Am I making the right decision to take Information technology/system as my course in college?

Question

I am a student who just ended my high school last year. I will be entering college any time between march to August. And.. I am thinking of studying Information technology/System as my course in college.

The problem is, I am unsure if this is the right path for me. I don't know if this is what I really want for my future later on! Yes, I do love learning more about computers (prefer software to hardware). But what if I don't find them interesting later on when studying? I'm worried about that as I don't wanna regret later on. To add to that, my knowledge of programming and other software development is actually quite low.

Can someone advise me on what should I do? Or tell me more about Information technology (what will I study later on in college and the career path)?

Answer 1

First figure out what you love to do

On an hypothetical 70 year of life, you will spend 19 years working. It's about 27% of your life.

But wait, what if we remove the 23 years sleeping? Out of your 47 years awake and conscious, you will spend 40% of your time working.

"Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life." [Confucius]

You may like what Steve Jobs said in front of Standford University studuents in 2005:

When I was 17, I read a quote that went something like: "If you live each day as if it was your last, someday you'll most certainly be right." It made an impression on me, and since then, for the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: "If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?" And whenever the answer has been "No" for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.

Answer 2

First of all decide by yourself that what want to be. Be sure about your decision because once decide it you can not back off easily. It will pay in amount of time + money. After that you said right now you love to learn about computers. So if you carry on loving about computers then IT(Information Technology) is the right line for you. Ans Whats the chances of not finding IT interesting later on is very low unless you did not understand it well. Cause if you well understand IT then I don't think you will find it not interesting later on. It does not depend on how much you know about programming right now. In college you are going to learn it. Thats what for colleges made for to help you in learning things.

Answer 3

There are two components of Information Technology: technology and planning. If you like learning about computers, then you'll obviously enjoy the technology part of IT.

The most important part of IT, however is planning, which includes things like gathering requirements, estimating work hours, and determining the impact of requested changes. Without planning, various bad things can happen, for example:

• You find out after you finish coding something that what you did isn't what the customer asked for.
• You find out after the code goes into production that what you did is what the customer asked for, but has unforeseen consequences that the customer doesn't want.
• You tell the customer the project will take about 40 hours, and you're only half done a week later.

If you like learning about planning, including the issues mentioned above, then Information Technology is definitely the right place for you.

Answer 4

If you give it a shot and find out you do not enjoy it remember there are many facets of IT aside from simply developing.

If you want out in general many of the skills you learned will be transferable to any career. IT is engineering and a firm grasp of the problem solving and analytical thinking can be applied anywhere.

Day to day process can be learned, its the core fundamental that take years to master.

Answer 5

When I started University I had similar doubts about doing Software Engineering, I chose not to going for a more generalised Business Studies with Computing. 8 Weeks in I regretted not doing Software development, I changed course to a more general computing, did all the programming I could, (all in games development), I did my work experience abroad, I came back and I finished my degree with the less than perfect score I was expecting in the less than perfect course for a software developer. Ended up I got a job as a software developer creating and maintaining works management and finance software (not games at all)

All in all I see my own time at University and indeed most of my life a serious of mistakes, misjudgements or accidents one after another.

At the end of the day I still learned to program, I still ended up doing what I enjoy, had at any stage I not enjoyed it I'm sure I would have found a way to muck it up :)

Computers is a good base degree to have anyway, it should provide the "check box" that a university degree is to most employers, with the benefit of qualifying for the "Computer related degree" after that experience or proof of knowledge is what they look at and you get experience doing the job you want to do for the cheap wages as a graduate or trainee anyway.

As for not knowing much about programming, its their job to teach you if thats where your course leads!

And so I surmise that it really doesn't matter as much as you think, Don't try to look too far ahead. And for any other advice please see. "baz luhrmann - wear sunscreen" lol to quote from it

Don’t feel guilty if you don’t know what you want to do with your life, the most interesting people I know didn’t know at 22 what they wanted to do with their lives, some of the most interesting 40 year olds I know still don’t.

Answer 6

Take one or two intro classes for comp sci, to see if you like it, but focus most of your energy on general education requirements at first (the classes you need regardless of major). If you don't like comp sci, then you probably filled a couple of electives. Lots of programs have a 2-3 course series on introduction to programming before you get into more advanced concepts. You should know by that time whether you like it or not.

EDIT: Nobody can tell you if you're making the right decision. That is something you have to learn on your own... and you will, you have no choice. ;)

Answer 7

Try it.

Don't worry, a lot of students take the wrong courses, change their universities, decide they don't want to study at all after all, ...

Remember, it's only one single year (at worse) in your whole life. Don't be afraid to make mistakes.

As for me, I took a course I didn't feel like pursuing; it was still interesting, I still learned a lot of things, and I don't regret it at all.

So just go ahead.

Answer 8

Go for it.

If you decide you don't like working with software for a living, there are jobs not developing software that you'll be able to do better knowing something about it.

What else would you do? None of us can tell you if software or archaeology or organized crime is the right career path for you, you'll have to find out for yourself. Try something out that looks appealing. The alternative is to try something unappealing, or try nothing at all, and neither of those will help you much.