CS Degree Starting Salaries Are Up

Last week I posted about information that I thought guidance counselors should have about the CS/IT field. Someone said in a comment that I didn't really make the case that students should actually go into the field. On one hand I do believe, as I heard no less a luminary than Bob Metcalfe say in a talk last week, that "computer science is a liberal art." I do think that students should take it regardless of plans to enter the field. On the other hand a lot of people are unwilling to learn anything if they can't see it leading to income.

Well thanks to a link from the CSTA blog I found an interesting article titled "CS Degree Starting Salaries are Up 15% From the Bubble" One paragraph in particular is worth highlighting - emphasis mine.

Not only are computer science majors faring well in the job market, but starting salary offers since the bursting of the IT bubble have been about 15 percent higher than those that came before it, finds a study published in the fall 2007 issue of Salary Survey, a quarterly report published by the National Association of Colleges and Employers.

There is more in the article of course but the short version is that an education in computer science can pay off quite nicely in real dollars. There are jobs and they do pay well.

One caveat I would add though. In the CS/IT business the only constant in the field is change. So prepare yourself to be a life-long learner. A good education is the preparation you need for that.

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Comments

• Anonymous
  October 18, 2007
  PingBack from http://www.artofbam.com/wordpress/?p=10507

• Anonymous
  November 04, 2007
  Kind of a "roundup" post. First, this user-contributed metadata business. More the evolution of loyalty

• Anonymous
  November 11, 2007
  I've been thinking about this whole "computer science is a liberal art" that I have commented