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simply because your friends are also doing computers is not only  misinformed but a disastrous move.
There are obviously many computing courses or degree programmes out there and most of you have requested that I just send you the top list and that’s it.
This kind of a question honestly is simple to deal with but does not need a one- word answer. I strongly feel that before you even think of joining the computing world, the first thing you ought to ask yourself is the motive question — Do you want to follow a career in computing because it pays?
If this is your primary motive then unfortunately I have bad news for you. You do not qualify to be part of this system and will soon fully explain why.
There are thousands of careers out there which are financially rewarding and for starters, you should seriously try to find your space there. Take your time and see where you fit best and remain there.
Real computer nerds, geeks, experts, pundits and enthusiasts are not driven by the financial rewards before they work. I can give you the full history of all the men and women who are more worried about perfecting the product to offer global solutions and to this date they are still doing so.
Today the strongest and oldest computing culture is built by people who are passionately developing free or open source software. The world’s most powerful, secure and stable operating system, Linux was first built by Linus Torvalds, a strong advocate of the open source community.
Linux today has been further developed by the open source community to become the core system of more than 70 percent of network servers.
MySQL is the mother of all databases from the open source community, Apache web server is the symbol of webhosting, Google the world’s largest search engine and its apps is an open source project. Even the Android apps and the open source projects by Google have changed the way people use technology.
The list is endless when we start to mention passionate contribution to our technological world by people who never prioritised issues of imitations or secret coding for personal benefits but opened their projects for all.
Open-source software is computer software that is available in source code form: the source code and certain other rights normally reserved for copyright holders are provided under an open-source licence that permits users to study, change, improve and at times also to distribute the software without any limitations.  
I tend to lose focus whenever I write about the Open Source Foundation as I passionately appreciate their great contribution. In much simpler words, all I’m trying to say is that this world could still be in the Stone Age had we not had such initiative, with the current capitalistic types of ideologists spearheading technological developments today. So am I advocating for the best, yet free software leaving the programmers without any payment? Definitely not.
Today even the Android is one of the most sought after operating systems raking in good sales but it was a result of passionate progressive work which brings such fine products to the market and, yes, the programmers are currently well paid.
Google is currently paying much more than Microsoft although Microsoft is seriously changing its attitude towards the open source community. Lest I be misquoted, all successful passionate technologists are reaping the fruits of persistence and dedication, only after that then you should receive your rewards.
Thus explained, if you are not passionate about technology and computing, you should do the tech world a favour and try other financially rewarding careers out there.
I know of people who spend the rest of their lives complaining every morning about going to jobs they don’t even enjoy but still go for salaries’ sake. This kills the whole enthusiasm and quenches the fire of following a career on one’s heart especially to the upcoming generation, the students at school. So if you have been following up these very important nuggets and still managed to nod your head along then congrats you have probably passed the first entry point of the world of technology.
The test of passion and commitment will make anyone excel in this highly dynamic and volatile industry. So from the long list of current courses on offer which one is the best to take and like our students always ask which one is the most paying?
One other tricky question I consistently get is when students ask me exactly which courses I studied and they want to do exactly the same courses.
Well, for starters I will have to first take you down the character test before I even start to break down the contents of any syllabus. Personally I have been an all-rounder from the hardware engineering, software engineering, network engineering, information security and website concepts, etc.
You can never master these fields over one night but whenever I peruse through a course I’m personally moved to fully understand the concepts and I can never claim to now know it all. At a certain stage and time, I dedicate myself to master a certain concept and there are entry levels to all these courses.
The fields are much broader than these classes I have mentioned. A good example is a career in the networking industry. Currently, Cisco offers the most competitive certifications but you may need more than six years to say you now know it all from the Cisco Certified Network Associate entry level to a CCIE certification including all the voice, wireless, security routing and switching with a practical one sitting exam of US$1 250 expiring under three years is a phenomenal experience.
Today local colleges and universities offer both good courses and useless certifications. Yes, some courses and degree programmes today are just useless and for more light on that one, we will have to pick it up next week and walk you through the courses and their contents. Then you will know the best IT course to take!

The writer is a computing specialist with Technomag. More on http://tech.co.zw, Facebook http://facebook.com/technomagzw , twitter @technomagzw. Email [email protected], [email protected]