CW248 Systems Management Work Experience

bheart65

Hi Folks,

Just wondering if everyone in 3rd Year of CW248 Computer Systems Management manages to get the work placement or is it like CW238 Software Development where some get work placements and some have to do a project in the college instead? If so, is it a 50/50 split? I presume the work experience would stand to you more at the end of the course?

Thanks in advance,
Tom.

bheart65

Anyone?

Doff

I finished the 4 years of the course last year. You need to find the work experience yourself and your lecturer will link in with them and make sure its acceptable. You have the choice of doing the project instead and you do then you will constantly be linking up with your lecturer for weekly updates on the project.

The work experience is a yes/no on passing while the project is graded and can be very good for bumping up your overall grades as there is a lot of easy credits to be gained in the project.

I personally done the project for a better grade overall while almost all my year done the work experience and looking at where a lot of them are now I'd say I'm in a better job than the majority of them so I'm not sure how much of an influence the work experience would have had in their interviews.

bheart65

Thanks, Doff, for the helpful reply. The bump in grades might come in useful alright

Lago

Both work placement and project are 15 credits so there's no advantage to be had there from either one as long as you pass the subject you choose. However, since you get a grade in the Project and it is worth more credits then any other subject, you have to remember that it will have more weight on your GPA. Therefore if you plan on doing Project to bring your GPA up, you'll want to make certain that you get a good mark in your Project, otherwise it might end up dragging your GPA down, which is easier said than done while doing one big project when you don't know what your mark in other subjects is yet.

As Doff said, Work Placement is just pass or fail, no marking. I got a fairly high GPA so, without knowing that at the time, doing the project instead of work placement could have dragged me down. As far as I know, my work placement will have no effect on my GPA (I can't see how it could anyway).

As for your original question, as far as I know about three quarters of this year's class, if not more, did work placement. Only a handful did the project. I got my placement sorted just before Christmas which I found myself. Work Placement is practically identical between CSM and Software Development, aside from the fact Software Development have to do something in software whereas CSM students can do anything in computing really.

I will say that it seemed as if there was far more companies coming to the college were looking for Software Development student so most CSM students had to go get a placement themselves. Then again, we could apply for the software job placements but the SD students couldn't apply for any of our placement offers so there's no real advantage to either class.

bheart65

Thanks, Lago for the helpful and detailed reply. That's a good point about the Project potentially dragging down the GPA. I think in my case the work experience would be more beneficial just from the point of view of making contacts, if nothing else. Thanks again.