Computer Science Career Path Help

[kolleamm]

Hi everyone,
Recently I finished my Bachelors in Computer Science, and since then I've been mostly stuck thinking were to go next from here. I've applied to a lot of software jobs online but haven't had any luck. It seems to me that although what I learned in school seems useful, things such as data structures and efficient algorithms, I seem to lack most of the skills they require in very specific things such as SQL and all sorts of other very specific things which they have a long list of. On top of that most of these places require you have some good amount of experience in these things.

Any advice would be really appreciated.

 

[Jody]

If you're a recent graduate maybe within the last year or two, then you might still qualify for some internships. It's a great way to get experience.

Have you tried applying to a few of those jobs? I was just offered a position that requires a MSc and 3+ years of experience; I only have a BSc with about 2 years of career experience (barely accepted into graduate school beginning later this year), but I'm accepting another offer from a position that was seeking 5+ years of experience with a MSc or PhD preferred. My point to this is that the posted job might have a lot of bullet points, but the requirements are not always firm.

If it's just a few things... It might be acceptable to learn it on your own? I was referred to a position where I did have most of the bullet points satisfied (very low-level hardware), but the interviewer asked me a lot of questions about systems and architecture. I couldn't answer it and was not (did not) get that position, but I didn't disqualify myself from future opportunities... I bought a textbook; studied and practiced those topics, and I was able to answer similar questions with confidence at later interviews. Don't disqualify yourself if you don't want to.

Load your Git with a bunch of classroom assignment and projects. If you did any outside of class be sure to add that too. Try to join projects wherever you can so that you have more to showcase or talk about. I joined a professional society and attended many workshops; they also had projects I could join too.