This post is written by a Computer Science student who made the switch to business.
Can a Computer Science Student Become a Businessman: Starting your own business can be an exciting, stressful, or even terrifying experience depending on the kind of business you’re starting and your level of experience. For Tim Ferriss, the founder of The Four Hour Work Week, his startup was an unusual path.
Can a Computer Science Student Become a Businessman?
He dropped out of college to pursue it when he was 19 years old with no formal background in computer science or business management, yet now he’s worth over $30 million USD (in 2011) and has launched more than 12 successful startups. How did he pull it off? Here’s his story.
Becoming a Computer Scientist:
It is also important to understand what type of computer science degree you are choosing. Your diploma will state that you are a programmer, designer, analyst, or some other variation. They can even tell you more specific things like UX designer or Android developer, among others. The point here is to understand what kind of job you want out of school, then pick your coursework accordingly. This way, you’ll have less trouble transitioning into business once your graduation date rolls around.
Having similar coursework will help when it comes time to look for jobs in new industries and become part of teams instead of just being on your own or as part of one core group within an already existing company. If you know how to work with developers, designers and marketers at all, there’s no reason why they won’t see you as someone who could fit right in!
You don’t need experience with something to be good at it—and vice versa. Being good at programming doesn’t mean you’ll be good at marketing (or vice versa). So if possible, try and take some electives outside of your main focus so that if necessary, you’ll be able to make a smoother transition into another career path.
Becoming an Entrepreneur
One of college’s biggest perks is being able to build on your education through extracurricular activities. That doesn’t necessarily mean interning for companies, though; some people launch their own businesses and get valuable experience that way. There are definitely challenges when it comes to becoming an entrepreneur—starting a business, managing employees, and working toward profitability are just three of them.
But if you have an idea worth pursuing, there’s no reason why you can’t try your hand at it while in school. For tips on how to turn your internship or job into a successful startup, check out our infographic: How Do I Start My Own Business? Entrepreneurship Tips for College Students. You’ll learn about: What kind of business should I start? Which industries do well with startups? What does it take to be a good entrepreneur? And more! Check it out below!
Choosing A Career Path
It’s important to choose a career path based on more than just money. For example, if you’re looking for a challenge and passion in your job, then computer science might not be for you. Before committing to any major, think about what traits you want from your profession—the opportunity for advancement, work-life balance, or creativity—and make sure those traits aren’t limited to one particular field.
It can also help to shadow someone in that position before committing long-term; take advantage of mentorship programs at your school or local business associations (like an SCBWI chapter) that offer access to professionals outside of your classroom. If possible, try interning at multiple companies over time so you can get different perspectives on each path. Above all else, though, remember that it’s never too early to change course.
The truth is most people switch careers between jobs rather than sticking with one throughout their life. So even if you feel like you picked the wrong major now doesn’t mean it’s too late to change course! But whatever choice you make, always keep learning new skills along the way—whether through classwork or side projects—so you have options when it comes time to look for a new opportunity!
Advice For Junior Programmers
Be adaptable. Being able to learn on your feet and deal with constant change is one of the most important skills you can have as a programmer, or really any type of problem solver. When you start out in your first job, things won’t be ideal: you might need to work with unfamiliar frameworks, libraries, or languages. You’ll have to find ways to make something that wasn’t built for what you want it for still useful for what you need it for. The ability to think outside of conventional methods is key here.
Also, try not to get too attached to your code—it’s not yours. It belongs to your employer and if they ever decide they don’t like it anymore (or if their project ends), there’s nothing you can do about it but hope they let you move on with them so you can see how far they take their next project. All in all, being flexible will help keep you sane when dealing with day-to-day changes at work (and in life).
Try new things; specialize later. If you are good at multiple different programming languages/ frameworks/ libraries/techniques/etc., use that to your advantage! Even though I wanted to stick with my initial specialization when I got my first real job (Front End Web Development) after college.
I ended up doing a lot more than just front-end development because of who was hiring me and what projects were going on around me. This introduced me to Java (which I had dabbled in before) as well as how Front End frameworks interact with Back End servers through APIs.
Advice For Senior Programmers
Making that leap into business is no small feat, but it’s not impossible. To put yourself in position to succeed, learn as much as you can about accounting and other less technical aspects of business, in addition to programming.
Also make sure to network–as you work toward your degree and once you’ve graduated–and learn everything you can from mentors, who will be invaluable when it comes time for you to start your own company. In short: Be ready for change; don’t be afraid of it! The most successful entrepreneurs are always adapting to new circumstances.
There’s nothing stopping you from becoming an entrepreneur if you want to go down that path after graduation. However, understand what challenges lie ahead—your day-to-day responsibilities may not resemble those of your peers at first—but, over time, if things go well, they could become far more rewarding than anything else you’ve ever done. Ultimately, though, only one thing matters: Don’t let fear hold you back.
Letting fear keep us on our current career path is exactly what we should try to avoid doing if we want to have fulfilling careers later on in life. As I see it, there are only two reasons not to pursue entrepreneurship: either you don’t believe in yourself or you don’t believe in your idea. And if you don’t believe in yourself, then why would anyone else?
If you can answer that question honestly and still decide not to start your own business, then good for you—you just saved yourself some heartache down the road! But I think most people who say they can’t start their own business really mean they aren’t sure they can succeed—and that’s where all entrepreneurs begin. Everyone starts out unsure; few people know how well their ideas will work out when they first get started.
Advice For Non-Programmers
If you are not going to be programming all day long, then you need to learn to communicate well with others and persuade them. To do that you will need to develop written communication skills. However, I want you to note that persuading does not necessarily mean lying or scheming your way into something; it simply means getting people on board with your ideas and having them believe in you as an entrepreneur (or in this case as a programmer who wants to become an entrepreneur).
If you are able to do that, then many things will be possible for you. Just remember that persuading doesn’t always mean winning – it can sometimes just mean starting a conversation or raising awareness of the issues at hand. It is more important to understand what type of persuasion you should use than it is to know how to persuade someone.
Also keep in mind that even if there is no immediate gain from being persuasive, building these types of skills will help you later down the road when your startup grows bigger and you have more employees working under you. As far as writing goes, focus on clarity first and foremost. You should never assume that everyone knows what terms like hashing or cryptography mean because they don’t!
Also Read: What Type of Business Should I Start on Amazon?
Conclusion
I hope you found my ideas about how to start a business interesting. If you’re looking for additional help with starting your own company, I’d suggest looking into some of these resources: Startup Bootcamp, The Startup Owner’s Manual, and Venture Deals.
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