What types of people should not be in computer science?

In India it's pathetic how people are allowed to choose their engineering branch. It's done on the basis of how good a student does in a PCM(Physics, Chemistry, Mathematics) exam. Every person who attempts this exam is given a rank. Given that there are limited seats in each branch of engineering it's always noticed that the top ranks always just go for CSE (Computer science engineering). So many of them don't even do it because they are interested in it but rather join because of the higher pay scale that software engineers get.

Because of this people who actually have a passion for programming don't get a chance to do it.

Infact my neighbour who had taken PCMB( Physics, Chemistry, Mathematics, Biology) till 12th grade got a good rank and hence took Computer Science even though she has had no prior experience of programming.

I believe that these type of people who take computer science not because of their passion for it but for an assured greater pay after graduation shouldn't do it.

• People who don’t want to solve challenging problems - CS is all about coming up with elegant solutions to challenging technical problems. Coding is just a part of the solution implementation. If you freak out on seeing something new and challenging, CS isn’t for you.
• People who don’t want to learn something new - CS is all about trying new things. Computer Science moves extremely fast and if you don’t want to learn new technology, you won’t be able to keep up.
• People who are scared of breaking things - Screw-ups happen. They happen all the time. Anyone who is scared of seeing ‘your OS has been corrupted’ should reconsider being in CS.
• People who don’t want to work in stretch - when you got to debug something serious, you will have to spend a lot of time, at a stretch. If you get up in between, you are sure to lose the flow.
• People who think CS is about hacking a Facebook account - If you have opted for CS because you think that you will become a hacker and hack your friend’s Facebook account, my sympathies with you.

Having said that, I’d like to add that there always are exceptions. Let’s not talk about that though.

From an Indian perspective.

1. Money - Obviously. Nothing beats the salary for a new grad. People who are in it for the money alone, are probably the ones to keep away from.
2. Parental Pressure - Again, back to money. More salary means better marriage proposals. Parents are really worried about their kid’s future after all!
3. Friends - This is one of the weirdest one I had seen. People join the same college, same degree because their friends chose the same. Probably because they don’t want to go through the whole process of making friends again!

Now the general population,

1. Money! Money! Money!
2. People who wade through four years of degree learning nothing, joins Quora, and ask for advice from strangers on what to do now.
3. People not willing to keep learning. The only thing constant in CS is change. So either you get in front of it, or …
4. People without a logical mindset. Some of it can be cultivated with experience, but majority cannot.
5. People who feel nothing when their code is compiled without any errors, merged without any conflicts, peer-reviewed without any problem, deployed without breaking the build.
6. People who want to get into Google without understanding anything else.

This is a bit of a different question. While I normally wouldn’t deter people from doing something they want to do, I can think of a few different types of people who probably shouldn’t get into the programming or computer science fields.

1. Someone afraid of work. Learning how to program is a pretty big investment of time and effort. While some people might claim that they became masters in a short amount of time, that is very rare and no one should expect that. Hours upon hours must be spent in the beginning and as time goes on you must spend time learning new languages, frameworks, and other concepts.

2. Someone afraid of commitment. Programming, as a career, takes commitment. You must commit to constant learning, first of all. Aside from that though, you must commit to finding solutions. Sometimes it’s easy but sometimes it’s very hard and takes a long time. You can’t give up though. The most rewarding part of this career is finding those solutions and putting them into practice.

3. Someone looking for easy money. While software engineers can tout salaries of $152k/year, this doesn’t happen overnight. Many people are beginning to look at programming like its easy money but that is not the case. While it can be a lucrative career, as I mentioned before, it takes a lot of time and effort. Those salaries are not handed out to every person who walks through the door.

Computer science is pretty nifty.

At the beginning of my adventure in comp. sci., I had no logical sense. It was just a boy that could only say:

Start from Union Square, arrive at Capitol hill (your end destination), finally take a left. That’s how terrible my logic was back then.

Computer science taught me how to learn logic. If you make an illogical project, the project won’t run. So let’s jot that down:

1. Computer science are for logic learners.

After you’ve got the basics of knowledge down, you can start programming complete projects. But computer programming is supposed to be fun. If it isn’t, then one shouldn’t continue with it.

I had countless joyful moments when my projects ran successfully. It feels AMAZING when I accomplished my goal.

So, 2. It should be fun

But computer science is also pretty difficult to write. Big projects like mine take months and months, requiring patience and meditating (because I can’t find my source of error in the code and I get REALLY. FCKIN. MAD. It’s tough mate).

But right now, i’ve only answered “what types of people should BE in computer science?”

My answer for your question is:

1. People that HATE logic
2. People that don’t find joy in learning
3. People that don’t feel accomplished after a hard day at work
4. Losers that give up
5. No creativity
1. this is KEY. Projects I make come from my imaginations. Some of my projects are actually inspired from my dreams. It’s so cool.
6. People that are impatient

But what Jessica said is also right. Computer science majors are people who like to program (and not for the money (or to work at Google or Microsoft)).

Avid learners are the one’s that huge tech companies want. It’s not the other way around.People who have no talent or passion for it.

There are lots.

Folks are told that there’s good money in computer science. Be a programmer! Get a great job! Have an easy life!

And they waltz through a degree and learn nothing. Retain even less. And even at the end of four years still can’t code their way out of a paper bag.

Thanks, but we don’t need that.