Heh ... that was me 18 years ago. I went towards CS because that is what I truly loved. My father wanted me to become a banker so he was disappointed for a few years but got over it. As I approach my mid-30s and quite unsettled in life, I'm not sure if I made the right decision. I love CS, but at the upper echelons it is extremely competitive. Too competitive, in my opinion. Knowledge capital in CS degrades very quickly. Good jobs are in the most expensive places of the country to live. The male-female ratio is crazy bad. I came across a blog post today that really bummed me out but makes valid points:
http://techtalk.dice.com/t5/Tech-Career-Advice-Archive/Why-a...
I am going to disagree with most of the other posters around here and say you should try to maximize your monetary outcome. Those bankers everyone rips on ... if it was that easy, everyone would be doing it. CS is very intellectually stimulating but who is to say that the code I write is better for society than what something a banker does. I don't think that is the case. Academia is for the birds too ... you will be chasing peanuts of funding for years until you have a strong enough reputation.
If I was 18 again, I'd either become a medical doctor or directly go for entrepreneurship. And entrepreneurship is not just tech startups. Have enough b*lls to start a gas station or something. I've spend almost 2 decades learning technology and I am barely adequate. If I had spent half this time learning something like managing people, I think I would be far more successful according to my own metrics of success.
I honestly don't know what to tell you. Just one thing ... recognize the opportunities you are given and be mindful that you may not get the same opportunities again. So be the best you can be.
I'm currently between pursuing finance (banking), consulting, law, and entrepreneurship (CS). I love making new things, so I think that CS would be very freeing; however, I know that those other paths would probably be more straightforward for me, but maybe I should at least take a chance on CS.
That said, I'm currently no expert on programming. I've self taught Python, HTML, CSS, some js, and I'm currently learning Ruby on Rails because my friend and I are working on making a web app (he's doing most of the programming, but it was my concept). Right now, I'm not sure if I should declare myself as a prospective CS major or not considering my lack of credentials. Economics would be much easier for me to justify.
I am going to disagree with most of the other posters around here and say you should try to maximize your monetary outcome. Those bankers everyone rips on ... if it was that easy, everyone would be doing it. CS is very intellectually stimulating but who is to say that the code I write is better for society than what something a banker does. I don't think that is the case. Academia is for the birds too ... you will be chasing peanuts of funding for years until you have a strong enough reputation.
If I was 18 again, I'd either become a medical doctor or directly go for entrepreneurship. And entrepreneurship is not just tech startups. Have enough b*lls to start a gas station or something. I've spend almost 2 decades learning technology and I am barely adequate. If I had spent half this time learning something like managing people, I think I would be far more successful according to my own metrics of success.
I honestly don't know what to tell you. Just one thing ... recognize the opportunities you are given and be mindful that you may not get the same opportunities again. So be the best you can be.