As I understand things, it's possibly the biggest employer of people with computer science degrees, as well as the biggest revenue driver for the software industry.
But perhaps to generalize, the relationship between "look at how creative this discipline is" and "look at what people actually do with it in the real world" is an issue facing every academic field.
Perhaps this is a local thing; almost no one in advertising where I'm from comes out of university computer science.
Agreed on the generalisation though. I'd even wager that the "creativity of this discipline" idea is what is attracting new students to fields that aren't too viable after graduation.
I think you've raised a good point. I appreciate that every discipline wants to present itself in the best possible light. Claiming to be "creative" is one way. As a math major, I certainly felt that I was more creative than those students in other fields. Abandoning that idea is a benefit of old age. ;-) And every discipline also claims "there will be a worker shortage in our field soon" and "what we really teach is critical thinking."
> almost no one in advertising where I'm from comes out of university computer science
Do you not know anyone working at companies like Google? They have tons and tons of computer scientists working on serving the most applicable adverts as efficiently as possible to as many people as possible.
