Section 4 - Career Advice for Current CS Students

4.1 Course Work Vs. Job Experience

The courses provided at James Madison University are an extremely good introduction to how things are done in the working world, however nothing can compare to actual experience when it comes to starting a career.  I have found that the skills and training that I received in the class room prepared me technically for working in an IS career but did not prepare me for the business or operational end of working.  It is when a person has an even balance of both the technical and business side of computer science that they are a truly marketable individual and this is why an Internship is so very important to career development.

While at James Madison University I feel that all students should strive to take as many classes as they can, and learn as much of the technical information as they can, because it will help in the future.  However, in the 3rd and 4th years students should find any internship possible in order to gain some career related work experience.  Through this related work experience students will begin to receive the business training and operational understanding that will make them a desirable employee.

4.2 Certifications

While at EREN I investigated the possibility of taking the Microsoft Certified Professional (MCP) Exam, but was advised against it by my supervisor.  His reasoning for this advice was that when first entering the job market most companies do not expect their college recruits to be certified in anything, and most of the time they are willing to pay for these certification courses.  In addition he added that certifications are very specific, there is nothing generic about them, and it would not be helpful to have a certification that you may not use in your job.

At EREN there are two MCSE certifies persons and one MCP certified person, they have found these certifications to be helpful but not necessary to  finding a job and or keeping one.  So in turn my advice for current students is to wait as I have until you enter the job market.  It will be much easier to take the test when you know what you are going to be doing, and when you don't have other classes to worry about.  It also does not hurt to have someone else paying for it either.

4.3 Planning For the Future

In planning for a future career in an IS field all students should gain as much knowledge and technical skills as they can in school.  For it is in these technical skills that students will find their true talents, and career paths.  To put it in simpler terms; If you have not tried a lot of things, how do you know the thing that your doing is what makes you the happiest?  I believe that the point of college is to let students try lots of things, so that they can then pick the ones that make them happy.

My next point in planning for the future, is to do what make you happy.  If you start a career in something that does not make you happy then you are preparing yourself for a very depressing and hard life.  Money is not the only reason to take a job, make sure you like the job and the type of people that you will be working with.  So for the future make sure you are happy.

Created By Rodney W. Lam    Email Address: lam2rw@jmu.edu