Help Me IT People

[Layamaria2001]

Good day guys.
I would like to ask some information regarding the IT industry. I'm planning to major in computer science or information technology this coming second semester but I am not very sure if I would enjoy it. I have been reading books/articles in computer science and I have been talking to some of my friends who are in this field. But still I am not satisfied with what I have learned so far. Is there an area in IT that is math/science/technology oriented? Kasi mukhang puro programming lang ang naririnig ko and I want to be in this field din. What are the career opportunities in this field? And what is the future of the IT industry?

I am hoping for your answers. Thanks.

[CaRaMBa]

Hi there, programming is not the only thing that you can do in the IT industry. Off the top of my head, there's project management, there's sales within IT (which is tough!), internet marketing, business development, web design, etc.

[YutaNyo]

Maybe you can get some insights from the MAN himself!

Bill Gates Homepage (http://www.microsoft.com/billgates/default.asp)

Check out his essays in the writings drop down menu.


Archived Essays (http://www.microsoft.com/billgates/columns/pastessays.asp)

[eilsel]

IT or CS courses may deal not only programming languages but also tackles a systems analysis and design, database management, project development, web development and design, networking and management information system. But usually the curriculum has a lot of Mathematics just like that of the Engineering courses, and Accouting subjects as well.

After you graduate from the course, opportunities are at hand - by being a programmer (application or web, it's up to you) systems analyst, consultant, network adminstrator or an IT/MIS staff in a company.

You can work on different companies from IT firms (Accenture, Headstrong, WatsonWyatt, Microsoft Great Plains, SVI etc. ), to commercial banks (BPI, Equitable PCI etc.) and from the big Philippine corporations (Petron, Nestle Phils., San Miguel etc.) to the different government entities in the country.

But be reminded that you have to have a continuous learning with the technology, after all, this is Information Technology. :)

[dekra3]

I am currently in the field of IT and in my point of view, there are three different kinds of personalities in the IT industry.

1. The "macho" group - Responsible for the hardware side of IT. They tinker the PC or servers or anything that is technical stuff. They also troubleshoot, repair and solder anything broken.

2. The "nerds" group - They the ones responsible for software development and analysis, programming and software engineering.

3. The "social " group - They are the ones communicating with the end-users or the clients that are going to use the system. They will also design the whole system for the "nerds" group to develop.

[Layamaria2001]

Thanks a lot for your insight. Things are becoming clear to me now.

[gfx-8]

What you will be after graduation actually depends on you. It does not actually matter should you finish cs, coe, etc... though you may have an edge if you do, but its a case to case basis.

Ive been on the IT industry now for two years, and believe it or not, some of the most "macho" groups does not even finish a course related to IT. What matters most is your interest on the field... the dedication in you. With this, you can easily learn things on your own which is best because when you finally got a chance to enter the field, you'll find out that whatever things you've learned from school is not enough to get you into the competition worst, you cant even apply it because you might have not covered it in school or simply because its obsolete.

My suggestion is, start now, dont be afraid to test things! Just go for it and do it! Dont be afraid that you might screw up your computer, its part of it all! Good luck!

[mpxcz]

programming is a part of the IT industry kasi e... nothing to worry about, kelangan mo lang maorient sa mga gawain at technical jargons ng isang IT person... the rest will b up to you... dedication and a constant strive to learn the new things that crop up in the IT industry will help you "be" more, you don't want to be easily obsolete sabi nga ni gfx-8

[Layamaria2001]

i'm learning a lot guys.:cool:

[armand321]

...here's my take on this...

Today's I.T. field can be broken down into three categories:

1. Application Development (programming; web-based, OLTP-based, graphics design and animation)

2. Networking (server-based, LAN-based, WAN-based) - I'll let you research what these acronyms mean

3. PC Support (Desktop/Mobile and software applications support)

Here are just some of the following items that may/can result in any of the three mentioned above:

- Systems Analysis
- Project Management
- Network Management
- Network Design
- Application Integration (software roll-out)
- Research and Development (R&D, computer science and research)

As you can see, just like medicine, the I.T. field can be a very specialized field. The only thing you have to do now is pick and choose.

:)

[Layamaria2001]

I need more

[Krakista]

Originally posted by Layamaria2001
Is there an area in IT that is math/science/technology oriented?
Our CS courses here are oriented towards business applications and very little in math/science/technology side of things. Though there are some companies that do embedded systems. A sample of an embedded system application are the firmware inside our cellphones. The son of a friend of mine who treated us during our last TechToday EB is into Medical Informatics, simply the use computers in medicine, and he's taking a post-graduate course at Columbia University on that. Another application I could cite is GPS. You get the longitude/lattitude coordinate from a remote vehicle and plot its location on a street map. Really cool. Lotsa applications, still unexplored ....

My advice--do well in your math, science and programming subjects and when you graduate, find a company that is into these.

:)

[nono]

the first thing you should think of is where in the IT industry you wanna land. the IT industry is very broad, covering a wide range of things under the sun. from telcos to programming to the eternally-used word "convergence" to etc, to etc, to etc.

where in the IT industry would you wanna place yourself in?

1) business development: responsible for making sure that technologies created will indeed drive revenues

2) programming / hardware: you have to make such technologies work so that the busdev guys can think of ways for profit

3) sales / marketing: assuming the programming guys make the technology work and the busdev guys find a way to profit from that technology, your job would be to understand it like hell and sell it. really tough. (try to convince your grandmother to buy an ericsson r520, a palm m505, and have her use both with globe's GPRS service. first thing she'll ask you is "what the hell do i need that for?!?!?!")

4) creative IT services: web design, interface design, 3D rendering, vector graphics animator, game design, etc, etc.

5) IT-legal: there are now lots of opportunities for lawyers to work in the IT field and IT people to work in the legal field. there are no set rules governing the internet. these people try to interpret the law to cover such. (or at least they think they are. ):)

well, i'm sure marami pa... just think of the myriad of divisions within the IT indutry. it's a start. :)

[CaRaMBa]

Hi Layamaria2001! So, what field are you interested in? :)

[zimdude]

I'm at an ISP, and we use math... heck I love math myself! Not that good at it though :glee:

[Layamaria2001]

Originally posted by CaRaMBa
Hi Layamaria2001! So, what field are you interested in? :)

I am now sure that I want to be in the technical side of IT, though I also wanted to go to business eventually. But based on what I read, IT is not so much math-science oriented. Siguro I should think twice before pursuing this field. Baka di ako para dito. :rolleyes:

[Layamaria2001]

Originally posted by zimdude
I'm at an ISP, and we use math... heck I love math myself! Not that good at it though :glee:

Hey Zimdude, what other areas of IT are math-oriented??:o

[zimdude]

On the research side, computational chemistry/physics and other natural science... neat stuff I'd like to get into later.. though I think there's not much of that here.

On practice, statistics, graphics and 3D animation - though all the practitioners I know of 3D just premade tools. I haven't heard of people writing their own code as they do in US studios.

Why don't you start a discussion at Technology Today? There's also talk (somewhere here) about writing games in 3D graphics and there seem to be some adepts here.

[Layamaria2001]

thanks