Testing Degree finalisation and potential jobs

[Adeil]

Hello everyone, I'd like your opinions/advice on a few things, your help would be greatly appreciated. Right now I'm getting close to finishing my degree but I still have a few parts that I can change and I'm not fully sure what I want to do or what would be best.

I'm currently an undergraduate at a 4-year university, I'm dual majoring in Computer Science and Mathematics with a minor in Psychology.

Firstly, I still have the opportunity to adjust my Mathematics major, I'm wondering if I should major in Pure Mathematics or Applied Mathematics. I'm wondering which would compliment a Computer Science major more, and which companies look more at when hiring people.

Second, my minor, Psychology, I chose that minor because I find Psychology interesting. But so far, I've only taken General Psychology, I'm planning on taking the rest of the Psyc courses in the next few semesters to complete the minor. I'm wondering if companies look highly on a Psyc minor as being useful, maybe beneficial to understanding and working as a team member? Or, what other minor might be useful for CS? Business?

Next, I'm wondering about where I could potentially apply for a job. At the moment, I believe I'll graduate in December 2012. I'm planning on applying to the companies I want to get into in December 2011 saying that I'll graduate in December 2012. If I get in, I'll just go to the company after I graduate. If I'm not accepted, I think I may continue on to get my Masters in CS. I'm worried about getting my Masters (and especially Ph.D.), that I'll become overqualified and not have enough real-world experience to get a job.

My plans for the future have changed a bit in the last month. All the professors I talk to seem to think that a Ph.D. is the best thing to get in CS, and keep pushing for me to go to graduate school. But, talking to some people I know that work for actual companies say that a Ph.D. would make me overqualified for positions, and they would rather higher people with bachelors or possibly masters, rather than a Ph.D. I've also heard that the market for getting a job in CS is very very good right now, and if I were to get my masters or a Ph.D., there's no way to tell what the market could be by the time I get the actual degree.

The last thing I'd like some assistance with is I'd like some help with what companies that would be good to apply for. I would like to work for a company utilizing the CS portion of my degree, I *think* I have a decent chance at getting into some of these because I'm the president of the CS club, I have a published research paper (and potentially more by the time I graduate), I've placed in and won programming competitions, and I have a decent GPA (3.7). I'm planning on applying to: Google, Microsoft, Intel, Blizzard, Amazon, the NSA, Facebook, and IBM. (those are all of the ones I'm thinking of off the top of my head).

If anyone has any opinions/ideas/recommendations for my Math major, my minor, and/or the companies I should apply to, that would be greatly appreciated! And thank you for reading all of this!

 

[Fizex]

For math it really depends on what your school means by applied. The courses you could take that would apply to CS might be information theory, discrete math, numerical analysis, and linear algebra. For jobs it depends on what you want to do at work. If it is research for cryptography then a PhD could definitely help.

Psychology might help with getting a product sold or how the product will affect people's interactions but I don't think employers expect you to psychoanalyze your coworkers. If it's google they have a team on product analysis and advertising.