Computer systems

Timmy_d

Anyone doing this course was thinking of applying,what are job prospects like?

Peteee

Yeah, there are a *few* of us on here doing comp sys.

As for job prospects, well I dont know really. I'm just finishing 4th year at the moment. Have been on one interview (Most people have been to at least one) and theres a few people I know who have landed €50k+ jobs in london.

Theres a dwindling amount doing comp sys, so hopefully prospects should be good in 4+ years too!

And I hope you have a better reason then 'jobs' for doing this course! You need to have a strong interest in computers and love tinkering with them everyday, else you wont last.

Timmy_d

50,000 sweet

PeakOutput

is it software orientated or hardware orientated???

when you say tinkering hardware springs to mind

kaimera

SW, HW would be Comp Engi I'd assume.

Otacon

50 K, oh yeah...

Wait until they find out I can't do anything!

440Hz

Well the prospects are better than 4 years ago when my class finished and about 20/200 people got jobs. Having said that most of the IT people I know who take IT jobs straight out of college end up changing to a totally different type of job after 5 years.

I think because so many people have decent enough IT skills now that you really need to love computers to do a course like this. At the end of the day, anyone with the ability to read a book and with some degree of intelligence can do most of the IT jobs out there at the moment, so if you want a REAL IT job you have to, as Pete said, literally live and breathe computers.

kippy

Hi All,
It's been a while since I post here but I think this topic warrants some comments.
I have many friends who did comp sys and indeed comp eng in UL.
They would have graduated about 5 years ago now and none of them found it easy to get jobs in Ireland almost all of them had to move to Dublin and there are a good number of them now not even in computers.
Very few of those two classes walked into a job paying 50K a year and I can tell you that only a few will now walk into a job paying that amount of money.
Many people who graduate from both these courses will have to start at the bottom, so to speak working programming or doing some form of support starting at just over 20k a year. After a couple years experience and some industry qualifications they'll have the chance to move through the levels-however it will take time.
As mentioned you need to have a big interest in computers and computing to excel in these courses and Comp Eng, is a difficult course. I believe the points have dropped significantly in the past few years but both courses are very challanging with lots of competition.
Kippy

kaimera

Most grad jobs afaik are paying between €20-30k pa.

Depends on what you want to do tho; a quick search on monster.ie shows a lot of grad positions for development if your into it.

Sys Admin-ing jobs seem to want x years experience, not a graduate.

Testing is an option but again, experience with test case design, test plans etc are very desirable. Speaking of which, the Comp Sys course that you'll be doing if you come to UL now includes a module on SW testing which we never got to do.

Timmy_d

Maybe i will do computer networking instead,theres loads o money in that

kaimera

Don't think there's a networking course in UL.

IT&T maybe but CS has a number of networking modules aswell.

Peteee

Timmy_d wrote:

Maybe i will do computer networking instead,theres loads o money in that

Where exactly did you hear this?

I'd wager there's no more money in networking then any other discipline of computing.

Timmy_d

ok well thought it would be descent enough?

kaimera

Everything is decent enough...after a few years

Just search job sites for networking positions and look at the going wage.

Timmy_d

Ya guess the experience is the key,just searched jobsites pretty good...i wonder what a degree(networking) + ccna would get you in the market

kaimera

Reminds me of that quote I saw this one time..

How do you get a CCNA guy off your porch?

Pay for the pizza.

Tbqh, if yer in it for the money alone, I wouldn't say CS is for you.

You need to have a strong interest in computers and love tinkering with them everyday, else you wont last.

I think because so many people have decent enough IT skills now that you really need to love computers to do a course like this.

^^ that is one of the best bits of advice really.

PeakOutput

forget about money dude ull regret it in the long run im going back to college in september fingers crossed and iv decided my first three choices are going to be enjoyment subjects and if i dont get them its a sign and the rest of my choices will be "career makers" as iv come to call them

maybe you should sit down and think long and hard about what you would actually enjoy doing for the rest of your life and if its working with computers then brilliant but if its not then why bother?

Kudos

To answer your question, the job prospects are as good as you are but to be good at this you have to live it and love it.

If you don't think that's you but you still want something involving computers, go do IT, a job where just knowing more about computers than ****wit users makes you qualified. ;D

Also be aware that the course is tailored to produce programmers and software engineers.

zilog_jones

kaimera wrote:

Don't think there's a networking course in UL.

IT&T maybe but CS has a number of networking modules aswell.

Yeah IT&T or whatever they call it now - Applied Computing & Network Technologies, I think (what a load of ****). I'd say about a third of the course is networking - we get to use expensive Cisco routers and switches and stuff in the labs. One of the lab technicians in the ECE department does the CCNA Intro course pretty cheap as well.

Timmy_d

id say the ccna would be pretty good all rounder seems like it,would it boost your salary in anyway or do any of ye have it(ccna)

kaimera

College does the CCNA for sfa cash. Cost is around €100 or did last time I checked.

Timmy_d

Ok a bit off topic but thought this would be the only place i MIGHT get a reply,i have an interview for a job with a crowd called "radiowave wireless broadband" this week, they are based in mid-west region,the position i applied for is "technical assistant" thing is im not so sure what the role involves exactly,i know id prob find out at the interview(didnt even think i would get one) but would rather look prepared for when i go in,dont suppose any of ye guys on this thread would know roughly what this position would entail?? thanks :eek: