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Getting a CS Job After Graduation
Oct. 22nd, 2007 10:09 amGoing for a computer science degree is wonderful, but I'm constantly reminded that the degree rarely gives you practical application skills. You might learn the theoretical knowledge of how to develop a programming language, or how to do a Big O analysis of a particular chunk of code, or how to program the hypothetical LC-3 in binary, but so far they've taught nothing about good software design (or anything GUI-related, for that matter) or managing a network or understanding basic security.
And from reading the course descriptions, that probably will never happen, because as one of my instructors pointed out to me recently, "computer science" is not the same as "IT" or "software engineering" or "database management" or any of the other fields that people are routinely hired into. Which means that if I actually want to learn these things, I'm going to have to learn these things on my own for the most part.
But the hardest part for me has been where to start. Compared to the average end-user, I know quite a bit about computers (a scary thought), but compared to my friends and peers in my class, I'm a clueless newbie. I could search the internet all day following links from different computer-related topic to another and not know if I've hit on anything remotely useful for acquiring job skills. And it's so easy to say, learn 10,000 things and I'll be fine, but where should I start?
First of all, I'm pretty sure I want to be a Code Monkey, and not an IT/Sys Admin person. One friend suggested that I do an internet job search to see what kinds of qualifications were in high demand, which brought up a huge number [of the non-IT jobs] requiring experience with .NET. ( The Proprietary Dilemma )
But I'm finding another problem when searching the jobs: the majority of "entry level" positions still have requirements like "1-2 years of experience in..." So I need some advice: how should I go about getting that experience? Most of the people in my degree program already have computer experience and just want "that piece of paper". So how did they (or most people) get their first CS jobs without "that piece of paper"? What did they need to know in order to get them, and how many years did it take for them to learn what they did? How did they learn what they now know? IT jobs seem to be in higher demand, so should I aim for an IT job and try to work my way into coding? And are paying for certifications helpful, or worthless?
There is so much out there when it comes to things to know, and I'm just not sure where to start. Any advice would be a help....
And from reading the course descriptions, that probably will never happen, because as one of my instructors pointed out to me recently, "computer science" is not the same as "IT" or "software engineering" or "database management" or any of the other fields that people are routinely hired into. Which means that if I actually want to learn these things, I'm going to have to learn these things on my own for the most part.
But the hardest part for me has been where to start. Compared to the average end-user, I know quite a bit about computers (a scary thought), but compared to my friends and peers in my class, I'm a clueless newbie. I could search the internet all day following links from different computer-related topic to another and not know if I've hit on anything remotely useful for acquiring job skills. And it's so easy to say, learn 10,000 things and I'll be fine, but where should I start?
First of all, I'm pretty sure I want to be a Code Monkey, and not an IT/Sys Admin person. One friend suggested that I do an internet job search to see what kinds of qualifications were in high demand, which brought up a huge number [of the non-IT jobs] requiring experience with .NET. ( The Proprietary Dilemma )
But I'm finding another problem when searching the jobs: the majority of "entry level" positions still have requirements like "1-2 years of experience in..." So I need some advice: how should I go about getting that experience? Most of the people in my degree program already have computer experience and just want "that piece of paper". So how did they (or most people) get their first CS jobs without "that piece of paper"? What did they need to know in order to get them, and how many years did it take for them to learn what they did? How did they learn what they now know? IT jobs seem to be in higher demand, so should I aim for an IT job and try to work my way into coding? And are paying for certifications helpful, or worthless?
There is so much out there when it comes to things to know, and I'm just not sure where to start. Any advice would be a help....
