What Every Computer Science Major Should Know

Computer science is a very promising career path at this moment in time, and many people are seeing the huge earning potential of securing long-term employment in this field. If you're one of them - whether you've already graduated, are still studying, or haven't even started yet - here are some things that every computer science major should know.

You Need a Plan for How to Pay Your Tuition
Education is expensive, and even in a field where you know you have great earning potential after graduation, it doesn't give you any way of paying your tuition fees right now. If you don't have parents or a college fund to rely on, it might help you to take on a part-time job alongside your studies. This isn't likely to cover all your costs, however, so sometimes your best bet is to apply for additional funding. You can take out a student loan from a private lender. It's extremely easy to use a student loan calculator in order to crunch monthly payment numbers and get an idea of how long it will take to repay the full amount.

You Will Need a Portfolio
Most employers will ask for a resume, but that won't tell them anything about your actual skills and abilities. Your real time to shine comes when you get to hand over a portfolio of your work. Whether it's an online blog or a document, you should detail your previous projects and showcase the work you've done in the past, regardless of if it's in a personal or professional capacity. This will allow employers to actually judge your ability, and it gives you a great advantage over the applicants who only submit a resume. Even if you haven't graduated yet, get working on a portfolio and take on as many projects as you have time for. This will make you even more prepared for the job market and more attractive to employers.

Communication Skills are Key
You might be great at what you do, but are you also great at explaining it to others? In your future career, you'll find yourself in situations where your ability to present and clearly communicate your ideas will be critical to the success of a project you're working on. This includes being able to explain technical details to people who don't know very much about programming. Start developing your communication and presentation skills as early as possible and make sure you can explain and present your ideas in informative, captivating layman's terms.

Your Education Never Ends
Knowing programming languages is essential in this line of work, but it's not everything. These languages die out fast and are replaced more frequently than they should be. Learning a few, especially the ones relevant to your specific employer, is great. Being able to learn new ones is even better. This applies after you've graduated too, so it's vital that you're able to teach yourself new computer languages in order to advance and branch out into new, exciting areas. You don't want to be stuck only knowing what you learned back in college, do you?

Bio: Drew is a financial enthusiast, seasoned blogger, music and sports fanatic. He enjoys spending time outdoors with his wife and daughter fishing and boating. He is dedicated to his 15+ year career in the banking, mortgage, and personal finance industry.

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