Question for Coders, Programmers, Software Engineers, all'a'yall

[dxkj]

I'm about to finish up my last few credits to graduate. I will have a degree in "Computer Science" from a liberal arts college. Probably a 3.1 GPA overall, 3.5+ in Major.

Because of paying my own way through college I had to take a break (semester off) a little over a year ago. I also made the mistake of taking all my computer classes in the first 2 years instead of spreading them out. Summer after Freshman year I had an internship at Compaq and did really well. I would have gone back but that was about the time they went belly up (not my fault I swear).

So at the moment I havn't done a lot of coding recently and am a bit rusty. What should I expect when applying for jobs in the future? Is there anything I should focus on to get "un-rusty" or to be ready for the actual jobs?

Trying to decide between going out and getting a job and going to grad school. Still not 100% sure which to do.


Summary (questions):

1) CSCI major, rusty b/c I've been taking electives/geneds for the last few years.
2) What should I do to get ready for a current job in coding/software, etc.
3) Should I consider grad-school, or just get a job and pay off the loans I already have.
4) Will me coming from a Liberal Arts background give me a bad image, since its not a tech school?
5) Any other advice would be greatly appreciated.

 

[ajpa123]

My 2 cents is... if you're just finishing up your undergrad, if you're considering further education and have the opportunity to go to grad school, do it ! That's All

 

[Savij]

Originally posted by: dxkj
I'm about to finish up my last few credits to graduate. I will have a degree in "Computer Science" from a liberal arts college. Probably a 3.1 GPA overall, 3.5+ in Major.

Because of paying my own way through college I had to take a break (semester off) a little over a year ago. I also made the mistake of taking all my computer classes in the first 2 years instead of spreading them out. Summer after Freshman year I had an internship at Compaq and did really well. I would have gone back but that was about the time they went belly up (not my fault I swear).

So at the moment I havn't done a lot of coding recently and am a bit rusty. What should I expect when applying for jobs in the future? Is there anything I should focus on to get "un-rusty" or to be ready for the actual jobs?

Trying to decide between going out and getting a job and going to grad school. Still not 100% sure which to do.


Summary (questions):

1) CSCI major, rusty b/c I've been taking electives/geneds for the last few years.
2) What should I do to get ready for a current job in coding/software, etc.
3) Should I consider grad-school, or just get a job and pay off the loans I already have.
4) Will me coming from a Liberal Arts background give me a bad image, since its not a tech school?
5) Any other advice would be greatly appreciated.

Yeah, I had all my real CS classes over 3 years ago and i had my first job interview this week. It sucked ass, there was so much I didn't remember. I did look the kind of software the company was writing and studied up on that before the interview and that helped. I still didn't know the answers to some questions like "what's the difference between a mutex and a semaphore"...knew the concept, but couldn't remember enough to tell them what they were looking for.

 

[yllus]

Originally posted by: dxkj
Summary (questions):

1) CSCI major, rusty b/c I've been taking electives/geneds for the last few years.
2) What should I do to get ready for a current job in coding/software, etc.
3) Should I consider grad-school, or just get a job and pay off the loans I already have.
4) Will me coming from a Liberal Arts background give me a bad image, since its not a tech school?
5) Any other advice would be greatly appreciated.

What area of computer science are you most interested in? Network security, software engineering, statistics/optimization, ...?

Brush up on your C in Unix, SQL, Perl.

I don't see the point of grad school in Computer Science, unless you're willing to stick it out in the world of academia.

It was a 4 year BS, right? Don't worry too much about where it came from since you can't do anything about it now. Getting through 4 years of studies in the sciences is no small feat no matter what institution you go to, IMO. Be proud and confident in what you've achieved.

See about taking some classes on interviewing. Talk to your graduate-mates and see where they're headed off to. See if any of your professors would be willing to write you a reference.

 

[Titan]

sounds like you should go to grad school and get back on the programming horse, so to speak. What skills you need as a software engineer really depend on what job you are looking at. Having skill in C/C++, Java, Linux, possibly .NET could in general help your personal development. But what will get you a job is professional perspective, it is good you had an internship to be exposed to the industry, but now you need to decide where in it you want to work. There are many different kinds of jobs a CS major can go into, including software development, test, customer support, IT, system administration, heck, even database administration. If you have excellent written and verbal skills from attending a liberal arts school, you may have the makings of a technical writer. You have to decide what you want, and a way to find that out is to look, and see what's out there. But you will truly have no idea until you get to a job and work in it for a while and then you may gain a better perspective on where you think your talents fit you into the industry.

 

[marquee]

what do you WANT to do? do you want to go to grad school? do you want to work? or work first THEN grad school?

if you go to grad school when your heart is set on working, it's gonna be tough. vice versa, if you really want to stay in an academic environment, you're gonna hate working.

do what you want, not what people say you should do. people taking either paths come out successful, might as well enjoy what you do.

 

[weezergirl]

It really depends on the place you are applying to. In some interviews they can be super technical in which case you might be screwed Or they don't ask any technical questions at all. Or at least very general ones.

As for coding in the work place, I've found coding easier than my school projects. As long as you have the basis of coding down, and are generally confident in your coding skills...it should be easy to pick up. Since I started working I've had to pick up 3 different coding languages that I had never used before and because I know the "basics" of coding it was easy for me to learn and pick it up.

And for grad school...I would see if you can get a job and if not, go to grad school. If you get a job...they will most likely pay for you to go to grad school and work which is great! but if you can't find a job....then you dont' wanna sit around being a bum and grad school is a good idea. Most everyone nowadays is getting it.

Lastly, about graduating from a liberal arts school. It CAN be a factor..but if you can code, it won't really matter. I know a lot of people in my department don't even have an engineering/CS type of degree..they have some wack degree like BIO or something! but maybe they had part time jobs coding or something or previous experience coding...they got hired. So it's all about skill really.

 

[dxkj]

I guess thats part of the problem. I don't know for sure what I want to do.

I would be happy just getting a job where I do ANY type of coding at all. And that includes debugging/going through code and understanding it thoroughly and finding and fixing problems. I would rather not get a network admin/tech support/etc job because that isn't where I want to go with my major.

 

[Nightfall]

Be prepared to take an entry level job making less than average pay. The times of getting a job making 40k a year out of college are over. I know a couple talented programmers making about 30k a year starting out of college. After you prove yourself, you can move on and make more.

That is the best advice I can give.

 

[Apathetic]

Just brush up on your coding skills. Make sure your good at at least one (preferably two) of the following: C, C++, Java, and/or VB. Learning some .NET may be usefull too.

Dave