Thinking About A Major Change.

[Nbro1321]

I'm currently a freshmen majoring in computer science but thinking about majoring in ITM (Information Technology and Management). I'm very passionate about coding and creating projects but struggle to understand the theoretical side of things and also struggle very hard with math (Calculus 2 ,Linear algebra). I enjoy wiring, working with servers, networks, OS installations, etc. I could see myself maintaining a network and server for a career more than creating whole softwares and coding everyday. To be clear I plan to minor in computer science or engineering to still learn some core coding skills and learning on my own. 

With this information and your guys knowledge, should I switch to ITM or struggle through CS?

[Agall]

14 minutes ago, Nbro1321 said:

I'm currently a freshmen majoring in computer science but thinking about majoring in ITM (Information Technology and Management). I'm very passionate about coding and creating projects but struggle to understand the theoretical side of things and also struggle very hard with math (Calculus 2 ,Linear algebra). I enjoy wiring, working with servers, networks, OS installations, etc. I could see myself maintaining a network and server for a career more than creating whole softwares and coding everyday. To be clear I plan to minor in computer science or engineering to still learn some core coding skills and learning on my own. 

With this information and your guys knowledge, should I switch to ITM or struggle through CS?

I don't think it largely matters, you want a gateway into the IT world with either an education program or experience, and a lot of those are valued the same, but it depends.

 

From what I've seen being in the field, experience is overall weighted very heavily since no schooling can completely teach you how to manage a network unless it was given by the company hiring you to be tailored to their systems. That's where flexibility and experience in understanding and adapting to a wide variety of systems is crucial in my opinion.

 

If you want to change majors because you think you'll be happier and succeed more, better to figure it out early than later. You'll still want to make sure you're doing home labs and really getting to an enthusiast level in the field prior to your first job.

 

[sonnumber5]

ITM can be a very fulfilling career path, and anything you've learned in the CS programming side can be applied to helping scale out automated systems and support responses (especially when using some of the larger integrators like ServiceNow).

[Spring1898]

I don't know much about the specifics of this job or your situation.

 

But in general what I say is this

 

If it is a matter of external stressors interfering with your chosen path, address the external stressors

 

If it is a matter of personally not wanting to put forth the effort or it feels hard and don't like it, do it anyway as it will make you grow

 

If it is a matter of ability or demands exceeding capability that can be acquired, the fit is not right and do something else (and that is okay)

 

 

Much in life can be accomplished by simply showing up and sticking with it until they kick you out.

But if it is not where you are meant to be you are wasting time not being where you should be.

 

What you want to avoid is giving up without giving your all. That weighs heavier than anything else. But once you have done that and it is not working, move on.

 

Figuring out the difference and overlap can be hard, but you are doing the right thing by asking other people.

[Jerakl]

54 minutes ago, Spring1898 said:

Much in life can be accomplished by simply showing up and sticking with it until they kick you out.

There's much to be said for this.
You can get through a lot just by showing up - speaking from personal experience.