The "who you know" certainly can get your resume at the top of the pile, and many times that's the hardest part. Just getting the damn interview in the first place.
I think good networking can go a long way. I've gotten at least 3 jobs simply because I knew a guy from a previous job who vouched for me. I recently got filled a position at my company with a guy based almost exclusively on my word alone and a 15 minute in person interview. This is where a good intership can go a long way. My students who had interships almost all got jobs. The ones who skipped out had a much harder time finding the connections needed to get a job.
The "who you know" certainly can get your resume at the top of the pile, and many times that's the hardest part. Just getting the damn interview in the first place.
huh? i'm not a CS student but i've taken some similar classes, (i have an MS in statistics) and I would think the most important math course for CS students would be linear algebra, followed by discrete math and whatever class you learn boolean algebra in. I can't imagine why calc would even be useful.
I had to teach myself new technologies and skills outside of class
I somewhat sympathise with him because K-12 in the US it's beaten into you time and time again that "College is the goal and all you have to do is get a degree and everything will be ok!"
At the same time...
.
College is broke, job market is broke.... any questions?
The right people for the job don't get it, the wrong people for the job get it and have a high turnover rate from what I've seen.
College doesn't teach you the right skills anymore, they'll flood the market with way too many degrees into the same field, college used to set you apart when people went there just to learn, now that everyone is there for job advancement, college isn't even intended to be job training and so it falls flat on its face.
Then when it comes to hiring all this online shit leads to HR looking for the "purple squirrels" or whatever lengthy checklist of semi-bullshit criteria they can invent until they narrow it down to a few candidates.
They might as well ask for a new college grad (22) with 25 years of experience, why not. I saw a job posting that required specifically 10-12 years of related experience. Why not just say they want to poach the talent of someone 35-45 who is mid-career in the exact position they are hiring for, and your name must be James, why not. But don't be too old! If you're 50 then your pension and health insurance costs too much!
So he got a bullshit degree and is surprised that he can't get a job? What a shocker!
If his school is like mine was, it's laughable to even mentioning programming in the same sentence with an IS degree (our school is CIS, not MIS). IIRC, the most complicated "programming" that they are required to do is a course that uses Visual Basic. Most of their other classes are very basic IT type stuff (like how to set up simple networks) combined with some business courses. It's a degree that at best really only qualifies you for a basic helpdesk or IT support type position.
You don't need a CS degree to develop you just have to learn it on your own and stay on top of technology.
Exactly. An IS major by itself isn't good for much other than IT type jobs. You're going to have to do work basically equivalent to a CS minor or double major in order to have a chance at development. But since you're doing it on your own time, your piece of paper doesn't reflect that work and that puts you at a disadvantage, especially considering how the number of actual CS majors is swelling at most schools.
Sure, smart and ambitious people can make it work, they almost always do. But then you'll get all the fools like this author who graduate with an IS degree thinking that it qualifies them for development jobs... and they're gonna have a bad time.
Location is key. Where I live computer science is about as useful as liberal arts. I really wish I had thought that through when picking that path. Trades and mining is where it's at here. Should have been a plumber or electrician. Been looking at jobs in my area as my company will be going through some major reorg and I'm worried they close our office down, and there's absolutely nothing here. Not even help desk jobs. What would be nice is programming and something that is "actual" computer science related, but I knew going in that is not happening here so I aimed for IT. But even that seems to be gone. Most companies are outsourcing that now.
Been looking at work from home options in case I do lose my job, most of these seem to be customer service, but there seems to be options for programming too, mostly contracts though. Sites like rentacoder.com etc... Though you have to compete with people in India and stuff who work for practically free.
So really when picking any degree what's probably very important, and they don't seem to tell you that in school, is to be aware of what types of careers are in demand in your area. That can have a huge influence on what you want to study. Mind you when I was in school computers were booming here and there was a decent amount of jobs. The whole outsourcing thing had not really been considered by companies at this point.
Though my secondary option, and I need to get off my ass and actually execute it, is to have my own programming projects that I can then monetize. online services, mobile apps, games etc... I have maybe a year to get something up and running and I need to be serious about it in case I do actually lose my job, as there's really not much here in tech.
Location is key. Where I live computer science is about as useful as liberal arts. I really wish I had thought that through when picking that path. Trades and mining is where it's at here. Should have been a plumber or electrician. Been looking at jobs in my area as my company will be going through some major reorg and I'm worried they close our office down, and there's absolutely nothing here. Not even help desk jobs. What would be nice is programming and something that is "actual" computer science related, but I knew going in that is not happening here so I aimed for IT. But even that seems to be gone. Most companies are outsourcing that now.
Been looking at work from home options in case I do lose my job, most of these seem to be customer service, but there seems to be options for programming too, mostly contracts though. Sites like rentacoder.com etc... Though you have to compete with people in India and stuff who work for practically free.
So really when picking any degree what's probably very important, and they don't seem to tell you that in school, is to be aware of what types of careers are in demand in your area. That can have a huge influence on what you want to study. Mind you when I was in school computers were booming here and there was a decent amount of jobs. The whole outsourcing thing had not really been considered by companies at this point.
Though my secondary option, and I need to get off my ass and actually execute it, is to have my own programming projects that I can then monetize. online services, mobile apps, games etc... I have maybe a year to get something up and running and I need to be serious about it in case I do actually lose my job, as there's really not much here in tech.
There are entry level positions out there that require at least 3-5 years experience. It's nothing new but doesn't mean you should not apply for it if you know what you want and know your stuff.
Haha overvolt, don't get me started on the retarded job qualifications for job postings I've seen over the years.
Like when I was looking into various SharePoint development positions. One job posting wanted a developer for SharePoint 2010 with 10 years of direct experience. This was also posted in 2010. Not to mention the fact that development for 2010 was vastly different than development for 2007 and very little experience in 2007 develop would directly translate over to 2010 development.
I applied anyhow and when asked if I had that much experience during the interview I basically stated I had over 10 years of development experience which included SharePoint 2007 development. I was specifically asked if I had 10 years of development experience in 2010 only. I look at the dude like he was an idiot and walked out during the middle of the interview. No way in hell I was going to work in a place that retarded.
Lol. I would've first explained the idiocy of his question, called him a dumbass, and THEN walked out.
A new trend I'm seeing in SharePoint positions is calling the position something like "SharePoint Administrator" but then requiring extensive development experience, extensive SQL Server infrastructure experience, and extensive firewall experience. They're just calling it "SharePoint Administrator" to avoid paying the higher salary associated with those other tasks.
Why not move?
Seriously. No one ever said you were guaranteed a job in your home town. Every industry has its areas where it's strong and where it's weak.
I'm still jumping to conclusions as well for all I know they might give us more work in the process and keep us, so who knows. It's just scary how little jobs there is here though. Unless you want to move away from family and the place you know you really need to take a degree in whatever is booming locally and do that research.
indeed, i scored a "3-5 year required" position with less than a year of experience
you just have to know what you are doing