No internship Question

Digital Society

Hi

Im just looking for some opinions.

Im currently studying for a Degree in Software Development with a flexible semester approaching soon. Due to unforeseen family issues theres a 99% chance i wont be able to take an internship during 3rd year.

However i intend to carry on and study for a Masters in Software. I already have the money put aside for this which ive been saving for literally years.

I have nearly 10 years experience working as a Technician in Telecommunications so my CV isnt exactly bare.

How do you think i will fare in the long run when i graduate in a few years? Is it the worst thing in the world to not do a 3 month internship?

Also what do you think i should do with my time off that would look good? Would i just try code as much as possible and build up a portfolio or any other suggestions?

Thanks in advance and i would appreciate your opinions.

ChRoMe

Digital Society wrote: »

Hi

Im just looking for some opinions.

Im currently studying for a Degree in Software Development with a flexible semester approaching soon. Due to unforeseen family issues theres a 99% chance i wont be able to take an internship during 3rd year.

However i intend to carry on and study for a Masters in Software. I already have the money put aside for this which ive been saving for literally years.

I have nearly 10 years experience working as a Technician in Telecommunications so my CV isnt exactly bare.

How do you think i will fare in the long run when i graduate in a few years? Is it the worst thing in the world to not do a 3 month internship?

Also what do you think i should do with my time off that would look good? Would i just try code as much as possible and build up a portfolio or any other suggestions?

Thanks in advance and i would appreciate your opinions.

A decent personal portfolio will make it a non issue.

markpb

In my experience, graduates who have work experience are top of the pile when revising a stack of CVs. It's not a career killer not to have any (relevant) experience but it would be better for you to try to get some sometime.

Digital Society

Thanks.

Also any ideas what i should do for the time if i cant travel for an internship?

I was thinking of starting a Webdesign business and just doing sites for free for local business. Might get a Web Programming portfolio together and then just ensure i get a decent amount of Java into a portfolio for the next couple of years.

Graham

Digital Society wrote: »

I was thinking of starting a Webdesign business and just doing sites for free for local business.

You and about 27,000 others every single year. It will break your heart and maybe your 'customers'

Try:
Internship / work experience with a software house/web design shop, hopefully you'll get to see how the pro's do it.
Develop your own site, keep adding to it.
Develop your own software (even if you do nothing much other than use it as a showcase).

The_B_Man

My "internship" involved doing 3 months unpaid summer work for a startup. Was writing code all day every day.
If you could approach some startups and are willing to work for free, then you might be able to get your foot in the door.

However, you might just be able to apply after college with no work experience. Plenty of my class did that.

Sparks

Of course, there's always the route of contributing code to well-known open source projects...

ChRoMe

Sparks wrote: »

Of course, there's always the route of contributing code to well-known open source projects...

You must really hate project maintainers

Sparks

Depends on the project

More seriously, it's got advantages and drawbacks, and you really need a thick skin for the code review phase because that seems to get rougher when there's no salaries involved, but it's worth doing if you can cope with that. I mean, when you've contributed to something well-known like the Linux kernel, it ain't peanuts on the resume. Plus, you'll probably learn a fair bit about the code-reality interface (ie. the "because" part of "we don't do it this way because...")

moycullen14

Sparks wrote: »

Depends on the project

More seriously, it's got advantages and drawbacks, and you really need a thick skin for the code review phase because that seems to get rougher when there's no salaries involved, but it's worth doing if you can cope with that. I mean, when you've contributed to something well-known like the Linux kernel, it ain't peanuts on the resume. Plus, you'll probably learn a fair bit about the code-reality interface (ie. the "because" part of "we don't do it this way because...")

Kernel Maintenance is not for the faint-hearted!
https://lkml.org/lkml/2012/12/23/75

Sparks

Yeah, but that's kindof an extreme case.
And you do learn a heck of a lot about the whys and general approaches of that kind of code even just by following the kernel development mailing lists. It's one of the more interesting areas of coding I've ever come across.

Digital Society

Graham wrote: »

You and about 27,000 others every single year. It will break your heart and maybe your 'customers'

Try:
Internship / work experience with a software house/web design shop, hopefully you'll get to see how the pro's do it.
Develop your own site, keep adding to it.
Develop your own software (even if you do nothing much other than use it as a showcase).

Ill reply to this as it covers everything

Firstly The problem is that i live in a bad spot to pick up work. I was planning on renting elsewhere for a few months for work wherever it took me but now i cant move so local work is only choice.

I actually already have my own site thats fairly developed with sample work and CV type info etc.

Also with the software ive also developed a good bit by now but i assume ill have a higher level of knowledge over the next 3 years so that can only get better.

Also regarding contributing to open source projects. Would i be skilled enough to do that? Is their projects for people at my level? Even though im in the top 10% of my class i dont know if i have the skills to contribute to a project involving qualified programmers. I have no problems in spending countless hours working on my own projects but i dont know how to get involved with something like that.

Thanks for the input folks.