Sexy Computer Science

I've been thinking a bit about how "sexy" the subject of Computer Science is. In her intro yesterday Karen Young from Microsoft mentioned that it was being seen as less attractive as a subject for students to take up. Applications to study computing are presently falling in Europe and the USA and for the life of me I can't understand why.

A few years ago there was a bit of a dip in the business, but at the moment the demand for computer literate people is as strong as it has ever been. If you are looking to move into a field where you get to shape the future and also build it then you should enter computing. If you like working with people, finding out what they want and creating answers to questions then you should enter computing. If you like puzzles and working in an environment where things just get more interesting every day, then you should enter computing. I can't think of any other field where you have the potential to have so much impact on the future. Computers are already a huge part of people's lives and that is set to accelerate.

For me the question is not "Why should I study computing?", it is "Why would I not?".

Comments

[Tom Hulton-Harrop]

I 100% agree, Computer Science is by far the most awesome field to study and work in. Can you name another subject or field that has advanced so quickly and so monumentally in the past 30 to 40 years. It is such an exciting time with the advent of wide spread broadband connections allowing fast access to the internet, and technological advances in software and hardware that are actually improving our standard of life in so many ways. (Medicine, Entertainment, Communication, to name a few). I wouldn't want to do anything else!