Hello there, I'm 17 years old and a senior in high school. I recently got accepted into a pretty good university. And I decided to Major in Industrial technology: Specialization in Networking and to minor in Computer science. Last year I took AP computer science in school and Learned the JAVA language. I'm no expert but I know how to do many things. And this year I took the C++ class in my school. JAVA was my first language and picking up C++ was extremely easy for me. I'm way ahead in my class and classmates come to me for help. Now my major will be Networking technology (Industrial Tech: Networking) and that will not involve much programming. And now I ask you, is this a good major to go into? I hear that networking is the future, and that's where all the money is. All I'm really asking for is guidance. I am confused if this is what i should do. I'm 17 and I don't know how to hack. I Heard that if you're good with networking you're good with hacking. And I'm not. Although I am very tech savvy and very bright and well rounded. What should I do to have successful future and good paying job. I enjoy working with computers I know how to do a lot of things people come to me with computers. Many people think that I know all there is to know about computers because they come to me with their problems and i can easily fix them little they know that you could never really know EVERYTHING there is to know about computers. Since i am not a hacker now will I have trouble in the future? Am I way behind? Or should I just start reading books about networking? I'm sorry for making this so long but I just had to get it there.

a1sporty15,

I guess I'm going to present the counter argument to Kris, I'd go with the networking, especially from a career perspective.

I know a lot of 'network guys'; on the whole the make a shed-load of cash, and if they're really good the job is easy because the network is solid, stable and doesn't break often (allowing them to impress the boss with a lot of work on command-line techie stuff, like IRC ). I also know lots of really good and dedicated devs who get paid a pittance for their level of ability.

From a hacker/security perspective I'd say you need to know both. If you can't code you're going to struggle to understand, modify or create the tools you need to get the job done. Likewise if you don't understand networking then you're going to struggle to understand and implement some the the attack vectors. But you can get by with a little of everything depending on where and how tightly you want to specialise.

Additionally if you decide to practice the otherside once in work, programming only requires a compiler(or interpreter) and a text editor; it's slightly harder and pricier to get you hands on a corporate level network full of Cisco gear....

Ultimately go where you're passion is, it is going to be hard to keep up to date on any aspect of the IT industry over the next 10, 20, 30+ years of your career if you have little interest in the subject matter. Don't get too tied down with 'where you want to be' and go with 'oooh, cool....'. As a real world example, at your age I was intending to be an accountant (yes I know ), ended up taking computing instead of IT due to a subject clash, sat through the first lecture on binary tree algorithms (sent 99% of the class to sleep) and never looked back.

If you enjoy it and are good at it you'll have a good career and salary opportunities whatever field you go for. (I was expecting to take a salary hit by turning away from accountancy to IT, but now earn more than a friend who stayed on with accountancy. I love my job, he hates his [and he's probably more intelligent than me to...])

Have fun & good luck.
RR

If you're starting from scratch, why not look down the road a bit and figure out where the industry is going rather than trying to build your skills for where it came from?  There is nothing wrong with focusing on the network or coding sides of the house, but if you still have years to go before your going to be really active in "real world" security, then try to leap from over the whole mess and aim to develop skills that will be in demand in a few years.  Just as an example, start reading up on cloud computing.  Companies are moving over to these environments in a big way, but there are serious security concerns about the whole setup.  Just as there has been a natural progression in security from local systems to networked systems to applications to web apps, the next "big thing" will be massive shared resources.  (Where do you think Google, Amazon, Rackspace, etc are making the highest profit margins right now?) If I was in your position I'd avoid the temptation to be just another hacker, and see if I could be first into the box on these newer concepts.  Just my 2 cents.

Thank you all so much for your input!!! So does Industrial technology: specialization in networking and minor in computer sound good? or should i maybe switch them around? I also forgot to mention that I'm from Connecticut (north eastern part of the USA for all your foreigners) Thank you for all help guys I greatly appreciate it!

This can go on forever.  But I think the reality is to do what makes you happy when you wake up in the morning.  Most people in this business are not in it for the pay only.  I bet 99% of the people on this board are naturally curios people and like the “gee wiz” aspect of what they do.  Some like creating things.  Some like making things talk to each other.  The over all picture is do what gets you excited.  Even if that changes as you progress…just keep following your interest because you will get really good at it and become that “go to guy”. 

As far as your degree path – I am not sure it really matters what the degree title is.  I could be wrong, but I’ve never seen it be an issue.  As long as you get the classes you enjoy and are applicable to your path.  I have several degrees.  And after my first job, I don’t think they come up much.  I have an MBA, CS and engineering undergrad and a couple others.  I don’t think it would ever come up that my emphasis on engineering would come up.

I think the bottom line is find what you do well and what you enjoy and try to be the best at it.  The money and career will follow.