What They Don’t Tell You As A Computer Science Major
Here’s what they don’t tell you when you’re pursuing a Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science. Nobody actually cares that you have a degree in Computer Science. Seriously. After you graduate, not a single employer or recruiter will care that you have a degree. They’re only interested in what relevant experience you have. I’m speaking from personal experience and want to share some advice to anyone pursuing this degree right now.
Is pursuing a CS degree even worth it?
Absolutely. You’ll learn a lot of good programming fundamentals that will help you become an excellent programmer. Courses like Data Structures and Analysis of Algorithms are two of the most important classes you’ll take and will help you during the interviewing process. It’s worth getting the degree but you need to understand that a bachelors isn’t impressive anymore. One of my favorite teachers summed it up like this, “All a bachelor’s degree proves is that you’re able to follow directions.” If you really want to impress employers, you need relevant experience.
You need to do everything in your power to get an internship while you’re still in school.
Relevant experience is worth more than your degree. It’s a joke when you see that 2+ years of experience is required for an ENTRY LEVEL JOB. Do yourself a favor and try your hardest to get an internship as fast as you can. Knowing how an office or a team runs in a practical setting is worth more than anything your teachers will have to offer you.
You will hear this often now, but how you get a job is based on who you know, not what you know. Create a LinkedIn profile and add everyone you can to it. It doesn’t matter if you really know them or not. Do they go to the same university as you? Add them. Are they in the same major? Add them. Don’t be afraid to search for people who have the job that you want and ask for some advice. Try to reach out to recruiters and ask them questions. Maybe one of them will end up getting you an interview!
They don’t teach you what you should be learning.
I’m not trying to say that you don’t need to learn data structures and algorithms. You need them. We are currently in a state of technology where everything is evolving and evolving quickly. If you want to be job ready by the time you finish your bachelors, you need to put in work outside of school to learn technologies that school won’t teach you.
To do this you need to have an idea of what kind of job you want. You’ll need to learn very different technologies if you want to be a web developer than if you want to be an embedded engineer. To know what you SHOULD be learning, you have to look at job postings. Employers will usually specify the tech stack they use which will give you insight on what you should be learning and what technologies are in demand right now.
Personal projects will help you land a job.
Having personal projects on your GitHub shows employers that you are actually interested in programming and you know the technologies that are on your resume. Don’t copy a project tutorial on YouTube because thousands of other people have done that same thing. You won’t be special or stand out with common tutorial projects. You need a project that is unique to you and shows your personality. It doesn’t have to be perfect or complex. It just needs to be something that shows you care about what you’re doing and what you’re learning. You should aim to have one to two good personal projects on your GitHub and resume.
Don’t ignore school though.
These are things I had to learn the hard way. I wanted to share my experiences with the world so other students could be more prepared than I was. You have to work really hard as a computer science major, both in school and out of school. Don’t let your grades fall and focus too much on outside projects because getting that degree is still important. FAANG companies might even ask for a copy of your transcripts if you apply for internships so it’s important to keep up with school. What you learn at university is important, unfortunately it’s just not enough to land an entry level job.
