Internships and Jobs

Timeline

• 9 to 12 months before you expect to start an intership or job: Start submitting applications. Some of the large companies will complete the hiring process in the fall or early winter for jobs and interships that start in May or June.
• Keep submitting applications until you have committed to a job because some companies will continue hiring up to the start date.

Finding Positions to Apply For

• The Skidmore Career Development Center has Online Career Resources. They also have information about career fairs and other job search events.
• Attend professional conferences that include a job fair. For example: the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing; the ACM Richard Tapia Celebration of Diversity in Computing.
• Participate in a computing competition (such as a hackathon) where company recruiters will be in attendance.
• Sign up in the career center of professional organizations such as ACM and IEEE. The professional organization career centers typically allow you create a profile that is available for companies to search for, and have job postings from companies.

Preparing Your Resume, LinkedIn Profile, and Project Examples

• The Skidmore Career Development Center has a Resume and Cover Letter Guide
• Create a LinkedIn profile that highlights your Computer Science skills. Make sure this profile has a professional look!
• Provide descriptions of the computer science projects that you have worked on. These could be independent research projects, or class projects.
• Create an account on github to showcase one or more code projects. Make sure that your code has excellent comments and great style. Be prepared to discuss these projects with potential employers.
• Get feedback on your resume, LinkedIn profile, and github projects. Use the services available through the Skidmore Career Development Center, talk with your advisor and your CS professors. Seek feedback from people with different types of experience.
• Here is a sample resume for a generic computer science student. This shows examples of how to highlight your computer science projects, and of how to specify important skills you may have learned from non-CS jobs.

Preparing for a Techincal Interview
It is common to have a technical interview as part of the interview process for a Computer Science job or internship. A good idea is to get together with a group of CS students and practice asking each other questions (do practice interviews with each other).

• Books that have useful information about preparing for a technical interview:
  • "Cracking the Coding Interview"
  • "Programming Interviews Exposed"
  • Any textbook about algorithms and data structures. For example "Introduction to Algorithms" by Cormen, Leiserson, Rivest, and Stein
• Guides to the Technical Interview process:
  • https://learntocodewith.me/posts/technical-interview/
  • https://www.themuse.com/advice/how-to-prep-for-your-technical-interview-advice-from-a-hiring-manager
• Online practice problems:
  • https://leetcode.com/
  • https://www.hackerrank.com/
  • https://www.topcoder.com/
  • https://careercup.com/
  • https://www.interviewbit.com/
  • https://www.interviewcake.com/

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Graduate School

The Computing Research Association (CRA) has a variety of information and resources for undergraduate students who are considering graduate study: https://cra.org/for-students/

Timeline

Note: this is an example of a timeline that lets you work on preparing for graduate school applciations over a period of two years. You can start preparing for graduate school during or after your senior year, but will need to compress this timeline.

• Fall of Junior Year: Start preparing for the GRE exam.
• Spring of Junior Year or early summer before Senior Year: Take the GRE exam.
• Summer before Senior Year: Research graduate school programs. Reach out to faculty who match your research interests, especially for programs that match new students with a research advisor.
• Summer before Senior Year: Begin preparing applications for external fellowships for graduate school funding.
• Early fall of Senior Year: ask three to four faculty members or computing professionals if they are willing to write letters of recommendation for your graduate school applications
• Fall of Senior Year: submit applications to graduate schools. The application deadlines vary. Many are in November or December.

Finding Graduate Programs to Apply To
Talk with the Skidmore Career Development Center, and with your CS professors about your interest in graduate school. Finding a good graduate program for your interests is an individual experience. Rankings of programs by U.S. News and NRC (no subscription needed when accessing the NRC link from the Skidmore campus network) give a picture of the overall reputation of graduate programs. Because graduate study, especially getting a Ph.D., involves specialization in a particular sub-field of computer science, the true quality of a graduate program depends on many factors. Your CS professors can help you choose the best programs to apply to based on your individual interests.

Typical Application Requirements
Every program has its own requirements. This is a list of what Computer Science graduate programs in the United States typically require.

• General GRE exam. There is no longer a Computer Science subject GRE.
• Essay about your academic and research interests.
• Three to four letters of recommendation from faculty members who you have interacted with as an undergraduate student, or summer internship mentors.

Sources of Financial Assistance
Many Computer Science graduate students are able to obtain financial assistance that covers tuition and provides a small stipend for living expenses. This information is specific to graduate school in the United States.

• Work as a Research Assistant or Teaching Assistant: Many universities provide financial support for graduate students through assistanceships. Look for information about assistanceships when you are applying to a program.
• University sponsored fellowships: Some universities have fellowships for exceptional graduate students. In some cases, the university will tell graduate school applicants that they can apply for these fellowships, while in other cases these fellowships are awarded as part of acceptance into a graduate program.
• External Fellowships: United States government agencies as well as private companies sponsor fellowships for graduate students. Examples of fellowships that Computer Science students are eligible for are: the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship; the National Defense Science and Engineering Graduate Fellowship; scholarships from Google.
• International students: some countries have fellowships for students who attend graduate school abroad.