**TO ALL Computer Science GRADUATES**

[jimithing2077]

Well as you can tell this is for all CS Majors. Right now im currently in my second year shooting for a BS in computer science. I'm going to be heading into my summer before my junior year and still have yet to find a good internship. The only jobs I've had thus far is being a chef at an intalian restaurant and mowing parks.

I am just curious to hear from those that have graudated with a degree in CS on how difficult it was for them to get a decent job after graduation.

Also, for those that now have a good job in CS, what type of internships did you have as a college student and how did you go about getting it? Also, what are some tips you can give me as to finding a good summer internship doing programming around the Detroit area?

 

[homercles337]

Tough, tough, tough. Silly tough. What would you like to do? If you wan to do fun stuff (R&D) phd, if you want to write code for some dumb a$$ manager, then a BS is good. Also, if youre not at a top school forget about it...

 

[jimithing2077]

currently at Michigan State

 

[homercles337]

Originally posted by: jimithing2077
currently at Michigan State

Do a masters at UCB, Stanford, Penn, or any other school i have experience with. J/K.

 

[MrChad]

Originally posted by: homercles337
Tough, tough, tough. Silly tough. What would you like to do? If you wan to do fun stuff (R&D) phd, if you want to write code for some dumb a$$ manager, then a BS is good. Also, if youre not at a top school forget about it...

:roll:

To each his own. I disliked the theoretical side of CS (i.e. the "R&D"), so I stopped after I got my undergraduate degree. You don't necessarily have to work for "some dumbass manager" if you only have a BS. Many of the pure coding jobs are being outsourced to cheaper labor markets such as India.

If you have good communication and people skills, you might want to look into consulting. You'll get to travel quite a bit, and your job won't be limited to simply churning out code.

 

[MrChad]

Getting back to your original question, see if Michigan State has a career center on campus. They usually help upperclassmen find jobs after graduation, but they can also help students find internships. You can also see if any of your professors have any contacts at local software companies.

 

[homercles337]

Originally posted by: MrChad

Originally posted by: homercles337
Tough, tough, tough. Silly tough. What would you like to do? If you wan to do fun stuff (R&D) phd, if you want to write code for some dumb a$$ manager, then a BS is good. Also, if youre not at a top school forget about it...

:roll:

To each his own. I disliked the theoretical side of CS (i.e. the "R&D"), so I stopped after I got my undergraduate degree. You don't necessarily have to work for "some dumbass manager" if you only have a BS. Many of the pure coding jobs are being outsourced to cheaper labor markets such as India.

If you have good communication and people skills, you might want to look into consulting. You'll get to travel quite a bit, and your job won't be limited to simply churning out code.

Yea, good points Chad. Im a bit flippant with this stuff. Sorry...

@Jimi, internships at good companies are essential. Its not what you know, its WHO you know...

 

[Bulldog13]

I will be graduating in May of this year and have already secured employment.

To be honest, it wasn't that hard for me to get a job. 2 summers ago, the dean of the engineering school called me up and said " You start interning here in a week. Don't fail the drug test." I interned there for 2 summers and this past christmas break. They offered me the job at the end of break. 48k a year + benefits.

My degree is in software engineering, which is similar to CS.

My school has a pretty nuts career center, and pretty much everyone I've talked to (guys in CS, IS, and *gasp* business) have already gotten a job.

It s just a matter of hauling your ass to the career center.

 

[Reckoner]

MIS Grad here,

7 months of looking and have found nothing.

College is the new high school diploma.

 

[kamper]

<-- done 3 years of CS degree

I'm in the co-op (aka internship) program at my school which is supposed to find you jobs. I applied for a bunch and got none but the prospect of not getting a good job after having so much help motivated me to work hard at getting my own. Since then I have found great jobs on my own and I'm in the middle of my 4th work term right now. I don't have any qualms about finding a job after graduating. If either of the two places I worked are hiring when I do, I know I'll be a walk-on but I can now pad my resume well enough that I'm not concerned about looking around for other stuff.

It's the University of Guelph if anyone cares (I'm sure you americans don't )

 

[jimithing2077]

Thanks for the tip MrChad, I was actually thinking that same thing today too. I'll have to get on to doing that as soon as I get back to campus (currently on spring break )

 

[mhillary]

BCA (Bachelor in Computer Applications)

 

[notfred]

I haven't graduated and I already have a job. My supervisor wants to keep me after I graduate, but he says he thinks I'll probably end up going off to some big software company or something. There are jobs out there, you jsut have to be good enough to get them, and that's not just at comp sci, but also your personal and interview skills.

 

[Barnaby W. Füi]

Word. On my second programming job and I haven't taken a damn CS class yet (still in community college :|)

 

[torpid]

Depends on how you compare to others in your class. If you are average gradewise, it's tough to find a job unless you are very proactive. The campus centers usually rely on companeis that are already coming to visit and offer basic services like resume help. so the companies that are already coming to campus are comparing you to every other graduate pretty much. You are likely to find more success looking on your own through other resources.

I don't think a masters is necessary as far as jobs go.

 

[HardcoreRobot]

went to university of texas, graudated may 2004, recruited out of college a semester before graduation

i had no internships, but summer work experience doing IT stuff and some DB work (not much help in getting a job)

edit - COMPUTER SCIENCE degree

 

[Malladine]

got an associates software engineering degree, ended up working as a pc admin @ a bank. I'm currently on ~30/year

 

[ahurtt]

I'll tell you what the business definitely needs are people who can effectively manage projects and architect solutions. Basic programming jobs are going to be outsourced more and more to places like India but the high level work like managing the projects and architecting the solutions (the more "skilled" work) will stay. And what we are lacking, from my estimation, is people with good business sense AND technical knowledge. So many managers I've worked on projects with don't know jack about computers and hardly know how to turn theirs on. But yet they are supposed to be managing and architecting enterprise level solutions. . .these guys are nothing but salesmen who tell the clients, "Yes yes yes" and don't understand the technical limitations behind what customers want and are not even able to coach and guide customers into making informed and technically sound decisions. Therefore, a lot of projects bomb because the customer wanted something that didn't make sense but didn't realize it and the architect or project manager did not know any better. Of course, this requires dealing face to face with people (who can often be very confrontational and hawkish about their money) and that might not be your thing. I think eventually the offshoring situation will turn around when people realize that quality is suffering and all the good programmers from overseas are coming to the states anyway because they know they can make higher wages here. But the downside to all this is that to get your foot in the door at an architect or project management level you have to first have experience. . .It's the old catch 22 thing. So you might just have to take anything that comes your way at first until you have a few years practical experience under your belt. Because most jobs at these levels want at least 5+ years of experience. And the view of us "peon" programmers in the marketplace currently is that we are commodities.

 

[noh0pe]

I go to Northeastern University in Boston which is the #1 co-op (internship) school in the nation. I'm currently on my 2nd co-op (out of a required 3) and I'm starting to believe the field is all about work experience (and to a lesser extent who you know).

After getting my foot in the door with my first CS co-op (tech support and basic web development) the next was incredibly easy with a huge number of companies responding to my resume. Now I'm in a great web development job for a fairly large cancer research organization. Getting a job will no longer be a hassle.

For any of you still in school I'd recommend getting that work experience as soon as possible. I fully expect to make no less than $45k/yr starting when I graduate.

 

[ryokum]

I agree with ahurtt. You have to have good communication skills. Whether you will be doing consulting or internal programming, you will be spending time discussing the wants, needs, etc of the project with the customer or the department you are building it for. You also need to be able to architect a solution. Know how everything works, networking, database structure, different technologies.

I consulted for 6 years and I was able to aquire knowledge on a variety of systems and platforms. Never limit yourself to one thing. Someone once told me some good advice. "Know everything about something, and something about everything." This is extremely important with software development. Whatever your expertise is going to be, know it inside and out, but also, you should be able to speak intelligently about everything else.

Just my 2 cents.