Is a Computer Science degree worthless in the job market?

I've heard that a CS degree is worthless if you don't have the work experience and/or programming know-how to back it up. I'm now in my senior year, but I have no work experience and almost no real programming experience. My school doesn't have any internships.

Is a Computer Science degree worthless in the job market?
If that is true. then no one will have a job. it is easy to get experience, you just have to sacrifice a few years of you life doing training.


there are a lot of companies that hire fresh graduates. your degree will be worthless if you dont know anything.
Reply:It's not only the CS degree graduate are facing that kind of problem even accountants, engineers etc. it's all the same. If you do well in school chances are you can secure a good job with your course. It's the ability and knowledge that you have learned in school can make you go further, experience will come later if you've given the chance.
Reply:Its not true, but it does hurt you. A paid internship, in particular, with product to show for your time in a particular language, is evidence you have the base knowledge to know what to do. A CS degree is a programming degree until you are a more senior employee. I suggest you pick up Python and C as a proficiency. Your first job will be a coding job most likely. Python is easy to learn, and C is in common use. The problem with programming languages is that there is one for every application or nearly so.





You need to show evidence that you have a skill that can be used as a junior employee. If your school does not provide it, then you need to build it yourself. You are not the only one I know in this position. I had students who had Visual Basic and reached their senior design course and for some reason didn't realize they needed to remember it. They had worked in teams and one of the team members had been strong in Visual Basic and so they had let him do their coding. As such, when they suddenly needed to code, they realized that by allowing someone else to do it for them, they had given up the skills to do it.





You are as valuable as you make yourself. Go make yourself valuable. Whining won't help you. You can help future students by recommending your program require a paid internship. Ours does require both a paid internship and to prove yourself with a real customer in the senior design course.
Reply:It's done fairly well for me. Get a job and get the experience. There are many certification programs, if you want to specialize and get more on your resume. Find an entry level job that is willing to provide some of that training.





BTW, I have a friend who also has taken many of those certification programs and doesn't have a degree. He recently applied for a position and was considered qualified, but was turned down because of the lack of a college degree.
Reply:It doesn't matter what you have a degree, having a degree is an asset. Why not donate your interests to a non-profit organization to gain work experience and job reference? Future employers don't have to know if you were paid or not... and probably wouldn't care. You are simply accounting for your time and accomplishments.