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Ask HN: Engineering Degree: Mathematics and Statistics vs Software?

4 points by noobie ↗ HN
I am torn between having an engineering degree in Statistics and Mathematics or in Software.

I am more interested in the first since the courses are data science oriented (R, Stochastic calculus, econometry.. etc) but as I live in a Third World country and want to seek employment abroad I am afraid employers might disregard my degree as it doesn't come from a reputable university.

Software engineering universities here however are slightly more reputable abroad.

Any thoughts?

5 comments

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jbchoo
I'm assuming you are talking Bachelor. If I were in your I would go for Stats and Math. And during my free time I would pick up a programming book. Also try to contribute to open-source project. It's on the job learning.

Why am I recommending this? Because I started with software engineering. And now that I want to do data science I know nothing. I find it really hard to get started with free courses online. I lack foundation in strong stats, linear algebra and etc. It is just so difficult to acquire these from books for me.

hanniabu
Hands down, definitely statistics and math with software projects on the side. Those together will be a win for sure.
shortoncash
I did all three + electrical engineering. No regrets. It's easier to find employment writing software. Thus, if you want something that will let you bootstrap yourself so that you can pay to learn more later, you should lean towards software first and the other stuff after.
baruch
My BA is in Math (theoretical, no statistics) with some CS courses (mostly basic ones and a few advanced ones in crypto). I didn't have a big issue finding a job beyond what others at the same time that finished a CS degree.

I did do quite a bit of open source projects both on my own and joining into other projects (LyX is a good match for a math degree :-)

If I had to do it again I'd learn statistics properly now, I find this is actually a useful part of mathematics for what I do these days (failure analysis and data mining). I believe that if you do your own software projects it should be good enough to be hired.

euroclydon
Same degree. I work in Software. I didn't have a problem finding a job either. I started off in industrial process automation, traveling around the U.S. doing very high level programming to make the UI for waste water treatment plants. Then I moved into web development.

But, let's move past the "no trouble getting a job" part. If getting a job is your goal, then choose a CS degree. If getting job doing a particular form of programming is your goal, then focus on a CS degree with a speciality in that type of programming.

Getting a Math degree is a super way to get a job in programming, but not as good as a CS degree. It's a matter of not closing a door, versus opening it.