From 1st Science to IT course advice please

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Haille

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My son who is a 1st year Science student in NUIG informed me yesterday that he is thinking of switching to an IT course next Sept/ Oct, assuming he gets place.He was always interested in IT but decided to do Science as he did 2 science subjects in the Leaving. Looking for advice on this change career wise. He did nt do computer science in 1st year just Physics, Chemistry , Biology and Maths. He is confident of passing 1st Science exams in April/May.Not sure if exam pressure has brought on this change of mind as its the 1st mention of change we got.He has also to factor in student loan to cover fees for repeating 1st year course.
 
Hi,
I made the switch from Life Sciences to IT in the early 1990s. I've been a full-time programmer/software engineer and IT consultant for 16 years.

I completed my four year Science degree and then went on to do a conversion Masters degree. This is another option from just throwing in his current degree.

There are a number of points to consider:

1) What part of I.T. does he want to focus on?
I am guessing that he likes programming and the techie side as it is called. If so perhaps this is a good move, but you can be very good at programming and very bad at programming. It may take someone 1 hour to get to a solution or 1 week. It can be difficult to determine this when you're just in the 1st year of an undergraduate programme.
Programming is very much deadline driven and poor programmers in this environment won't get very far. It's quite a tough profession prone to burn-out.

2) Would he consider a combination of the two skills? e.g. Bioinformatics or any number of other joint disciplines. If so then depending on the degree it may be best to continue his studies.

3) Is there a computer element in the current course? I found I spent a lot of my time in computer lab and not in the biology lab. I also found my computer grades were the best in the class but not my chemistry or biology or engineering courses.

4) Lack of professional career paths compared to science. I may be hit by other I.T. people for this, but I'm doing substantially similar work that I did in the 90s. IT is more dynamic but it can be very easy for good people to be sucked into boring operational roles. Science has more defined career advancement structures.

I would say he should try to get through the science degree for now unless he is particularly ill-suited to it or particularly skilled at programming and loves it. Far away hills are always greener. It's easier to go from pure science to IT than IT to pure science.

You can learn what I do with a home PC worth 400 euro and the internet. The same can not be said for genetics or physical chemistry.

A rigorous science degree would always stand to you. You can do the IT later.

Feel free to PM me...

Regards,
Gearoid
 
Have to agree with Gearoid. Worked in IT was very glad after almost a decade to get a job to do with my original qualification. Always felt that as an IT worker you were never really leading any decisions in any companies I worked in. Also and probably will be shot for this but points for IT courses were low in comparison to other courses so a primary IT qualification was looked down on. Unless it has a strong Maths background or an excellent university (I know DCU had interesting courses in my day). Maybe an engineering qualification would have enough IT elements while still allwoing him to study some science etc? Out working it was practical experience that counted in IT , I think theres about only one skillset I learned in my postgrad thats still being used.
 
Most freelance IT staff are taking enormous cuts in rates at the moment. Many of my full-time friends are losing jobs. This does not mean that the same will be the case in four years time.

One thing to factor in is outsourcing to India and China of technical functions. Core Business Knowledge, Project Management and the softer skills in general e.g. centred around language skills, local market knowledge etc. are less portable.

It can be fairly scary when the Indian branch of your company opens and there's a young Indian graduate learning how to perform some of the functions of your job. It doesn't always work out but if it does you need to be much more productive than him/her to survive.

This is happening a lot in many American companies and Irish ones too where several Indian IT developer with IT experience are leveraging local knowledge and recruiting staff in India to complete projects for them.

I know a lot of IT staff in their forties saying if they had their time over again they might not do IT. Career longevity is not great whereas in Architecture or the like people are only blossoming into their skills at 40. Some of the larger IT consultancies in Ireland seem to cull people at about Age 28 except the ones they want to manage the youngsters. Many of the jobs for the likes of Facebook will focus on younger job seekers too. Well they don't say that exactly but... This obviously is not an issue in 1st year Uni but it is the time of very big choices.

Re NUIG. it doesn't have a very big IT department. I was at the conferrings in October 200+ lawyers, 10 IT degrees and one Mathematician (give that person a medal !).

I was thinking of looking at NUIG Engineering as a mature student should I become redundant. It's a pipe dream but I would say as the previous poster did, change to 1st Engineering and pick from there.

There's Biomedical, Chemical etc if you want to stay in the science area. And Engineering degrees will always be well recognised.
 
Firstly, I understand and respect the other posters views.

I just want to say that before your son makes this decision he needs to do some serious and honest analysis as to why he is making this change.

Is he sure that he doesn't want to do science?

Is he sure that he does want to do IT?

In both cases, why?

Pros and cons.

I am not saying he should or shouldn't change. Just don't do it based on the experience of a couple of IT guys (and I am one myself).

And certainly don't do a science degree if your heart is not in it - what's the point?

Likewise, if you are making such a big move, make sure its the right one.

Get some good career books, maybe get some career guidance - proper guidance, not off some geography teacher.

Follow what you are good at and what makes you happy. Don't worry about the money you think you will make doing it - if you are good, and happy at what you are doing, that will follow.

Best of luck with the decision.
 
eamonn123456 said:
Firstly, I understand and respect the other posters views.

I just want to say that before your son makes this decision he needs to do some serious and honest analysis as to why he is making this change.

Is he sure that he doesn't want to do science?

Is he sure that he does want to do IT?

In both cases, why?
Click to expand...

Hi,
Good points there. Just to clarify though. I may have been slightly biased but my bias was to not chucking in a course once you've started, not towards IT or Science in particular. My only other point was that the skills I need in IT are innate and easily read in a book. What would get me ahead in science are not.

I would say though that IT is easier to pick up afterwards than Science. It depends upon your interests but 20 years on I'm still reading popular science books for fun and knowledge. The same wouldn't be true of a C# book.

Not contradicting your points just clarifying my own.
Regards,
Gearoid
 
How well did he do in computer science for his leaving cert? Do he do much programming in his spare time?
 
My take on it would be to focus on the here and now.
He should study what he finds interesting.

Often people end up in careers unrelated to their degree so I wouldn't emphasie the "what career will this degree get me" side of the things.
 
He should first and foremost make an appointment with the college careers officer. They will be able to provide a free assessment of his interests and abilities as well as giving advice about his course choices. He should in in a better position to make a clear well considered judgement about his future following on from that.
 
Broadly he shouldn't be too concerned about his career now, mainly if he feels interested or not. Science is very broad, it could be that he hasn't really started into a part of science that he likes. For instance in TCD and UCD you may study natural sciences and specify your major in 3rd year. There's a huge range from molecular bio, chemistry, geology, maths, zoology, environmental... The science degree is a start, from that he can then choose to do the IT course if he so wants. I know many who have got solid careers from it although it may not be their dream career. People who I did science with ended up with PhDs, IT professionals, mining industry, chemical industry, clinical services, urban planning, enivornmental services, academics and so on...

If he's one of those that's really into programming on his home computer then go for IT now, if not it's no harm to wait.

Someone who likes science might also like medical related stuff (huge variety of courses out there, some can be done at master's level after bachelor's science but mostly no) if he is into more practical applications with people involved, medical related courses are usually very solid for earning and can bring you anywhere.

Between science, IT, engineering and med related they are good choices.
 
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