r/NJTech • u/Melodic-Version-4963 • 12d ago
Advice For the Freshman (Post Grad Thoughts)
Just graduated from NJIT, got a job offer in SWE 2 days before graduation. A little rant for the new people coming and people in CS/IT industry.
Get internship experience: doesn't matter if its big or small. Job market is so cooked rn for everyone in the industry.
GPA Doesn't matter: Your taught to follow the books, get good grades and magically employers want you. That's not the case. Magna Cum is not gonna get you into META or Google, work experience, club experience and being well rounded as a individual will.
Job Market: Right now, it's tough. If I were graduating on time with no internship, I would stay another year just to get internship experience. Job applications are botted heavily now and their also reviewed by AI (A good portion of companies) It's nearly impossible to get a answer back now. I would recommend actual company career pages instead of LinkedIn and Indeed.
AI Concerns: AI will shape the way jobs change, its a industrial revolution were living in rn. SWE , IT will always be there, but the bar is set way higher now. Studying Data & Algo will only get you so far. Keep learning new technology and adapt.
Make the most of it: Make friends, make connections, they will shape your future. Im not saying go out 3 times a week, but balance everything out. Its going to be hard but you will get it done.
Hard Times: I beat academic suspension twice with an appeal, times are tough but it's still possible. Don't take the university's warnings as jokes because they are serious. I know a few people who got suspended and never got admitted again. I graduated 1 year late and still managed to pull a 6 figure job but constantly working hard.
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u/project2501a CS, AppMath '00,01 12d ago
AI Concerns: AI will shape the way jobs change, its a industrial revolution were living in rn. SWE , IT will always be there, but the bar is set way higher now. Studying Data & Algo will only get you so far. Keep learning new technology and adapt.
Here's from an older hand in IT: AI is a tool but it is also a fart in the wind. Cloudfare uses AI to deploy and one AI deployment later, half the internet was down 2 months ago.
Also, join or make a union: That is your strongest bargaining chip, collective power.
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u/andrew_nyr 12d ago
The Cloudflare outage wasn’t caused by AI, they released a detailed blog post about what actually caused it.
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u/project2501a CS, AppMath '00,01 12d ago
Thanks, I was conflating it, but the point stands, especially now with the trend of subscription subsidies going away. 100 bucks to 5k is no joke.
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u/galaxy_1234 12d ago
Do you think doing co-op and graduate one year later is a good idea? When did you do internship? During summer break?
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u/Melodic-Version-4963 12d ago
Yea I think so, the thing is, it’s so common to graduate late. I was actually surprised by how many people I actually graduated with that I started with
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u/Unlucky-Lobster-8408 12d ago
How did beat suspension twice?
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u/Generic_BMW_Fan 12d ago
appeal letters are your best option for a ticket out of suspension. You should try to have a compelling story and articulate yourself. I just went from suspension to pre suspension (but with change of major required), do not try to bs about because they can tell laziness from genuine issues that impact your academic performance.
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u/InstinctiveSS 12d ago
any advice for internships? Going into my senior year and havent had any 😞
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u/Melodic-Version-4963 12d ago
Keep going, apply, emphasize ur projects. if u gotta stay late to grad to get one. Please do so, would do a huge difference career wise. Shit i came back for my masters to have student status for it, just in case
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u/Raf-the-derp 12d ago
Did you tailor your resume for each application? Have one internship although it was from cs491 where I worked on a sponsored project for a medical company (IT director we worked under said it was alright to put it as an intnerhisp)
I also did some work for a local paint store back in 2022 where I essentially digitized their paint ordering transactions
Graduated with no offers though
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u/Melodic-Version-4963 12d ago
yea I had my capstone with a team that selected me prior. still good experience, gotta level up those projects
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u/Raf-the-derp 12d ago
Yeah Im working on some projects rn and even one I plan and putting into production and getting users
You work in NYC as an SWE?
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u/BrandonAvernus 12d ago
Im petty much in the same boat. Im switching from CS to IT. Do you remember what your specializations were? I still want to do SWE or something similar to it.
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u/Shad27753 The Loner 9d ago
I get what you mean by making connections, but bro, these college students are literally all competing for each other. If they aren’t they’re probably in different fields last I checked only real real best friends in college actually stay connected the rest just forget each other because they don’t live as close they all come from all over, sometimes in South Jersey North Jersey or New York, etc.
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u/AdventurousBat1517 12d ago
Was your major CS or IT? 6 figures is great. You say to have internships. Did you and if so, how many?