• Question: What are some non-traditional career options for computer science majors?

    Asked by NedW on 14 Nov 2025.
    • Photo: Martin McMahon

      Martin McMahon answered on 14 Nov 2025:

      Here’s the thing. Studying Computer Science can be just like any other subject matter if you treat it simply as a gateway to your career. Accept that in life you will always need to learn new things and that that is a good thing. Comp.Sci can take you to incredible jobs in the IT sector, but also you could find yourself working on app development in the ecology sector, or embedded systems in machinery, robotics or any other part of engineering. Or, you could treat it more like a hobby and then open yourself up to any career that seems interesting at the time, but only if you’re willing to keep learning.

    • Photo: Charlotte McNeill

      Charlotte McNeill answered on 20 Nov 2025:

      I agree with Martin and would say computer science is just a gateway to more opportunity. Its not all about being strong at coding or a particular subject but the willingness to learn and figure out where you want to spend most your time. I was always directed to jobs that seemed to far of a reach for me or not things I was particularly interested in like designing websites or game development. What I actually enjoyed and learnt more career options from was during my education in my apprenticeship and my degree. The assignments/courses your given helped me understand job roles I didn’t know existed and I got experience in loads of different fields. For example project management, UX design, business or data analysis, databases, export control or networking. There is so many things out there – Good luck!

    • Photo: Maximillian Ward

      Maximillian Ward answered on 22 Nov 2025:

      Prior to my degree and awareness of security I’d have thought traditional to be programming, which is not my speed.
      In university I’d have understood traditional in Cyber to be a SOC Analyst, or Penetration Tester, or perhaps working Forensics for uniformed services.

      Less “traditional” roles I’m aware of now would perhaps be Threat Intelligence (learning & reporting on hacking groups & tactics), Malware Analysis (breaking down and reverse engineering malware samples to inform investigations), Detection Engineering (figuring out how to alert on and detect attacks).
      I’ve also always been fascinated by stories of Penetration Testers working physical cases (i.e. to be sanctioned by a client to break into their workplace and access computers).

      You’re more than welcome to try out different roles, and change your career over time.

    • Photo: Aurelia Brzezowska

      Aurelia Brzezowska answered on 2 Dec 2025:

      Love this question. Computing nowadays can honestly get you into any role that requires technical capabilities.

      Anything in science e.g. biomedical research, data science, aeronautical engineering:
      -If you know how to code (such as in Python) and use AI for statistical analysis you will go far.

      Data Center Technician:
      -Not often spoken about. There are huge data centers in the UK that need someone to take care of the architecture.

      Project Management:
      -Lead teams of developers to deploy solutions!

      These are just some examples of roles that cross over greatly.

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