Computing Panic

Johny7070

Hi all , Hope all are doing well and everything is peachy now that college has started .

Just had a bit of a panic attack over thinking about Computing/IT Management .
As some of you may or may not know , during the second year in computing you are given a choice to either go ahead with the computing course or move over to IT Management. Having picked to continue with the computing course I am now having seconds thoughts and really panicking.

I really enjoy Software Development and in general programming, but I am not too good at it , got a B- in the last summer exam. Not really the best at maths either , always had problems in maths B- last summer exam. Other than that I got A's in the other subjects .
Was advised to choose IT Management by the staff.

I am now having issues choosing between IT Management and Computing as I have heard that the people who choose IT Management tend to get jobs easier and apparently get employed upon finishing the course by the same organisation with whom they do their intern ship during year 3.

Also have been hearing that , once finished the computing course the only good road ahead is the programming road , what other opportunities would present them selves if I stayed in computing , and should I go with the IT Management course just because my exam results suggest I should.

Any input on this issue would be greatly appreciated

Gavin "shels"

Doing Computing over IT Mgt was my biggest mistake in college. I fully intend on going back next Sept part-time to do my Honours degree and do it in IT Mgt (have the Ordinary Degree for Computing).

In order to get a job in programming you'd need to be good at it and be able to display this in an interview.

rog871

I just finished 4th of IT Management and for me, it was a good choice. You need to decide what career you want for when you finish. It seems the lads that finished computing recently have mainly got jobs in development roles (that I know of). So if you want a job in development, then stick with Computing and put the work in.

The lads that finished IT Management mainly got jobs in support/consultancy roles. However, I do think that the computing people would be eligible for some of these roles. The work placement was extremely valuable experience for me, and some people did go back to work for there wok placement employer.

If I had the choice again I would probably pick IT Management for the following reasons:

1. Programming is not for me.
2. The work placement.
3. The Cloud Computing Module in 4th year.

If you want to switch over to IT Management, have a chat with the Head of Department.

I don't know if any of that helps :P

Johny7070

It helped big time , thank you very much really appreciate the input.
Think I'll be sticking to computing for this year as the software development is really what I enjoy. Not too nice having to study what you don't enjoy if you know what I mean. Either way , the feedback is greatly appreciated , thanks again

Alpha101

Johny7070 wrote: »

Hi all , Hope all are doing well and everything is peachy now that college has started .

Just had a bit of a panic attack over thinking about Computing/IT Management .
As some of you may or may not know , during the second year in computing you are given a choice to either go ahead with the computing course or move over to IT Management. Having picked to continue with the computing course I am now having seconds thoughts and really panicking.

I really enjoy Software Development and in general programming, but I am not too good at it , got a B- in the last summer exam. Not really the best at maths either , always had problems in maths B- last summer exam. Other than that I got A's in the other subjects .
Was advised to choose IT Management by the staff.

I am now having issues choosing between IT Management and Computing as I have heard that the people who choose IT Management tend to get jobs easier and apparently get employed upon finishing the course by the same organisation with whom they do their intern ship during year 3.

Also have been hearing that , once finished the computing course the only good road ahead is the programming road , what other opportunities would present them selves if I stayed in computing , and should I go with the IT Management course just because my exam results suggest I should.

Any input on this issue would be greatly appreciated

Hi There.

Honour's Computing Grad here, just finished up back in June.
While you might enjoy programming, unless you're getting straight A's in first year I would SERIOUSLY suggest switching to IT Management. First and second year programming is at an extremely basic level and it only gets far worse from there.

There are jobs in Computing and IT Management, thats really not the concern, all of my computing year is employed including myself. To be blunt Computing = Programming or something heavily related, I'm talking Dev, Testing, or QA areas here.

But seriously, talk to Barry tomorrow or as soon as possible, sit down with him and explain your situation. I've seen people switch to IT Management in year 2/3, its been done. The issue is when IT Management want to switch to Computing, so you should be fine.

I know one or two people in my year that decided to stick it through after 2nd year with Computing after being in exactly your situation,(I.e. they found it interesting and enjoyed it but it was not something they were great at) it did not go well for them.

Gavin "shels"

Alpha101 wrote: »

I know one or two people in my year that decided to stick it through after 2nd year with Computing after being in exactly your situation,(I.e. they found it interesting and enjoyed it but it was not something they were great at) it did not go well for them.

This summed up me and a couple of mates doing it, I ended up having to repeat Dev 5 while the other few ended up swapping from Computing to IT Mgt for 4th year.

Essentially we blagged our way through C++, etc... for nearly 3 years.

Alpha101

Gavin shels wrote: »

This summed up me and a couple of mates doing it, I ended up having to repeat Dev 5 while the other few ended up swapping from Computing to IT Mgt for 4th year.

Essentially we blagged our way through C++, etc... for nearly 3 years.

Yeah it seems that's fairly common up till 3rd year, most people that aren't adept with programming do ok up till the point and then they have to try and blag their way around a binary tree, or around Dijkstra's algorithm, not to mention Huffman!

3rd year is the major failing point, its when the course hits peak complexity in terms of programming, after that its just an increase in workload and a decrease in complexity.