I know I'm joining this discussion late, but it's a worthy question. My
"tips" are as follows:
1. While in school, find work doing what you think you're interested in
if at all possible. Leave campus for work. I nailed down my "break-in"
software dev job as a part-timer off campus during the summer before my
senior year. I worked there for one year, then split to Chicago as the
go-to developer for a CRM consulting group. What you're doing while in
school influences your professional life after school.
2. Listen to Peter here. I steep myself in theory all the time, going
back and filling holes where I feel my undergrad didn't suffice. If this
is a discussion for people considering software engineering (otherwise,
why is it on this list?), YOU NEED MATH! Yes, you can program without
math. You can also build cars and bridges without math, but you'll have
a lot more false starts and failed designs when you don't understand the
theoretical underpinnings of your discipline. Theory is critical, and
BYU's colleges are great at theory. Not so much on practice, I admit,
but the CS department can point you to a lot of great jobs and
internships off-campus (see point 1).
3. Dive the heck in. This is a short period, your undergrad days. You
can't really repeat the experience, so dive in and take the challenging,
interesting, engaging classes. Study what interests you. Work on what
interests you. You'll probably get people to pay you for it if you're
good enough, and that's a winning situation right there.
Maybe some of the above will prove useful. Best of luck!
On 08/07/2013 12:31 PM, Peter Konrad Konneker wrote:
I have found time and time again that this program has prepared me
really well for the real world stuff. Knowing the theory behind things
is way better than knowing how to code a handful of specific
languages. Granted I was never in a more "practical" program, but
still. There's only a handful of classes you really need for practical
programming. Rodham was boss at teaching that stuff.
Also I did take EE (224? I think?) For funsies. So that probably
helped a great deal as well.
Your mileage may vary, though.
-Peter
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