What Can You Do With a Computer Science Degree?

Below are 14 occupations that computer science graduates commonly move into, most common first. Software Developer leads at $135,980 a year (BLS OEWS, May 2025); across the whole list the middle occupation pays $105,235 and 1 of 14 typically need a graduate degree. A major is a body of study, not a job assignment, so treat every entry as a common destination rather than a promise.

What the degree actually involves: Programming, algorithms, data structures, discrete maths, and a lot of debugging.

Computer science is one of the few majors where the degree and the job share a vocabulary, so a large share of graduates end up somewhere in software, data or infrastructure. The spread inside that is wide: writing product code, keeping systems running, securing them, testing them and analysing what they produce are all different jobs with different days.

Common destinations: 14
Median pay range: $61,860–$140,300
Projected to grow: 10 of 14
Need a graduate degree: 1 of 14

How this list was built

The destinations are the occupations computer science graduates commonly move into. They are ordered by how common the destination is, not by what it pays, so the ordinary outcomes sit at the top where they belong rather than being buried under the flattering ones.
Every destination is matched to a real occupation in the 923-occupation NueCareer career bank. A destination that does not resolve to a bank occupation is dropped rather than shown without data.
All pay, growth, openings and education figures come from that bank: BLS OEWS May 2025 for wages, BLS Employment Projections 2024–2034 for projected change, annual openings and the typical education needed for entry, and O*NET 30.3 Database for what the work involves. Nothing is estimated and no figure here is generated by an AI model.
Destinations whose BLS typical entry education is a master’s or a doctoral or professional degree are marked Graduate study on the list. That flag is read from the federal data, not asserted by us.
What this list is not: a ranking of which destination you should pick, a statement of how many graduates reach each one, or a promise that the degree entitles you to any of them. Read the full methodology.

14 careers a computer science degree commonly leads to

Most common destination first. Every card carries the national median annual wage, projected employment change and openings over 2024–2034, and the typical education people already in the job hold.

1. Software Developer
Computer and Mathematical
Median pay
$135,980
Growth
+15.8%
Openings / yr
115,200
Education
Bachelor's
Research, design, and develop computer and network software or specialized utility programs.
2. Computer Systems Analyst
Computer and Mathematical
Median pay
$105,850
Growth
+8.7%
Openings / yr
34,200
Education
Bachelor's
Analyze science, engineering, business, and other data processing problems to develop and implement solutions to complex applications problems, system administration issues, or network concerns.
3. Web Developer
Computer and Mathematical
Median pay
$92,650
Growth
+7.5%
Openings / yr
5,400
Education
Bachelor's
Develop and implement websites, web applications, application databases, and interactive web interfaces.
Profile coming in the next tranche.
4. Computer User Support Specialist
Computer and Mathematical
Median pay
$61,860
Growth
-3.7%
Openings / yr
40,800
Education
Some college
Provide technical assistance to computer users.
5. Information Security Analyst
Computer and Mathematical
Median pay
$129,180
Growth
+28.5%
Openings / yr
16,000
Education
Bachelor's
Plan, implement, upgrade, or monitor security measures for the protection of computer networks and information.
6. QA Analyst
Computer and Mathematical
Median pay
$104,300
Growth
+10.0%
Openings / yr
14,000
Education
Bachelor's
Develop and execute software tests to identify software problems and their causes.
7. Network and Computer Systems Administrator
Computer and Mathematical
Median pay
$99,130
Growth
-4.2%
Openings / yr
14,300
Education
Bachelor's
Install, configure, and maintain an organization's local area network (LAN), wide area network (WAN), data communications network, operating systems, and physical and virtual servers.
8. Database Administrator
Computer and Mathematical
Median pay
$104,620
Growth
-0.7%
Openings / yr
3,800
Education
Bachelor's
Administer, test, and implement computer databases, applying knowledge of database management systems.
Profile coming in the next tranche.
9. Data Scientist
Computer and Mathematical
Median pay
$120,230
Growth
+33.5%
Openings / yr
23,400
Education
Bachelor's
Develop and implement a set of techniques or analytics applications to transform raw data into meaningful information using data-oriented programming languages and visualization software.
10. Computer Programmer
Computer and Mathematical
Median pay
$100,390
Growth
-6.0%
Openings / yr
5,500
Education
Bachelor's
Create, modify, and test the code and scripts that allow computer applications to run.
Profile coming in the next tranche.
11. Business Intelligence Analyst
Computer and Mathematical
Median pay
$120,230
Growth
+33.5%
Openings / yr
23,400
Education
Bachelor's
Produce financial and market intelligence by querying data repositories and generating periodic reports.
12. Computer Network Architect
Computer and Mathematical
Median pay
$134,050
Growth
+11.9%
Openings / yr
11,200
Education
Bachelor's
Design and implement computer and information networks, such as local area networks (LAN), wide area networks (WAN), intranets, extranets, and other data communications networks.
13. Video Game Designer
Computer and Mathematical
Median pay
$104,000
Growth
+7.0%
Openings / yr
9,100
Education
Bachelor's
Design core features of video games.
Profile coming in the next tranche.
14. Computer and Information Research Scientist
Computer and Mathematical
Graduate study
Median pay
$140,300
Growth
+19.7%
Openings / yr
3,200
Education
Master's
Conduct research into fundamental computer and information science as theorists, designers, or inventors.
Profile coming in the next tranche.

Does a computer science degree decide your career?

For most people, no. Federal survey data has consistently found that only a minority of US graduates work in a job closely related to their degree field, and that share falls further with each year after graduation. The exceptions are the fields where a licence sits at the end of the degree, and they are exceptions precisely because the route is fixed.

The practical reading of the list above is this: 13 of the 14 destinations are typically entered with a bachelor's degree or less, and 1 typically need a master's or a doctoral or professional degree (BLS Employment Projections, 2024–2034). If the destination you want is in the second group, the extra years are part of the decision from day one, not a detail to sort out later.

Not sure this is the right major in the first place? Take the free college major quiz — fifteen questions that score what you like doing against what each major actually asks of you, and show the same real occupations underneath every match.

Computer Science degrees: FAQ

Do you need a master's degree after a computer science degree?

For 13 of the 14 destinations on this page, no: BLS Employment Projections (2024–2034) list a bachelor's degree or less as the typical entry requirement. The other 1 typically need a master's or a doctoral or professional degree, and each is marked on the list below. "Typical" describes what people already in the job hold, not an admissions rule.

What is the highest-paying career a computer science degree leads to?

Of the 14 destinations on this page, Computer and Information Research Scientist has the highest national median wage at $140,300 a year (BLS OEWS, May 2025), against $50,980 for all US occupations. Typical entry education for it is master's, so it usually means further study after the degree. A median is the midpoint of everyone in the job today, so a first salary normally sits well below it.

Which of these careers hires the most people each year?

Software Developer, with about 115,200 projected openings a year (BLS Employment Projections, 2024–2034). Across all 14 destinations on this page the combined figure is roughly 319,500 openings a year. Openings include replacing people who leave, not just new jobs, which is why a slow-growing occupation can still hire heavily.

Is a computer science degree worth it?

That depends on the price you pay for it, which this page cannot know. What it can tell you is where the destinations sit: the middle occupation on this list pays $105,235 a year against $50,980 for all US occupations, the range runs $61,860–$140,300, and 10 of the 14 are projected to grow over 2024–2034 (BLS OEWS May 2025, BLS Employment Projections 2024–2034).

How was this list of careers put together?

The destinations were curated as the occupations computer science graduates commonly move into, ordered by how common rather than by pay, then matched against the 923-occupation NueCareer career bank. Every figure shown comes from that bank: wages from BLS OEWS May 2025, projected change and annual openings and typical entry education from BLS Employment Projections 2024–2034, and occupation descriptions from O*NET 30.3 Database. Nothing is estimated, and no figure on this page is generated by an AI model.

How this list was built

14 careers a computer science degree commonly leads to

3. Web Developer

8. Database Administrator

10. Computer Programmer

13. Video Game Designer

14. Computer and Information Research Scientist