9 Jobs for Computer Science Majors—You Don’t Have to Be a Software Engineer

Top Skills Computer Science Majors Bring to the Job Market

• Programming: This one is fairly self-explanatory. It’s pretty tough to graduate with a CS degree without taking some kind of coding 101 class. Even if you’re not an expert at, say, C++, it’s likely you’ll at least know some Python or another language and, hopefully, can pass a technical interview.
• Problem-solving: You may not realize it, but when you’re coding, you are constantly problem-solving. (Read: Looking up possible solutions to try on Github or Stack Overflow. Brainstorming, strategizing, and trying different options. Repeating until the code works.) In programming, there’s not usually one right answer, so the process of getting your code to work can involve getting pretty creative to solve the problem—a skill that you can apply to pretty much any job regardless of function or industry.
• Teamwork: Just as you can’t get out of taking some sort of programming class as a CS major, you’re also not likely to be able to avoid participating in a group project at some point during your studies. Beyond working together on problem sets, you’ll likely take many classes that have major group projects in lieu of a final exam. So you’ll learn how to share the work with each team member based on their strengths and weaknesses to get the project all done.
• Project management: Aside from learning how to work with others, these group projects also give you some great project and time management skills. Getting some experience figuring out the scope of a project and setting appropriate milestones will serve you well when you’re in your first job, no matter the role.
• Communication: The beauty of finding clear comments in old confusing code is an experience many programmers have waxed poetic about. OK, that might be a stretch, but the practice of commenting on your code clearly and thoroughly can be a lifesaver for the next person working on it—especially if that person is future you—and improves your communication skills. You’ve also honed your communication skills through your group projects. I have a hard time thinking of even a single job where strong communication skills aren’t a huge plus.

Jobs for Computer Science Majors

• Software Engineer

  Average salary: $87,192

  If we’re being very literal, software engineers and developers write code. But that hardly covers all the actual day-to-day tasks that might be included in the role. In fact, to help manage some of the complexity of the job, software engineering is typically broken up into several different kinds of roles.

  Front-end developers work on the part of a program that interacts with users, while back-end developers work on the non-visual aspects of a program like data storage. Full-stack developers do a bit of everything. If programming was what drew you to study computer science in the first place, then software engineering might be the job for you. Just prep for a programming test and start applying. No need for a graduate degree—though employers obviously wouldn’t hold it against you if you really wanted to get one.

• QA/Test Engineer

  Average salary: $70,898

  QA (quality assurance), or test engineers, ensure that software actually does what the developers intended. Test engineers may write code to conduct tests or manually test actions a potential user might do in search of bugs to fix. They need similar programming skills as software engineers, but rather than writing new code for the product, their primary objective is to make sure the existing code is actually good—by actively trying to undermine it in order to resolve problems before a real user encounters them.

  QA engineers need to be detail-oriented and organized. If you’re the kind of person who likes breaking things to figure out how they work, this might be the role for you. It also doesn’t hurt if you’re someone who can think of debugging as a fun logic puzzle—there’s a lot of debugging in this role.

• UX Researcher

  Average salary: $87,818

  A user experience (UX) researcher conducts research on—you guessed it—a user’s experience with the product they are working on. The ultimate goal of a UX researcher’s work is to improve a product’s usability as it is being developed. They conduct tests to see if new features might make products easier or more enjoyable to use. Their work is closely related to UX designers, but more focused on conducting experiments and interviewing users through various methods to find out what they need and want.

  Strong communication skills are a must-have given the frequent interactions with users. And a CS background can give you a foundation for understanding what product improvements are feasible. While a graduate degree isn’t mandatory, it’s not uncommon to get a master’s in human-computer interaction, communications, or similar, given the emphasis on research.

• Product Manager

  Average salary: $98,808

  Product managers or PMs wear a lot of hats. They help shuttle a product (whether it’s a software-based service for other businesses or a gaming app for consumers) through the entire product life cycle—from conception to release or beyond. They make key product decisions, keep all relevant stakeholders on the same page, and hit set deadlines on the product roadmap (which is how PMs refer to their plans and timelines).

  PMs need to have the background knowledge to understand all the technical parts of the product and make sure all the right people are talking to—and understanding—each other. Beyond having a technical background, PMs typically need to have some management experience, but if you know this is the career path you want to pursue, you can apply for an associate product manager (APM) role right out of undergrad. APM jobs help you get the skills necessary to be a successful PM early in your career.

• Data Scientist

  Average salary: $96,501

  Data scientists take gobs of data and help translate it into something useful—such as insight into how users view a particular product—by building systems that allow data to be collected, stored, analyzed, and used. At a high level, they leverage data to inform business decisions. The work sits at the intersection of CS, statistics, and math. Many data roles now require some coding, algorithms, and machine learning experience. Most data scientists have graduate degrees.

  When the data science field was newer, some companies would hire people right out of undergrad, but that is increasingly rare now. Particularly if you’re looking at roles that require a knowledge of machine learning, at least a master’s degree may be necessary.

• Web Developer

  Average salary: $60,050

  Web developers build websites and keep them running. Like in software engineering, there’s front-end work to be done on the actual interface of a web page and back-end work like making sure the site can handle the amount of traffic it gets. Like all developer roles, programming is a big part of the job, but soft skills like strong communication are also important since much of the work is with outside clients who may not have a technical background.

  Web developer roles don’t require a graduate degree, but having some previous experience, even on your own personal projects, can be a big plus for landing a job.

• Cybersecurity Analyst

  Average salary: $76,603

  Cybersecurity analysts, sometimes called information security analysts, plan and implement security measures for a company’s network and servers in order to keep its data safe. They work to prevent security breaches through ongoing monitoring, encryption efforts, and security assessments such as vulnerability testing and risk analysis. When security breaches do occur, they may analyze them to determine the root cause.

  Cybersecurity analysts need to be analytical and detail-oriented to look for vulnerabilities and plan fixes. Aside from university coursework in network security and the like, you might also benefit from acquiring information security certifications—like the Certified Information Systems Auditor (CISA) and CompTIA Cybersecurity Analyst certifications—to further demonstrate your expertise.

• IP Technology Specialist

  Average salary: $109,508

  Instead of IT, why not IP? If you’ve always liked learning about the most cutting edge technologies, you may enjoy working in the field of intellectual property (IP), or more specifically, patent law. Before products make it out into the real world, inventors apply for patents to ensure competitors can’t copy their product for a set period of time. IP technology specialists serve as subject matter experts at law firms in areas like biotech or electrical and computer technologies and work with patent lawyers to write patent applications for their clients.

  Most “tech spec” roles, as they are sometimes called, require a PhD in a STEM field, but if your specialty is in computer science, the role may just require a bachelor’s or master’s degree. Most law firms with tech spec roles also pay for you to attend law school (typically in the evenings) so that you can work toward becoming a patent lawyer. Going into law usually involves a huge upfront cost and it’s hard to really know if you’ll like it ahead of time. But the tech spec route can be a low-risk and cost-effective way of pursuing law for a CS graduate, particularly if coding isn’t really your thing, but you love reading, analyzing, and writing about technical topics in an extremely detailed and specific way!

• Database Administrator

  Average salary: $73,458

  A database administrator is responsible for ensuring that a company’s databases are secure, reliable, and efficient. They work with database management systems and perform tasks such as creating and maintaining databases, managing backups, and troubleshooting issues. Database administrators need to have a strong understanding of SQL and relational database management systems.