What I need to know for an interview process

[wyrd]

Why would I not go for an internship? I have 0 experience in the real world, everything I know is self taught or learned from school.

 

[quahog]

Go for both. You have to start somewhere.

There are ups and downs with both

Many companies like people with little formal experience but are technically knowledgeable, because they can pay them less.

On the other hand, internships are great but many companies would not let interns get near a pc to write code. Why would they? If the intern writes something good, the intern is gone in 3 months. Someone else would have to pick up the code. Many internships that I have seen are great if you want to know how to file and copy.

But internships can work out well also. You may get new skills/experience/ and contacts.

Either way, good luck.

 

[quahog]

If the internship does not workout:

If you want experience, go to your local church/ synogue / temples / fire station / VFW / union / political party or candidate, etc... and see if they need some application. Do it for the experience, if you get paid good. If you do not get paid ask if you could donate your work (get a tax write-off and a professional reference)

Example:
Volunteer Fire departments have to report on the number of fires that their members attend. In Maryland, many fire stations record this in a notebook. If anything happens to the notebook....Their members recieve a pension if they attend enough fires, so this is very important. They tally this up by hand but pushing a button for a report is easier.

You would end up with full life cycle development experience and something for your resume. Keep the rights to whatever you sell and you can resell it.

 

[wyrd]

On the other hand, internships are great but many companies would not let interns get near a pc to write code. Why would they? If the intern writes something good, the intern is gone in 3 months. Someone else would have to pick up the code. Many internships that I have seen are great if you want to know how to file and copy.

Thats not how the interships Ive looked into have been explained to me (and Ive asked people who work there). For example, the Livermore Lab (government work) assigns a worker to you who gives you work to do, but a lot of time to do it. The worker assigned to you is also there to help you with any questions that you have. Unfortunately its also been explained that getting interships there is very hard.

If an internship does not provide me with an opportunity to gain real world experience, then I simply wouldnt bother with it. A little investigation before applying for an internship usually gives me a pretty good idea whether or not itd be worth applying there.

It could be different in your area, but thats just not how it works with the companies Ive looked into.

 

[Nerseus]

From what I remember, getting internships in general was pretty hard. They were limited, and so many programmers wanted them. I have no idea whether an internship normally leads to a permanent job after college. I know it works that way in other professions, but I have no experience with it in computers.

Having said that, we have just hired 3 part time developers from the local university. One is a student (graduates in December and will come on full time), the other two are teaching assistants and may or may not come on full time when they graduate. We hired the student because we wanted a junior guy and he was very good. He told his teachers about us since were one of the few C# shops in town and they were interested and also very good.

As for learning real world experience from an internship, take note of where you do your internship versus where you might want to work one day. Smaller companies tend to be a little looser on design and documentation while large companies, especially government jobs, tend to put a lot of emphasis on design and documentation (and other procedures). My first job was the former and while I learned a LOT about VB I didnt learn much about working on larger projects the *right* way. Its one of the reasons I left actually, though I wasnt sure what was missing at the time.

-Ner

 

[wyrd]

the other two are teaching assistants

As in theyre students who are a teachers aid, or actually hired by the school to help teaching?

If theyre a teachers aid, did that actually help them get their job?

 

[Nerseus]

Im not really sure of the difference. These are graduate students that are teaching lower level CS courses. When I was in school they were called teaching assistants but that may have channged or maybe I just dont know the difference. My roomie was one, so I know what *he* was called but maybe theyre teachers aids elsewhere?

They got the job because they really knew their stuff (C#) and showed us that they really wanted to learn more (very very hungry for technology). They fit right in as thats what were all about. We all read the magazine, MSDN, get into the technology more than we probably should If it werent for my really cool lava lamp at work, Id be a "nerd". Oh wait... nevermind.

-Ner

 

[wyrd]

Oh I see. It may be different at community colleges.

At my school (community/junior college) some teachers have students who help them as a way to get some minor amounts of experience. Theyre job is to help teach the class and also help students with questions. Technically though it doesnt really teach them anything since theyve already taken the class. The school used to pay teachers aids a minimum wage, but thanks to our lovely governor of California, they no longer do that.

I was actually offered a teachers aid position by my old Advanced VB6 teacher (who now teachers in .NET), but it didnt pay so I turned it down. If it looks good on the resume though I may reconsider, there isnt much work involved and I already have to go to the school for my other classes.

 

[Nerseus]

I was a lab assistant in college. It was mostly keeping the printer stocked with an occasional question about WordPerfect, Viruses, and actual homework. It left me a lot of time to program and play Wolfenstein (the Demo took 3 floppies, it was huge!)

While it paid minimum wage (maybe less), it looked "good" on a resume I thought. Who knows? If youre looking for money, my sis worked at Dominos while in school, bought a franchise her senior year and then sold it a few years later and paid for her house (mostly). Not a bad start

-Nerseus
-Ner