engineering? (I just thought of this)

[Radium_Angel]

2 minutes ago, parker13 said:

I want my career to be based around building computers

 

3 minutes ago, parker13 said:

minor in business

Major in business, just building computers is a dead end route, you'll want to know far more than just that, like networking, and consulting (where the real money is)

 

[Slottr]

CE will get you nowhere that you want to go. Business is really the only applicable route 

[parker13]

8 minutes ago, Radium_Angel said:

 

Major in business, just building computers is a dead end route, you'll want to know far more than just that, like networking, and consulting (where the real money is)

 

Thank you!

[parker13]

7 minutes ago, Slottr said:

CE will get you nowhere that you want to go. Business is really the only applicable route 

Thank you

[Radium_Angel]

2 minutes ago, parker13 said:

Thank you!

No sweat. I did IT break/fix/build for a living for a bit, it's fun, but not much money in it. Consulting and networking was where the cash really started to flow in

[parker13]

Just now, Radium_Angel said:

No sweat. I did IT break/fix/build for a living for a bit, it's fun, but not much money in it. Consulting and networking was where the cash really started to flow in

May I ask you to elaborate on consulting and networking?

[lewdicrous]

22 minutes ago, parker13 said:

I want to start a business around computers. I want my career to be based around building computers.

If you want to open a business around computers, you'll need to know how to fix them as well, not just building them.

[parker13]

1 hour ago, lewdicrous said:

If you want to open a business around computers, you'll need to know how to fix them as well, not just building them.

Which major would you recommend for that?

[lewdicrous]

1 minute ago, parker13 said:

Which major would you recommend for that?

I don't know if you learn that through university/college or through real world experience. Not my field.

[parker13]

Just now, lewdicrous said:

I don't know if you learn that through university/college or through real world experience. Not my field.

Okay. The feedback is much appreciated.

[Radium_Angel]

1 hour ago, parker13 said:

May I ask you to elaborate on consulting and networking?

Sure

 

Company comes in, they have 6 buildings across the city and 500 employees. How can they all talk to the same server?

Or

Rental manager wants to offer wireless in his 20 story apt building, but needs each person to get the same amount of bandwidth.

Or

We just got raided by the FBI and our CEO was hauled off to jail, but I snuck out some backup tapes before they took everything away. Can you build us a new server and restore all the data, like right now so we can continue to embezzle money from our existing clients, before this hits the news and we have to shut our doors for good?

 

I mean all these are hypothetical of course.

 

yeah, hypothetical.

 

[parker13]

1 minute ago, Radium_Angel said:

Sure

 

Company comes in, they have 6 buildings across the city and 500 employees. How can they all talk to the same server?

Or

Rental manager wants to offer wireless in his 20 story apt building, but needs each person to get the same amount of bandwidth.

Or

We just got raided by the FBI and our CEO was hauled off to jail, but I snuck out some backup tapes before they took everything away. Can you build us a new server and restore all the data, like right now so we can continue to embezzle money from our existing clients, before this hits the news and we have to shut our doors for good?

 

I mean all these are hypothetical of course.

 

yeah, hypothetical.

 

Mhmmm hypothetical, I seeee. But I mean that sounds great. Where would I learn networking?

[Radium_Angel]

2 minutes ago, parker13 said:

Mhmmm hypothetical, I seeee. But I mean that sounds great. Where would I learn networking?

Networking I learned on the fly. They won't really teach you that in college. Look into A+ or Net+ certs, or grab some cheap disposable computers from goodwill and set up a home network in your room and try various things. Also, learn linux. That will also come in handy

[parker13]

2 minutes ago, Radium_Angel said:

Networking I learned on the fly. They won't really teach you that in college. Look into A+ or Net+ certs, or grab some cheap disposable computers from goodwill and set up a home network in your room and try various things. Also, learn linux. That will also come in handy

Thank you!!

[Radium_Angel]

Just now, parker13 said:

Thank you!!

Sure, bear in mind if you want to go into business doing computer work, check your morals at the door. Don't do anything outright illegal, but if some woman brings you a PC and says it's her husband's and can you find out if he's having an affair on her...don't pass judgement.

 

You are providing a service in need. No room for judgement or moral qualms. I've seen it all...

[parker13]

2 minutes ago, Radium_Angel said:

Sure, bear in mind if you want to go into business doing computer work, check your morals at the door. Don't do anything outright illegal, but if some woman brings you a PC and says it's her husband's and can you find out if he's having an affair on her...don't pass judgement.

 

You are providing a service in need. No room for judgement or moral qualms. I've seen it all...

I'm definitely not going to do anything illegal. I am not that type of person. If someone needs help within legal judgement, I will help where I can.

[Radium_Angel]

1 minute ago, parker13 said:

I'm definitely not going to do anything illegal. I am not that type of person. If someone needs help within legal judgement, I will help where I can.

And also, for new clients, always under-promise and over-deliver. It'll make them happy and they will spread your name around to their friends.

In the firm I worked for, we went from a 2 person outfit (me and the bossman) to a 10 person outfit, ISP and multiple offices, based on customer satisfaction, loyalty, and never saying "no" when the client is in need.

Service with a smile will get you farther than anything else. Remember, there is a ton of competition out there, even if you don't make a massive profit (or any at all) on a job, making a client happy is far more important. It will pay back tenfold down the line. 

 

[DavidKalinowski]

you can learn networking in college if the college offers the right courses. the college I work for is a cisco academy partner school so we offer a decent tech branch. It covers just about everything to easily pass N+ and entry level cisco CCNA i think it was. def want to take linux and windows server classes as well. If you want an online school western governors university has some nice tech/business class options ( https://www.wgu.edu/online-business-degrees/it-information-technology-management-bachelors-program.html ) I'm looking into that one my self.

[parker13]

2 minutes ago, Radium_Angel said:

And also, for new clients, always under-promise and over-deliver. It'll make them happy and they will spread your name around to their friends.

In the firm I worked for, we went from a 2 person outfit (me and the bossman) to a 10 person outfit, ISP and multiple offices, based on customer satisfaction, loyalty, and never saying "no" when the client is in need.

Service with a smile will get you farther than anything else. Remember, there is a ton of competition out there, even if you don't make a massive profit (or any at all) on a job, making a client happy is far more important. It will pay back tenfold down the line. 

 

Customer service is key!! Totally agreed. Thank you so much for the help today. It's very nice to be able to talk to someone about this stuff since no one I know does much with it.

[Radium_Angel]

Just now, parker13 said:

Customer service is key!! Totally agreed. Thank you so much for the help today. It's very nice to be able to talk to someone about this stuff since no one I know does much with it.

You are welcome. Anytime you need advice with stuff like this, feel free to drop me a line.

Cheers mate!

[parker13]

1 minute ago, DavidKalinowski said:

you can learn networking in college if the college offers the right courses. the college I work for is a cisco academy partner school so we offer a decent tech branch. It covers just about everything to easily pass N+ and entry level cisco CCNA i think it was. def want to take linux and windows server classes as well. If you want an online school western governors university has some nice tech/business class options ( https://www.wgu.edu/online-business-degrees/it-information-technology-management-bachelors-program.html ) I'm looking into that one my self.

Thank you!! I've been trying to find colleges to go to that would still hold my love for tech in general. I wasn't gonna go to college a couple months ago because I was extremely unmotivated due to lack of support lmao

[Akolyte]

Yeah I agree that business is the way to go, or study something like information systems that involves a lot of administration-type education like management, governance, architecture, etc. 

 

You will need that type of experience for many jobs in IT.  A lot of roles in IT you will be part of a team that will own some infrastructure.  Operations is kind of dying out in the long-term I think (local Datacenter Hosted Infrastructure) and going in more of an automated cloud, modular deployment.   

 

If you study things that are required, such as the skills that are needed to become a solutions/technical architect, then you will always have a job.  Projects need people who understand auditing, understand governance, understand how these systems work and the supporting infrastructure.  If you focus directly on engineering, in 5 or so years a lot of what you know will be trumped by new technologies. 

 

You can definitely keep up, but IMO the organization type stuff is the biggest learning curve in any IT field. It's one thing to know the engineering side it's a whole other thing to be able to write all that in design and implementation documents, proposals, and explain the whole systems to stakeholders. 

[Teddy07]

On 9/24/2020 at 5:13 PM, Radium_Angel said:

Major in business

 

On 9/25/2020 at 12:27 AM, Akolyte said:

Yeah I agree that business is the way to go

 

I would only recommend a business major or degree in general if your goal is to be among the top 30% or you want a comparable easy study. I have done a few business classes and they are a joke compared to most computer science classes. They don´t even have to do homework and teachers do not leave if students are not prepared

 

A friend of mine did an apprenticeship and when he quit a business student was selected to do his job. Yeah, not exactly great job perspectives.

 

 

 

[BlueChinchillaEatingDorito]

Business with a specialization in Information Technology Management (or Business Technology Management BTM, I've seen both terms used interchangeably) or regular Computer Science would be my picks. Computer Engineering is more about software development and maybe a bit of hardware engineering in my opinion. 

 

In Business they don't teach you the specifics of Databases (like how SQL and Relational Databases works) and Networking like they do in Computing Science. Then in Computer Science you could get into learning about Distributed Systems, Big Data, etc.