Just finished 4-year eCommerce degree

[zshakir]

Any ideals what I should do next? I know: HTML, intellectual property laws. I was thinking about buying notes (mortgage, invoices, promissory basically IOW’s)

[JPnyc]

Well this is a bit out of my league I'm afraid. What is your end goal?

[dcomiskey]

an e-commerce DEGREE? Where did you earn this supposed degree?

Also, agree with JP. What do you want to do?

[InfoSourcing]

Hi,

My 2 cents here ....

If you have finished your degree good for you, keep it aside and get practical now ... Research into SEO and SEM and see if this area interests you and if so then get serious abt it, see how you can increase online revenue for small and medium business by integrating all this into their ecommerce package ...

Their is eBay, Google Base, Yahoo, keep your eyes on them and follow the trend their is quite lot of things to do .... :)

[The Old Sarge]

an e-commerce DEGREE? Where did you earn this supposed degree?

Also, agree with JP. What do you want to do?

lol That was my first thought. lol

Is there such a thing yet?

[ahasan]

Can I get an e-commerce degree as well :)

Hmmmm

[aethernet]

On Ecommerce degress...

I spent 2 years in a compsci degree at a major Socal university and it was a total waste of time. We had people graduating with a specialization in data networking that barely knew subnet masking. I switched over to ecomm for a semester or so and found it much more practical than a vanilla compsci degree.

In 2002 my data networking class was teaching us NOVELL 4. Not 5, NOT 6 nope NOVELL 4. In my intro to ecomm class I learned about shopping comparision sites, payment gateways and it even touched on SEM/SEO. The problem with US colleges (and most Western countries) is their classes, especially computer related are all but irrelevant except for some cutting edge stuff. Data networking, info sec etc classes are completely outdated but ecomm is new enough that the course load is pulled from current implementations, not Novell 4 or DES equivilants.

In the end though I decided to switch international business degree because I learn computers much better on my own than in a class room.

[TipPro]

Don't trash CIS aethernet; maybe it wasn't for you. Besides for specialized topics taught in elective courses the main areas of studies of CIS could never be outdated and is only irrelevant if you do not understand it. I do agree some people graduate from CIS that have barely learned anything but you will find that with any major in any school.

By the way a lot of universities do not have e-commerce degrees. Instead e-commerce is covered with a Management Information Science degree. MIS, teaches computers from a business perspective. So at most universities MIS is in the college of business instead of science.

My quick break down of the three major areas of computer studies...

Computer Information Science (CIS) - computer architecture, software engineering, and tons of logic, theory, and algorithms. Like aethernet suggested the core classes cover general areas of computing, it is up to the student to choose a more specific area of study to concentrate on.
Who should study CIS: people that already know basic computing well and would like to gain a very in depth knowledge of computers and maybe would be interested in studying computers in graduate school. This field of study is for people that like to know how things work.

Information Science Technology (IST) – Learn some programming (usually Microsoft languages), general computing, relational databases, and tons of database related tools
Who should study IST: people who are good with computers and are in general a DIY (do it yourself) type of person, IST concentrates on one of the most useful topics of computing, databases. You will be able to put what you learned in your first few classes right to work with your own company or Web site.

Management Information Science (MIS) – little programming, database design, networks, e-commerce, user interfaces, tech management
Who should study MIS: If you love e-commerce and the SEO kind of stuff this area of study is for you. If you already have built a successful e-commerce you will excel in MIS up to a point where you may find it too easy (if this is you check out IST). MIS is good if you are interested in a tech management position in a medium/large company (if you are interested in this point you should really get an MBA/MS specializing in MIS).

[aethernet]

TipPro,

If you compare the course load the majority of US colleges teach in CIS/MIS/MBIT degrees to India, Scandinavia (most of Western Europe in fact), Israel etc... we are being left in the dust. Sure MIT and CalTech are great but for us mere mortals who have to make do with a degree from UCLA, USC or the like it is a joke.

You're right compsci wasn't for me. I realize that in IT it's all about what you can do, not what degree you have. And when it comes to technology, I can learn a lot faster by reading a good O'Reilly book and tinkering around myself than in a classroom. In a classroom the teacher has to pace the class around the mean learning ability of the class, so what happens if you are ahead of the mean? You are being slowed down. Add on top of that the utter irrelevancy of 75% of the course load and I think it is a waste of time.

I'm sure you will disagree but that's my $0.02.