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Are there any jobs that you can do that utilise having a Computer Science degree, which also require you to be doing non-desk work; particularly activities that are active or perhaps even strenuous?

Things along the lines of radio-tower maintenance (though this is likely more suited to electricians and electrical engineers)

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  • Cable TV and home theater installation. Can involve climbing up utility poles, installing wiring in attics, and persuading various computers and modems to talk nicely to each other. Sep 26, 2017 at 23:47
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    How is this question too broad??? Sep 27, 2017 at 6:54
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    Why are “shopping list” questions bad? Also, I can't help but feel like this goes beyond what a workplace expert might be expected to know and is more what a Computer Scientist might know. Sep 27, 2017 at 7:56
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    Sys admin, can be strenuous if you are dealing with large server racks. Also startup companies can cause you to operate in many different roles. At one company I worked at, I helped pack servers for shipment and even got to use the wood shop a time or two. However, that was the exception rather than the rule.
    – Pete B.
    Sep 27, 2017 at 16:58
  • what about, in general, robotics ?
    – Fattie
    Sep 27, 2017 at 19:28

2 Answers 2

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Anything that requires work in industry of any sort. You will end up walking around the plant as systems are typically physically distributed. For example one hot strip mill (steel mill) I worked in was 1.1km long and I had to deal with computer systems along its length. If I wanted to waste 1/2 hour or so I'd walk to the far end.

Currently I work on ship-to-shore container cranes. Not only are they distributed about the port, but they are also physically tall (though not compared to radio towers). And computers are mounted all over them.

In both cases you endeavor to manage stuff from a central office, but when working with computers than control physical equipment nothing beats actually being up close and personal when trying to debug issues.

As an added bonus, if you get work with a company that builds (for example) steel mills or cranes you will also likely have the opportunity to be paid to travel globally.

And while you might think that this is electrical engineering type stuff, you would be surprised as to what sorts of general purpose IT/Software issues there are that you have to deal with. To really do my job I need intimate working details of:

  1. Windows 7 and Windows 10 desktop systems as well as Windows Servers.
  2. SQL databases and in particular MS SQL server (of various types)
  3. Networking
  4. IP cameras
  5. Various 3rd party software packages and how they install and interact in Windows.
  6. Custom programming (C#/WPF for me)
  7. Etc etc.

And while my main job is cranes at the moment, yesterday I was at a company that prints secure documents for a certain government and was installing a custom C#/WPF/SQL database/IIS Website application. This app collects data from computer vision cameras that monitor the inkjet printing onto documents that you might call a SSN card (if you happened to reside in a country that uses the term SSN), and tracks the overall print job quality.

After doing stuff like this I have trouble imagining working for a pure software company that does B2B websites and internal data shuffling applications - I like it that if I screw up my job something can genuinely go "boom"!


NOTE That I have gone with the common idea that people in CS do programming and deal with IT issues. I know that technically this may not bet he case; and that designing languages and building compilers might be a better description of what a pure CS degree includes.

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One job that comes to mind are IT Analyst that maintain physical servers. I've seen server warehouses that have rows and rows of servers and those individuals have to go up and down to make sure everything is working functionally. They sometimes have to lug equipment around which can be strenuous.

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  • That's got nothing to do with computer science though.
    – Jack
    Sep 27, 2017 at 1:03
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    Computer science covers a wide range of topics. I have friends who majored in CS and are IT Technicians.
    – Michael
    Sep 27, 2017 at 1:04
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    Yes, plenty of techs have CS degrees
    – Kilisi
    Sep 27, 2017 at 13:32

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