Importance of Internships

Happy New Year everyone! I wish everyone a safe and healthy 2012!

Back on topic, I wanted to discuss about how important internships are for a student. For whatever reason, many of friends think that with a Bachelor's degree from UBC (University of British Columbia), it would automatically qualify them for a 50k and solid stable job f or life. Unfortunately, that usually doesn't happen in most cases unless you're lucky. I don't know if this type of belief of getting a Bachelor's and you're set for life is based off of that kids these days don't have to work very hard to get what they want. For many, if you don't need to work to get what you want, why work? Just go have fun in the sunshine all day!

Even though a Computer Science degree is one of the more practical Science degrees, I still don't think it's practical enough. At UBC, the curriculum teaches a lot of theory stuff which is great for a good basics foundation but so far, it got me no where prepared in the industry. For Computer Science, the field is consistently changing and I feel that the courses at UBC don't necessary teach the latest technologies. For example, they don't have anything on web or mobile programming and these are proving to be pretty important in the current industry. I don't think it's possible for UBC to keep changing its courses fast enough to suit for whatever new comes up. Also, I'm not sure if the CS degree is meant to teach all these topics but more so to teach you the basics to engage students to learn on their own and to set them up to do research in academia.

After first year, I enrolled in to UBC Computer Science co-op program. The co-op program is great in many ways in that it teaches students many career skills from how to find and apply jobs and it gives easier way for students to land internship/co-op placements. I think the program is excellent for someone who has no technical experience but some of the restrictions can be not in a senior's student's best interest. However, I'm not here to discuss about the co-op program in this blog post so I may talk about it another time. During these 4 work terms, I have gained a lot important skills to make me more employable that are not taught in school. On top of that, in most work terms, students get a supervisor or mentor which can further improve the technical skills of a student on a 1-on-1 environment. Also, what's better than learning important skills and getting paid at the same time? For CS/Engineering/Statistics internships, they pay REALLY well and can really help to pay tuition. For even other disciplines, they usually pay at least 12 bucks an hour. Not too bad for a student!

I've been to a few career fairs to meet recruiters before and I think one of the most important ways to attract the attention of a recruiter is to show them how you're a good fit for their company. The simple definition of good fit would be having the skills, being passionate about the job/industry, understanding the company and being a culture fit. Some may think it's all about the school you go to and the GPA you obtained are the best ways to show off to a recruiter. However, from my experience, the one factor that keeps a recruiter interested in me in a very short span of time is based on that I have 16 months of technical industry experience. At the Grace Hopper conference, I saw quite a few surprised recruiters hearing that. This may not always be true though. In some parts of the world, like Asia, companies value highly the institute you got your degree from.

Inspired to look for an internship for Summer? Don't wait till it's April! Now is a great time to start looking for upcoming Summer!