Hi there! My friend is in his first year as a comp sci major but he doesn't have any ideas on what to pursue as his career and it's really worrying him. Are there any ideas or advice you can give to guide him towards being proactive on what one can do related to CS? Any input would be much appreciated. Thank you!
Hi!
I had the same exact problem when I started my Computer Science major. All I knew was that I wanted to do software development but I couldn’t determine what field within CS that I wanted to work in. I hardly even knew what fields existed.
I recommend that your friend thinks about what kind of work they’re interested in. Example: I wanted to do software development and I was interested in mobile application development. This later narrowed down to consumer-facing apps. This is a great starting point, in my opinion. I personally don’t have all the CS fields memorized but to name a few: application development (mobile or web), infrastructure, cybersecurity, quality assurance, AI, etc.
Doing research is also useful. Searching online for keywords like “computer science fields” should bring up results you can start to sift through. I also use the sub-reddit cscareerquestions as a primary resource because there a lot of people in the industry who post on it. I love and hate it, it’s useful but some people are a little too unqualified to be answering certain things. But I still recommend spending some time on there, it’s where I’ve found a lot of information I needed on all things CS.
Overall, I think exposure is highly valuable to really figure out what you want to do with your CS degree. Schools offer a lot of CS electives that cover different topics and fields, so take advantage of this and take what you can! Exposure can also be found through internships if you’re able to obtain any.
Your friend has a lot of time to figure out what career path they want to pursue, so no worries!










