Here are some companies that conducted on-campus interviews at St. Olaf for CS students during Fall 2002:
- Epic Systems
- Watson Wyatt Worldwide
- Federated Insurance
- Minnesota Life
- Thrivant Financial
- St. Paul Companies
Other regulars have been Accenture, CSC Consulting, Target, and Retek. These companies recruit our graduates because they are looking for strong people with solid CS backgrounds and a liberal arts education. Note that these firms were all coming to St. Olafbefore our new CS major was announced—our students were competitive even with the former six-course concentration or less!
A solid background in Computer Science makes the best protection against the uncertainties of computing in the future. In CS at St. Olaf, we focus on the principles of computing that remain relevant throughout generations of changes in technology. Types of computers come and go; new applications of computing and associated software appear and change dramatically within years or even months; but the fundamental concepts of computing continue to be present in them all, giving students of computer science an advantage in the face of all that technological change. The demand for strong computing skills in the job market is certain to rebound, and the best preparation is a grounding in the principles that remain vital and relevant however the technology ball bounces.
So, what can a St. Olaf student do to be prepared for the forthcoming role that computing will have in his or her career?
- Learn the enduring principles of computing by taking computer science courses.
- Get experience with current forms of computing that you find interesting. Set up your own web page; taek some ACC/IIT workshops; work on some projects of your own that give you a chance to get familiar with interesting hardware and software. The best prepared graduates understand principles of computing and have experience with using technology.
- Take advantage of the Career Connections service at St. Olaf, part of the Center for Experiential Learning. They can help you create and improve your resume, build interviewing skills, and make contact with employers. Don’t put it off—make sure your resume is in order, etc., no later than September or October of your senior year, so you will be ready when the good jobs are. Juniors and sophomores: there’s really no reason to wait!
- Get an internship, for example, during a summer before you graduate. The Center for Experiental Learning can help with this, too: they provide contacts for internships, some of which carry academic credit. There’s no substitute for seeing what it’s really like out there! And the money is nice…
- Work on your “people skills.” This includes communication skills (both written and oral) and experience working together with others. Computer Science courses usually emphasize team projects (especially CS 272, as do actual jobs in industry. But you can work on your “people skills” in any course at St. Olaf. Take your spelling and grammar seriously, and do your best with oral presentations and group work—most careers, whether focusing on computing or not, involve a lot of these things.
The keys to getting a good job in computing or other fields is to prepare yourself. Computer science courses qualify you in the present and educate you for the long term, and there are other ways you can prepare yourself. Just don’t put off taking those first steps!