I need some guidance
 

So I'm a CompSci student about to graduate in august with a kinda poor gpa , but decent list of skills and some job experience at a local research institute doing system administration tasks. I had a talk with one of my co-workers who had a similar situation to mine where they're parents moved and put them in a bind to either find follow along, or find a new place to call home. My problem is trying to decide if I should leave Texas or explore the world seeing how I'm young , single ,no kids, have a degree in a good field and so on. If anyone could I guess help me decide where to possibly look for jobs, how to handle the stress of leaving your comfort zone(home, and friends), and stay positive it would be appreciated!


-Confused College Senior

how old are you?

21

Monster.com and be willing to move since nothing is tieing you down. Don't forget to factor in cost of living depending on where you move. Avoid the military/DoD world if possible.

Avoid CT if possible too. Cost of living and taxes here are brutal

My father agreed to give me $2,500 for relocation costs I haven't asked my mother yet (parents are divorced) but I figure that's going to be next to zero considering she just bought a corvette less than a year ago and will be paying for moving expenses when they leave in June. I've been looking through Monster.com or Indeed.com for jobs , but I'm just so lost when it comes to picking a company , location , meeting new friends etc.. I'm stressing myself is what I'm doing

Just make sure you bring Kool Aid and say OH YEAAAAAAAAAAAH and you will make friends anywhere.

you're super young, no need to stress.

i went back to post secondary school for the second time when i was 21. and in my class, i was considered young.

you probably won't have your shit figured out for another 8-10 years.

i'm 26, have a decent job, getting married, saving for a house. but i still feel that i don't have my career completely figured out.

I'm stressing because I won't have a place to live, any kind of support system , or job (so far) .... I guess growing up and starting my life is scaring the crap out of me I'm so nervous about finding a decent paying job and a place to live.

So you stayed at home during college? That was your first mistake. Do you have even a part time job currently?

that fear can be good.
you'll have the satisfaction of accomplishment, and learn a lot on the way.
rather than being scared, look forward to it instead.

why would that be a mistake?

Because now he is being thrown to the wolves it sounds like. If his parents had made sure he lived on campus or got an appartment during college then at least he would have some experience in that area prior to them throwing him to the wolves.

i see.
but i guess it saved him some $$$ this way

I left home at 19 with $1000 in my pocket. Threw myself to the wolves. Best thing I ever did because it FORCED me to grow the fuck up and be responsible.

So that is where you went wrong and why you got a supercharger instead of a turbo. It is all becoming clear to me now.

I hace had my own apartment but due to circumstances outside my control I moved back to my mom's house . also I am employeed I have 7+ years part time working fl my dad's various franchises and almost a year of being a student researcher / junior sysadmin / help desk support for a research institute on campus .

So does that pay enough for you to get an appartment till you find something better?

yeah i should have done something like that. fuck!

It wasn't easy. Lot's of hungry nights, but I would do it all over again just to get another Supercharger to piss off @King Tut LMMFAOOOOOO

Maybe with room mates I can find a temp place that , but money is tight . I'm just nervous about finding a job and being on my own again with no friends , contacts , etc..

look up sevone and pm me. we're always looking for people to hire lately. and if you dont mind relocating, i just moved to delaware from ny and am loving it.

So find a roommate or someone to live with and stay where you are comfortable until you find the right time or job to leave for.

Get an internship now if possible, and i mean really try to get one if you don't already do. After you graduate try and work for 2-3 years just to have the "exp" and if you decide you want to stop working and travel the world for a while then you will still be plenty young enough. CompSci is a great degree, i wish i had the brains for it. Good luck out there!

Million times this. A lot of places won't hire without industry experience, and in order to get industry experience, you have to have worked in the industry. It's harder to find a job otherwise.

Don't fret too much. You still have options, and are still in a good position to make out find. Worst case, go back and go for grad school, teach, and end up in academia.

This is from a University Employee going through a CS degree while working. Tons of friends who interned and got a job after graduation. Also have friends who didn't and managed to snag something. I also have bartender friends with CS degrees.

So do you want a job now or do you want to travel now? When you're starting out and broke you likely won't have time or money to travel until you're established.

How's your English? Many people teach English abroad when they want to travel but don't really have the means.

I jumped straight into work, and while I do fairly well for myself I have not had the chance to do anywhere near the amount of traveling I had hoped (I'm now 33). Things tie you down much much quicker than you'd imagine, debt, mortgage/rent, job, GF, other responsibilities. If you have to chance to be free, then I would do that for a while. The working world will be waiting for you when you get back, if you ever come back.

As far as the internship goes I wouldn't mind getting one , and I believe it helps that I have some experience with my job on campus doing IT work for one of the research institutes. I would love to travel but unfortunately funds aren't available.

On the good side I should be hearing soon about the results from my first interview with USAA , but if that doesn't continue then I need to start finding a payed internship of job...

If you want to stay in state go Austin.

If you want to be adventurous go Denver, Seattle/Portland, or Raleigh NC, these places are good for young people trying to get established.

For me if Denver does not work out, I'll go Austin, if you don't believe me just google top ten growing cities/jobs/economy and see for yourself. ^^

Be willing to move. Simple. Once you have your first serious career job, then you can decide on whether to stay in that place, or move sometime later.

Don't make any serious "settling down" decisions until you're securely settled on your own.

That said, see if there's good jobs where your parents moved to. You CAN save a ton of money by living with them while you're getting your career started. A co-worker of mine did that and had enough money saved up over the course of a few years to bought a nice home and drop well over $15k over that into home improvements, and NOT be in debt, all because he was living with his parents until then. Now he's got a house of his own.

So, there's benefits if you can do that, but you don't have to. I didn't. In my case, I'm the one who moved. Grew up in Virginia, went to college in Arizona, stayed in Arizona, but moved from my college town down to Phoenix. Stayed.

In my case, I'm still an apartment dweller and don't have enough saved to put a downpayment on a house. I will eventually, but not right now, and I've been out of college for 7 years.

Either way is fine, but there's pros and cons to each. The key, OP, is to not get locked into going one way or the other. Not until you are in a position employment-wise to be on your own without parental support.

Don't rule out a DoD job especially as a comp sci major. Apply directly with an agency, get the clearance then if you are willing to give up stability for more money, work for a contractor.

With the current budget cuts, I have not been recommending anyone to try for a DoD job.

Where did you graduate? Consider looking for jobs in Austin. Tons of cs jobs here. I graduated with a cs degree too you should have no problems finding a job... And my GPA was poor too

What cs skills do you have? I know there are a lot of managers around me with open reqs. I may be able to help. lots of us hiring right now

try dice.com

and search

"entry level"

Austin eh. Looks good. PMing skills now, haha.

I will graduate from Texas A&M University - Corpus Christi in August. I know some Java, C++, VMWare, Some Linux and Windows administration, played with cisco stuff in simulators for my network administration classes(geared to get us ready for the first two entry level Cisco certs), some forensic tool experience like EnCase and FTK, as well as some experience with penetration testing tools like nmap, metasploit , and so on thanks to the required classes for my specific Cyber Security and Infrastructure degree track.

okay that MAY be a little harder for me to find a job for. Fortunately with CS, the degree is almost completely skill based (unlike say biology, where you come out with knowledge). A big company will likely overlook you. Avoid certifications (i.e. A+, etc.) as they are worthless.

Seriously though, look into austin. there are a TON of jobs. look up companies in austin, and go directly to their website. go to job fairs (definitely the best way to get a job) or try to get something thru alum. like I said, may be a little more difficult since you went to a smaller school, but you should still be able to get a job if you tout your skills



how extensive is your systems programming knowledge (c, posix, perl/scripting languages, grep/awk/sed)?

Also be willing to look in Arizona. Plenty of tech companies here looking for programmers either as directs or as CSWs (contract service workers), though I do know someone who moved from here to Texas b/c of the CS opportunity there.

Aerospace companies will always need software engineers, and commercial aerospace is fairly stable, and avionics makers (like Honeywell, Rockwell Collins, Thales, L3, Ratheon, etc.) will always be updating their software. Not so much a need for programmers for the airfamers, though. Their software/hardware they get from the avionics guys, so those are the companies you'd need to look at if you're interested in working in the aerospace field.

I know my school is small and usually overlooked but at least TAMUCC is a " National Center of Academic Excellence in Information Assurance Education" by the NSA, so that may help.

My systems programming skills are terrible I have no interest in systems programming, I do know how to program for android and actually enjoy making apps and non system programs for Linux! My scripting skills are meh but I have played with php(will be using for my capstone project), ruby , and bash(school job). Also @SirBrass thanks for the heads up on those companies!

What do you mean by "systems programming"?

Also, small school doesn't exactly hurt either. It's really only your first job where school experience has any relevance in engineering/programming. After that, employers will ONLY care about your work experience after school.

I went to a tiny school as well (Embry-Riddle Aeronautical Univerisy - Prescott, AZ campus), but the name was known in the industry. Didn't have all that great of a CGPA either (upper 2's). Know what one of the managers who was interviewing me once said about that? "A 2.76 from ERAU is pretty good." Whereas, take a larger school like ASU, where folks who graduated from there have said to me, "It's easy to get A's, but it takes work to actually learn."

Trust me, employers who regularly hire new grads will know of the good schools, even if they're small. What proves it to them is the quality of the graduates who they end up hiring.

For a new grad, flexibility and ability to learn new coding practices/languages while on the job will be something an employer likes. They have their own way of doing things and you'll be expected to have the skills and flexibility to integrate with that, to use the tools available, even if they're not the tools you're used to, or all the tools you'd LIKE to have (though that's not so hard to get around... if you really do need a certain bit of software that the company doesn't have yet, and can make a good case for it, then a good company will easily foot the bill for the license... though usually you'll find that they have something that's close to or an equivalent of, b/c someone else who came before you realized the same need).

Oh, and if it's big corporate who hires you... keep your head down. You'll find out quickly that Scott Adams comes up with Dilbert strips based upon all the stories he's had sent to him by engineers and other folks who WORK for Big Corporate companies.

As it's said in the "You know you're an engineer if...", "You know that Dilbert isn't a comic, it's a documentary."

There's a lot of military or prior military here. I am prior. Military is not a bad gig and steady pay.

And it might make you a man as well.