Life after Stonehill CS Tom Wall

Background Graduated from Stonehill in 2009 MS from Brown in 2010 Straight to work in 2011

Why not Sick of homework Ready to stop being a poor student Ready to put your skills to use Ready for a change Too difficult Too expensive

Why Avoid real life A chance to learn more More jobs Better jobs Just to get it over with

What’s it like? Depends on the school/program Get to know (and advance!) the cutting edge Focus your efforts on a common topic ▫Coursework ▫Research ▫Internships Great chance to network

Masters vs PhD MastersPhD Short (<= 2 years) Little financial help Preparation for a career in the industry Year one: coursework, requirements Year two: focus on an area, do a project Long (4+ years) You get paid to go there Preparation for a career in research, academia or industry First few years: coursework, requirements Qualifications Final years: dissertation

My Experience at Brown 8 courses. That’s it! ▫(or 6 courses and a thesis) 4 Undergrad courses ▫Not much harder than the courses here 4 Graduate courses ▫Reading and presenting research papers ▫Research project

My Experience at Brown Larger department, larger budget ▫More resources ▫More courses ▫More knowledgeable faculty (no offense!) Industry recruiting ▫Lots of awesome tech talks & free food

Applying Paperwork Transcripts GREs Recommendations Essay

Applying - Advice Worth it to apply to many places, even at $50 per application Study for the GREs No need to bother with the CS subject GRE Don’t slack on the essay Research the school, contact faculty The first application is the hardest

Questions?

Process Qualifications Resume Applications Interviews

Qualifications Grades are just one factor Coursework Extracurricular activities Personal projects Internships ▫(we’re hiring!)

Skills to sharpen Linux Scripting Version control Unit testing

Resume Make it nice (LaTeX is your friend) Keep it short Show off your qualifications Don’t lie

Applying Do it during school, not after ▫Use school’s resources ▫Minimize gaps Apply to many places Do some research for your cover letter

Interviews Do more research than you did when applying Be ready to explain your resume Data Structures, Algorithms, Design They are interested in how you solve problems ▫Final answer not as important ▫Reason out loud ▫Ask questions

Do you have any questions? Of course you do!! Shows you’re interested and did your homework Good types of questions: ▫On their build/test/development environment ▫On their technology ▫On the employee life

Interviews - Resources laInterviewing3.htmlhttp:// laInterviewing3.html essential-phone-screen-questionshttp://sites.google.com/site/steveyegge2/five- essential-phone-screen-questions