People Don't Understand the Different Flavors of Computing
There is programming, there is networking, there is user support, and a whole bunch of other areas that you can specialize within the computing field. And yet it still amazes me how many people see only “Computing” and nothing else.
As I've mentioned before (boasted might argue), I have a Computer Science degree. I also have a minor in Information Technology (which is essentially the non-programming end of computing). I considered doing a dual-major with both, but the Professor I spoke with said that if I had a Computer Science degree, I could do anything with it that I could do with an Information Technology degree.
That's an odd fact when you consider the discrepancy in material. The core Computer Science classes involved programming and design methodology. The core Information Technology classes involved hardware, software, multimedia, web design, networking, operating systems, etc. Those are some pretty differing concepts if you ask me.
And yet when I got into the real world, what my Professor said to me rang truer than I could possibly imagine. I had the misfortune of living in a very small, technology deprived area where there simply were not programmer positions, so I applied for most anything computer related. And most of the time, the people doing the hiring looked at "Computer Science Degree" and dubbed me the King of all things Computer.
I landed positions as a user support technician, analyst, and installer despite my primary skill set being that of a programmer. I even landed a position as a network administrator over a Cisco based network despite my networking experience being little more than sharing internet through a wireless router. It's almost like if you hired a fisherman to fix your boat because fishermen spent lots of time on boats. Maybe you get lucky and it pans out, but more often than not you're left paddling back to dry land.
Now certainly some of the cases of me getting hired had to do with my dashing good looks, but an even bigger and less conceited part of it I believe has to do with the fact that the people doing the hiring just don't understand how huge a field computing is and assume that anyone with a degree knows all everything that is computing.
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