Student: Prepare for a career

[restless]

Hi!

I'm a college student and interested in computer science and programming.
However, I'm very unsure about which field exactly I want to go in.

Since I have a huge amount of free time, I'd love to do something for my career.
My plan is:

• Work on projects that interest me
• Contribute to an open-source project.
• Research new innovations in my field, in order to get ideas
• Find interesting internships
• Select college courses that introduce me to new things

What other things could you recommend in order to get some clarity about my future? Can you recommend any books or blogs?

I appreciate any ideas!

Yours,
restless

[Manomanman]

Holy ****, you're WAY above the curve if you do all that.

I recommend majoring in that, and minoring in something business-related. Take the GMAT or whatever it's called and get an MBA.

Then, when you go out to get a job in 4-6 year (4 if you do it the Steve Pavlina way ) you'll get offered twice what the programmers are making, and you'll be the boss rather than the slave.

[Rob Ozanne]

Those are all fantastic activities for building up your skills and expertise.

The otherside of having a job or clients is the people side of things. In business relationships and trust are hugely important. It is your network that will bring your best career opportunities. So if you also start building relationships with potential mentors, employers, clients etc you will be in an excellent position when the time comes for you to get paid!

[Alena]

Hi restless! Have you considered participating in various programming competitions, like Microsoft Imagine Cup or the ACM contest?
They are a lot of fun and look great on your CV/resume.

I actually wrote a blog post about them a month ago:

Computer Science students: how to stand out from the crowd and secure yourself a job before you graduate.

[restless]

Have you considered participating in various programming competitions, like Microsoft Imagine Cup or the ACM contest?

Not yet, but I might at some time :-)

I recommend majoring in that, and minoring in something business-related. Take the GMAT or whatever it's called and get an MBA.

Isn't that boring? ;-)

[The Big D]

Originally Posted by Alena

Hi restless! Have you considered participating in various programming competitions, like Microsoft Imagine Cup or the ACM contest?[/URL]

I don't know the MSFT one, but the ACM contest is pretty good. If you can get to the point where you can just whip off the answers to the finals problems, you've really learned something.

[Manomanman]

My advice is: learn to market your products and services NOW.

Freelancing is the wave of the future. EVERYTHING is being outsourced - either to India or to "the homeshore."