[clug] Software Engineering

[John Fletcher]

I only just read through this thread and even though it's grinded to a halt
I thought I might just add something.

I graduated 3 years ago with a BIT from ANU.  I had faced the same decision
as you, no doubt most do.  I don't know how it's structured now but when I
did it, if you kicked off your IT degree with the right subjects then you
were always able to transfer to S.Eng. later.  In particular, you needed a
high enough standard of maths.  So I did IT with the right maths and kept
this possibility open for about 1-2 years.  I concluded that BS.Eng. At ANU
was sort of IT with honours.  After 1-2 years I made the decision that I'd
had enough of uni and work experience was probably more important in a field
like IT anyway, so I went for IT to polish it off in 3 years.  I still did
one embedded circuits elective for interest (it counted as an IT subject).

For me it was the right choice.  I work for CSC (big US IT services firm)
now and no-one seemed very interested in whether you had IT or S.Eng or a
double degree when I was getting my job.  However... Maybe by the time you
get out the IT market will have suffered a downtown and only the elite grads
will get jobs... Who knows.  One thing: make sure you get a credit average,
that's important to a lot of employers.  Also I think the others rightly
pointed out that it depends on exactly what kind of work you want to do;
however one thing I think people overlooked in this thread is that you may
start doing one kind of work and end up doing something completely
different... You don't have to study software engineering to be an
"engineer" later in your life... Often you start with what you can do and if
your workplace likes you they will help you to move into whatever field you
like.  So if you're not sure, you're not neccesarily removing lifetime
options just by not studying S.Eng.

Fletch.