Careers in computer science

The economy moves through employment cycles and the message that employers and government organisations are sending is that there is a shortage of people with advanced knowledge in the different areas of computing, and that demand is expected to remain strong.

The sector employs about 600,000 people and includes all the major global players. It is dominated by foreign companies: in the UK market, only four of the top 20 software companies and seven of the top 20 computer services providers are British. Four of the top six US computer services companies have their European HQs in the UK.

In a fast-evolving sector like IT, professions also change pretty quickly. More than a cause for concern, this offers excellent opportunities if you have a degree that has given you the background knowledge and skills that allow you to adjust to (if not drive) changes in business and technology.

Another important aspect is the choice of career. Quoting from the British Computer Society report on the challenges and opportunities facing the UK Software Development Industry, developed countries are more likely to retain the development skills close to end user requirements, the creative processes of designing software to fix particular business or consumer needs. The software development jobs currently being off-shored are generally the lower end programming and coding skills, that is the sort of skills that naturally move to low cost centres such as developing countries. Hence the importance of taking a degree at a good university that will develop your skills at the higher end of the process where your capacity to 'think computationally' is important.

Mike Rodd of the BCS draws a useful parallel between how the engineering profession has developed and what is currently happening in software development in the UK:

"As a young engineer some 30 years ago I was designing printed circuit boards. But soon it became a routine technician’s job, and not what professional engineers should be doing. It was also an easy thing to send over to Taiwan, it was an easy thing to outsource. I believe the real intellectual level in the application of technology lies in the conceptual design, it’s in the understanding of applications, it’s dreaming up the next generation applications, it’s targeting the real users needs and, not the perceived needs. Software design and the vetting and validation of that design is where the real value is being added in the UK."

Today, IT is very much at the core of any company or organisation and you will often hear that systems need to be aligned with the business and management structures in place. This means that companies and organisations need people who can combine a solid training in computing with knowledge of how businesses and organisations operate. This is the training that this course will give you.

In addition to support offered by the University's Leicester Award scheme and Career Development Service, we also run an Industrial Advisory Board with successful computer scientists who help us ensure that your training is industrially relevant.

In the knowledge economy in which we live, it is people who have developed the capacity to innovate that are most likely to succeed. Businesses need to keep innovating to remain competitive and profitable.

IT systems play a pivotal role in supporting innovation whether that relates to the development of internal processes or to the creation of new products and services. This applies in virtually every area of activity (from banking to film making, or Formula 1, or even football!).

Your future as an innovator is much brighter than as a user, i.e. your capacity to bring added-value to your profession by 'thinking computationally' is much more important than your level of 'computational literacy'.