Does your freshman CS major have an internship lined up?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Fwiw, my now second year (at a top CS school) and all of his CS friends had internships lined up after freshman year. It certainly isn't a must, but according to him, most of the CS students had solid internships after their first years.

Special

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don’t know if it would help but what about working at a coding camp over the summer? TIC is typically looking for CS students as counselors. Might look better on resume than just retail. Of course has to have patience for kids though.

That’s cynical.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I used to hire our summer interns. I never interviewed a freshman who had the skills needed to be useful (and as a small company we did need our interns to be at least minimally useful). Either they your child and hadn’t taken the necessary classes yet or worse they were self taught and thought they knew everything but wrote appalling code. We very rarely got second years we could work with either. But we have hired third years who only had unpaid projects or retail jobs on their resumes the preceding summers. It’s not career ruining although I can understand why your child is disappointed. Good luck to them!

This is how my DC was advised; you don't have the skills yet, so don't try to get an internship that will just prove to the company that you can't do the work. Wait until you can do it and do it well.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Fwiw, my now second year (at a top CS school) and all of his CS friends had internships lined up after freshman year. It certainly isn't a must, but according to him, most of the CS students had solid internships after their first years.

now is different than last year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don’t know if it would help but what about working at a coding camp over the summer? TIC is typically looking for CS students as counselors. Might look better on resume than just retail. Of course has to have patience for kids though.

OP here.. interestingly, DC went to TIC for a few years and was a CIT during covid.

It's a good suggestion, though. I'll bring it up with DC. I'm not sure if they like being a counselor, but it might be better than retail, as you say. They could probably do both. Their retail jobs pay better.

[Anonymous]

My freshman got an internship after freshman year thru a connection he had made in high school. No way would he have gotten one otherwise as they have never hired a first year. Working his connections this year again at two different companies (for after sophomore year), but if he ends up back at last year's company he is fine with it (open invitation to return in summers or post grad).

[Anonymous]

My freshman daughter at Pitt CS just received an offer as a software developer intern. It is a small software company where she interned in high school. She also interviewed at another bigger company (did not get an offer) and has head back with another possible interview.

She applied to probably 100 positions, but did not start very early. But it was nice to hear back from a couple places for interviews as a freshman (some without any connections at all). She was in also applying to IT help desk type jobs, just to get something. But the other position worked out.