Is internship a must for CS major?

[Anonymous]

or a part-time job in development

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:One of my DS will be attending college in the fall with the intention to major in CS at UVA. I've always thought that an internship is "highly recommended" for a CS major after the 2nd or 3rd year; however, my recently graduated niece and nephews just disproved my way of thinking.

My niece recently graduated with a CS major from GMU. She graduated in three years through a combination of credits from AP courses in HS and summer classes at GMU and NVCC. Instead of summer internships, she took summer classes at GMU and NVCC. She got several job offers and accepted an offer from Google. Nephew #1 recently graduated with a CS degree from UVA school of engineering. He did the same thing as his cousin. He also got several job offers and accepted an offer from Microsoft. Nephew #2 recently graduated from VTech with the same profile as nephew #1, and he accepted an offer from Oracle.

All three graduated in three years and didn't do any internships while in college and yet they all got high paying offers from employers. That got me thinking, why even bothers with internships when you can graduate early and make more money that way?

Am I wrong on this?

Can I ask what's your niece's starting salary? My niece is also interested in studying CS, and GMU is the most likely one she will be attending. She will be applying for college in a couple years.

This is OP. My niece's starting salary at Google is 150K, 135K for Microsoft and 150K for Oracle.

OP, do you know if they did tech interviews as part of the hiring process or whether they were straight up hires without technical interviews?

Big tech will have technical interviews for all technical roles.

I was asking the OP since COVID has changed all the rules. This would make bypassing internship even more interesting.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I know of a kid- who is graduating from UMD- is hired at CApital One at 120 K with 15K sign on bonus.
She is Indian American.. not that it matters but since one poster brought up race into this.. I'm posting the race.

The young lady did do internships every year at Capital one..

The keyword here is "lady". A female will also have an advantage in the hiring process because companies are looking for diversity. An Asian male will have a higher hurdle to jump.

[Anonymous]

If you get a summer internship at a big tech firm, does it mean you shouldn't have problem to find a job after graduation?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:One of my DS will be attending college in the fall with the intention to major in CS at UVA. I've always thought that an internship is "highly recommended" for a CS major after the 2nd or 3rd year; however, my recently graduated niece and nephews just disproved my way of thinking.

My niece recently graduated with a CS major from GMU. She graduated in three years through a combination of credits from AP courses in HS and summer classes at GMU and NVCC. Instead of summer internships, she took summer classes at GMU and NVCC. She got several job offers and accepted an offer from Google. Nephew #1 recently graduated with a CS degree from UVA school of engineering. He did the same thing as his cousin. He also got several job offers and accepted an offer from Microsoft. Nephew #2 recently graduated from VTech with the same profile as nephew #1, and he accepted an offer from Oracle.

All three graduated in three years and didn't do any internships while in college and yet they all got high paying offers from employers. That got me thinking, why even bothers with internships when you can graduate early and make more money that way?

Am I wrong on this?

In my opinion, the real issue would be why the student has no internships.

If the student couldn’t get an internship for some reason, but genuinely enjoys computers and problem-solving, things will work out.

If the student isn’t really that bright, doesn’t like computers all that much, and is in CS for the money, that kid may start out with a good job but eventually will wash out, because reports that so so CS grads are getting more than $100,000 per year is a sign that tech companies are in some kind of unsustainable tulip bulb mania stage. Kids who get in now need to understand that they need to be prepared for a hard crash.

COVID may be the reason many did not have internships.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:One of my DS will be attending college in the fall with the intention to major in CS at UVA. I've always thought that an internship is "highly recommended" for a CS major after the 2nd or 3rd year; however, my recently graduated niece and nephews just disproved my way of thinking.

My niece recently graduated with a CS major from GMU. She graduated in three years through a combination of credits from AP courses in HS and summer classes at GMU and NVCC. Instead of summer internships, she took summer classes at GMU and NVCC. She got several job offers and accepted an offer from Google. Nephew #1 recently graduated with a CS degree from UVA school of engineering. He did the same thing as his cousin. He also got several job offers and accepted an offer from Microsoft. Nephew #2 recently graduated from VTech with the same profile as nephew #1, and he accepted an offer from Oracle.

All three graduated in three years and didn't do any internships while in college and yet they all got high paying offers from employers. That got me thinking, why even bothers with internships when you can graduate early and make more money that way?

Am I wrong on this?

Can I ask what's your niece's starting salary? My niece is also interested in studying CS, and GMU is the most likely one she will be attending. She will be applying for college in a couple years.

This is OP. My niece's starting salary at Google is 150K, 135K for Microsoft and 150K for Oracle.

OP, do you know if they did tech interviews as part of the hiring process or whether they were straight up hires without technical interviews?

I have a friend that works at Google, hired about 3 years ago now. If I am remembering correctly, they flew him out to CA and put him with the team he’d actually be working with to complete a task and their evaluation determined his fate.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:One of my DS will be attending college in the fall with the intention to major in CS at UVA. I've always thought that an internship is "highly recommended" for a CS major after the 2nd or 3rd year; however, my recently graduated niece and nephews just disproved my way of thinking.

My niece recently graduated with a CS major from GMU. She graduated in three years through a combination of credits from AP courses in HS and summer classes at GMU and NVCC. Instead of summer internships, she took summer classes at GMU and NVCC. She got several job offers and accepted an offer from Google. Nephew #1 recently graduated with a CS degree from UVA school of engineering. He did the same thing as his cousin. He also got several job offers and accepted an offer from Microsoft. Nephew #2 recently graduated from VTech with the same profile as nephew #1, and he accepted an offer from Oracle.

All three graduated in three years and didn't do any internships while in college and yet they all got high paying offers from employers. That got me thinking, why even bothers with internships when you can graduate early and make more money that way?

Am I wrong on this?

In my opinion, the real issue would be why the student has no internships.

If the student couldn’t get an internship for some reason, but genuinely enjoys computers and problem-solving, things will work out.

If the student isn’t really that bright, doesn’t like computers all that much, and is in CS for the money, that kid may start out with a good job but eventually will wash out, because reports that so so CS grads are getting more than $100,000 per year is a sign that tech companies are in some kind of unsustainable tulip bulb mania stage. Kids who get in now need to understand that they need to be prepared for a hard crash.

COVID may be the reason many did not have internships.

This is true. Internships are generally expected in CS and business fields, and the goal is a return offer.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If you get a summer internship at a big tech firm, does it mean you shouldn't have problem to find a job after graduation?

The expectation there is an offer at the end of the internship. In this market, there should be no problem finding a job after graduation.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:One of my DS will be attending college in the fall with the intention to major in CS at UVA. I've always thought that an internship is "highly recommended" for a CS major after the 2nd or 3rd year; however, my recently graduated niece and nephews just disproved my way of thinking.

My niece recently graduated with a CS major from GMU. She graduated in three years through a combination of credits from AP courses in HS and summer classes at GMU and NVCC. Instead of summer internships, she took summer classes at GMU and NVCC. She got several job offers and accepted an offer from Google. Nephew #1 recently graduated with a CS degree from UVA school of engineering. He did the same thing as his cousin. He also got several job offers and accepted an offer from Microsoft. Nephew #2 recently graduated from VTech with the same profile as nephew #1, and he accepted an offer from Oracle.

All three graduated in three years and didn't do any internships while in college and yet they all got high paying offers from employers. That got me thinking, why even bothers with internships when you can graduate early and make more money that way?

Am I wrong on this?

Can I ask what's your niece's starting salary? My niece is also interested in studying CS, and GMU is the most likely one she will be attending. She will be applying for college in a couple years.

This is OP. My niece's starting salary at Google is 150K, 135K for Microsoft and 150K for Oracle.

OP, do you know if they did tech interviews as part of the hiring process or whether they were straight up hires without technical interviews?

No serious tech company hires without technical interviews. The big ones are often multiple rounds, including multiple tech interviews/problem solving sessions.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:One of my DS will be attending college in the fall with the intention to major in CS at UVA. I've always thought that an internship is "highly recommended" for a CS major after the 2nd or 3rd year; however, my recently graduated niece and nephews just disproved my way of thinking.

My niece recently graduated with a CS major from GMU. She graduated in three years through a combination of credits from AP courses in HS and summer classes at GMU and NVCC. Instead of summer internships, she took summer classes at GMU and NVCC. She got several job offers and accepted an offer from Google. Nephew #1 recently graduated with a CS degree from UVA school of engineering. He did the same thing as his cousin. He also got several job offers and accepted an offer from Microsoft. Nephew #2 recently graduated from VTech with the same profile as nephew #1, and he accepted an offer from Oracle.

All three graduated in three years and didn't do any internships while in college and yet they all got high paying offers from employers. That got me thinking, why even bothers with internships when you can graduate early and make more money that way?

Am I wrong on this?

Can I ask what's your niece's starting salary? My niece is also interested in studying CS, and GMU is the most likely one she will be attending. She will be applying for college in a couple years.

This is OP. My niece's starting salary at Google is 150K, 135K for Microsoft and 150K for Oracle.

OP, do you know if they did tech interviews as part of the hiring process or whether they were straight up hires without technical interviews?

No serious tech company hires without technical interviews. The big ones are often multiple rounds, including multiple tech interviews/problem solving sessions.

Our rising freshman (currently HS senior) will intern as a software engineer this summer, and even she had a technical interview before receiving her internship offer.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:One of my DS will be attending college in the fall with the intention to major in CS at UVA. I've always thought that an internship is "highly recommended" for a CS major after the 2nd or 3rd year; however, my recently graduated niece and nephews just disproved my way of thinking.

My niece recently graduated with a CS major from GMU. She graduated in three years through a combination of credits from AP courses in HS and summer classes at GMU and NVCC. Instead of summer internships, she took summer classes at GMU and NVCC. She got several job offers and accepted an offer from Google. Nephew #1 recently graduated with a CS degree from UVA school of engineering. He did the same thing as his cousin. He also got several job offers and accepted an offer from Microsoft. Nephew #2 recently graduated from VTech with the same profile as nephew #1, and he accepted an offer from Oracle.

All three graduated in three years and didn't do any internships while in college and yet they all got high paying offers from employers. That got me thinking, why even bothers with internships when you can graduate early and make more money that way?

Am I wrong on this?

Can I ask what's your niece's starting salary? My niece is also interested in studying CS, and GMU is the most likely one she will be attending. She will be applying for college in a couple years.

This is OP. My niece's starting salary at Google is 150K, 135K for Microsoft and 150K for Oracle.

OP, do you know if they did tech interviews as part of the hiring process or whether they were straight up hires without technical interviews?

Big tech will have technical interviews for all technical roles.

I was asking the OP since COVID has changed all the rules. This would make bypassing internship even more interesting.

Tech interviews are done over zoom.

[Anonymous]

Yes, tech interviews are to be expected no matter when the internship occurs (during summers or after college graduation).

For OP, the reason a new grad may not have had internships during COVID is that companies canceled them, reduced their numbers, or made them virtual, which is obviously less than ideal. So a student taking classes the last couple of summers rather than an internship makes perfect sense to me.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:One of my DS will be attending college in the fall with the intention to major in CS at UVA. I've always thought that an internship is "highly recommended" for a CS major after the 2nd or 3rd year; however, my recently graduated niece and nephews just disproved my way of thinking.

My niece recently graduated with a CS major from GMU. She graduated in three years through a combination of credits from AP courses in HS and summer classes at GMU and NVCC. Instead of summer internships, she took summer classes at GMU and NVCC. She got several job offers and accepted an offer from Google. Nephew #1 recently graduated with a CS degree from UVA school of engineering. He did the same thing as his cousin. He also got several job offers and accepted an offer from Microsoft. Nephew #2 recently graduated from VTech with the same profile as nephew #1, and he accepted an offer from Oracle.

All three graduated in three years and didn't do any internships while in college and yet they all got high paying offers from employers. That got me thinking, why even bothers with internships when you can graduate early and make more money that way?

Am I wrong on this?

Glad to hear this. DC is at UVA and having a hard time getting an internship. Hopefully it will work out soon.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yes. We are Indian-American. I would say it is an absolute must for my DS.

Perhaps OP is White, but we have to always include racism and bias in our calculus at all times. My kid is not going to be given handouts and he is not networked. Whatever he gets in life, he will get only because he is exponentially better than others. So yes, internships, independent projects, research etc...everything counts and is essential.

On my team of 30 developers, 3 are US born non-Indian and non-Asian (2 AA, one white). One is Iranian, one is Sudanese, one is Korean. The rest are Indian or Pakistani (i.e. not born in US). All are US citizens (US federal contractors).

TBH, Indian/Pakistani is somewhat the default.

[Anonymous]

Anyone whose kids are concerned about tech interviews: there are tons of sites like Leetcode that prepare candidates specifically for code challenges in tech interviews.