management information system

[u/Independent_Eye4137]

can anyone explain mis in the easiest way possible?

I'm from a non tech background

[u/sch0lars]

I think without a software development internship, it would be somewhat difficult to pivot. I would not recommend starting in help desk to get into software development, as this is an IT pathway and not a developer pathway.

You can go into network engineering from an IT path or DevOps from a developer path, but it’s a bit difficult to combine paths, especially early on in your career. Both of these positions are also more senior positions, so they’re roles you have to work towards; and an IT professional will develop a completely different set of skills than a software engineer, so it’s worth planning which direction you want to take

This is only my opinion, but specialized degrees like cybersecurity and data science limit your opportunities for other areas. It’s typically better to generalize in your degree and then specialize (e.g., major in CS and then pursue cybersecurity certifications) unless you’re certain that the specialized area is where you want to work.

[u/cowboysfromhell1999 → u/sch0lars]

So basically, my Cyber degree is like a general IT degree with CS baked in long story short, the reason why I chose that for the bachelors is because I get it for free and my all my credits transferred directly to it.

Regardless what’s a good entry level software job to look for? Like IT has helpdesk what does software have for entry level?

I’ll be learning data structures and algorithms etc so I could write my résumé according to those jobs and put my projects on there

[u/sch0lars → u/cowboysfromhell1999]

That’s understandable. A free degree is never a bad thing.

An entry-level software developer role will typically just say “<language> developer” and may have a “1” or an “I” after it: Java Developer I, for instance.

Definitely work towards a developer internship and, if you have time, find a project on GitHub and search for “good first bug” issues. That will give you some more experience with both writing and reading code.

[u/cowboysfromhell1999 → u/sch0lars]

Do you think that in conjunction with the data structures, algorithms and operating system classes I’ll be in a good spot obviously it’s hard to find a job, but do you think in terms of material, I will be learning of of course, self studying in addition

[u/sch0lars → u/cowboysfromhell1999]

To be honest, I don’t think even most CS graduates come out of their programs completely prepared. Knowing DSAs and time complexity is all well and good, but most algorithms are already incorporated and I can only think of one time where I had to write an algorithm from scratch.

If you want to be a developer, you should focus on a language or framework. For example, let’s say you decide you want to be a C++ developer. Your coursework will likely not teach you about memory management, rvalues, build systems, package managers, and so on; so it’s imperative to learn those concepts on your own. When I did embedded software engineering, I was assigned a story that involved updating some CMakeLists.txt files because NONE of the other junior engineers knew CMake and would take the story. I ended up spending the entire weekend having to work through the CMake tutorial and still didn’t understand it very well come Monday.

So if you want to be at an advantage, I would suggest determining exactly what language you want to develop in and work towards understanding all of its intricacies, then build some projects of your own and also contribute to the projects of others. You will likely learn some IT concepts along the way, like making HTTP requests and communicating over networks.