And other people will tell you experience is bad, since companies would rather just hire fresh grads because its cheaper.
This is not true. Companies want cheap resources, which is why they go for college interns/hires, but they want them with some sort of practical experience. There isn't an IT org in the world that does not want experience.
i'll be honest with you...I have a small venture in the tech space, and basically everyone I know in the tech sphere will never hire an IS major for technical purposes---when they could get someone in comp sci---with that said, your best angle is probably to work for a large established corporation that no one would mistake to be on the cutting edge of tech (but which nevertheless provides great salary/benefits), and needs someone to tell them how computers work. If you have marketing/business experience, there is also the possibility of you getting into marketing space for startups, and perhaps companies like Google---but be prepared to be relatively awesome. Tech people do like people who can speak to other human beings about technology in a fluid and interesting way. If you know an European language, I may be able to get you in touch with someone at Google's Dublin HQ, they're hiring like madmen, but they really want you to know either French, Spanish, German, or Italian, in addition to English. Consulting/being the IT guy at a large-to-medium old-school company is probably your best bet though.
Never seen that happen in my 14 years. When I interview people, I rarely even mention their education or ask if they have a degree. It's all about their experience and knowledge.
I was a CIS major at Texas State for 3.5 years before I switched to Business Management at the last minute. I could've tacked on a couple more CIS courses and actually minored in it, but I just lost interest in it. The final straw was a COBOL course. After about two weeks in there all I could think was: "WTF am I doing in here?" I remember walking out of the middle of that class, going straight to the computer lab in McCoy, and dropping the class. Then went over to the advisor's office and changed my major. One of the better spur of the moment decisions that I ever made. Hope this helps.
MIS Major here in 04. Get any experience any way you can. Get in at the bottom and work up. CIS and EE majors will most likely pull the jobs you want, so try to specialize in something, or learn more valuable things. MIS routes usually lead you to data management, DBA path, consulting gigs, analysts, etc. You pretty much just want to get your foot in the door, and whatever you work on and like will be your IT path.
MIS major here, c/o '07. "systems analyst" "business systems consultant" "it systems audit" "systems process engineer" are the keywords. good solid job out of school is to work for a big 4 consultancy.
should be a good setup to get you into some doors. cisco, ebay, paypal... all of them use consultants and contractors to do business process reengineering.
Rising senior at UT. I say I switched from finance to MIS because the job market for MIS majors (at least at my school) is extremely hot. I'm currently in NYC interning at one of the big-4 as a consultant in financial services. Last year I was at Shell. Key thing I would say is to leverage your business acumen and skills, and people skills over any technical ability. Yes, knowing how to code and basic IT skills are mandatory, but as other posters have said, any employer who wants a very technical guy will hire a CS/CE guy. In my opinion the strength an MIS major can bring to the table is having the soft skills of a business major, while still being able to understand core concepts of IT.
A lot of companies tend to recruit locally, so in this aspect it can't hurt if you want to stay in the Valley. I'm in NYC right now, and getting a job here from Texas was much more difficult than finding a position in Houston or Dallas. It is simply cheaper for companies to relocate new hires from around the area. One caveat is that a lot of the tech companies out there value more technical skills.. I have a few friends that went out to google, cisco and the like, at at least at my school, these type of companies primarily look for EE/CE or CS majors.
I thought it was Business Administration with a concentration in Management Information Systems. Isn't that what we're talking about here?
I hold a very distinguished bachelor's degree in Computer Information Systems from the University of SFA. Good day, sir! I said...good day, sir!!!
