Blog Post 09: Project 02

Getting the Job – PDF By Tyler Cummings, Victor Hawley, Tom Luppi, Norman Morales

Regarding our job interview process PDF:

1. The most important parts of our guide are the importance of networking and how/when to prepare for interviews.  No matter how good of a candidate you are, you must put yourself out there and get your name heard by companies.  While companies try to go out of their way to find the best candidates, there are so many great candidates out there, they could miss some. It is your job to make sure they notice you.  Going to career fairs and handing out resumés and talking to company representatives is the easiest way to do this.  Once you have an opportunity for an interview, it is critical that you prepare effectively in order to continue on in the hiring process.  You might think that technical interviews are not the best way to assess candidates, but realistically, it is the only way that companies can judge candidates.  Because there are many topics that are fair game in computer science, it is important to start reviewing early.

Personally, before starting the job search process, I wish that I had known more about the types of companies that cater to Notre Dame computer science students.  I was surprised at the amount of consulting firms I saw looking for engineers.  I guess I can generalize this to: I wish I had known the job market better before I started looking for jobs.  This would’ve helped in trying to know where I would fit best.  That said, I was able to learn throughout the job search process.

The best advice I received was to do thorough research on companies with regards to things that matter most to you when it comes to working.  For example, if you value a strong work/personal life balance, visit websites like Glassdoor to make sure a certain company you are looking at doesn’t frequently ask employees to work 12 hours a day.

2. The curriculum should certainly be adjusted to face realities of the job market, especially in computer science.  Preparing for the job market and higher learning are not mutually exclusive, and adjusting the curriculum for this reason does not make college any less of a place to learn.  If anything, this makes it more of a place to learn.  Jobs are only getting harder to get, so having a curriculum centered around the job market for that field would encourage teaching core concepts earlier and allow more time later in college for learning specialized topics in the form of electives.  In Notre Dame’s CSE department, I believe many students would agree that there are some requirements from the engineering department that aren’t nearly as useful for us.  Specifically, I would remove the Chemistry II and Physics II requirements to allow fundamental CSE classes to be completed earlier.  If Fundamentals of Computing I was taken in the spring of the First Year of Studies and the corresponding order of classes after it remained, Data Structures would be taken spring of sophomore year, which would be perfect in preparation for internship searches in the fall of Junior year.  Companies consistently test candidates by looking for solid knowledge in data structures, and it doesn’t make much sense that, currently, Juniors try to get internships without having completed that class yet.