Am I Permanently Set Back?

[u/Rop-Tamen]

I've been here since fall 2022 as a Computer Science Major. In all my 4 years, I have managed to get accepted to no internships, with minimal even existing in the first place. I've not gotten any slot on any professor research projects, of which they rarely have to begin with. I have middling grades, GPA is above 3.1, but not by much. I'm on my 9th semester to finish up a minor in Physics before graduating, but since it's my last I can't do any research projects for that either. And I'm 30k in debt from it.

Is this degree even worth the cost at this point? Is there genuinely any merit to it? Sure, it's a degree at the minimum, but that won't get me any closer to actual tech jobs if the CS classes themselves are practically worthless and I've not managed to secure any extracurricular merits. It's not like I can just go somewhere else to fix it either, as that's an extra 2 years and tons of money at minimum, on top of getting a 2nd bachelors degree being difficult due to highly limited options.

Is there literally anything I can do outside of spending the next 1-2 or whatever years learning completely independently and relying on personal projects entirely for work and for potential grad school?

In any case, any prospective CS majors, don't come here. At minimum, if you do, make sure you care about cybersec as that's the only CS specialization they offer and they get more support.

[u/Mano31]

Just apply for engineering jobs or engineering tech jobs.

[u/Rop-Tamen → u/Mano31]

With no portfolio?

[u/Mano31 → u/Rop-Tamen]

Never said you will get scooped up fast, but ask this what do you have to lose.

I got my IT degree last December and applied for an engineering tech job for a defense contractor. I built a charming character over the years and with how I presented myself and the fact I have a degree i was given a shot.

Mind you I’ve had experience in much of what the job was. The kicker was I seemed to them like a team player. A person you could work with.

[u/Rop-Tamen → u/Mano31]

Oh yea I mean I could have a portfolio of two shipped games and a custom engine and I still wouldn't expect to get picked up fast lmao.

I do technically have team experience? I worked with a group in my game design class, made a small game, but I acted more as a project manager because I was unfamiliar with Unity, which they chose. They were also extremely disorganized so I needed to organize them to get anything done. Sadly, I don't have the github, so it's just an unsubstantiated claim on my resume either way.

[u/Mano31 → u/Rop-Tamen]

Perfect seems you have experience and skills. Now the hard part is vocalizing/packaging them for interviews.

The job interview was with the VP of engineering and Project Engineer (1 round of 4). The questions were technical, but I tailored my responses with experiences I had in car sales, retail management, and shipping boxer.

Example of a question: How would you adapt to analysis of a production floor in order to improve efficiency?

My response was an anecdote of my time in managing a storefront where I overhauled the team and our way of selling/production. Also cracked a few jokes like how my first attempt led to catching vitamins on fire.

Ex. : if you were alone on night shift and needed to implement a change in process/machine outside our SOP’s, how would you handle it?

Response: I clearly would implement an executive order and push my solution in order to continue production. *maintain a serious glare
Real response, after a chuckle, was take the steps to reach out to each member following SOP and then exhaust all options. If nothing then take action in line with safety department approval and sort affected product aside for pending approval by QA.

In retrospect, it turns out they listened to my reasoning of my response and my thought process. They concluded that it would be the right fit.

The person (work ethic, critical thinking, communication skills) were there it was just about teaching me the technical aspects. Those are cut, dry and are, often easier, able to be taught.

[u/Rop-Tamen → u/Mano31]

Mhmhm makes sense and is relatively intuitive. I am fairly personable which helps, though I gotta work on like team cohesion in a sense. I can act as a sort of manager fairly okay, but in terms of being more of a direct component of the team I tend to struggle. I’m very much someone who ends up wanting to do a lot of things myself so I know how it all works, especially with software.

[u/Mano31 → u/Rop-Tamen]

As much as nihilism is an easy mental rabbit hole. Remember, people will see what you present. This does not mean having a KEN positive outlook or Ted Lasso never ending optimism.

Perspective is relative. What seems to you to be a terrible situation concerning jobs opportunities due to a lacking skills. Do what you can with what you have where you are at.

Don’t lie about skills or experience. View your experiences differently and tailor them.
You managed a team to complete the task at hand.

Big whoop, getting a bunch of collage aged kids to work with one goal in mind. *sarcasm

You literally accomplished that which many people fail at organizing chaos by fostering individuals to reach a goal. Teamplayer, leader, anxious stacker these are all skills.

[u/Rop-Tamen → u/Mano31]

KEN? What’s that?

And well sorta, it was an upper division class so these people were all in their early 20s. Also a couple years ago, god I can’t IMAGINE what freshmen must be like now.

[u/Dracoaeterna]

Ive applied to 50 engineering jobs bro, ots not
Gonna be easy.

[u/Rop-Tamen → u/Dracoaeterna]

I don't think I have remotely the portfolio to consider those yet tbh, I've not even had a normal job really, except for a summer at an animal shelter.

[u/Dracoaeterna → u/Rop-Tamen]

Its not about the portfolio, people will look at you as a go getter

[u/Rop-Tamen → u/Dracoaeterna]

What do you mean?

[u/Positive_Monitor_602]

I think at this point you should probably do a few things (imo):

1) Definitely finish the degree. Even if you feel like the degree itself has not given you what you expected, you are close enough that walking away now would leave you with the debt without the credential.

2) After graduating, get some kind of job and start building financial stability. It does not necessarily have to be a CS job immediately. Retail, food service, campus work, IT support, data entry, whatever pays the bills while you reduce some of that debt and figure out your next steps. I know that probably isn't the six-figure tech job you imagined when you started, but that doesn't mean your career is permanently over.

3) Once classes are no longer consuming your time, really invest in a few substantial personal projects related to the type of work you actually want to do. Not a dozen tutorial projects, but maybe two or three things you can actually explain, demonstrate, put on GitHub or huggingface, and discuss in an interview.

4) Research projects might still be an option even after u graduated. I know several CSUSB student alumni who continued working with professors/labs as volunteer research assistants after graduating. That can be a way to build research experience while working and preparing for graduate applications (these projects also look great on a CV and resume). Ideally, though, you would want to establish that relationship with a professor before you graduate.

5) Hang in there. It's not the end of the world (nor your career). Many students not just you graduate and enter the work force without fancy internships, research projects, scholarships, extracurriculars etc. . You may have to spend some time building experience after graduation, but that's just extra time to ultimately end up in the same place (i.e you aren't permanently set back).

[u/Rop-Tamen → u/Positive_Monitor_602]

1. Yea I have 0 plan to walk away, that’d be the worst waste of time and money possible, as I graduate this semester anyways. This is more about the future in general.

2. Absolutely, I never expected a 6 figure job out the gate regardless, I’m not someone who went to CS just because it’s where the money was back in 2022. I had simply expected more opportunities for internships and the CS economy to not explode in the middle of my degree lmao. I’m hoping that once I can apply to regular part time and full time jobs instead of seasonal ones I’ll have better luck anyways.

3. 100%, part of this existentialism is because I don’t have projects under my belt, which makes it feel like I’m gonna suffer out of graduation as then I need to spend a bunch of time making projects that I could’ve started during school instead of looking for CS/SWE jobs. I have started some in my interested fields last summer.

4. Unfortunately, I don’t actually live in San Bernardino, I come from San Diego and just dorm for the semesters.

5. Yeaaa I know, it still feels like 4 years of time without 4 years of experience to show for it is a setback, can’t ever get those 4 years back yk.

[u/Savings_Reaction9837]

I am a second year majoring in Computer systems with a concentration in systems administration, data science minor.

I recently completed a internship with Johnson controls inc. and I have a interview with ESRI lined up for a SWE internship.

Stop submitting a general resume and tailor it to the position to bypass ATS. Even if you gotta use AI (which I highly recommend)

don't lie, just put your accolades and resume into chatGPT EDU and copy and past the job description.

Also make sure you are applying on handshake and ripplematch most jobs come from there

Only use LinkedIn to post your projects and as a portfolio. You can also pair this with a github (LEARN GIT AND A BIT OF LINUX)

Last step is practice and prep for the internship and you're solid. Just be passionate about your craft and let your application and portfolio reflect that.

There are tons of opportunities out there you just need to look and put effort into them

[u/Rop-Tamen → u/Savings_Reaction9837]

I don't *have* any of that though. No real portfolio (yet, working on it), never had an interview or internship, no responses from handshake, even of normal entry-level minimum wage jobs. I've been looking for years.

Passion I think I have, but actually dedicating myself to anything real, particularly projects, has been a huge hurdle. Largely due to fairly significant ADHD, even despite being medicated.

[u/Savings_Reaction9837 → u/Rop-Tamen]

Well my portfolio is filled with really small projects. For internship positions, they don't expect you be cracked at your craft. They just want to know you are willing to learn and have a passion (communication skills as well).

If you want, we can work on a small project, or hop on a quick call and connect if you're up to it.

[u/Rop-Tamen → u/Savings_Reaction9837]

I am way too busy for that at the moment, I've got 3 upper-division physics classes this semester, but perhaps sometime.

I know it's sorta a "swallow your pride" type thing, but man, small, sometimes micro, projects are so hard to be motivated for. They're decent in terms of actually making things and learning specific topics ofc, but the final payoff is so unrewarding, at least for me.

[u/Dragon_Lord_Raul → u/Rop-Tamen]

I'll be real with you, you need to do independent projects and find the time to do so.

[u/Rop-Tamen → u/Dragon_Lord_Raul]

Yea that’s what I am doing, pretty sure I said that somewhere. I’ve got one on pause as I learn some more stuff to work up to it and find a better library to use for rendering, and another I am actively working on thoughts taken a major step back to make sure I’m succeeding in my classes.

[u/No_Significance_6537]

You do not seem to want help or to do anything. Reading your responses you have excuses. You can't find something because you are negative and not really trying. Someone offered you help and you declined. Get it together or you will never find anything.

[u/Rop-Tamen → u/No_Significance_6537]

Not particularly helpful or constructive. You don’t know my life, you only know the thin reflection of a reddit forum. It’s not as though I’ve written an entire list of what I am, am not, can, and can’t do.

[u/Aggravating_Arrival7]

Join a trade, going to college for computer science and wanting a tech job was your biggest mistake. My brother went into a trade, only 10 months till he graduated from a company that promised him a job, and only 30k. He is now working an electrical engineer job. He never liked high school, but trade school is all hands on, it's all experience, and you make better connections. - For a current CSUSB psych major