I was taking computer classes at school and part of the schedule was to learn BASIC language at QBASIC. The subject started with learning how to print out "Hello World" and making elementary software like a calculator. then we started to see some more advanced topics, we learned how to display lines, squares, circles, etc. I didn't understand what was that for but soon it all came, the teacher said: "Today we are going to learn how to make a racing video game". It was the golden age of the PlayStation 2 and for some reason i was innocent enough to think i was going to make a game of that quality but actually it was very simple. It consisted in just two cars racing from the left side of the screen to the right side, and it had to play a sound at the beginning and at the end with the sentence "you win" or "you lose" depending on the case.

I was disappointed to see that i was not going to make a PS2 game but i was happy to do it because it was a start, very basic, but a start.
When i finished high school i knew that i wanted to study something related with programming but i didn't know what. I had many options but in the end it comes down to if you want just a degree in computing or going to college for engineering or something similar.

I chose college because in this country (Venezuela) lamentably if you want to be somebody you have to go to university, and not only that, you have to study something common or something that has to do with politics to not starve. For instance, if you want to be a painter or a secretary, you are going to be poor for the rest of your live, and trust me, being poor in Venezuela is hard. It is sad but it is the truth. Anyway, i believe that professionals have more opportunities anywhere in the world.

Ok, now i know i want the programming and to go to the university. Should you consider a degree in computing or become a computer engineer?. Well for me it wasn't too hard to choose. Both of my parents are civil engineers, they wanted a engineer son, so they brainwashed me. They made me believe that engineers are better, and they were not so wrong. If you go for computer engineering or computer science engineering you'll get more than just programming, you'll get mathematics, geometry, physic, in some colleges chemistry or humanities, economics, accounting, and you'll learn to manage projects, it is a very comprehensive career.

At the beginning of your studies you may think that you are having useless subjects like calculus, geometry, physics or chemistry, but the thing is that they're very important because those subjects are the ones that make you think like an actual engineer, thats what will make you deferent from the rest of the mortals, besides it can be very helpful. For instance, physics and calculus play a very important role in some videogames. And thats an other good reason to choose computer engineering, you can work almost anywhere and learn things that have nothing to do with your work. For example, in Databases II i had to make a database to store information about the oscar awards and now i know some cool stuff about the Oscars.

Having knowledge about economics and accounting being an engineer is also a good thing, it makes you a better option to be hired, or even better, you can make your own business easily.

Engineering career is not easy, in computer science we have to code hard and work in long projects. Before choosing consider how much time you have to study, if you what to spend entire days and nights programming, what you want to do in the future and if you are up to do some sacrifices. Put all your options together, analyze them, put the pros and the cons in a balance and choose the option that best suits your needs.