You will also have access to the wide range of professional career opportunities in computing, where every country is experiencing a shortage in the supply of computing graduates.

YOU’VE been offered a place on a computing degree, but what will it be like if you accept? Computing itself is not taught at school, so unlike science or business students your education so far provides no introduction to what’s ahead. You may have used the Internet and downloaded music and computer games, but they can hardly make a degree out of that!

Don’t worry. The subject you are being offered is one of the most interesting, creative and educational around, and opens doors to all kinds of careers.

It can be very challenging but dealing with these challenges can provide great satisfaction. Or it can be fairly straightforward – making sure that existing systems keep working smoothly and improving them gradually.

As a computing student you will learn how to compose ‘tunes’ for many kinds of problems. Of course, you will learn the basics of how the computer hardware works, but your major focus will be on software and on the organisation and management of information. Software ‘tunes’ can be very large and complex, needing centuries of work to develop, giving rise to quality and project management issues sometimes referred to as ‘software engineering’. Or they can be safety critical as in the brakes of a car, or simply difficult to get right because the problem is complex.

There is a large body of knowledge about ways to deal with certain problems, and you’ll be learning some of these ‘algorithms’. Good information is critical to all kinds of activities. Its quality, security and availability need careful organisation.

How should the ‘database’ be structured? How can information be tailored to meet the needs of an enterprise? These kinds of issues are the mainstay of ‘information systems’ and ‘data communications’.

Computer languages themselves are not too bad, but becoming able to use one can seem very difficult. So don’t be surprised if you wobble a lot when you start programming – hang in there.
It’s well worth doing so.

You will receive a great education. And you will also have access to the wide range of professional career opportunities in computing, where every country is experiencing a shortage in the supply of computing graduates. Lucky you.

Michael Ryan was Professor of Computing at DCU for many years.

Factfile

• Over the period 2003-2008, employment in IT professional occupations grew by 4.8pc on average annually; even in 2008, an additional 4,000 jobs were created in these occupations, almost three-quarters of which were for computer systems managers.
• Over 85pc of employers in each selected IT professional occupation is in the 25-54 age group.
• IT professional occupations have one of the highest educational profiles: over 80pc are third-level graduates.
• With 3pc-6pc of employment aged 55+, the share of older workers in IT professional employment is substantially smaller than that in the economy overall (13pc).
• One-fifth of computer programmers and over a quarter of all software engineers are non-Irish – the average is 15.4pc.

Source: FAS analysis of CSO statistics