Top degrees: Computer Science PhD and Software Engineering Bachelors

An analysis by the thebestdegrees.org website presents interesting data that should encourage high-school students to enter the computing profession.

They rank PhD in Computer Science as the second-best degree, and Bachelors in Software Engineering as the third-best degree. Bachelors in Computer Science is not far behind at 7th.

Their criteria combine job demand and salary, and are based on data from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics. This is not the only study to come to similar conclusions; every year fresh studies say the same thing. For example CareerCast rated software engineering the top career earlier this year, and another study used BLS data to draw interesting charts showing that software engineering is expected to dominate new job creation among all technology jobs.

I always tell people that software engineering and computer science degrees are among the few that essentially guarantee good jobs in the student's field of study. Note that most computer scientists end up practicing software engineering when they are actually hired (for my discussion of the differences, written a decade ago but still valid, see here) and I consider a CS graduate in an SE job to be, broadly speaking, practicing 'in their discipline'. Students who obtain most other degree types have a much higher chance of having to settle for a career outside the discipline of their degree. This includes degrees in the ever-popular biosciences or social sciences.

However a decade after the famous supposed tech-crash, a lot of members of the public remain incredulous when I tell them the above. They still have in their mind the total fallacy that computing is a field with high unemployment, largely because they have heard media reports of layoffs at prominent companies. But other hiring companies abound and there have been huge numbers of high-tech startups in many areas of the world.

At the University of Ottawa, where I am a professor, our first-year enrolments in these fields have only just this year begun to approach the levels of the mid-to-late 1990's, after being dramatically down for 7-8 years. Enrolments are still well behind their tech-boom peak of a decade ago. Meanwhile we are bombarded by companies desperately trying to hire people, but unable to find them. Co-op students complain of having too many interviews (which takes too much time away from their studies). By their fourth year, many of our top software engineering students have found jobs in at companies like Google, Adobe and Oracle at their head offices in the US – sucking fresh talent out of the local Ottawa market. A quick plug: UOttawa pioneered software engineering education in Canada and internationally; when our students go to these companies they report that colleagues from very prestigious US universities admire their abilities.

My message is this (and it is a message I have been telling people for 10 years): Tell anyone you know who is in high school or has kids of that age, and who has any interest in technology, to go into software engineering or computer science. There never was a crash of employment in the field, just minor blips that have long since passed. There are plenty of jobs as the above links show. In my own city, here are some links from job-posting aggregator Jooble to companies hiring now using 'software' and 'computer programmer' keywords.

As for doing your PhD in Computer Science (second-top job). I am glad to be one of those people! It is overall a great career. And most of my PhD graduates are doing well. However, new PhD's in Computer Science shouldn't count on becoming a professor any time soon, there are very few openings precisely because of the lack of undergraduate students over the last decade. This will hopeful rectify itself over the next decade, but consistent undergraduate enrolment increases are needed first. One of my five PhD graduates is a professor; two are independent consultants and two are working for high-tech startups. The challenge for those who are not actually professors is to maintain their research skills and publication record while waiting for the faculty-position job market to loosen up a bit.