Ask HN: Comp Sci Student with very little real world experience seeking advice
8 comments
Everyone has mentioned programming, but that's the not only kind of experience that helps.
If you aren't familiar with Linux, start getting comfortable with it. I got my first internship with my only real qualification being that I knew my way around a shell. My tasks were mainly just running scripts on a regular basis, but it lead to getting experience in a lot of other areas.
If you aren't familiar with Linux, start getting comfortable with it. I got my first internship with my only real qualification being that I knew my way around a shell. My tasks were mainly just running scripts on a regular basis, but it lead to getting experience in a lot of other areas.
90% of my programming experience came from this: clubs and hobbies.
I'm sure your school has some sort of club you can join. For me, it was our IEEE student branch, where we competed in a robotics competition every year.
No club exists? START ONE! It's fun! Being a founder is fantastic for your resume, and you'll get a lot more experience than just programming.
In the next year or so, do anything you have to to get an internship.
Find a fun project to do on your own. Personally I prefer things I can touch, as opposed to PC applications. If you haven't before, check out the Arduino platform. I can give you lots of ideas of fun (and useful!) things you can do with it.
I'm sure your school has some sort of club you can join. For me, it was our IEEE student branch, where we competed in a robotics competition every year.
No club exists? START ONE! It's fun! Being a founder is fantastic for your resume, and you'll get a lot more experience than just programming.
In the next year or so, do anything you have to to get an internship.
Find a fun project to do on your own. Personally I prefer things I can touch, as opposed to PC applications. If you haven't before, check out the Arduino platform. I can give you lots of ideas of fun (and useful!) things you can do with it.
I'm still in my University program, and am writing this at my internship. I was COMS for a year and a half. After the first year, I was confident in Java (don't hate), but the only job I could get was contruction or an oil field job. I've been an IT now for 5 years. I recently switched to Management of Information Systems with a focus in security.
Anyways, after your first year of COMS, don't expect to have any jobs. Your more difficult programming will come next year, and then you will become a good asset for a company. If you REALLY want a job, reverse engineer a program that's already out there, or just program your ideas.
I lack the experience to secure any sort of internship Isn't that the point of internships, to give experience to those without any? As far as open source goes, if you don't think you have the ability to contribute read the source until you feel like you understand what is going on in the project. If you still feel like you can't contribute to a project then try to come up with an ancillary project, like a gui front end for a DB project or some sort of convenience tool.
To be fair, a large number of employers of interns are looking for some sort of significant experience (though limited to job experience).
Google Summer of Code is a great way to get involved with open source projects.
Look here: http://code.google.com/soc/
Also: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Summer_of_Code
Edit: formatting.
Look here: http://code.google.com/soc/
Also: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Summer_of_Code
Edit: formatting.
I caught a lucky break and was able to snag an internship at a (at the time) pretty tip-top Silicon Valley company. I'd definitely grab your network firmly and give it a good shake. Something good could fall out.
Build something significant yourself. It can be a web app, a game, whatever. Just pick something that interests you and build it.
Build a website and launch it. Nothing says you can do stuff more than showing the stuff you've done.
If there is anyone out there who has been through a similar path, what did you do to get experience in programing, besides the toy examples that aren't interesting to prospective employers?