[patio11]

This deserves a longer response but it is quite early in the morning, so I'll write the short version:

1) The career of programming (specifically) has MANY options which are not concentrated in the tech bubble. I know that is not obvious being so close to the epicenter of it, but 90%+ of professional programmers work, in Silicon Valley parlance, boring companies doing boring things. Banks gotta bank, insurances companies gotta insure, logistics companies have to do something without any convenient verbs to describe it, and all of the above hire (or beneficially hire, via staff arrangements with companies that are uninteresting to the Valley) vast numbers of programmers.

2) The ability to program doesn't hurt your suitability for virtually any type of knowledge work (when compared to a BA/BS in an unspecified field from Berkeley). Most of the time, it will help you, since it gives you superpowers with regards to many tasks you might be expected to do. In my (brief and unlamented) stint as a translator, I shaved months of mind-killing drudgery off my schedule because I have superior options for getting Japanese from Word documents into HTML than copy/pasting one line at a time into Dreamweaver. You may find yourself working in a job which involves analysis or acting upon data, a task at which worksmanlike command of a single scripting language makes you a hero worthy of legend. You will find, for example, that many companies still generate e.g. monthly reports by having people manually collate/screen-scrape-with-their-eyeballs six different data sources into an Excel file which is version controlled by copying with creative filenames onto a shared directory. You might think that somebody capable of programming their way out of a paper bag could do a better job in two day's of work. Some times, you're not wrong.

3) Even if you don't do programming on a day to day basis, knowing how to get what you want out of computer systems and computer people is valuable. Smart people often suck at this. You being a bridge between those smart people and their captive techies can make you indispensable. (For example, I bet Obama would currently kill for one person in his inner circle who can tell the difference between frontend and backend at the moment. That sort of opportunity exists in a lot of places.)

4) Your major matters much much less to your career path than you have been socialized to think, because you have probably not talked career paths with many people outside of academia, who have very skewed views on the matter. Three years from now nobody will care what you studied in undergrad.

[wikwocket]

This is an excellent answer. Let me add another data point for item 2. I know of several companies which have passed their ISO certifications or audits in no small part because of certain formulas in certain Excel workbooks.

If you are not familiar with ISO Certifications, this is a Big Deal. If you are familiar with Excel, this is mind-blowing.

[kiskis]

can you explain this a little deeper?

[wikwocket]

Not sure which part you mean, but the important bit for this thread is that even basic Excel formulas are black magic to non-techies, and that basic hacking skills can drive real business value. There are things you can do rather trivially, such as "Add 3 calendar months to this date, and if it's later than this other cell, color the cell red," which would be a) extremely helpful, and b) otherwise a task they'd have to hire an intern to calculate each week, for many companies in the $1-20 million a year range.

And this is just Excel formulas, let alone the ability to write some VBA that does calculations and draws a chart, or a script with a regex that cleans data files, or a basic app for data entry...

If it was the ISO certification you were interested in, there are many certifications related to manufacturing, food & drug, etc. These certify that your company meets various standards, regulations, quality procedures, documentation policies, tolerance assurances, etc. These can result in a ton of additional business, since many customers desire or require them, and losing them is also a big deal. The certifiers audit companies regularly, and having some pretty spreadsheets that show how you are continuously improving and ensuring your adherence to the regs can be very valuable!

[kiskis]

thank. I found few post where you mention ISO certification. Just curious, are you in that space?

[saturdayplace]

Related: It occurs to me more and more that programming is a VERY valuable secondary skill. If you find your interests drawn to another domain, it will likely be useful to gain expertise in that domain. Once armed with knowledge of how people do things in that area, you'll be poised to apply programming skills towards solutions to their obvious problems. Like Patrick says above, to laypeople, someone who bangs out code that makes people's day better appears to have superpowers. My general recommendation to kids going to college these days, is to jump into a field you're interested in, and pick up programming on the side.

In your case, I wouldn't worry too much. Leaving school with a CS degree, you'll have a skill set that many, MANY companies are willing to pay for. The ability to convince computers to do your bidding is a pretty marketable skill.

[dennisgorelik]

Why not take programming as main skill and then pick something else as secondary skill?

[saturdayplace]

That works too. Actually, I should probably re-word the advice along the lines of "know programming, and know something else really well too." Puts you at some pretty lucrative intersections.

[bennyg]

I work as an iOS engineer, and got my job 2 months after graduating with an Art degree and a minor in advertising. Your degree really doesn't matter - just get one and become really good (work at a professional level) at something at the same time.