Do u think someone with a computer engineering degree could get a job which also a Information System or Information Technology could get ?
Yes, easily (from what I've heard and seen, and may depend on which electives you choose in Comp Eng, i.e. you could pick up some Networking electives which would give you the knowledge to maintain IT Networks), but I see it as an overkill doing 4 years of intense Computer Engineering if all you're wanting to get is more of a Sys Admin/IT/IS job, students
USUALLY study Computer Engineering if they have high ambitions to work more towards the low-levels of hardware/electronic design, e.g. Working at a semiconductor company such as Intel, AMD, Nvidia, Apple - or any other company that needs people designing hardware circuits/implementing electronics for them, even startups at times.
IS/IT degrees are more tailored to making technology 'fit in' and seamlessly work with businesses/people/organisations to put it quite simply (i.e. More maintenance and support based than designing low-level hardware/software - Although, you could always go into high level Software/Web Development with no issues,
but so can CE/CompSci/SENGs if they really want to and learn high-level languages in CE as electives or spare-time [It's not that hard to learn high-level languages, there's an abundant amount of info online these days, but I guess same could be said for low-level hardware content as well, guess
it just comes down to what you want to formally be recognised for in a global society; Do you see yourself in 10-15 years time working in a Software (CompSci/SENG) or Hardware/low-level
Assembly software Design/Development (CE) based role, or something vaguely in-between with high level languages and business requirements (IT)? Or something more focused mainly on people and business processes instead (IS)).
CE/CompSci/SENG and
IT/IS are two different kettles of fish, which is why IS/IT degrees usually have no maths or physics requirements (unless a university program incorporates elements of Computer Science under their 'IT' label e.g. Macquarie Uni does this, and USyd's IT programs let you choose a major between Info Sys or Comp Sci in Second Year, but their degree is still titled under '
BIT' or
Bachelor of Computer Science and Technology [BCST]).
From personal industry experience, I've seen a Computer Engineering grad (from UoW) working at Optus as a Windows System Administrator. So it's definitely possible. The reverse is not or is extremely rare/hard. I.e. IS/IT graduates attempting to apply for low-level electronic/software engineering jobs at reputable tech companies is very hard for them to get through, because their course structures aren't simply designed to meet those rigorous low-level requirements for Software Engineering companies like Google or Hardware Companies like Intel, required for SENG/Hardware roles.
There are some
exceptions, but these are
extremely rare and far in between, unless you've been specialising in programming since you were like 11 or messing around with low-level hardware circuits during or before High School (usually with some type of Mentor i.e. Specialised Parent, close family friend/extended family),
it's very hard to get your foot in the door without a degree associated to your name, (and the right degree for that fact - Google still looks for degree and your GPA/WAM if you're 2 years out of uni, despite what the
media frequently says). There will always be rare child prodigies (some get acquired by big companies early on, some go to startups and some just want to go to uni with accelerated programs), but that's outside the scope of this thread. Here are a few links if you're interested.
14 Year Old Prodigy Programmer.
A 12-year-old app developer Q&A With the 17-Year-Old Who Sold an App to Yahoo for $30 Million
But yeah, If I could choose again, I would probably go for something significantly more technical, i.e. CE/CompSci/SENG, just simply because it opens
a lot more doors later on in companies that offer Hardware roles (One of the areas I'm deeply fascinated in is hardware design and appreciate its efficient use in computers, I've kind of always grown up from a young age, putting my head next to computer chassis to make sure their fans were spinning and listening to power travel through circuits in electronics [you can sometimes hear them!]), even though they're significantly more challenging and CE/SENG are one year longer, it will pay off in dividends if you network with the right people (and do well in your uni degree of course!), also, get involved in your faculty's societies, CSE has a good environment of people, from what I've heard and seen, also, don't be shy to meet people from other facilities! Opportunities can arise from any where in this day and age.
One important thing to note though: I'm not saying if you do IT/IS that you can't get jobs at high profile companies like Intel or Google,
YOU CAN, but it will most likely be in the IT/Support departments/divisions of their business, not the Software or Hardware Engineering ones (unless you've done some other significant relevant study elsewhere (
spare-time/short-courses - much harder to be formally recognised and apply for roles - You'd have to be REALLY knowledgeable about the field you want to go into and have a portfolio to demonstrate your experience in the event you cross roads with one of these big tech-companies looking to hire),
specialised Work Experience in a related technical field (via
people networking - sometime it's hard to come across, but I've seen High School grads get jobs in embedded electronics as Radio Frequency Engineers and Software Developers, flown in from other states) or
Postgraduate degrees/diplomas/Certs./Another Bachelors [pretty rare to see people do another Bachelors in this computing industry] (I've looked at Intel's and Google's job boards/Career sites and spoken and applied to multiple tech roles at Google).
Also, another thing to note, since the computing industry is so convoluted with overused/misused terms. The term 'Software Engineer' is often subjectively incorrectly used in the workplace to mean a Software Developer/Programmer, which IT graduates will have no problems getting into and working in these roles, since these roles generally just require the knowledge of high-level programming syntax and programming concepts which are usually taught in every semi-decent IT degree with a at least half a technical focus. IS grads may have to look elsewhere (if they didn't study up in their spare time/build a portfolio - but having an IS degree imo, is probably the weakest computing degree today, not many universities still offer them, because IT degrees have made a big appearance, and the ones who do, usually have their business faculties run the subjects, hence, total lack for the technical focus), since their degree is less focused on technology and is intended to be more of a business/people processes focused one).
tl;dr: Ask yourself: Would you rather be part of the technology industry which
understands [at the lowest-level],
creates and
emerges hardware and software products and services
before it even hits the headlines/media/publishers/public (CE/CompSci/SENG),
or would you prefer to
search for commercially available technology options as it comes and
choose/recommend the right readily available technology (already publicly released) to employ and maintain it to streamline organisational processes/Business needs/peoples' needs (IS/IT)?
There is some overlap in job roles as discussed, but more so with CE/CompSci/SENG because they've been around for longer and usually have more reputable subjects taught, whereas
IT degrees are a bit all over the place in terms of curricula because they're still relatively new in academia and are still finding their place in working society (Every uni treats an IT degree in slightly - significantly different ways), therefore it produces graduates with varying abilities and skill-levels, which companies test any ways, if you don't have the required skill-set required for a role/company, you'll have to look elsewhere.
All the best!
