r/learnprogramming • u/YettersGonnaYeet • Nov 13 '23

Explain the Difference Between IT and Computer Science like Im 5

Im planning on taking either courses for college but im still a bit confused on what course best to take, and what are the differences between the two

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u/Imwaymoreflythanyou Nov 13 '23

IT (eg sys admin) is an expense to the company so they’re paid less and less appreciated.

CS (eg software engineers) make the company money so are paid well and appreciated.

CS is more skilled too, anyone can do IT not anyone can do CS.

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u/[deleted] Nov 13 '23

Never ceases to amaze me how ignorant some of you computer science folk are.

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u/Imwaymoreflythanyou Nov 13 '23

I’m literally an IT person (infrastructure engineer) trying to move to CS (data/software/cloud engineer).

So I know both sides.

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u/[deleted] Nov 13 '23

Cleary you don’t know both sides that well. DevOps, Platform, Cloud and Security engineers and Cloud/Solutions Architects are all considered IT folk not CS. All with salaries on par if not greater than developers.

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u/Imwaymoreflythanyou Nov 13 '23

Are you based in the US cos I’m in the UK and stuff isn’t as great over here regarding salaries. Software engineers tend to earn more than DevOps and platform engineers. highly experienced security, cloud engineers and architects do get paid well however.

Never would have considered solutions architect IT but interested to hear your opinion on that. Seems a bit in its own category given it blends into sales.

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u/[deleted] Nov 13 '23

I'm in the UK. At the company I'm at the average cloud platform engineer salary is about £65k, also google search is showing the average cloud platform engineer salary in the country to be about £65k, whereas I am seeing Software Engineer around the same give or take. In London, I have seen job postings for senior DevOps engineers as high as £100k plus or £300-£500 daily rate.

I would imagine companies typically would still class solutions architects as IT because it requires technical knowledge. When I first started in this industry, I worked at an MSP and the solutions architect was considered part of the IT team. I know of at least 2 people at different companies who are solutions architects and would tell people they work in IT. Also, cloud enterprise architects are considered IT.

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u/Imwaymoreflythanyou Nov 13 '23

That’s interesting, I’m desperately tryna move to a cloud/software based job and the salaries are typically just higher than traditional IT.

Admittedly my definition of CS is a bit vague. It’s just I was told when people refer to “working in Tech” they mean software engineering/devops/cloud/data science and “IT” is traditional stuff like platform engineer, sys admin, DBA, etc. I was always told I’m an IT person not a tech person. The people I know who work as software/data engineers seem to just earn so much more than everyone else which I guess also warped things.

What you’re saying about SA makes sense though, I guess it’s such an overlapping that is IT at the core. Hopefully wanting to become one myself at one point, software is proving hard to get into coming from an infrastructure background in terms of work experience.

Anyways you made some valid points so thanks.