Computer Science | Opportunities

The Department of Computer Science structures your preparation for professional employment and graduate opportunities in computation in the following ways:

• The department employs our majors to work part time as tutors, computer lab assistants, network administrators, system support staff, and research assistants.
• We encourage students to take internships and they can receive academic credit for computing internships.
• We help connect you, via the AU Career Center and other local networks, to the Washington area's immense number of high tech companies and government agencies that employ computer science graduates.

Future Prospects

Both government and private projections paint a glowing employment picture for computer fields.

From US Bureau of Labor Statistics' Occupational Outlook Handbook; see http://www.bls.gov/oco/ocos042.htm#projections_data for more info.

There is agreement on this positive outlook across the board—and in computer science, as opposed to some other growing fields, there is not an oversupply of graduates. According to the National Science Foundation, the need for science and engineering graduates will grow 26%, or 1.25 million, between now and 2012. The number of jobs requiring technical training is growing at five times the rate of other occupations. However, multiple studies have shown that U.S. schools are nowhere near meeting the demand.

Salary figures remain high, as well, for example, according to Robert Half International's analysis for 2007 (from US Bureau of Labor Statistics' Occupational Outlook Handbook):