Computer Science Majors Score in the Job Market

Are you afraid that your degree will not necessarily get you a job when you graduate? This is a real concern for students in light of our current economy. If you graduated or plan to graduate with a degree in computer science, you will be happy to hear that there are companies who are actively hiring in this field.

CompTIA, the biggest trade association for IT folks and their employers, recently launched a new recruiting campaign aimed at filling an estimated 400,000 tech job openings.

Still, "before the recession, it was 700,000," says Todd Thibodeaux, CompTIA's CEO.

With so many people looking for work, why are so many jobs going begging? The short answer: A scarcity of candidates with the skills, or combinations of skills and credentials, that employers want. Even people with years of tech experience may find they need to upgrade their certifications and venture into new territory in order to retool their careers in today's job market.

I've had jobs go unfilled for weeks or months because people with the right combinations of skills just aren't available," says Scott Dunlop, managing partner of Boston-area tech recruiters Bivium Group.

Candidates don't necessarily need to be programmers or systems analysts, or have worked for a tech company to get hired, says Todd Thibodeaux, CompTIA's CEO. "Most IT jobs are in tech support in a wide range of businesses like hotels, hospitals, and factories," he says.

There is a great demand for those who earn their computer science degree online. Computer science educators, software companies and hardware manufacturers have expressed a need for computer science majors to drive innovations at U.S. technology companies, so now is a great time to earn your bachelors degree in this field.