Now in my second year, studying IT, subject-wise I wish I had done something more technical, like Comp Sci or Eng. The BIT course heavily relies on the two six-month industry placements to teach you real-world skills. At the moment, I'm paying over 4 grand to work in 3 team-based subjects, pretty much just planning, documenting and developing website based systems (arrhhgg). Haven't really learnt anything this semester at uni. I tend to source my knowledge from other areas of the net more than anything else. I would even go as far to say that, some subjects like CBP for example are purely pointless - content wise, made up and worthless subjects, (even a BIT grad agreed). Though the BIT course thrives on networking with people. (You meet a lot of industry contacts right from first year, which is a plus for our careers I suppose).
Is it too late to transfer into something more technical? I really love UNSW's computing programs, they look and feel second to none in the area, and CS / S.E. / C.E. degrees are more world reputable than a mere IT degree. (at bigger tech companies; Google, MS, Facebook). I'm already at the end of my 2nd year / 3 year course though. Possibly may be better to do Postgrad at the end of my Bachelors? UNSW has a
cumulative 2 year program for MIT, GradDip Graduate Diploma in Information Technology and GradCert Graduate Certificate in Computing, but I was told postgrad subjects are worth 2.5k each. (Money shouldn't be an issue, I've always wanted to do Computer Engineering from the start, studying how hardware and software components work together to achieve a fully functioning piece of work.
Though I was told (and researched myself), that Comp Eng jobs are not in Australia, (or are really rare). Having said that, there's no job a C.E./SENG/CS student couldn't do over an IT student. It doesn't work in reverse though.
I ended up going with BIT as it seemed like the more opportune pathway based on Australia's landscape of tech jobs at the time, and the degree only being 3 years in duration, along with 2 industry placements offered. Though, from a theoretical subject standpoint, I feel robbed of my uni-based learning. The BIT focuses more on industry networking and experience more than anything else - the course structure does
not follow a standard across multiple unis - some teach it as primarily a Business degree (UNSW), some teach it as half intro-technical / half business (UTS), and some teach it as a CS or IS degree (USyd), the UTS course is pretty much built upon industry practices related to applied IT only (rather than the low-level theory behind those working applications). Just to give you the sheer speed at which CS students learn technical content compared to us: CS students cover our first two core programming +
Data Structures and Algorithms (DSA) (elective) subjects, within their first programming subject + a bit more.
After I joined the BIT course, I started reading up and watching a lot of documentaries on famous computing people and startups in my own time, from big companies such as Google, Apple, Microsoft, and startups like reddit / hipmunk, and the commonality is that most, if not all of these founders had some form of a CS/SENG/CE backing, in one form or another, they are Software Engineering based companies after all. IT is more maintenance based all-rounder IT work (as people told me, but I never really knew what that would involve at the time), evolving HEAVY diagramming and requirements specification documentation, IT configuration and support intended for both Agile and Waterfall
corporate based projects (since that's where the demand is primarily at in Australia -
big banks,
consultation/auditing companies and the
occasional/rare software startup), in increasing the readability and longevity of large scale IT systems. CS/CE/SENG courses would open up a lot more jobs overseas and here onshore as well based solely on there world renowned course structures- being world reputable degrees, especially in the US. I wasn't that into the whole IT industry 2 years ago, I rarely knew or read about famous IT people and companies, but so much has changed since then, now I read daily about them, and share this knowledge. I've pretty much given up hope on any of my BIT subjects. I'm looking forward to doing DSA next year if I don't transfer, + a technical dev or IT Support internship somewhere if possible.
Transferring would be nice, but then again, I've spent 2 years doing my Bachelors, may as well finish it now with 1 year and a 4 weeks to go, and then do postgrad @ UNSW if I feel that more knowledge is required (highly certain). Though a lot of BITs end up being locally hired before or upon grad. So I may have to defer the postgrad study or undertake it part-time. - That would probably be the most reasonable pathway at this point in time.
