this post was submitted on 28 Apr 2026
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My Parent doesn't want me doing CS, or CE, because they feel the job market will disappear come 7 years. (lemmy.world)
submitted 3 days ago by aunchers@lemmy.world to c/cs_career_questions@programming.dev
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Basically Title.
I love CS, I love designing systems, programming, some cyber and math.
The problem is, I am due to admit into CS this year (4 year program). My Parent's will be funding a majority of it (~2 years, + RESP). And one of my parents, thinks CS won't have many jobs come 7 years?
Why? Because AI will take them all (or is more likely to take them all). That AI is expanding at a rapid pace, and they will slowly but surely take the hardware designing jobs, the programming jobs, and pretty much all the jobs except the administration ones. I have a poor time putting into words what I would like to do in the future (cause I love lots of things related to CS) but I say thing a bit on the technical side, and this parent says that if I cant explain it to them than I don't understand it and that they understand (more to me) what will happen to the market due to their age

I am not saying they're wrong to any of this by the way, I'm just looking for advice on if they're right, and if not, why?

I don't think I'll ever give up doing CS because its something I love with all my heart.
But if I'm not able to convince them, they want me to take a gap and get a different degree (in a less likely to be taken job).
I might be rambling here, but I am genuinely soooo lost.

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[–] antlion@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 2 days ago

I was pursuing computer science back in 2003 in community college. I walked away from it for a few reasons. First it looked like programming jobs would all be outsourced to India. Second, several notable viruses were programmed by teenagers (MSBlast), and Google was hiring people without degrees. It just seemed like my four year degree would not land me a job - I needed to be gifted in ways I already wasn’t.

Obviously, all of that was wrong. I could have made a killing if I stayed with it, especially since I live in proximity to Silicon Valley. But I will never know. I could have been miserable and bouncing between tech bro Web 3.0 startups.

I don’t have the exact quote in front of me but at the beginning or end of Learn Python the Hard Way, Zed Shaw talks about how in technology industries, skilled programmers are a dime a dozen, but in any other industry those who can leverage programming are adept tech ninja gods who are well respected and valued. I have found that to be true in my experience for what it’s worth. I still enjoy programming and it sets me apart from many of my peers. If I was programming 40+ hours per week I’m not sure I would enjoy it. In other words: it’s not about the tool but what you do with it that matters.

Your parents may or may not be correct. But it wouldn’t hurt for you to expand your horizons. Nobody can take programming away from you. Maybe you’ll work on new 3d printers or drones or mechanical engineering or some other interest that you haven’t yet found.