[philosophus]

Fairly sensible advice. One quibble I have is the idea that computer science departments are somehow shortchanging students by not teaching them business skills. If you want to learn business, take some classes from the business or economics department. Or ask for advice from a businessman. Computer science professors should be teaching computer science, not business. It's kind of silly to expect otherwise.

[jlees]

Academic 'business' courses can seem as far distanced from real business as computer science is from day-to-day engineering. Perhaps neither computer science or business professors are the best equipped to teach these things. Finding a mentor (or mentors) and having solid internship experience is probably as lot more effective -- that's why co-op programs with lots of real work experience are popular for hiring.

Also, often degree programs (especially those outside the US) don't have the same flexibility to pick and choose classes from other areas of study as the US major/minor/credits system. I know mine didn't, though I did a summer entrepreneurship course at the Business School which was enlightening (and almost entirely focused on writing a business plan, something I have never done since.)

[jeffreyrogers]

This might be an interesting anecdote to think about the value of business education. I have a number of friends at top tier business schools (HBS, Stanford's GSB, etc.). Of these people none studied business in college (though they did go to work in management, finance, or consulting post college. One worked in tech).

I asked one recently whether he thought there was any value in what he was learning in business school or whether it only served as a signal to other business school graduates that you're at least somewhat competent and have jumped through the requisite hoops. His answer was basically that the only value of business school was the relationships you made and the network you became a part of it. The actual content of what you're taught is pretty easy to learn on your own.

[atoko]

That is the difference between a software engineering major and a computer science major. With a CS degree the expectation is that you will stay in academia, while engineering curriculums have business courses baked in. Most CS professors are out of touch with the industry, and really, why wouldn't they be? Out of sight out of mind

[dpritchett]

In my experience college curricula have plenty of non-major courses for every degree. Surely there's room for negotiation, sales, and why-being-labeled-a-cost-center-is-generally-bad-for-your-career in a four year degree?

[apendleton]

I went to school for computer science and work for a non-profit. Some programmers (or whatever we're supposed to call ourselves) work for government, or any number of other things. The fact that we share technology in common doesn't necessarily mean we need to share any other particular skillsets, and I don't see how it's incumbent upon CS departments to make assumptions about how we'll go on to use our CS educations.