What is a career in Computer Science really like

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What is a career in Computer Science really like?

• Debbie Bartlett
• November 5, 2007

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The myths of a Computer Science career

• What have you heard about computer science
  careers?
• Myth All the computing jobs are going overseas
  (offshoring)
• Fact Computing-related professions dominate the
  list of fastest-growing, highest-paying
  occupations in the United States
• Myth Good only for geeks who want to sit in a
  corner and code
• Fact People skills and communications skills are
  highly valued. Also valued is knowledge about
  application domains (for example, biology!,
  business, graphics art, criminal justice, )
• Myth Good only for people with no other life.
• Fact Computer scientists have many diverse
  interests just like other people. In particular,
  the potential to incorporate teleworking into a
  computing career can help one combine career and
  family.
• Myth Not for women
• Fact Women have been among the famous pioneers
  of computing and continue to make important
  contributions.. One such pioneer is Grace Hopper
  who developed the first compiler for a computer
  programming language
• From Computer Science Myths and Facts by Dr.
  Ronald I. Greenberg, Loyola University Chicago

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Breadth of Possibilities In

• Education
• Entrepreneurship
• Industry

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Opportunities within industry

• What areas might you work in?

• Functional Areas
• Product Marketing
• Technical Marketing
• Sales
• Quality
• Learning Products
• Research Development
• Information Technology

• Technical Areas
• System Software
• Artificial Intelligence
• Networking Security
• Graphics
• Human Factors
• Software engineering
• Software Application
• CS Plus
• Education
• Business
• Biology

• Roles
• Engineer
• Technical Lead
• Program Manager
• People/Team Manager

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Whats it like working in RD?

• Opportunity to be part of a team to develop and
  deliver a product

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Developing a product The Product LifeCycle

• What steps might you take in developing a
  product?
• Definition/Requirements
• Design
• Implementation
• Test
• Release
• Support

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Definition/Requirements

• What would be your approach(es) to determine what
  the definition of the 2.0 product should be?
• In addition to functionality, what other type of
  requirements might you consider?
• What happens if you do not have a good product
  definition?

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Design

• Now that you have an initial definition, what key
  steps would you and your team do during design
  phase before beginning the actual implementation?
  
• In addition to feature design, what other tasks
  would you consider in this phase?
• What are the advantages of a good design?

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Implementation

• Now that you have a design, what type of tasks
  might you do during the implementation phase?

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Test

• Now that its implemented, how do you ensure
  quality? What type of testing would you do?
• What happens if you release with poor quality?

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Working in Teams

• Rare to work in isolation
• Team sizes and geography may vary greatly
• All working towards a common vision and goal
• Yet various roles and responsibilities
  leveraging the strength of the team
• A sense of community

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QA
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What makes working in RD fun?

• Its something different for everyone
• The people working together in teams
• The challenge of designing and creating a product
• Customers buying and using what you have created
• Meeting customers seeing how they use the
  products
• Variety of work
• Learning new technologies
• Flexibility of work schedule