<p>My son went to his first career fair. I think that there were somewhere around 130 companies recruiting for engineers. He wore a t-shirt and running pants (I suggested slacks and a dress shirt) and had a lot of fun talking to company representatives. He came out of the place with a bunch of brochures and suggestions to fill out materials at company websites. He's looking for an internship for next summer and there were only a few companies looking for software development interns so he has to follow up with them.</p>
<p>I'm happy that he has his current job - to get something in industry for an internship would be great from my perspective. The companies that he looked at were in the defense, software engineering, financial services (no, not IBanking) and computer networks businesses. There's a lot of doom and gloom in the economy but it appears that there are still a lot of companies out there hiring. I think that the recruiters were ready to schedule serious interviews to hire 2009 grads. Our son is only in his second year.</p>
<p>He got a lot of gadgets at the fair too. So he's tutoring for this year and is shooting for an internship for next summer. Several of the companies there are within a two miles from our home and some are near where I work. I think that he would need a security clearance for some of the jobs but I guess we'd deal with that if it happens. There should be lots of other internship opportunities showing up during the rest of the Fall semester and the spring semester. It would be nice if he lined up something fairly early so that it would be something to look forward to.</p>
<p>^^ Both of my Ds, CS majors (one graduated now), worked at internships. One nice thing about CS internships is that they're paid internships. The internships often turn into a job offer upon garduation.</p>
<p>My Ds gave me a couple of the freebies they received at these fairs, including a couple of tee shirts, so you might want to hit your S up for something cool.</p>
<p>My son went to a career fair at CMU a few weeks ago. He got some nibble in the computer security area. According to him though many of the big companies such as google won't be looking for summer interns until Jan or Feb. He's been lucky to be able to work for my brother's firm (web programming) for the last few summers. They love him and would be happy to have him again, but he'd really like something that he thinks is more interesting this summer. He made more money than I make last summer.</p>
<p>EMC was at this career fair and EMC bought RSA Security a while ago and they're a really serious security firm. I think that courses in Number Theory and Abstract Algebra would make him more interesting. He's already had some of that in his Discrete Structures classes but more wouldn't hurt.</p>
<p>I'm trying to figure out where he'd like to specialize in and the areas that I've suggested are graphics and security (math-heavy areas), databases (safe and tons of jobs), and maybe AI (quite useful in a lot of areas).</p>
<p>What is good to hear, though, is that there are so many companies out there hiring.</p>
<p>We've got an exacting son. BSME, BSHCI, MSCS-HCI and wants a research position. He's on job hunting-conference-visiting trip to Bay area and then to a job fair in Boulder. Then to Germany with his last msft researcher/professor as continuing RA, for hopefully 2 months. Jobs are frozen for the remainder of the year. He has had preliminary interviews, big software wants him, but catbert says no. Something better turn up else its phD on Jan 15.</p>
<p>There are HT opportunities out there, probably more so than other fields.</p>
<p>In tough economic times, I think that research positions are harder to come by unless there are strong tie-ins to the other half of R&D.</p>
<p>On another note, is a university internship better, worse or comparable to a company internship? I would think that a company internship would be better as it's in the "real" world but it's a matter of lining something up for next summer. Son got an email from his department on several undergraduate development positions at his uni for the summer and maybe even during the semester. There are no details on the work so I'm not sure what to suggest to him. Probably to send in an email looking for more details.</p>
<p>My sophomore son, a CS major, attended his college's fall job fair, handed out 5 resumes and received calls for 4 interviews. We really didn't think he would pursue an internship until after his junior year, but we are all encouraged by the results from this first job fair.</p>
<p>I think that would depend on the specific internships. My son has worked in one of his department's labs for the last two summers. He's been able to do some very interesting, "real" work on a building that is now going up on campus. (He is in architectural engineering.) He has also been able to get to know a couple of faculty members quite well, which should help when it comes time to ask for references. OTOH, he is anxious to go to the department's career fair later this month and see what other opportunities there might be for next summer.</p>
<p>(When DS was registering for classes at freshman orientation, one his College's deans met with parents for a Q&A session. One parent asked what she thought was the item most commonly forgotten by incoming students. She said it was unquestionably dress clothes and went on to comment that the number of students who show up for career fairs and interviews dressed inappropriately never ceases to amaze her.)</p>
<p>
[quote]
I would think that a company internship would be better as it's in the "real" world but it's a matter of lining something up for next summer.
[/quote]
I would lean towards an internship at a company as opposed to the Uni for the summer position. It gives more 'real world' experience including dealing with managers and co-workers in a different way than at the Uni, is usually paid for CS positions, and importantly, looks good on a resume. It also will give your S a better idea of what that particular segment of the industry is like. Some areas sound exciting but might not be at a particular company and some sound not so exciting but actually are. When he later applies to company 'B' and they see that he worked at company 'A' it'll mean more than if he did something additional at the Uni since they'll be able to relate to it better. </p>
<p>What he actually does at the internship is important also. In some opportunities he might be doing mostly 'testing' or 'debug' work but in others he might be able to do actual software development. There's nothing wrong with any of these for an intern although he might prefer something like the development over the testing and debug. </p>
<p>However, he might also be able to do some interning type of functions on-campus during the school year and end up doing both - Uni and private company. </p>
<p>Timing-wise, my first D did her internship during or after her third year. My second D however, did her first internship between second and third year. Something to consider would be if your kid wants to do a study-abroad or not. Even at that, some people have managed paid internships abroad and killed two birds with one stone.</p>