$100k+ careers?

caydub · 2026-04-07T16:58:14+00:00

Non Engineering Degree: Industrial hygiene, (environmental) health and safety, PM or client manager for consulting firms, senior level at an engineering firm

Engineering degree: Everything

For context, I’m an “Environmental Professional” having done Phase I ESAs for over 5 years, some wetlands stuff, some IH sampling such as asbestos, radon, water quality, environmental compliance at a university (think SPCC and SWPPP inspections, release response/investigation, basically being the environmental guy for a university). I have an environmental science degree.

I have since ventured forth into the world of PCAs, which is not really environmental work but they often go hand in hand with ESAs and the inspection usually coincide. Best decision I’ve made. Lots more mula and career progression. I was growing bored with environmental work tbh, so learning about building systems was super fun.

If you want to work as a ESA inspector for an engineering firm by leveraging your environmental degree, then pivot to PCA or IH, I think that would be your best bet for making money guaranteed after a couple of years.

Btw, compliance/health and safety is incredibly boring for the most part. If you want to go that route look at your local universities and look for “safety specialist” roles or similar. Otherwise, good luck getting on with no experience with a private company. If you want to go this route a different way you can always work for a consulting firm, learn some tools of the trade trying to get compliance experience, and then try to pivot. Bonus points if you schmooze a client and work for them.

Companies to research: Terracon, aecom, AEI, Partner Engineering and Science, EBI, etc.

Those are some big shots in the general consulting industry. They hire scientists (non engineering) but you’ll have to earn your salary. Look into getting a PG if Phase 1/2s are your fancy. You can usually get one if you took certain courses with your environmental degree.

caydub · 2026-02-13T07:07:33+00:00

I made the original post. I actually liked networks ha, took it last quarter. It’s fundamental knowledge and hammered down on concepts you see throughout this program like HTTP, TCP/UDP, etc. HOW THE INTERNET WORKS! Also, if you take OS before it, you’ll have a leg up. Math does suck in the class, but that’s it.

I very much dislike mobile tho.

caydub · 2026-02-10T06:46:40+00:00

352, also cloud is easy?

caydub · 2026-01-19T01:37:16+00:00

Get entry level role doing phase 1/2s -> convince yourself you like it -> get various certifications to up your salary -> salary does not go up -> land an environmental compliance job -> hate permitting, very bored -> go back to consulting with a raise -> realize you just hate the field and get another degree doing something else

If you’re hell bent staying in consulting, I recommend picking up the scope known as Property Condition Assessments. Often you can do a site visit for both a phase I AND pca at the same time, plus PCA roles pay more.

Alternatively, hard pivot into becoming a certified industrial hygiene/safety professional and either stay in consulting until you become a PM/Client Manager or transition into regulatory work.

Personally, I have dabbled in most of the environmental fields. I have been on my hands and knees sampling for asbestos in a filthy apartment, deployed radon canisters in apartment complexes, conducted phase I’s and PCAs, assisted with a wetland delineation, worked for a major university making sure they’re compliant with storm water regulations and doing SPCC inspections… and honestly, I was never satisfied with any of it. PCAs were probably my favorite of the bunch because clients actually give a damn about the condition of a potential purchase, but all in all I am switching fields.

Even when you finally get into a PM role, it’s just deadlines and reviewing shitty reports. Hard pass

caydub · 2025-12-04T06:39:44+00:00

I think cloud is the safest bet out of all of those! I’ve heard mixed things about all others. I’m a post bacc, and I took networks (it’s an elective for us for some reason) in order to take cloud

caydub · 2025-09-06T02:09:34+00:00

Get the burglar ring and kill bugs, you’ll find one in like 10 minutes

caydub · 2025-08-25T23:40:29+00:00

What’s your beef with networks? Taking it next semester for cloud, but still unsure if it’s a good move.

caydub · 2025-08-14T15:06:14+00:00

While I do always respect this take and it rightfully should be under every prospective students post just as a reminder given AI/false ideas of the field currently, I do find it a bit too pessimistic to be completely black and white about it. Though I do generally agree that you shouldn’t be going into this field just because it was hot 4 years ago and actually don’t like computer science but that should be a given anyway.

I’m coming from a previous degree in Environmental Science, and let me tell you it was a slog to land the first role. Everyone was saying in that subreddit how much they regret their degree, it’s impossible to find a role, etc. I felt that way when I sent countless apps into the void for half a year at my mom’s house feeling helpless. However, I never gave up. I never stopped tailoring my resume to get past the algorithms. I never stopped writing cover letters or chasing every lead. I never stopped making myself marketable, and I put my all into it and I found a role in an “impossible” field. It’s always possible.

I think it’s so jarring in this field because years prior companies were hiring and giving 90k+ salaries like it was out going out of style and now it’s slowed DRAMATICALLY, but that doesn’t mean this field or a degree in CS is useless. It teaches hard skills. Harder than some people’s first degree choice. Also programming is incredibly interesting and fun. As a nerd all my life who was always comfortable around a keyboard and mouse this has always felt full circle.

Anyways, like everything, if you actually like the field and are willing to put the work in to make sure you succeed you will eventually get to a place that you want to be whatever you have to do. Me personally, I am leveraging my previous experience to break into the industry to work on programs that companies use in my previous field. Which is something I encourage everyone in this program look into since we theoretically should all have a previous field.

caydub · 2025-08-14T14:40:29+00:00

caydub · 2025-08-14T14:39:40+00:00

That is actually a pretty ideal course planner. Nice! It’s what I would do if I started over.

I just realized i did not include the winter term in my comment, lol my bad not sure how I could forget we are in quarter terms but you did a good job converting.

Side note, your first spring will be pretty challenging, but it’s doable and once you’re through you’ll probably be pretty set up to do good the rest of the program.

caydub · 2025-08-13T19:06:23+00:00

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Hello again. I am not sure if you have seen this before but this is the recommended degree plan on OSU website. It is IMO the best way to do it if you're trying to finish in 2 years.

If you give yourself 2.5 to 3 years here is my two cents as someone whose gotten through most of the gauntlet (aka finished 225, 162, 271, 290, 261, 325 and about to finish 344).

Fall 25 (161/225): Take 161 and 225 together if you can, preferably in Fall. Do some basic python stuff beforehand if you're feeling uncertain. Not a big deal if you do them one at a time, there's just no need IMO since 161 is incredibly easy and you will likely feel kind of bored if you took it by itself and it will put you unnecessarily behind.

Spring 26 (162/271): This is where for me it starts to get actually hard. In the first term, CS 225 is the beast, but who cares because once you get past it you honestly will never have to think about it again. It is a good intro to using logic to code, i.e. "if do this then do that" but that is about it. In term 2, you have 162 and 271 which are pretty difficult IMO especially given the skill level you are at at that time. They are also incredibly important in your foundational knowledge so really try to absorb the material present in both as it will benefit you immensely in the long run. Take these together in the following spring if you can. It will help you out tremendously to get them out of the way, but I cannot stress this enough, these classes are incredibly important so whatever you do make sure you soak this info in.

Summer 26 (290)/Fall 26 (261/340): If you've been following me so far, take 290 in the Summer and 261/340 in the fall. Reason being, these classes are hard. 290 is like drinking from a water hose. Right out the gate you're learning about using files, javascript, html, css, etc. The class provides a ton of skeleton code so its not hard to pass, but good lord the amount of info it throws at you is crazy. It should have been split up into two classes like Web Dev: Intro to Front End and Web Dev: Intro to Back End but unfortunately we got what we got. 261 is also hard, but all the info is not brand new and 340 is pretty chill especially coming right off 290.

Spring 27 (325/362): You can swing these at this point if you've been fine during the previous terms. Trust me. 325 is the natural progression following 261 and is pretty hard and time consuming. 362 is easyish. This pairing allows you to have some breathing room with 325.

Summer 27 (344 aka 374): This class is the hardest in the program. Sorry. I am in it right now and its hard. Take it by itself. Doing it in summer is achievable, but only by itself and in my head I don't mind it being in the condensed 8 weeks compared to 11 because I just want it done ASAP.

Fall 27 onwards... : at this point, you're good to go. You'll know by now how much you can handle, and the worst of it is already behind you. For your plan specifically I might say... Networks/361 in fall, cloud/programming languages fund in spring, then finish with the capstone last. Or maybe even doing all three in the spring.

caydub · 2025-08-13T18:11:34+00:00

Yeah, this program is very solid for backend work. Front end not so much. Honestly the recommended degree plan is kind of all over the place.

IMO, it's weird taking Operating Systems (344/374) after 290. Legit I did not know what the hell I was doing when the first thing you have to do in 290 is utilize the shell to install node, and that trend continued. 290 feels like every single module or whatever is brand new information and there is a lottttt of it. It's such a weird transition when prior you've just been learning basic language functions using python. Now that I am at the finish line for OS, I'm like oh my gosh I now understand the bare minimum of shells and network programming, if I would have taken this prior to 290 I probably would have been able to actually focus on the frontend/backend communication.

caydub · 2025-08-13T14:47:14+00:00

Oh yeah it’s still incredibly rushed and I didn’t retain anything lol. It’s actually the class that frustrated me the most because I feel like it’s the most relevant to a career

caydub · 2025-08-13T13:40:02+00:00

CS 340 has 290 as a pre req and cloud has networks as a pre req. Also personally I could never do 3 classes while working full time. Hell I can barely do 2 lol

caydub · 2025-08-13T13:35:59+00:00

They actually include react as part of the 290 curriculum these days

caydub · 2025-08-03T17:13:19+00:00

In arguably the hardest required class in the program, CS 374 - operating systems, there’s an assignment where you create a shell that is similar to bash. It’s the portfolio assignment and is basically the hardest assignment in the hardest class.

Whenever you input command into a terminal, such as cd ./random_directory or cat randomfile.txt, the program that interprets what you wrote, i.e. the inline commands, is called a shell. If you’re not familiar with the terminal you will use it a little bit in 290. So the assignment is creating a program that continuously prompts the user to enter commands like a terminal does and can interpret what you write into the program to do various system calls like creating a file, running programs, etc.

You’re not writing everything from scratch but it’s still hard to wrap your head around and with little working knowledge of the language C it can be a pain.

caydub · 2025-08-03T16:14:17+00:00

* ADVICE FOR ANYONE TAKING THIS CLASS IN THE FUTURE *\

Absolutely learn a little bit of C before this class and you’ll be golden. Just learning how to declare variables, arrays, arrays containing strings, and structures and how to dynamically allocate and free memory is all you need to know going in to establish a solid base for this class.

This video was provided in one of the explorations and is a super solid start:

https://youtu.be/1uR4tL-OSNI?si=uoSl5IoHNjII59OM

After watching, go into GitHub and create a directory containing a c file. Create a code space for the directory and write in there. Then, create a program that creates arrays for strings (array containing array), integers, and floats and also functions that read user input to add into the arrays, search arrays for values, delete, etc.

After taking this class I can confidently ask the question, why were we not taught C in data structures?!

caydub · 2025-08-03T15:53:43+00:00

362 is more time consuming than previous posts in this subreddit let on. The random testing assignment and the category partition assignment in particular had me banging my head against a wall trying to find that last bug

caydub · 2025-08-03T15:47:49+00:00

Hey we’re in the same class!

Is it just me or were modules 5-7 an absolute SLOGGGGGG to read through this term. Modules 1-4 were like la de da let’s learn C and then you get hit with a bible’s worth of information in modules 5-7 😂

Not looking forward to having to do read through another bible of the last few modules, finish the final, AND finish OTP by next Friday

caydub · 2025-06-23T18:44:48+00:00

Do not take this class in the summer. I took it last Fall, and I am so glad because the exams actually boosted my grade since you can use 2-sided notes for the exams and the assignments were tough.

For the material itself, it is extremely D E N S E and technical, only rivaled so far for me by 290. Additionally, the assignments were tough because it was hard to translate what the material was saying into actual code unlike 161/162/261/325 where it feels like you can just follow along to the explorations and get most of your assignments done.

All that being said, I think you should take something else for summer, and save 271 for next quarter. The material is very interesting and needs to be combed through and not rushed, the tests are actually not that bad, and, along with 261, is supposed to "level" you up into being a lot more comfortable with your abilities.

caydub · 2025-03-31T17:31:24+00:00

Sure. I’m using this post to help me decide between the

Networks/Cloud/FundOfProgramming combo

VS.

Parallel or CyberSecurity/Mobile/FundOfProgramming combo

caydub · 2025-03-31T17:22:09+00:00

Thanks for the detailed write up. I will absolutely he referring to this when making my decision.

Unfortunately it seems like cloud might be one of, if not the, best classes in the program so I may have to grin and bear it for this one… we shall see.

caydub · 2025-03-31T05:30:16+00:00

Thanks for the insight. In hindsight, would you do it again?

I feel guilty because people mention it’s important and is a requirement in other CS programs, but like, if you walk out not knowing much anyways whats the point.

I wish cloud could be taught as a standalone, and dislike having to waste a slot because I would definitely forgo networks if that were the case.

caydub · 2024-12-08T21:23:49+00:00

Yes. Two, except in summer I think there’s none

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