Advice for a student planning to take Co-Op

Question

I've been studying programming at a local college for 1 year now and I also do a lot of studying at home. This semester, I just realized that I have more than enough credits to be able to apply to our Co-Op program.

I have no idea what kind of job I'll possibly find or get while searching for one and since I'm trying to get experience and learn at the same time while getting paid, I am in no way going to be picky about the job.

What I know right now is some basic VB.net, Java, C++, XHTML, and CSS. I have built small tools here and there that I personally use and I guess that's basically it.

Can I get some advice on how I could be more marketable to employers? Are there particular concepts of programming or IT as whole that I need to be familiar of before applying for one?

Thank you!

Answer 1

Read up on the "soft skills" of a workplace - how to work well on a team, how to communicate, etc. You could also have a look at a dynamic language, such as Perl or Python, to round our your technical skills.

I was hired as an intern (post-degree, but not really qualified for a full job because of my lack of experience in the language, etc.) mostly because I was eager to learn, and was able to convince the hiring manager of that. I've now been at the same company for almost 5 years (though now I'm a manager, not an intern).

You may also want to look at this (possibly a dupe).

Answer 2

Depending on your definition of "some" I would say you are in pretty good shape. The only thing missing from there is any sort of SQL language. SQL is very much unlike the others and if you are planning to work for a corporation writing software for in-house applications (rather than a software development company) you will need to know some SQL. Other than that, just know how to spin what you've got. You clearly are a self-starter and if you have done anything that is "project" oriented (that is, you came up with an idea and built it vs you know how to follow a tutorial) that is always excellent for employers to see. That is especially the case if the application you wrote is designed to make life easier. From my experience co-oping though, as long as you are a hard worker and know how to Google, you're in pretty good shape.

Answer 3

I've had an internship interview where i was asked how to operate a coffee machine and i was pretty much hired lol. I think we even talked about some computer games :) And i actually ended up doing software development for them :) Don't expect much from your first interview, unless you're applying for Google or Microsoft. As you get more experience, your employers would actually consider evaluating your skillset. Until than, just pick a company that you think sounds like a cool place and go with it. As far as skills, definitely check out SQL and OOP concepts. If you're asked something you may not know, don't be afraid to say "I'm not familiar with it, but i am a fast learner and i look forward to learning that." You want to present yourself as someone who's always willing to learn because chances are you'll have to learn to keep up with technology when you're out in the real world. If you have any projects that you're working on in your spare time, DO tell about them. Put them in your resume. Finally, make sure you have good grades.

Answer 4

As other people have said, sounds like you're a self-starter, so that's cool. Lots of other concepts, languages, and so forth will come up as you move ahead (they come up daily, in fact, and sometimes they hit pretty hard), but you already know the most important thing: that you don't know everything.

My advice would be two-fold. First, take the things that you do think you know and figure out which aspects of them you do not know. It's not necessary to actually have worked with the MVC framework for ASP.Net, but it would be cool that the Universe has one of those. And Java Web Start, and Servlets, JSPs, and Hiberate. Etc. And maybe that you don't know what it is, exactly, but it's good to start getting an idea of the Big Stuff You Don't Know (But Know About)... This gives you an enormous advantage in interviews or any type of technology conversation, because you know that there are technologies to solve problems. And you, with a bit of Googling and some time, could be the person implementing those technologies.

The second piece of advice would be to take the tools you have made for your own personal use and PUBLISH THEM. This is huge, because it means making them generic enough so that they're not just for you. The UI has to be comprehensible. They have to installable and you won't be around to install them... etc. Taking any of your pet projects out to the publishing phase (and then getting users, money?, fame, whatever) is great in terms of what you get to know. Deployment is probably the most important phase for a developer to be familiar with because deployment is Opening Night for any software project. If it doesn't make it through Opening Night, everything else has been "just rehearsing." I don't mean that you have to get your stuff published and be super-professional, but just that you take it to the next level.

Hope this helps.