I have been studying IT for 2 years and I'm going to graduate soon in this year (if everything goes well). I think it's time for me to choose a path to specialized into some fields of this large industry.
Personally, I want to be a game programmer. But to be a game programmer, surely I have to invest my time to study Windows Programming, then DirectX and other programming techniques related to game.
On the other hand, Linux seems promising as well. I am not sure about Game Programming on for it, but it seems become an expert for this OS, and by expert it's not about using the OS to become an administrator, but can do further than that, such as understand the OS to its essence and can produce applications for it. However, there's some obstacles in my view for this development path. Many of my friends think that Linux is based on free and open source, and if you follow it, as its name suggested: Free and Open Source, it means we also give away our software free. Otherwise, we will have to find a second job to make living. Currently, I think a viable way to make money on Linux is doing works related to client-server.
Another way to developer my career is to become expert in developing business applications for companies. This is more on business, not on specialized IT fields so I am not really interested.
Another alternative is programming on mobile devices, such as iPhone, Android and it seems very promising and easier to approach.
Another way is to become a computer scientist and research on academic subjects such as AI, human-computer interaction, but this is far beyond my reach, so I won't invest my time on it until I feel I am experienced enough.
That's all I can think of for now. I may miss a lot of things, so I need more opinions as input to get the big picture of the industry for my career path.
