Dive Brief:
- Computer science was among the top majors likely to result in a high-salary career for college graduates, according to an analysis conducted by career site Indeed.com.
- Indeed found development operations engineers reach an average salary of $125,105, software engineers $101,798 and business intelligence developer $95,939. The computer science field was edged out by the accounting field, where a CFO earns an average of $126,579.
- The computer science field is expected to grow 11% by 2024, which is faster than the average career field, according to BLS data cited by Indeed. Indeed based the report on an analysis of the most common majors in their resume database and calculated the average salary for each of those job titles over the last two years.
Dive Insight:
It’s not a big surprise — as technology becomes more essential to just about how everybody works and plays — computer science majors are in huge demand. For example, companies need data scientists to make sense of data and turn it into actionable information. Without them, data is just a bunch of numbers without a purpose.
Not only are computer science majors in high demand, they are also well paid and relatively happy, according to an April job satisfaction survey from Crowdflower. The survey found 88% of data scientists report they are either "happy" or "very happy" in their job.
The next goal is attracting more women to the field. In the U.S., only about 18% of computer science majors are female. While initiatives are taking place to offer young girls and women the opportunity to explore the computer science field, progress seems slow.
