Atomic.edu: Obscure fields

Chris Taylor takes a look at some of the more left-field degrees and the careers they can land you in.

Thus far, atomic.edu has focused only on fields of information technology that are, well, mainstream. We’ve done this because, realistically, most of you who are reading these articles on a regular basis will be looking at getting into programming or games development or network administration. Chances are, you will be tackling one of the four following bachelor degrees or some variation thereof – Information Technology, Computer Science, Information Systems or Multimedia.

However, this month we’ve decided to cater to those of you who aspire to do something that’s a bit more obscure than animation or security.

Advantages and disadvantages
There are many reasons for looking at some of the more unusual areas of information technology when it comes to doing a course and/or seeking employment. For one, the fact you’ll emerge from your studies a specialist means you’re likely – although by no means guaranteed – to rake in some serious cash almost immediately.

And, too, beyond the economic reward, you might find that doing something a bit different is incredibly satisfying. You’ll know that you’re one of a very small group of people that can do what you do.

That’s not to say there are no downsides, though.

Firstly and, perhaps, most obviously, you should be aware that if you do a highly specialised degree, your employment prospects are going to be severely limited. There’s a reason we keep describing these fields as obscure.
Atomican Ben Cummings studied photonics. And yes, we know that’s hardly straight info tech. “Australian employment prospects are not the greatest,” he says. His university actually ran a dedicated photonics course, but he feels there’s a high chance that his university will pull the plug on it in the near future, for the simple reason that so very few enrol in it.

On the other hand, you have Jake Carroll, enterprise storage specialist. He says, “There is a lot of progress in the market. And we need more useful people. The pay can be good to insane. Consider the fact that we’ve got such a need for storage in this era, a need for storage far beyond that of the home environment, and you start to understand just how much we need big storage specialists.”

Another of our readers is currently studying infomechatronics, which he describes as a blend of mechanical, electrical and software engineering. Think robotics, kids. He’s studying it because he feels this is a field that’s going to grow larger and become more important. He’s right – his skills will be highly sought after – but if by some chance it takes a good few years for the Australian robotics industry to go anywhere, he could find himself possibly having to move overseas.

Specialised courses
Quite often, courses don’t exist for the more obscure fields out there. Infomechatronics is but a major study that’s available in the engineering departments of some universities. As for enterprise storage? Jake studied nothing of the sort. “I have an Honours Degree in Computer Science. My specialisation is Cognitive Human Computer Interaction (HCI).”

Occasionally, though, you’ll be flicking through your state’s university course guide and happen across a highly specialised degree such as photonics or cognitive science. If one of these catches your eye, keep the following in mind.

Firstly, the entry requirements are likely be quite high. Beyond the obvious – good marks – they’ll probably want you to have done whatever your state’s highest-level year 12 maths unit is and a science. Physics would be best. Psychology, too, if you’re actually looking at cognitive science.

Secondly, intake is probably going to be low. The university might welcome hundreds of information technology students each year, but they might only bring in a handful to their cognitive science programme.

Of course, that’s assuming there’s any new intake at all. Monash University used to do a cognitive science degree, but the plug was pulled due to lack of numbers. The only students there now are those who are finishing up their degrees. Once they’re done, the degree will unfortunately be gone.

Even when the Bachelor of Cognitive Science was taking in new students, it was only run at the Gippsland campus. Students were made to choose between driving a great distance – unless they happened to live in the area, that is – or spending a hell of a lot of time on the V-Line service which, as you can imagine, didn’t run all that frequently. They also had the option of living on-campus, which we’re sure would have been somewhat appealing were the campus not located in the arse-end of nowhere.

Unless you’re already used to travelling many hours for work or school, don’t write off travel time as being irrelevant when it comes to choosing a course or place of study. Spending hours on public transport will tire you out. Having to wake up stupidly early and spend an hour and a half or more on the train to get to a rural campus just so you can attend that early morning lecture will be a pain once the excitement of no longer being in school wears off. And, more importantly, it’s simply not ideal to be spending that much time on the road when you need to be studying at home or working.

Of course...
The good news is that you don’t necessarily have to do a specialised course. As noted earlier, Jake didn’t. To be sure, he majored in a fairly unusual field – a different one to the unusual field he ended up working in – but at the end of the day he was still a computer science student. So, as we’ve said numerous times in this series of articles, there’s nothing wrong with a good old-fashioned Bachelor of Computer Science. So long as you choose your electives smartly – be sure to work in a few units that show you’re capable of communicating with your fellow human beings as well as computers – the Bachelor of Computer Science is a nice and versatile degree that can take you to some interesting places but, at the same time, see you into a more mainstream job if need be. Jake has this advice in regards to choosing a course and getting a job in some of information technology’s more specialist fields – especially his own, enterprise storage. “Well, in many instances, you will probably need a degree in information technology or computer science to get near the ‘big’ stuff. The reason I say this is that there is a lot of background you need in many wide-ranging concepts within lower-level computing to really understand the bigger picture. Sure, you can pick it up from experience or on the ground, but it would be a serious slog.

“Find yourself an entry-level job as an enterprise administrator. Once you’ve established yourself a little bit and you understand high-end UNIX systems at a very low level (i.e. Solaris, HP-UX, AIX), you can probably venture towards the storage side of things. It is a [step-by-step] process. It isn’t easy to go ‘I want to be in big storage.’ You need to understand all the bits that click it together first.”

Consider studying some maths, too. Jake advises those who want to get into storage – although we’d say this advice is equally valid for anyone looking at doing something flash – to study some pure maths. “People often ask, ‘Why do you need mathematics?’ And we tell them [it’s] because you need to understand mathematical models at times to manage data flows, data migration policies and HSM archiver functionality. The thing is, when you are on the job, your maths comes together in a whole different way. You learn and it all makes sense.”

Furthermore, Computer Science schools tend to offer their students a huge range of electives. You should be able to at least minor, if not major, in something that’s at least quasi-relevant to what you’re looking at getting into. Combine that with some maths and communications-type units – i.e. technical writing, project management, journalism – and you should be fine.

Of course, Computer Science isn’t the best option for everyone. A Bachelor of Engineering, majoring in software engineering, may, depending on your desired field of employment, be more relevant. Many of these specialised fields aren’t so much straight info tech as they are red-headed, bastard children of information technology and one or more forms of engineering, a science or even an art. Again, keep in mind that studying units heavy on logic will only get you so far. You need some writing units in there to demonstrate that you’re a well-rounded individual.