<p>I don't know yet what the situation is like in the job market, and I don't know what to expect before or after I graduate. I would like to find a job as a programmer or scientist or whatever, with the computer science degree I should get in Spring 2012. I'm confident I can ace just about all my CS classes, but I feel that might not be enough. I want to make sure that I can 100% obtain an entry level job before I graduate or when I graduate. This is my moment of opportunity to figure out how I can do all that I can with the 1.25 years I have left. I would really appreciate some and all advice I can get to make myself #1.</p>
<p>Job experience, job experience, job experience. Get a part-time job relating to the field you want to go into. You’ll receive an edge compared to most other comp. sci. graduates, who often don’t have much to put on their resume.</p>
<p>I was not able to secure an internship so I worked on campus for the school’s College of Medicine working on some small database for this small department. It was probably the best decision I made because I did not have an exceptionally high GPA but I had the equivalent of 1 year experience when I graduated.</p>
<p>I am pretty sure that helped get me in the door for my first job out of college.</p>
<p>Yeah, this info is probably the most important… obtaining experience, so by the time I need to look for real work, I won’t look like a newbie, risk or waste of time.</p>
<p>Our neighbor’s son interned two summers doing computer programming. He had a job offer in hand way before it was time to graduate. He said all the students in the Comp Sci department at our state university had jobs lined up before graduation. My D (who is a high school senior) spent this year as an intern and has been invited to work as a paid intern this summer. She will be majoring in Comp Sci.</p>