A survey of students and recent graduates indicates that majoring in computer science greatly enhances your chances of landing a job and commanding a good salary.

The findings, contained in the report State of College Hiring 2015, come from Looksharp, a marketplace for internships and entry-level jobs. Its survey of over 50,000 U.S. college students was conducted in April and the quoted statistics are based on  45,968 respondents who completed the full the survey, 2,894 of whom were computer science majors.

A main focus of the report was the value to students of internships with the general finding, across all majors, that students who had multiple paid internships had greater chances of landing full time jobs at graduation.

Students recognize the importance of internships as a stepping stone into a good job and also look for a placement that is relevant to their studies.

Receiving compensation comes well down the list of important factors - but this could just reflect the fact that many students, especially those in arts and academic subjects are unlikely to be paid. The report shows that those majoring in computer science are among those most likely to get paid as interns. Whereas across the entire survey only 52.5%  of students were paid, 77.7% of computer science students received compensation, a proportion only exceeded by engineering students - 79.8%.

Computer Science students also do well in terms of gaining full time employment on graduation. Of 5,598 students who had graduated the year before (in 2014), less than half, 45%, had full time jobs at the time of the survey. However, among computer science students, 61% had full time jobs, making CS the best major apart from military science (62%) and well ahead of the rate of 50% overall for STEM graduates in general.

Moreover, CS students had the highest average starting salary, $66,161 compared to $55,000 among all those who had found jobs. This was in fact slightly lower that what the students themselves had expected - an average $68,120. However, while only 12% expected a starting salary of over $100k, 13% of them who actually got 6-figure jobs and a third had started working at a salary over $75k.  

Add to this the fact that over thirty percent of CS majors had full time job offers by graduation and that of those who were employed by April over 80% had jobs related to their major (compared to only 57% of all those who had found jobs) you can see why computer science appeals to students in terms of future prospects.

Interestingly, however, while three quarters of CS students cited "Good for future job prospects" as a reason for choosing it, 85% claimed they were studying it because they were interested in it.

Even if you are not a CS major having it on your resume is seen as being desirable Looksharp reported:

More than half of students have taken at least one computer science (CS) related class, which ranges from 39.7 percent of freshmen to 60.1 percent of grad students. Students in business majors in particular are highly likely to take one or more computer science classes, at 68.6 percent versus only 33.1 percent of students in academic majors.

Another finding was that students could boost their prospects with MOOCs; 26%  of those surveyed has done online courses through companies like Coursera, Udemy, and CodeAcademy of which 41.6 percent highlight them on their resumes in order to stand out in the job market. 

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