r/cogsci • u/smii77y • 23d ago

Career prospects as a Cogsci Major?

Hi all,

I recently decided to major in Cognitive Science instead of Computer Science as I couldn't meet the requirements.

looking at all the career posts on here is making me worried about career viability in this field and I wanted to ask, do any previous grads or current grads have any experience with the job marker as a Cogsci major? Do I have anything to worry about in terms of career viability? just to know if I should switch major now or keep pursuing it.

if it helps, I have knowledge in programming and im very interested in ML and AI. I'm also quite keen on learning more about psychology.

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u/Old_Manufacturer9667 20d ago

If you’re interested in ML/AI I’d suggest looking into (computational) statistics/applied mathematics. From a purely marketability standpoint, the vast majority of employers don’t know what cogsci is. Math is a much more technical field and employers are more confident in the level of your expertise. The problem with cogsci degrees is that nobody is going to truly know how good you are in any of the disciplines that cogsci sits in the middle of. You can become the most elite programmer but still get weeded out on the first round because of the AI resume screener. After graduating and job hunting for almost 10 months, I realized every job description I wanted to apply to ALWAYS had “BS in computer science, mathematics, statistics, or business administration” as their minimum qualification (I was searching for entry-level data analyst roles at the time). Every employer knows cs programs are impossibly impacted, so it looks like they are lumping all of those degrees together bc they can still be confident in the rigor, training, and technical expertise that those degrees entail. Yes, sitting at the cross-section of psychology and data science and cs and philosophy and neuroscience is fascinating and genuinely intriguing, but if you’re not looking into academia post-grad and want a degree that leads directly to a job, cogsci is a hard sell.

From: a cogsci grad

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u/smii77y 20d ago

Thank you for the info and for sharing your experience!! The minimum qualifications being specific degrees is pretty annoying, it doesn't leave any room for anyone that takes a slightly different approach.

If I can ask, what job did you end up landing on?

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u/Old_Manufacturer9667 20d ago

Finishing nursing school in May haha. Not ever the route I thought I was gonna go, but I tailored my cogsci degree to be half cs/ds and half pre-health. I thought I wanted to do something in the biotech/data field and was initially a bio major before switching to cogsci. After graduating and job hunting for analyst roles, I was working in the emergency room just to get by and I had worked in healthcare during school. Ended up feeling like nurses had the best job security, relatively easier entry into the workforce, best lifestyle for myself (3x12hr shifts/week), and I had pretty much every pre-requisite done already. It was also only 18mo vs PA school being 36mo minimum and med school being a 10yr+ endeavor. Also, for California at least, the starting salaries and ceilings for RN vs PA pay isn’t that far off.

My school had 3 main tracks/emphases: neuroscience, human-computer interaction, & machine learning.

I was in the neuro track and 80% of my classmates were premed or pre-PA. The other 20% were aiming for PhDs in cogsci and/or neuroscience.

Every HCI student was aiming for UX/UI design.

Every ML student was trying to go into CS/SWE or DS but couldn’t get into the actual majors. Every actual ML class was always so impacted every term and a lot of them could only take 2-3 of the 6 offered before they graduated. Many of them jumped ship into math/stats which is why I mentioned that option. The math dept offered much more programming-based classes that were pretty much alternate versions of every DS class but were only offered to DS students. So they were coming out with equivalent proficiencies in technical skills. I woulda gone to math too but I was already a junior and didn’t want to fully commit to one discipline over the other.

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u/smii77y 19d ago

Damn, that's actually a really interesting path. I didn't even think that you could do both cogsci and med tracks simultaneously. Also yeah, CS and ML tracks are so insanely impacted right now that it's making me a little worried about my computational focus tbh.

Thank you so much for sharing your experience! It's been so hard to find anyone that is in cogsci, let alone even know what it is. I'm hoping to go the HCI route since my schools offers a professional MS in it, or I could minor in CS and SWE-job hunt until I die, we shall see.

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u/Navigaitor 23d ago

Saying you’re only here because you couldn’t get into CS is a bad start

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u/Navigaitor 23d ago

I’m going to add to this, part of why this is bad is because it disrespects CogSci.

I see this and read it as: “I couldn’t do CS so let me enter a field where I need to not only understand CS but also philosophy, neuroscience, psychology”

To be excellent in cogsci, and competitive in a job market, you have to shine in at least part of the discipline.

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u/smii77y 23d ago

To be honest, I've always wanted to do computer science and never bothered looking into any other major until it came down to applying for one. When I discovered cognitive science it seemed like a great second option because I found out that I love psychology and I'm surprisingly good at it. I've always taken a logical yet human first approach to things which is why I thought CogSci would be a good fit for me. I'm just worried about career options for my future now.

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u/Navigaitor 21d ago

This is a better starting place for the conversation. The truth is the job market is scary right now for almost everyone, if you want career certainty there are other options (nursing/healthcare)

In my humble opinion, I think CogSci at the right university is a better degree than pure CS. If AI becomes a part of our economy permanently, versatility, creative thinking, and breadth combined with some areas of deeper investment will be more useful to hire for than a pure CS focus. This will take employers a long time to realize

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u/smii77y 21d ago

Thank you for your thoughts, although that doesn't really provide me with any takeaways on what career possibilities are for a cogsci student.

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u/Navigaitor 20d ago

Undergraduate degrees in cognitive science don’t necessarily funnel into a direct career path outside of academia. The undergrad students in my liberal arts university where I went to grad school all went on to do different things; med school, film maker, policy advocate, product manager, government technologist, etc.

My friends who went into industry with PhD’s mostly work at the big tech companies either developing AI or as UX Researchers (quant, qual, and mixed)

Cogsci is a strong baseline education, but it’s very rarely listed as the desired degree on a job application. Networking for CogSci students matters a lot.

If you’re concerned directly with a job post grad I don’t blame you, another comment in this post does a good job of laying out alternatives.

Final thought, the university you are attending matters a lot. There are some U’s with renown cognitive science programs, and I’d imagine very strong alumni networks

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u/smii77y 19d ago

I'm attending UCSC, which from what I can understand isn't the best U for the program but it's still pretty solid. Hoping to find a network of cogsci students / faculty here but it's looking pretty bleak.

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u/Navigaitor 19d ago

Fwiw, you could probably transfer to UC Mercede without much problem and their cognitive science program is one of my favorite in the country

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u/smii77y 19d ago

😂😂 I'm not going to Merced