CAREER ADVICE

Career Advice for Current CS Students

The class that was most important to providing me with the skills to do my job was CS 240. I learned skills like writing with Vi and maneuvering around the Unix environment. The next class, CS 345, was important because it taught me a lot about the processes for which my job runs in, for example, version control, project management, and team programming. Through those classes, I felt very prepared coming in to my internship. My courses gave a great basis to start from because my work felt just like a project from one of my courses only applied in a real-life setting. ISAT projects also do a great job of modeling the real world to prepare the students. In addition to what my education offered to my internship, I also had to have a good work ethic, communication skills, comfort speaking in front of people, and flexibility in order to make my job successful.

I have a lot of advice to give to CS students because I did many things that really helped me reach my goals. I would recommend doing a lot of research and self-reflection to find what you can see yourself doing in the future. It does not have to be set in stone, but this should encourage you to get an internship in the field you desire. If you like, the field you get experience from the internship and your foot in the door for a career, but if you do not like it then you still learn from the job and you now know to search another field.

Next, you need to do things to help yourself stand out whether it is through your internships, your grades, skills or all of them. During your time in college, one needs to develop those experiences in order to be best prepared for the future. This also means taking advantage of your opportunities like school and internships. Asking questions to your teachers and bosses help so you learn as much as possible. Once in a job, one should get as much training as possible and try to get a good understanding of the big picture of your job, management, and company. All of this work is rewarding because you will minimize your learning curve, which helps your production and ability to learn new skill.

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