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61

answers:

3

I've been doing a computer science course for the last year. But there's this one module that I failed and am now resitting. It's an e-business module. For my resits, I covered e-CRM (online advertising, those really irritating emails, personalized pages, etc), reverse auctions (where the buyer starts the auction and sellers bid, not the other way around) and supply chain management.

I don't know, it's just really annoying me. I signed up to do computer science, not products this and marketting that.

So I guess that I've got two questions. What are the other routes into the industry apart from getting a computer science degree, if I choose to drop it? And, is it common/justifiable to ask computer science undergrads to study business too?

+1  A: 

Community wiki possibly?

This doesn't sound like an explicit business module. Certainly not the same type as i took during my degree. Sounds more like an advertising module.

But that said, having knowledge of how business works, how to relate to business users, derive requirements, etc. is a crucial part of any developers skill set.

JohnnyH
+2  A: 

Computer science is really a couple of different fields. There is computer science-the-science, and computer science-the-application-of-computers. Some (very few!) universities take the first interpretation, many take the second, and a few straddle the divide.

So to answer your question, yes, it's very common to ask CS undergrads to engage with some kind of "real world" disciplines such as business. This is possibly justifiable if the goal is to churn out programmers who are somewhat prepared for jobs in industry. If your intention is to break into industry, then this knowledge is probably good for you to know. Grit your teeth and get through it.

If you're hoping to follow some kind of "pure" programme of Computer Science (which for the record tends to involve very little programming!) then you'll still need a CS degree. You might as well get what you can from the experience and attempt to apply your CS skills to solving whatever problems are required. If you're doing business supply chain stuff, see if you can build a formal model of the process, for example.

There are other routes into the industry, such as starting entry-level and working your way up, or going with other industrial certifications, and some people go a long way on this basis alone. Personally I've always been a little skeptical, and I think if you want to do computer science, or be a programmer, having a 4 year CS degree is basically the near-universal standard.

For what it's worth, I feel your pain. I had to do a bunch of stuff in my degree that didn't interest me in the least. But once it's done, you never have to think about it again. A degree is really just a piece of paper to signify that you have the ability to turn up and obtain a certain number of credits within a certain amount of time. It doesn't make any strong claims about what you do or do not know.

Gian
A: 

You could try a few things.
-Studying interdependently and taking tests for various certifications.
-Find a market and make/sell your own software.
-Options are endless if you are creative.

Also I'm going to agree with Gian.

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