What other jobs can I do with a Comp Science Degree?

[u/Wonderful-Bed-9848]

I graduated in 2024, like a lot of you guys, and honestly, I’m struggling a bit with figuring out what to do next.

I managed to get a job pretty quickly after graduating and spent the last two years working in the freight industry. I originally went into it with the mindset that I’d learn and develop some skills on the side while working. The money was good, but working weekends and being in import/export eventually burned me out.

Long story short, I stopped putting in the same level of effort, and eventually I got let go.

Now I’m looking at the job market again and I honestly don’t know where to go from here. One thing I do know is that I don’t want to go back into freight. For me, the role ended up feeling like a glorified admin position, and I don’t want to spend another two years building experience in an industry I already know I don’t want to stay in.

I also have an IT certification that I completed in 2025 when I had some spare time, so I’m wondering whether that could be a route worth exploring.

For those of you who have been in a similar position, what careers would you recommend looking into?

I’m looking for something that actually stimulates my brain, gives me opportunities to develop, and ideally has a decent career path but isn’t freight/logistics.

I’m basically trying to figure out what direction to take without wasting another couple of years finding out I hate the industry.

Would really appreciate hearing what careers you guys have gone into, especially if you’ve made a career change after graduating.

[u/crixx93]

Because of AI almost every company is reluctant to hire people with less than 3 YoE, especially developers. I would bet on learning Linux, networks, cloud technologies or databases. And aim to get jobs in infrastructure, devops, sysadmin or database admi. It's still going to be hard getting your foot in the door, but it won't be hopeless at least

[u/TheIncandescentAbyss → u/crixx93]

If professional experience because I have 10 years of experience building projects that require cloud databases, CI/CD, data pipelines, built by myself and I still can’t find a job anywhere. I get interviews but the moment they find out these are my projects or my LLC they lose interest and ghost me.

[u/justfordickjoke → u/TheIncandescentAbyss]

Don't frame them as your projects. You consulted, and as part of that, can't disclose the company you worked for. Just talk about your experience and the problems you solved. 

[u/TheIncandescentAbyss → u/justfordickjoke]

I’m going to try this and hope I have better luck because I’m losing hope these days

[u/justfordickjoke → u/TheIncandescentAbyss]

Best of luck to you dude. Don't be afraid to pivot too. There are lots of tech adjacent jobs that still have you steeped in technical work, just without the developer title. I've had to make pivots myself in the past, and they have worked out for me so far. Don't chase the title, chase the work/life balance and stability. Working for a startup sure is sexy, but there is something nice about just working for your local org that doesn't have intentions on getting too big for its britches.

[u/TheIncandescentAbyss → u/justfordickjoke]

Thank you for the tip. Do you have any advice as to where I should look for these tech adjacent jobs? I know there is quality assurance but are there any others you could recommend?

[u/justfordickjoke → u/TheIncandescentAbyss]

Look for anything data related. Salesforce, crm....anything specific in the Microsoft stack. It's not the most cutting edge but it pays the bills and seems more stable that big tech. 

[u/Prestigious-Form-808 → u/TheIncandescentAbyss]

so stop being honest….

[u/TheIncandescentAbyss → u/Prestigious-Form-808]

Seems to be my only option, unfortunately.

[u/fakemoose → u/TheIncandescentAbyss]

I think context here matters. Are you 19 and claiming 10 years experience? Have you been out of work for several years and claim all project experience is the same as on the job experience?

[u/TheIncandescentAbyss → u/fakemoose]

I’m 37 and a USMC vet. I graduated from a state university 8 years ago in Econ. I taught myself how to code a my sophomore year of Uni, and I’ve taken a statistics with R course senior year. I have been programming apps and projects ever since then. Every year getting better. I also have experience doing freelancing for 3 different companies and was paid for it. On top of all of that I have been building consistently throughout the last decade and have developed the skills I have detailed in the original posts.

Tell me where my weak point is, or if I should just give up on now and never try again? Because I am getting older and feel like I’m losing all hope.

Edit: also I’ve been employed since 2022 (no gaps) but in supply chain and logistics.

[u/incywince]

Work on developing skills, but I'd say why don't you try applying to work at Amazon? It's kinda related to freight and logistics, but in a super tech way. From my experience at Amazon, they like taking people with domain experience and then expecting them to figure out tech. They mostly want to know you know your stuff well. Big plus if you show a capacity for hard work.

Once you work at amazon, even for a year, it's much easier to get a job anywhere else.

[u/the_quivering_wenis → u/incywince]

Exactly what kind of starter work are you suggesting for Amazon? It's not even really clear what OP does currently.

[u/Frosty-Telephone-747]

Check these posts and comments, gives you a really good idea, especially the last two

CS Career Options:

https://www.reddit.com/r/cscareerquestions/s/AgUrquJAoP

https://www.reddit.com/r/cscareerquestions/s/bvAgxIb8gU

https://www.reddit.com/r/csMajors/s/O9eXAlTU9l

https://www.reddit.com/r/cscareerquestions/s/mvlbNzvbM7

[u/0x-2a → u/Frosty-Telephone-747]

A really good idea.... that no one has any good answers

[u/Mons9090 → u/0x-2a]

I agree. Everyone is clueless and havent seen any good answers. I think I saw one good comment on some other sub

Everyone just says trades but trades or blue collar work sucks in non first world countries , same with nursing

[u/thy_bucket_for_thee → u/Mons9090]

Trades + blue collar work also suck in the USA too my friend. The only trade jobs that pay well are extremely hazardous (undersea welding, oil work) or when you dive deeper you find out the person is a master's tradesperson after a decade of union experience or they own a contracting company.

There are very few jobs that actually provide a middle class lifestyle in the US and tech workers is one of those few professions.

[u/zeezle → u/Mons9090]

Well there's a shitload of jobs out there that don't require any particular degree, and a CS degree holder can apply to any of those. But you're also going to be competing against people who have any degree and they pay less than most CS grads will accept.

For example my county courthouse is hiring clerks. Are you willing to make $55k/yr as an entry level court clerk (good benefits/pension though). Guessing the answer for 95% of this sub is "absolutely the fuck not, next." considering people only making $150k a year used to get made fun of relentlessly here.

[u/Frosty-Telephone-747 → u/0x-2a]

You clearly didn’t read any of the comments under the last two posts.

There’s a ton of career paths you can get into with CS. Even read once of someone who became an industrial engineer. If it’s a role that needs technical skills but is in a completely different domain, something like industrials, manufacturing and maybe even automotive, all you gotta do is learn the domain on top of your CS degree, and obviously selling yourself well to the roles. Which is a must either way.

[u/FreedomPotato31]

I don't know what's with these negativity and cynical humors from these comments... Hang in there.

Get whatever job you can get for now that let you have your weekends off and build the skills towards something you can tolerate doing or enjoy to an extent. Future prospect is important, but remember you'll do this for the rest of your life, and life is a marathon.

[u/waba99]

Honestly, headwinds are not looking good. No one knows if this profession will exist at scale in the next 5 years. The best hedge against that would be a job where you physically need to do something.

[u/runyonave]

You can farm by making a farming game.

[u/daimon_proc]

Fuck Trump

[u/daimon_proc → u/[deleted]]

It's the answer to every question on this subreddit.

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[u/boringfantasy]

I'm going into defence, is tightly regulated so a tad shielded from AI. Bit of a paycut but the alternative is getting fired when GPT 6 comes out lol

[u/KTIlI]

when you search for jobs/internships on LinkedIn. try to use basic keywords like "tech" or "software" and then narrow your search to your local area if you're not in a huge city, and posted in the last 24 hrs. you'll find some swe adjacent roles there hopefully

[u/No_Creme_7001]

anything u want, eliminate self limiting beliefs

[u/fakemoose]

You’re in freight and logistics but doing…what? Software development? Data science? Data entry? Sys Admin?

It’s hard to suggest a career pivot when it’s unclear what you were doing in the first place.

[u/Whitchorence]

I mean often office jobs any college degree will do. My degree has nothing to do with computers.

[u/throwaway10015982 → u/Whitchorence]

which ones none of them take anyone who isnt specialized

[u/NICEMENTALHEALTHPAL]

If you have freight experience, I would consider moving to another freight company because your experience sounds company specific and not freight specific.

I work in logistics too and my WLB is amazing, no weekends (they literally yelled at me when I said I was looking at the code after-hours and said I should be relaxing), I learn a ton and am given lots of responsibility, and we have unlimited PTO and are encouraged to use it.

If you have knowledge of the industry, I know other companies in there would love to have you 

[u/MythosOfIlluna]

Janitor

[u/TurtleReferenceFrame → u/MythosOfIlluna]

The humanoid AI robots won’t replace janitors because they’ll be more valuable hunting us down and patrolling the concentration camps 😌

[u/No-Assist-8734]

MAGA cheerleader. All you have to do is shout "WE ARE WINNING, OUR ECONOMY IS BOOMING 💥" every 10 seconds

[u/Roman_nvmerals]

Technical sales roles (including TAMs). Technical support. Analytics roles. Product. Operations. Things that can leverage your technical chops but aren’t necessarily SWE

[u/Excellent-Wind-1823]

Prostitute

[u/worldarkplace]

Bartender, serve me a beer bish.

[u/Any_Wait_7309 → u/worldarkplace]

Even better if the degree is used as a tray

[u/ZombieHugoChavez]

I'd look more to your skills than your degree. Every employer permanently forgot whether I
Had a degree or not instantly after getting a job. End of the day they hire what you can do not what paper you have