Bestow Your Wisdom Upon Me

[MRT144]

Being on the infrastructure, maintenance and administration side of IT is boring as ****.

[DriXnaK]

By the way, if you don't suggest language specific books, which is what I've been looking through, what do you suggest then?

[DriXnaK]

Well, we'll see what I end up getting into. I'm confident in this degree. Even if I got a CS degree, I doubt my starting salary would be a whole lot higher. There's tons of people with CS degrees, and there's tons of people from outside the country taking those positions up.

[Asher]

Awesome. Just today, a new site launched which should make your job that much more worthless.

http://security.stackexchange.com/

[Asher]

So let me get this straight. You're interested in biochem for "money", but you took a 4 year "IT Security" degree instead of a Computer Science degree because you "don't want to be a programmer", even though the starting salary for people with CS degrees is twice that of people with IT Security degrees?

And no, you can't do all of the things I mentioned with an IT Security degree. There's a reason the starting salary with an IT security degree is half that of a CS degree.

[DriXnaK]

No, I'm probably expecting 30K starting. Might even be less. Just depends. There's also some consultant jobs out there that might be possible for me since I have dual degrees in business and IT. You can do pretty much all that stuff you mentioned with an IT security degree as well. An IT Security degree is very broad. You learn everything from network design to programming to management. Being a security analyst is obviously my desired route. Getting the M.S. in information Assurance, which btw meets NSA standards for curriculum, will go a long way in moving me towards that. Right now I just need to start off somewhere so I can get some experience. That's easier said than done right now. Getting this degree gives me the best chance of making that happen.

[Asher]

About 60K for someone in IT. The Security side I'm not sure, but given it's growth and opportunity, it may be a little more lucrative.

I believe 60k in "IT" is the median salary, but not the median starting salary...

[Asher]

I wasn't referring to them. The only other option would be a computer science degree and that's not an option. I'm not looking to be a programmer. Also, I didn't find out about that school from a recruiter or something.

You don't need to be a programmer with a CS degree. Developers get the best money, though.

I've CS grad friends doing all kinds of things. AI research (one academically, one commercially), user experience design (heavy psychology component), network architects (one of which is designing Rogers' [the largest Canadian ISP/cableco] new digital network for cable, internet, and phone), security analyst (hacker...), etc. Most do end up going into software development because if you look at the salaries, it's a no brainer. It's also an incredibly portable skill, you're not likely to end up with a whole lot of application domain-specific knowledge which limits your career opportunities like people do in the business world...

It's also something that's pretty damn easy and intuitive for any good CS student.

[Wezil]

Purchase Poly from Plomp and run the site full time.

[DriXnaK]

About 60K for someone in IT. The Security side I'm not sure, but given it's growth and opportunity, it may be a little more lucrative.

[giblets]

Okay, what's the median salary of someone with a degree in IT security?

[DriXnaK]

Money.

[giblets]

I thought you were interested in biochem. WTF do you need a computer degree for?

[DriXnaK]

I wasn't referring to them. The only other option would be a computer science degree and that's not an option. I'm not looking to be a programmer. Also, I didn't find out about that school from a recruiter or something.

[Asher]

Yes, I'm sure the recruitment director at your school had a different opinion pertaining to the value of that degree.