BS: Bachelor of Science

That or a BA (Bachelor of Arts) are the degrees usually awarded if you go to a four-year university.

MBA: Master of Business Administration

Graduate business degree. Usually a two year program.

 

if you are set on going into exec positions, major in business. In most corporations, executive talent is drawn from the finance and accounting areas as well as engineering. Usually, those engineers have a MBA, too. Many top execs also have law degrees.

Relatively few executives have IT backgrounds. It's not like you can be the best IT person in the world and be promoted to executive level. It just doesn't work that way (usually, the best IT people are never promoted to executive because their skills are most valued in the IT area).

One becomes an executive by showing a strong record of time management, LEADERSHIP, and "big picture" thinking. Developing these requires good schooling, smarts, and experience. Luck has a lot to do with it, too (family relatinships have made many people execs, for example). The people earning $150K are at the executive level. IT can lead to that, but it usually does not...unless by "IT" you are referring to the engineering portion (BS degree required 99.9% of the time) rather than the system support portion (which is not high paying usually). The "IT" people promoted are usually the engineers, not the system admins.

tech school will make you a system admin at best, and most likely a helpdesk rep at $10 an hour. these days, becoming an exec w/o a BA is slim to none. You hear about schools like DeVry offering "BA's in 3 years." Trust me, in the real world a BA from DeVry or any "TV school" is not even close to that of a BA from a "real college."

one more thing based on observations I've made in my work experience. many IT people in our company are not very sociable. People like this have no hope of attaining executive level jobs.

 

My point exactly. As others have pointed out, the term "IT" encompasses a very vast and varying field of work. There is a big difference between a "Help desk worker" and a "Help desk manager", and their salary ranges show the difference. By pointing to the salary surveys, I was hoping that the original poster (who was obviously motivated by the salary alone) may want to focus on some of the job areas (instead if just mouthing the term "IT") and do some research into what education, experience, and skills are required to qualify for such a position. Going into management (or executive) is very different from being a field worker who gets his hands dirty. So know what you want to do and know how to get there. Good luck.

 

To add to Whites2k's comment above, there are also less tangible factors aside from education, experience, and skills. There's a lot that's not even really under your own control. For instance, what about networking? That's not reflected in any of these statistics and is almost always an integral part of landing any decent job, particularly at the executive level. You're going to be moving clear across the country to the west coast with a degree from a school that very likely doesn't have an established alumni network, or possibly even reputation, out here.

Bottom line is, there are a million variables involved here. First, you should decide what area of IT you want to focus on. It has to be a specific area -- "hardware" or "software" isn't specific. Then acquire the skills needed for that area. There is often a huge difference between the skills taught in school and the skills required in industry. Then you need to land your first job, which is usually the toughest one to land. Most tech companies value experience far more than formal education (and IMO, for good reason). So, for your first job, you may or may not end up in your ideal position. Sometimes you just have to take what you can in order to pay the bills. Then, you'll need to distinguish yourself as an outstanding employee (this is probably harder than you think it will be because you're not competing against high school students anymore), network, and hope luck smiles on you.

Frankly, without real world experience in the industry, it's way too early to be thinking about being an executive or making a big salary. There are several steps before that.

If you just want to make money / be a manager / whatever and still be involved with tech, then perhaps you should look into MIS instead. That kind of straddles the line between tech and business and could give you more options.

 

As promised, InformationWeek, one of the IT professional publications, published its salary survery in the April 25, 2005 issue. There were two articles: One on the salary survey itself and the other on "what the numbers mean". The two articles together painted an interesting picture of the future of the IT industry. Here are the links:

http://www.informationweek.com/showArticle...cleID=161501030

http://www.informationweek.com/showArticle...cleID=161501149

If you read the articles, don't forget to also read all the "DISCUSS THIS ARTICLE" comments others have submitted. Good luck.

 

I'm actually less than a year from finishing with a B.S. in Information Technology. The main focus of the upper division classes have revolved around Project Management, Programming (Java, C, C++, etc.), Database Management/Design, etc. This past year has mainly focused on the software side of IT. However, a lot of the classes that I've taken and will take will also delve into other areas that are IT-related. The main thing I've noticed, this major has touched upon a lot of different areas within the computer industry so it's given me a taste of what's available. I'm actually not using the degree for anything really. I just saw what courses would be available and went with this degree because it interested me the most.

 

I've know quite a few people who've made over the 100k salary a year. It's actually not that hard. You just need to be in the right field, at the right time, and know the right people

Some of these people did have very specialized abilities which allowed them to earn more money than those around them. However, I've also seen some people make crazy amounts of cash simply because they were in the right place at the right time in a booming marketplace.

I'd love to make a lot of money, but I think it'll be a few years before I get to that place. I'm only 24, so there's no rush. For now, I'm content with my s2k.

 

why not go into bio tech. its a good field right now. and please avoid pharmaceutical.. the demand is high right now. but by time ur out, there will be a gazzzillion pharm degree peeps out there

 

i thought that pharmaceuticals was a subset of biotech.

biotech is largely a future investment bubble. i think that long-term career prospects are great, though.

 

Biotech and pharmaceuticals are pretty different. Pharmaceuticals is your traditional drug development and manufacturing type of business, i.e. making Viagra, Prilosec, etc. Biotech is more along the lines of gene therapy, cloning, genetic engineering, using molecular biology to make treatments, etc. Since it's relatively new, the exact scope of its definition is still a work in progress.

I think biotech can be an awesome field to be in, but you need to be in a relatively high position in order for it to be meaningful, and that'll require either an advanced degree or experience acquired through sweat and toil. The entry level stuff is primarily lab work, and not the most interesting kind. Formulation chemist, production chemist, and research associates (which can mean anything from growing cell cultures to doing assays and chromotography) are some common ones (in both biotech and traditional pharm).

I finished undergrad with a degree in biochemistry right when biotech was being hyped as the next hot field. I had a few job offers for entry level biotech jobs but opted to go into tech instead. In my case, the money mattered a lot -- most entry level tech jobs were, and still are, paying substantially more than most entry level biotech jobs. I personally also prefer sitting on my lazy arse in a cube or office as opposed to working in a lab.

That having been said, I honestly find the concepts and potential (note "potential," not necessary "current") applications of biotech to be more interesting than the stuff that goes on in tech. Biotech is a life science and it's exciting to know that you're working toward something that can improve people's lives at a very fundamental level. But I just wasn't willing to put in the work to realize the rewards.

I would say that tech is the better route for someone who just wants to make money. Biotech is a thriving field, but that's as a whole. On the micro level, you need to look at specific positions and what they offer. IMO, you will generally make more money faster in tech, and it is easier to move around up the organizational hierarchy.