Algorithms are a lot more fun now that LLMs have all the geometric heuristics memorized. I think a lot of algorithms are just inescapable in game development, so if you're itching to make an algorithm making something like like a tower defense game has a lot of classic algorithms involved!

The core problem is a severe mismatch between academic curricula and what the job market actually needs on one side and the fact that companies use "needs a college degree" as a proxy to weed out risk and bypass ADA/anti discrimination laws. Both are a massive drain on the economy.

IMHO, at the very least the current CS degree needs to be split up - CS should be split into various smaller (and faster achievable) subdegrees - the fancy math stuff should be its own degree, possibly be fused with a new degree relating to AI, database and network theory should be its own degree, and frankly stuff like low-level assembler as well, and the "how do electronic components, NAND gates, boolean logic and whatnot work" moved off to electronics engineering. And what the market actually needs the most - people who can crank out CRUD app stuff - should be either its own degree if one insists that this needs academic knowledge, or be moved off to something like trades education.

In parallel, the job requirements gatekeeping should be tackled by laws - companies must no longer be allowed to require degrees that have little to no impact on the actual job duties. It's forcing our children to waste years of their life and take on five to six figures worth of debt, all only for companies to be able to weed out people.