Thinking of deferring the final yr of my degree to get work exp.

bazcaz

Hi,

Ive just completed the third year of a four year degree in Computer Science in UCD and I am considering deferring the final yr of the degree for 12 months so that I can get some industry work experience.

Anyone here have any suggestions of companies who might be open to giving me a job for the year?

Any other suggestions on how I might go about looking for work experience would also be appreciated.

damnyanks

It's a bit late now. Usually companies do recruitment during the year. Try banks first they usually have pretty big IT departments. Is there any area of IT you want to get into specifically?

If your in UCD I'm assuming that your based in Dublin. Pop out to one of the large business parks and start looking there as well perhaps. Not too sure if it would interest you or not but consider setting up your own business for the year.

Repli

Would ya not be better off getting your degree first, then building up experience?

nesf

I took a year out during college, was a good idea, helped me get things in perspective etc.

Basq

Tough to know really..

I'm going into my final year in September, and i'm currently on work experience. It comes with the diploma year - a mandatory minimum of 4 months.

If you take a year off for work experience... you need to be pretty sure that you'll then go back for your degree 12 months later.

Might be just from personal experience but the number of people now taking a year out and not going back is ever increasing.

Best of luck with the decision.. but don't be too hasty in deciding. Do have a good think about it first.

chump

It's a great idea if you can get it.

Good luck with it...

Repli

I'm in the position now where I could get it in the company I'm on work exp with, but it's simply a case of still being on the undergraduate salary scale for the year, whereas if I go back when I get my degree I'll be on graduate salary.

nesf

Repli wrote:

I'm in the position now where I could get it in the company I'm on work exp with, but it's simply a case of still being on the undergraduate salary scale for the year, whereas if I go back when I get my degree I'll be on graduate salary.

That is very true. The reason why it worked so well for me was because I didn't mind being on an undergrad's salary.

Not everyone has this luxury.

jetsonx

sounds like a good idea...as other posters have said it can help you gain perspective and also supposing you work in an area related to your degree can greatly help in generating your ideas for you final year dissertation.

one question to have to ask yourself though - is this a knee-jerk reaction ?
i.e. do you thing you did poorly in recent exams and already planning a year out because of that?

damnyanks

It also leaves other options open to you.

1) If you impress at the company they will offer you a job upon graduation. They may not be willing to take a chance on someone with grad salary requirments.
2) They may sponsor you for your final year or pay for your dissertation / final year project
3) You will learn that you like / hate the area you got your experience in
4) It will put you in a far better position upon graduation when applying for graduation positions.

the_syco

damnyanks wrote:

It's a bit late now. Usually companies do recruitment during the year. Try banks first they usually have pretty big IT departments.

AIB has its own IT support. Any manual stuff (PC repair, etc) is down by an external company. They take on people. You may still have luck, as some of the work exp people don't start till February.

BoI's support is contracted out to HP (in Clonskeagh, me thinks). Don't know if they take people on.

Try HP. They do support for lots of different companies.

If your trying to get work experience, its a good idea to have the consent of a lecture to use their number (on your letter to the company), as companies like to check with your college to ensure that you can do what you say you can do.

Also, its not recruitment, as such, as your only there (usually) for a set time of X months.

bazcaz

Thanks for all the feedback.
I know I have left it a bit late to be looking for work placement.
I think ill just send a few CVs around to the banks and the usual multinational suspects and see if anything develops.
If nothing happens ill just finish off the degree the work experience and (year out of college) is just something id like to do if i get the chance. :cool:

Trojan

I did this. I'll just post about some of the downers since people were quite positive above. My experience was not all negative, but here are some low-lights:

- 4th year was very expensive after being used to money
- studying was very difficult
- Employers frequently discounted experience gained before your degree as irrelevant in "years of experience", so I've only got 4 rather than 5, which can make a difference
- I was able to haggle up a little from graduate basic salary, but it was tough (having recently been to India was useful)

Repli

(having recently been to India was useful)

Could you elaborate on this please? Also is it usual for graduate salary to increase yearly, like most graduates I know with 2 or 3 years experience are on 30k+ but started on 20k-22k

Civilian_Target

I'm just finishing my year of experience now - and I'd recommend it, under the right circumstances.

If you do start - make sure that you're doing a worthwhile job - initially when i started I was doing functional testing, which is pretty menial work. For me to do it for a year would have been a complete waste of my time. I said as much to my boss, and basicly said that if he didn't have anything else to offer me I was going back to college in september. Got my current job in Performance Analysis, which has actually turned out to be good experience.

So, what it comes down to is, if you can get a good job to do it'll be well worthwhile - but you've got to make sure you're getting worthwhile work, and you've got to push them to give you what you want.

Other thing of course, is it may be a bit late to get a job. IBM Software Labs in Dublin may still have a few spots open - try applying to them.

Trojan

India is a place where you learn to a) haggle, b) be very assertive

bazcaz

I am actually committed to working somewhere till september so I would be looking for somewhere from then until maybe next august/september when I would be returning to do my final year!

Stark

I did a year of functional testing for Oracle Ireland. Complete waste of the year. I said it to my manager on many occasions that I wanted more from the experience but she kept fobbing off with the "next week, really this time" attitude. The experience nearly destroyed my love of IT.

On the IBM extreme blue internship at the moment. Luckily I'm finding it very enjoyable and challenging. I'd recommend it to anyone who's finishing 3rd year/4th year. It's 3 months during the summer so it'd be especially suitable for those who don't have work experience as part of their degree course.