What are some good careers in terms of working with computers?

There are so many things you can do with it.

Right off the bat what you probably don't want to do is be a programmer. That job is repetitive, boring and generally low paying unless you are experienced with specialized languages.

Probably a good one in terms of opportunity, pay, and interest is networking and network security. With the worldwide networking system being something that will always be growing you will have a nice safe bet with that.

Anyway if you could work for one company, you should try for Google btw

Computer Engineering is the way to go, but I hope you're good with numbers!

As mentioned, Security is the hottest thing going in IT at the moment.

I'll second networking. Im 19, ending my first year of college and am probably dropping out to go to tech school or something.

I had the same great idea of going into computer engineering..even went so far as to being accepted into Purdue's Freshman Engineering program. I liked building computers (putting parts together), I'm a logical thinker and I love problem solving. Then I realized I'm good at math, but hate it. I also don't like staring at computers doing calculations. To each his own.

So, I switched over to Computer Graphics instead. There's a lot of competition out there, obviously, but as long as you get a good education, get an internship while you're getting that education and work hard on building a stand-out portfolio, you WILL get a job and be paid decently at first with a good possibility of making quite a bit with more experience. If you're lucky enough to open up your own successful studio, money no longer is an issue.

What's my advice? Think about what you really want to spend 8 hours a day doing. Do you want to sit at a computer and run calculations on electrical currents through a silicon chip? Or would you rather sit at a computer and build 3D environments/characters for TV/games/movies? Do you enjoy the the ins and outs of networking (I mean the really high level, nitty gritty details of networking...not just playing with your router's settings)? Would you want to install/tweak/maintain a corporate network for 8 hours every day? How important is making money to you? More important than enjoying what you do all day every day? Would you rather work to live or would you rather live to work? Think about those things, figure out what would keep you interested day in and day out for the next 35-40 years.

Trash Collector.. I see lots of computers in trash cans

Err... you obviously know nothing about software development.
True, you need to specialize in order to make really good money. But that is also true for any field.

I work as a J2EE application architect and I can guaranty you it is the last thing from boring. You don't spend 14hr/day doing something that is boring.

All I can give as advice is that you should go where the money is.
I develop software for large enterprises (Banks, large insurance companies, etc.). Even the smallest of the projects on which I have worked had a budget of many millions of dollar. It is easy to command good money when the budget is large.

Stick out the 4 yr degree, you'll be glad you did in the long run. I know it's hard to see down the road at your age, but trust me on this. Take a year off if you need to...

Yaknow, I went to a prep school that had 94% of its graduates go to college. Between all those people and everyone I met during college, not a single one ever finished college after taking a year off. Some came back a year later for a semester or two, but never finished. Sure, it does happen but its rare that something else doesn't come along during that year off (money, spouse, sheer lazyness) to stop you from going back.

I can't say I agree with taking a year off. I do agree that the 4 years is needed. Push through it, do what you gotta do and get your bachelor's degree.

Quality Assurance is what you're talking about and they make near minimum wage. Its basically a job for high school kids and people in college hoping to get an in with the company so they have a real job when they graduate. $9/hr to play games may seem enticing when you're 17, but think about the fact that 40 hrs/week at $9/hr is $1440 a month or $17280 a year. Not exactly a career to raise a family on, but its a good way to get your feet wet on a path to somewhere that pays more.

Well, on the other hand, I wouldn't want him to just go through the motions and sacrifice his grades. Depending on what he wants to do after college, grades and gpa can play a crucial role and it would be sad to short change himself by bad grades, when a yr off (or 6 months) to get his head straight might have done a world of good. I hear what you're saying though.. I too know friends who took a break and are now in their early thirties and still haven't gone back to finish school. On the other hand, I know people who took 2 yrs off (myself, though it was due to illness) and had no problems starting back. It really depends on the person and what type of goals, motivations, and aspirations that they have.

Thats exactley my point, Im not getting good grades so shouldn't waste my parents money or my time just passing the time. At least I can get something done and some work experience working, and go to tech school or whatever i persue when I have the motivation and determination to do something i want to do. Still, Im in a sucky place in my life right now...

Hate to say it, but if motivation is whats affecting your grades, I really don't think taking time off will change that. Realistically, I'd say get your shit together now or give up the idea of a bachelor's degree completely. If you have the motivation to succeed and something out of your control interferes, then thats a totally different story and you'll most likely make yourself succeed after that obstacle is dealt with. You determine where your place in life will be, no one else. No excuses if your life ends up somewhere you don't like and, on the opposite end, no one but yourself to applaud if you work hard to put yourself in a position you love. You get all the credit, good or bad.

One can't be motivated to achieve something if they don't know what they want to achieve unfortunetly.

Engineering is hard. I got bored of Computer Science because I dislike programming, even though I'm quite good at it -- so I switched. The amount of math is quite crazy (though I could be biased as I'm in a Numerical Analysis class at the moment).

In any case, it depends on what you want to do. I've always searched for the internal workings of things, so it makes sense that I'm doing Electrical Engineering. If you just want to work on PCs, keep in mind it gets old pretty damn fast and you'll be stuck doing it unless you want to take a pretty hefty pay hit changing careers.

go to fullsail.com you can get a bachelors degree in science there in only 21 months.when i get older (only 11y ears old) i ma ognna go there nad work with 3d modeling using maya or maybe game designing or stuff like that dont really know

Here's two cents: it's really good that at this early stage of your life you already have an idea or at least thinking of what you want to be when you grow up. Pursuing a career in the computer field I believe is probably a logical choice in your case considering that you are computer savvy. You might end up doing something else, but it's a good start. It's a very exciting and dynamic field and will constantly evolve. You can be an engineer, designer, scientist, programmer, instructor, etc. It's a fun field and the money ain't bad either. However, to accomplish this, you have to make that one important initial big step, which is getting to a good college/university as some of the posters here suggested. Get that piece of paper called a diploma. Everything else will fall into place. Who knows, someday, you might run Intel, instead of working for Intel. Good luck!

If I did anything with computers, I'd want to be a hardware engineer... computer programming is boring... tedious and annoying when you have bugs. Cool once it works, but it's a bitch getting there. Hardware engineer would be pretty cool.. designing mobos, chips, etc... good thing I'm getting a general engineering degree... I'll probably end up at a big US defense contractor, though. They are always on campus.. as is Google... and NVIDIA.. and all of those companies... Secret Service and FBI were here in the fall. I would advise getting into a good school where you can co-op or something. Instead of a senior thesis, I will work with a team of 3 other engis for a company resolving an issue the company has. Easy way to get into a company that way, too.