Welcome to City-Data.com Forum!
U.S. CitiesCity-Data Forum Index
Go Back   City-Data Forum > U.S. Forums > Illinois
 [Register]
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
View detailed profile (Advanced) or search
site with Google Custom Search

Search Forums  (Advanced)
 
Old 06-13-2016, 03:31 PM
 
1 posts, read 947 times
Reputation: 10

Advertisements

Hello heroes and heroines. I just wanted to ask some questions to people who may have attended UIS and also graduated from the Computer Science program. I wanted to ask what kind of job prospects were offered to you upon graduation? Was it easy to get a good job? What kind of starting salaries (ballpark) were you looking at. Thanks!
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message

 
Old 06-14-2016, 08:03 AM
 
28,455 posts, read 85,078,607 times
Reputation: 18726
Honestly, been involved with tech for many many years now in the Chicago region and have NEVER come across anyone with a CS degrees from UI-Springfield.

UIUC is the premier CS program among the state schools, and there are decent numbers of qualified people coming out of UIC, Illinois State, even Northern & Eastern. If you can afford / get admitted to any of those schools it would be well worth the effort...
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 06-18-2016, 03:55 PM
 
366 posts, read 490,997 times
Reputation: 751
I more or less second what Chet said with a couple of nits.

NIU use to have a stellar Com Sci program in the 80s, even into the 90s. Their grads were in huge demand (not because they actually taught you anything but precisely because they did not. Everyone knew you could hire a NIU grad, hand them an IBM manual and walk away and they would figure it out.) Now I would not touch a NIU grad. Their admission standards have crumbled and they simply are a remedial education center.

I hire techies all the time, ISU folks are okay, for some odd reason they tend to make good consultants, more of I can do it attitude. UIUC, grads seem to me more suited to hardcore tech firms or large corporate employers. Maybe it is the bureaucratic atmosphere of the college itself. But they seem to lack true entrepreneurial spirit on the job.

I differ a bit on his general advice though. As far as I can tell none of the colleges are preparing you for the big data, analytics, commerce driven cloud environment s of the future. The current grads cannot even talk it. I would suggest you consider a minor in Com Sci and then do a lot of self study coursework and take the free classes or even pay for a class from a major software vendor. Opensource, though, is something to strongly consider.

I would be far more likely to hire someone who was well rounded in communications, writing, general business knowledge and perhaps with a PMI exam or two under their belt and a product certification than someone with a B.S. in outdated technology.

The big money, job stability, and opportunity is in applying the vast stores of data that is out there, not in writing the code snippets to retrieve it; that part is outsourced and then you are in a race to the bottom. Her is an oft used phrase in the real world:

You are nothing but a dime a dozen Java monkey, I can replace you in an instance. Your job is to write code, not think.

You can substitute Ruby, Rails, whatever for Java. That is the employer mentality these days. It might not be a bad idea to look for a college with a large Indian population and do your best to immerse yourself into that culture. More and more employers are requiring a rotation to India these days for their U.S staff at their off shore data centers. It is especialy valuable as you move into team lead and mgmt positions.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 06-22-2016, 10:44 AM
 
597 posts, read 661,310 times
Reputation: 846
I live in Springfield and know a number of graduates from UIS who majored in computer science. They got jobs - but in Springfield and central Illinois - state government agencies, insurance companies (e.g., Horace Mann in Springfield, State Farm in Bloomington), banks. Solid jobs, but I have no idea how marketable a degree from UIS would be in Chicago or outside the region. The answer may be different depending on whether you're trying to leave the area straight after graduation or have, like the people I mention, gain experience before you move out of the area. I think the actual CS program is good, but I guess that doesn't matter if job prospects aren't good.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 06-27-2016, 07:32 PM
 
2,568 posts, read 2,496,527 times
Reputation: 8479
Frankly it doesn't matter where you obtain your degree especially in CS. It's whether you know your stuff or who you know!
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 06-30-2016, 09:41 PM
 
1,201 posts, read 612,674 times
Reputation: 872
UIS is the red headed step child of the University of Illinois system. The focus is on Chicago and Urbana. It is almost never mentioned in University of Illinois promotional literature. Springfield became a part of the University of Illinois because of Springfield area politicians not because the University desired it.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 07-09-2016, 07:33 PM
 
Location: Ashburn, VA
62 posts, read 80,447 times
Reputation: 26
Agree with Genesis. If you want to stay in Illinois, everyone knows UIS is less prestigious than Urbana or Chicago. Like, not even close. If you want to move out of state, people probably won't realize it and assume it is Urbana. I think UIS tries to be more of a government/political focus. I would go to ISU before UIS any day of the week.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.

Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.


Reply
Please update this thread with any new information or opinions. This open thread is still read by thousands of people, so we encourage all additional points of view.

Quick Reply
Message:


Settings
X
Data:
Loading data...
Based on 2000-2020 data
Loading data...

123
Hide US histogram


Over $104,000 in prizes was already given out to active posters on our forum and additional giveaways are planned!

Go Back   City-Data Forum > U.S. Forums > Illinois

All times are GMT -6.

© 2005-2024, Advameg, Inc. · Please obey Forum Rules · Terms of Use and Privacy Policy · Bug Bounty

City-Data.com - Contact Us - Archive 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37 - Top