This article seems to come from a place of frustration. My parents are recruiters, and they told me perhaps the best job advice I've ever had. They told me that I should get a degree in something that makes me happy.
Granted, I didn't have to pay as much for college as the average kid, they helped me out a lot. But I wasn't devoid of student loans and I didn't have endless money. It ended up that I would become a programmer after I began doing freelance web dev on the side to make extra beer money during college. Since there are few well-paying jobs in the market of singers and other jazz musicians, I started programming full-time.
I still believe that, if you can, you should take courses in college that are meaningful to you. You don't need a comp sci degree to be a programmer. The fact that you have a bachelor's (in ANYTHING) qualifies you for the job.
The problem is that most people don't like programming or don't see themselves doing it. Even those who do might not actually like it all that much once they get into it. While it's true you don't need a comp sci degree to be a programmer (I don't have a CS degree either), I think you need to have at least some passion about computers and how things work or trying to make a go of it as a programmer is going to be much harder and miserable. I've always felt lucky that I truly love what I do and enjoy the process of learning more and getting better, and that oh yeah - job security isn't that big of a deal in our field and we get paid pretty well. For these reasons I've tried to get many of my smart friends wondering what they are going to do with their degrees into the field, but to some, the thought of sitting in front of a computer and cutting code all day sounds unbearable to them.
Granted, I didn't have to pay as much for college as the average kid, they helped me out a lot. But I wasn't devoid of student loans and I didn't have endless money. It ended up that I would become a programmer after I began doing freelance web dev on the side to make extra beer money during college. Since there are few well-paying jobs in the market of singers and other jazz musicians, I started programming full-time.
I still believe that, if you can, you should take courses in college that are meaningful to you. You don't need a comp sci degree to be a programmer. The fact that you have a bachelor's (in ANYTHING) qualifies you for the job.