<p>What extracurriculars should a CS major pursue at Berkeley to have the best employment opportunties postgraduation ? What time should one begin pursuing internships at big tech companies? I might also apply to HAAS later on if I'm not too stressed out at my first semester at Cal - so what extracurriculars should be pursued for Haas admissions? thanks</p>
<p>Join the CS Club.</p>
<p>btw are you guys planning to join frats?</p>
<p>The question still holds. Do CS/EECS majors usually get internships in the summer after their freshman year? What extracurriculars should a pre-HAAS student be doing to stand out from the crowd?</p>
<p>For EECS, usually not, but I know an exceptionally bright EECS major who got an internship at Cisco Systems that summer.</p>
<p>For Haas, just do what you love. Admissions is looking for leadership skills.</p>
<p>The following applies to the CS side of things, not the EE side.</p>
<p>
This is not necessarily true. CS/EECS majors are in high demand. There are tons of startups out there and every single one of them has more coding work that needs to be done. Taking CS61A, CS61B. and CS 70 (possible to fit them in your freshman year) will give you all the theoretical preparation for you to tackle an interview for an internship at FB/Google. What usually prevents someone from getting an internship from FB/Google right after your first year is the lack of general programming experience.</p>
<p>Go to hackathons. Do side projects on your own time, of your own volition. Teach yourself new things. Contribute or create open source projects you are interested in on GitHub (many tech startups/companies will ask for your GitHub user name so they can look up what you have done) (all CS majors should learn how to use git). Berkeley also has a CS club (and they go to hackathons, I believe).</p>
<p>Above all else, what tech startups/companies want to see is your ability to get things done, as evidenced by 1)your own projects and 2)your contributions to other projects.</p>
<p>Check out startuply.com and linkedin.com for postings for startups. As opposed to large companies, startups often don’t have established internship programs or postings (no time), so in those cases you might try cold-soliciting them. Shoot for the stars - apply to any internship you might be interested in. Just be aware that interviews for Google/FB can be tough and they will ask LOTS of algorithm/data structure/discrete math questions.</p>
<p>Off the top of my head</p>
<p>EECS/CS: CSUA, Hackers @ Berkeley, EECS/CS honor societies for connections?
Haas: Business Clubs → leadership positions, other leadership positions, Business Frats</p>
<p>Berkeley Consulting (BC) would actually be perfect for both of your goals. We have a lot of EECS majors and other engineers in our club, and many of our alumni work at places like Google, Facebook, Groupon, or tech startups. One main reason is that we’ve worked with many big tech companies on past projects (Google, Skype, Intel, Microsoft, Adobe, etc), where we actually get to interact with CEOs and top executives, and make a substantial impact. That sort of experience is so useful to talk about in interviews if an internship is your goal.</p>
<p>BC has many business/economics majors as well (since consulting is a career path that many Haas grads take). Very undergraduates get to have real consulting experience, so it makes us stand out when applying to Haas. Also, the skills you gain in terms of research, analysis, and presentation of ideas help in any job.</p>
<p>Anyways, I know I’m shamelessly advertising, but go to bc.berkeley.edu for more info. We actually have infosessions Tuesday (tonight) and Thursday at 7 pm, 112 Wurster. Anyone interested should come out to learn more :)</p>
<p>Even though this thread is from a previous semester, I thought I would add a reply for any other students looking to learn more about organizations at Cal especially clubs orientated to engineers.</p>
<p>About a third of our members have backgrounds in engineering/CS/EECS and our focus on tech companies has really helped us bring and build individuals who have a shared passion between engineering and business. We work with tech companies of all sizes; some of our past clients include Amazon, Warby Parker, Twitch TV and Pinterest. Within these companies, we work with top level executives and managers to help shape strategy in a number of different areas. In just two years, those experiences have helped VC place alumni at institutions like Bain and Goldman Sachs.</p>
<p>Outside of the projects, we have tons of social events including casual kickbacks and weekend retreats. If you are interested, check out our new site at VoyagerConsulting.org</p>