Section 4.0

     Many aspects of my course career at JMU managed to assist me in my work at Fairfield Language Technologies. Obviously, CS courses were some of the more beneficials ones, mainly those dealing with Software Engineering. Prior to my internship, I had taken both CS345 and 346, which are both Software Engineering classes. Those classesd were extremely helpful for my style of internship, as I had to do much work planning for a project before able to actually jump into working on it. I would assume that most other internships for software companies would be the same, considering most work one would do for them is to create new software applications or modify existing ones. This aspect, also, will most likely deal with UML, as it is regularly used in the business world.
     Any programming class would also be beneficial, no matter which language it is in. Most coding styles will stay similar across the board of languages you might use in the business world, and since ActionScript is so similar to Java and JavaScript, my experience in those languages made the transition to ActionScript much easier. I would recommend taking different kinds of programming language classes, if possible, because understanding how different languages do the same tasks will help you to understand languages better overall.
     In terms of non-CS courses, I think it pretty obvious the benefit of a communications or public speaking-type course, especially if you expect to be presenting information before groups, etc. Also, one can never underestimate the power of a writing class, as it would make you a better communicator as well, and would more than likely aid you in landing an internship in the first place.
     Most any type of certification (whether it be MCSE, or in any database design) would look great on a resume. Right now at FLT, we have a number of individuals working on Oracle certifications, as the database functionality has been switched from Cocoon over to Oracle.
     My advice to any current CS student would be to keep working hard and don't give up. I've been there, I know how difficult those classes tend to be at times. But I also believe that every last one of them will pay off in due time. Make sure to get to know your professors and let them see how well you do in certain areas (whatever you're good at), as most would be more than happy to be a perfect reference when you enter the work force down the road. Most of all, though, do NOT become overconfident. I ran into this problem myself, and it will not help you. If you don't know how to do something, make sure you research and do as much as you can to figure out how. Its better to let your supervisor or employer know what you can't do, rather than what you can do. Most employers will aid you in that area, more than you know.