W7-1/3 Recommendations/Advice To Soon-To-Be Interns (8/10)


       There are several recommendations I would give to any soon-to-be interns. First, utilize the internship to get the most out of it you can. Learn as much as you can about the place you are working at and the field that you are working in. Ask plenty of questions. Do you like this field, why or why not and what do you specifically want to do in this field? If so, how prepared are you to work in this field/specification and what can you do to further prepare yourself? Would you want to work in the future at the establishment you are currently interning at, why or why not? If so, how can you prepare yourself to work there and get hired? Are there any other similar establishments you would be interested in working for? I would also check to see what resources you will have at hand while working your internship (e.g. free courses).

      I would also recommend that you get the “full” internship experience. In other words, don’t just go through the motions. Apply yourself to your role and work diligently. Even with tasks with little technical skill you can still show your work ethic. Your two most valuable things to gain from this internship in my opinion is the networking at your disposal and experience with office culture. Be more than just an intern. Be an acquaintance. You are surrounded by industry professionals, there knowledge and connections could prove invaluable to you. Be sure to ask around though as opinions will differ from person to person. Compare the similarities in their advice and in their background. Two software engineers will probably think alike when it comes to the general field of computer science, but opinions shared between different specifications (e.g. a software engineer and an ethical hacker) could be a sign of a more general aspect, that is perhaps more valuable/applicable to you.

     I would also recommend having a variety of clothes based on your internship’s office culture. Always have an extra formal set of attire ready. If your work environment is business casual, then have a set of business formal clothes in case you are invited to a formal meeting.

  P.S.- Some more specific advice that I would give upcoming interns and possibly job seekers (I am of course speaking from my standpoint, where I have no industry employment, but a lot of this advice was given to me from people in the industry and I found within my own research). From my own observations more IT-centric jobs (networking, studio engineers, and various cyber security positions) seem to have more of an emphasis on certifications and they will probably be more expected from employers. I would argue that you should be strategic about what certifications you obtain and how you obtain them. Get what is necessary to what you want to do and try to avoid spending any more than you have to (e.g. free credits/points for maintaining your CE required certifications like udemy, SANS webcast, cybrary). Arguably some certifications fill in for lower certifications (from what I have been told a lot of employers will overlook out-of-date certs as long as their higher tier/more relevant certs are renewed). Although this will vary from employer to employer. You should also make the number of certs you are up-keeping manageable, sadly being a jack-of-all-trades in certs does not seem very doable and at the very least unnecessary in most cases. I would also argue that your soft skills and sociability should be emphasized. Writing is very important, a lot of people make their way into the industry starting out as technical writers (so don't overlook the quality of your CSC presentations, papers, blog/forum posts, and commenting). Prioritize practicing on functional interview questions versus more riddle like questions with obscure answers and strange limitations. While riddle questions are arguably good for scoping one's problem-solving, creativity, adaptability, and complete knowledge of the language, more functional questions will hold a bigger priority in most interviews. Expertise in the more obscure and miscellaneous matters of a subject are not very practical without a foundation of more relevant knowledge that is commonplace within the tasks of the occupation in question. Lastly, I would recommend C++ and it's STL as a language to master, if you intend on looking for programming jobs. The language remains to be in a high demand and the STL offers some options that will make interview programming questions easier to answer (i.e. built-in functions like those within the <algorithm> header). Proper implementation of the STL can save you some lines of writing (while saving you from worrying about the efficiency of those lines, in most cases) and easily be relied upon, considering that it is built-in.




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