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I've always been interested in anything related to aerospace. I'm majoring in computer science and wanted to go in software engineering.
Never really considered majoring in aerospace engineering, because I'm just not a physics guy AT ALL. And aerospace engineering is construction and design of aircrafts/spacecrafts. That's not really what I want to do, either.
I'm pretty sure that I can do something with a computer science degree in that field, right? But I have no idea what that would be. What would I do?
I would be interested in research. Like I said, I would like to do it, but I'm not gonna change my major. Don't even know off hand what one would major in if he wants be be involved in aerospace research ( I guess it's physics). I just would like to know if I would have options in that field with a computer science degree.
Yeah there are tons of software guys in the industry. Aside from physical design there is a lot of software work that goes into the avionics and all the other electronic boxes that make the airplane work. If you do a search in the careers section of say Lockheed Martin, Boeing, or Northrop Grumman you will see pretty quickly that there is significant demand for software engineers in our industry.
But why not dual major or get a minor in Aerospace Engineering? It may help you get some fundamental knowledge of the field.
I've always been interested in anything related to aerospace. I'm majoring in computer science and wanted to go in software engineering.
Never really considered majoring in aerospace engineering, because I'm just not a physics guy AT ALL. And aerospace engineering is construction and design of aircrafts/spacecrafts. That's not really what I want to do, either.
I'm pretty sure that I can do something with a computer science degree in that field, right? But I have no idea what that would be. What would I do?
I would be interested in research. Like I said, I would like to do it, but I'm not gonna change my major. Don't even know off hand what one would major in if he wants be be involved in aerospace research ( I guess it's physics). I just would like to know if I would have options in that field with a computer science degree.
Yeah there are tons of software guys in the industry. Aside from physical design there is a lot of software work that goes into the avionics and all the other electronic boxes that make the airplane work. If you do a search in the careers section of say Lockheed Martin, Boeing, or Northrop Grumman you will see pretty quickly that there is significant demand for software engineers in our industry.
But why not dual major or get a minor in Aerospace Engineering? It may help you get some fundamental knowledge of the field.
I kinda thought of NASA. Not sure if Boeing would be the right place. Don't they just work on airplanes?
What would a software engineer do at NASA? Like I said, I'd be interested in research. Not sure if there would be something available there. And no, I don't want to be an astronaut?
These days you can't distinguish a CS guy from an aerospace engineers, the latter are de facto computer programmers nowadays. Stick to CS, much more marketable. The aerospace industry is small, narrow and largely unmarketable outside the field. Sure, you could do printer toners tomorrow, but that wasn't the point of getting an aerospace-specialized education in the first place. The aforementioned aerospace firms are also fickle when it comes to job stability. Movement is expected (layoffs) with the trade winds and contract cycles, and moves take you from one end of the country to the other. Pass. With a generic CS background you could stay in town and flex if homesteading all of a sudden becomes important to ya. Good luck.
I kinda thought of NASA. Not sure if Boeing would be the right place. Don't they just work on airplanes?
What would a software engineer do at NASA? Like I said, I'd be interested in research. Not sure if there would be something available there. And no, I don't want to be an astronaut?
Boeing is the prime contractor for the International Space Station. They also were a big player during the Apollo years. And they are involved in many of the Constellation (next generation) projects.
Plenty of opportunities for software engineers at NASA... most likely for a NASA contractor. Just search around some of the contractors (Boeing, Lockheed, Jacobs, United Space Alliance) online job boards for job opportunities in Houston to see what's out there and what kind of work they do.
These days you can't distinguish a CS guy from an aerospace engineers, the latter are de facto computer programmers nowadays. Stick to CS, much more marketable. The aerospace industry is small, narrow and largely unmarketable outside the field. Sure, you could do printer toners tomorrow, but that wasn't the point of getting an aerospace-specialized education in the first place. The aforementioned aerospace firms are also fickle when it comes to job stability. Movement is expected (layoffs) with the trade winds and contract cycles, and moves take you from one end of the country to the other. Pass. With a generic CS background you could stay in town and flex if homesteading all of a sudden becomes important to ya. Good luck.
I have a B.S. in Aerospace Engineering and I totally agree! I wish I just would have went for CS, which I ended up doing for my Masters.
Even though AE was a very tough degree, in 1996 I started at Honeywell for 30k. In 1997 during the DOT COM era, I converted over and made 80k doing the exact same thing I was doing for Honeywell Space Systems Programming C/C++.
Aerospace is a very fulfilling degree when going to school and if you get into a primary design role, but it is highly regulated, non-creative and old school politically. While Computer Science is the inverse while performing the near same tasks.
Take it from an Aerospace Engineer, stay in Comp Sci, then you can find a job as a Software Engineer in the major Aerospace firms OR anywhere else.
You should probably take more math classes, since most of the computer based work is numerical solutions, since most everything in physics is described by math.
You might get shut out of many jobs due to your "generic" degree. I'm currently a government contractor working on military equipment (no more detail, sorry ). I'm asked on a weekly basis to review resumes for possible job candidates. We are turning down people with only CompSci degrees solely on the basis that they don't have the engineering background necessary to perform the job. Their mindset is "why hire a computer programmer whose hand I have to hold whenever it comes to communicating with hardware when I can hire the guy that can do both and pay them more?"
Now, I will agree with Mach50 about some degrees being too narrow. Just be mindful that too broad can hurt you as well. But CompSci is more "marketable" allowing you to land in various different types of businesses. It might also take longer to become such a valued asset to your company where they shell out the big bucks.
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). I'm asked on a weekly basis to review resumes for possible job candidates. We are turning down people with only CompSci degrees solely on the basis that they don't have the engineering background necessary to perform the job. Their mindset is "why hire a computer programmer whose hand I have to hold whenever it comes to communicating with hardware when I can hire the guy that can do both and pay them more?"
