[nfbcs] Computer Science Career Questions

Tue Jan 5 14:26:16 UTC 2016

Are you sure about a Math degree requiring that much math? We hired a CS 
major a couple of years ago and I am about as sure as I can be that he 
never took calculus. Maybe he somehow passed it w/o learning anything. 
Working at a university, you see kids do that all the time. Lots of kids 
seem to think college is about getting grades, not learning.

If they still require a lot of math for a comp sci degree, it's 
obsolete. I was going to bring up the netmask thing myself as an example 
of needing math to be good at your job. But except that it's binary, 
it's about the easiest math there is. It's not really even math, it's 
arithmetic and it's the simplest possible arithmetic, just zeros and 
ones. I can see some value in the idea that taking lots of math helps 
you with problem solving but taking calculus to help you calculate 
netmasks seems like huge overkill to me.
Personally, I don't know how people get through their lives not knowing 
math. Statistics, probability theory, even calculus come up all the time 
in my life. If you don't know math, when math problems come up, you 
don't recognize them as math problems. But I'll admit it almost never 
comes up in my job and I work for a math department.

In fact, I'll bet that the vast majority of IT professionals couldn't 
calculate a netmask if their life depended upon it.

On 01/04/2016 09:03 PM, Vincent Martin via nfbcs wrote:
> The typical CS degree will have almost the same Math requirements as any
> Engineering degree.  It is a part of the accreditation process.  You will
> normally take a Three semester / five quarter Calculus regiment, discrete
> math, Linear Algebra and Statistics.  Depending upon the school that you
> attend or the option you take, there may be an additional course or so.
> If you do an IT degree, you can get by with less Math though.
>    
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: nfbcs [mailto:nfbcs-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Christopher
> Chaltain via nfbcs
> Sent: Monday, January 04, 2016 8:40 PM
> To: NFB in Computer Science Mailing List
> Cc: Christopher Chaltain
> Subject: Re: [nfbcs] Computer Science Career Questions
>
> I wouldn't have thought there would be a lot of math in a CS degree. I
> actually have a Masters in Mathematics with a minor in CS, and all of my
> CS courses were pretty free of math. Maybe that's because I just got a
> minor, or I didn't need the math courses due to my major in math.
>
> I will say that if you go into IT then math will be useful. Network
> addressing with netmasks and all really never made sense to me until I
> started thinking of them as problems in binary math.
>
> I'd agree Linux is a good choice. The cloud runs on Linux, and a lot of
> system administration in the cloud can be done via the command line.
> Working in the cloud will also keep you on the cutting edge and look
> good on the resume.
>
> For programming languages, I'd say learn a good structural language like
> C and a good object oriented language like Java. Also scripting
> languages like Python will come in handy as a system administrator.
> IMHO, once you grasp a few languages, picking up new languages is a lot
> easier, and you'll spend a lot of time just figuring out what the
> various routines are you have available to you.
>
> I'd also agree that the projects you work on are key. Even more than
> that, I'd say internship experiences are invaluable. When I interview CS
> grads, I don't focus much on the course work, since that's pretty much
> the same across the board. I really focus in on any internships the
> candidate has had.
>
> Also, don't overlook what I call the soft skills. Good communication
> skills and the ability to work in a team and work with customers is key
> in today's IT world.
>
> Good luck in whatever you end up doing!
>
> On 04/01/16 18:30, rjaquiss via nfbcs wrote:
>> Hello:
>>
>>        I have a BS degree in Computer Science (1976). It had a lot of math
>> courses most of which I didn't find very useful. I would suggest you learn
>> C, C++, Possibly C# and Java. You should also know html,  css and
>> JavaScript. For sure learn Linux and Windows programming. It wouldn't hurt
>> to learn about developing IOS applications for iPhones. I would try and
> take
>> some robotics courses if possible. When it came time for me to interview
> for
>> jobs, the thing most interesting to potential employers were the various
>> projects I did. I wrote a cross assembler for the Zilog Z80 microprocessor
>> and also a cross compiler. The knowledge and experience you gain from
> doing
>> projects is invaluable. Hope this helps.
>>
>> Regards,
>>
>> Robert
>>
>>
>>
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