#littlecodingcorner

[littlecodingcorner]

Hi there! My friend is in his first year as a comp sci major but he doesn't have any ideas on what to pursue as his career and it's really worrying him. Are there any ideas or advice you can give to guide him towards being proactive on what one can do related to CS? Any input would be much appreciated. Thank you!

Hi!

I had the same exact problem when I started my Computer Science major. All I knew was that I wanted to do software development but I couldn’t determine what field within CS that I wanted to work in. I hardly even knew what fields existed.

I recommend that your friend thinks about what kind of work they’re interested in. Example: I wanted to do software development and I was interested in mobile application development. This later narrowed down to consumer-facing apps. This is a great starting point, in my opinion. I personally don’t have all the CS fields memorized but to name a few: application development (mobile or web), infrastructure, cybersecurity, quality assurance, AI, etc.

Doing research is also useful. Searching online for keywords like “computer science fields” should bring up results you can start to sift through. I also use the sub-reddit cscareerquestions as a primary resource because there a lot of people in the industry who post on it. I love and hate it, it’s useful but some people are a little too unqualified to be answering certain things. But I still recommend spending some time on there, it’s where I’ve found a lot of information I needed on all things CS.

Overall, I think exposure is highly valuable to really figure out what you want to do with your CS degree. Schools offer a lot of CS electives that cover different topics and fields, so take advantage of this and take what you can! Exposure can also be found through internships if you’re able to obtain any.

Your friend has a lot of time to figure out what career path they want to pursue, so no worries!

[littlecodingcorner]

The Ordinary Adventures of a CS Senior - Job Hunt Edition | 3

So this series about job hunting didn't turn out the way I had anticipated. It's actually going to my last post about it. This past summer, I had the amazing opportunity to intern at a pretty wonderful company. No, not a "Big 4". The core of this company isn't even tech. But, they're a Fortune 500 company that continues to innovate. I interned during one of the best times as they are integrating more technology into their core business and products. It'll be a new era for this company.

As an intern, I worked on a meaningful project, got to work with diverse group of people, met with people from all levels of the company (and I truly mean ALL levels), and I got to grow as a developer. It was quite an adventurous summer working there.

Earlier this week, I officially accepted a full-time position as an Application Developer from this company to come back after I graduate in June! I'm excited to see what else is in store for me and I look forward to continuing growing as a developer.

I'll talk more about my journey at this company in an upcoming post. And since my job hunt is already done, I'll try to start a new series! It'll be about finding internships and jobs.

[littlecodingcorner]

The Ordinary Adventures of a CS Senior - School Edition | 6

Good news! In my last post, I mentioned getting screwed over by a partner on our assignment for OS class the day it was due. I brought this up with my professor and he told me he'd give me some extra points for attempting to get the assignment done on my own. And so I ended up getting a good grade! I also received a 100% on my quiz, which is better than last week. To top it all off, my partner and I finished our assignment more than a day before it's due. Conquering my OS class this week!

Was assigned a team for my UX class, we get to choose an activity and create some digital prototype for it. Going to be another quarter full of group projects and meetings…..oh joy haha. I enjoy being the unofficial project manager of group projects though, so let's see how this goes.

Also, attempting to eat more but healthier. I have a tendency to eat less food when school starts to get busy. And when I do get the chance to eat, it's all those fatty (but super tasty) foods.

(Photo from this afternoon, didn't get around to making my post until now)

[littlecodingcorner]

The Ordinary Adventures of a CS Senior - School Edition | 4

Been about a week since I posted. It's only been a week and a half of school and I can already feel the busy school schedule starting to hit me. Which explains why a week has gone since my last post; didn't even realize it until today! Working on a C assignment for my OS class. Still nowhere near done, it's due tomorrow night and my partner hasn't worked on it since yesterday morning…. He's pretty good at coding though and he works fast, so I'm sure he'll be able to finish it in time. If anyone knows me, they know that I absolutely hate coding in C. Honestly, the main reason is that the language doesn't click in my head. It's confusing, especially pointers and the errors OH MY GOD they're not as clear as when you receive them in Java.

Trying my best to enjoy my OS class, but it's hard. I really don't enjoy using C. And my professor gives fill-in-the-blank quizzes. I was so prepared to do some short answer or multiple choice with the OS concepts I studied for, but nope we get fill-in-the-blank. You'd think I'd be okay with those if I know my concepts, but oddly enough, it's still difficult knowing all the vocab by heart. Also, the thing is, my professor gives vague sentences, so the word to fill in seems like it could be anything. Yeah. It's hard. At least I know how to better prepare for future quizzes.

[littlecodingcorner]

The Ordinary Adventures of a CS Senior - School Edition | 2

Had my first day of senior year! Almost done with college! (But I'll most likely be doing my MBA in a few years, so more college for me, yay…..haha.) I'm determined to make dean's list this quarter. I was able to do it for the past couple of quarters despite my school schedule being so brutal. It still hasn't hit me that I'm back to school. My body's still running on that summer life. I'll get back into school mood soon enough…I hope lol.

Also, around the time when I hit 500 followers, I'll share my OneNote calendars templates that I use for school! It'll come with notes on how to customize, use, and modify it. So look out for that!

[littlecodingcorner]

The Ordinary Adventures of a CS Senior - School Edition | 5

Not much to update on. Working on an assignment for my UX class. We all had to come up with an experience/activity that we'd like to potentially redesign. I chose the activity of picking up a mobile-ordered item from Starbucks because I know that the mobile-order-and-pay feature of the Starbucks app has been both a blessing and a disaster. Starbucks already has a concept they're working on to fix this and I've personally had the chance to experience it; it's a fairly straightforward fix. But their solution isn't exactly the most conventional for all Starbucks stores which is what makes this an interesting situation to tackle. If my team decides to go with my proposal, it'd be great to see what other solution we could come up with!

On a sad note, I got screwed over by my team member in another class for an assignment…basically the day the assignment was due. He told me he'd get his part done. Found out that he didn't get it done because he was struggling. He never told me he was struggling, all he said was that he'd have it done. It's my first assignment of the quarter for this class and basically my grade is already not going to be where I want it. Thank god we get new partners for each assignment.

[littlecodingcorner]

The Ordinary Adventures of a CS Senior - Job Hunt Edition | 2

Great news! So today, I officially received my very first full-time job offer for after graduation! It's at the company I interned at this past summer with the same team and role, which is Application Developer. Whether or not I decide to accept the offer, it's definitely relieving to know I have a job waiting for me after graduation. 

Right now, I'm still working on job applications for other companies. There are a lot of companies, especially those with their core in technology, here in Seattle that I could potentially work for. Keeping my options open! Before Christmas, I'll have made my decision on a company! It's both exciting and terrifying for me to think about. I'll definitely talk more about the job hunt once I start lining up more interviews and such!

[littlecodingcorner]

The Ordinary Adventures of a CS Senior - School Edition | 1

Heading back to school and starting my senior year next Wednesday! I keep telling myself I’m totally prepared and ready to slay another year, but I could be completely wrong 😅 Spending some of my day preparing my digital bullet journal for school. Junior year, I made a calendar system that worked well for me, so now I’m just changing up the design for something new. But we’ll see how that goes, my design skills are very….average haha. Thinking of making a big post about using OneNote for school; it’s so great once you get the hang of it.

To Do

 Finish Quarter Calendar Template

 Create Annual Calendar Template

 Make Homepage/Table of Contents page