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What major should I consider if I want to be a web developer?
I am currently a senior student from Galileo High School and I have interests about building websites. The reason that I have interest to web developing is because I have an internship that learn about coding and building websites during the past summer. Is software engineering a good major? I heard other people said that if you pick this major, you have be good at math. And, I am not confident at math. #internship #computer-software #software-engineer
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Mark’s Answer
If you are not interested, don't like, or simply not good at math, I wouldn't recommend becoming an engineer or software engineer. The question to ask is if you like problem solving. You may find you like web design as you can be creative and earn a good wage without spending 4 years in school or learning a lot of math. Web designers can turn into front end developers by taking a few courses. They can also become UI/UX experts which are also in high demand.
Suggestions. Continue to do an internship and then a paid 'internship' as these are skills in high demand.
Determine if you want to do a software developer and explore what roles at the company you are interning for may be of interest to you. Who do you work with, what do they do, and what did they study to get that job?
You can then go to a bootcamp, a community college or get a 4 year degree to meet your goals.
Talk to the people you work with at your internship about what they did.
Make a list of what you like to do and why you don't like doing
Explore job descriptions for front end developer, UI designer
Determine your timeline and budget
Determine how to gain more skills to do what you love
Suggestions. Continue to do an internship and then a paid 'internship' as these are skills in high demand.
Determine if you want to do a software developer and explore what roles at the company you are interning for may be of interest to you. Who do you work with, what do they do, and what did they study to get that job?
You can then go to a bootcamp, a community college or get a 4 year degree to meet your goals.
Mark recommends the following next steps:
Thank you for taking the time to help.
Celiang
Updated
James’s Answer
Considering you're still very young, you shouldn't be deterred from pursuing a dream if you're uncomfortable with one of the skills you need to develop in order to do so. College is the perfect time to develop yourself and take the the time necessary to discover: who you are, your passions, and what you want to do in the future.
As a current undergraduate studying computer science, I don't find computer science itself to be math-intensive (for the most part). The more you lean into industry, the less likely you will be dealing with complex math proof (which is typically the distinction between computer science, research/academia-oriented, versus software engineering, industry-oriented).
If you do decide to pursue computer science/software engineering in college, I would also suggest to not be afraid of looking into other facets of software engineering (outside of web development). Your interests will likely change over time and you'll want to get a good idea of which each field entails.
As a current undergraduate studying computer science, I don't find computer science itself to be math-intensive (for the most part). The more you lean into industry, the less likely you will be dealing with complex math proof (which is typically the distinction between computer science, research/academia-oriented, versus software engineering, industry-oriented).
If you do decide to pursue computer science/software engineering in college, I would also suggest to not be afraid of looking into other facets of software engineering (outside of web development). Your interests will likely change over time and you'll want to get a good idea of which each field entails.
I am really grateful you took the time to answer this question.
Celiang
Updated
Michael’s Answer
You don't need to be good at math to become a software engineer. I'm a software engineer and I failed pre-calc, then failed calculus, and struggled my way through calc II, and failed discrete math once and dropped it another. Took me 5 years to graduate and now I work at Microsoft because math and software engineering are almost completely unrelated skills.
99% of software engineers don't use any math in their day-to-day work. If you want to develop websites, check out the millions of free online resources like Codecademy or YouTube and just start coding and you'll see that it requires no math.
If you want to become a software engineer, get a computer science degree. Don't waste your money on a bootcamp because most of the time those who have that on their resume when compared to a traditional computer science (CS) degree are looked down upon. People like to think otherwise and those people are naive.
Good luck!
99% of software engineers don't use any math in their day-to-day work. If you want to develop websites, check out the millions of free online resources like Codecademy or YouTube and just start coding and you'll see that it requires no math.
If you want to become a software engineer, get a computer science degree. Don't waste your money on a bootcamp because most of the time those who have that on their resume when compared to a traditional computer science (CS) degree are looked down upon. People like to think otherwise and those people are naive.
Good luck!
Loved reading this, thanks!
Celiang