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Ask HN: Comp Sci Student with very little real world experience seeking advice

8 points by zerovox ↗ HN
I have just finished my first year on a Comp Sci degree at one of the top universities in the UK. However, I have very little experience with programming on my CV. I have played around and spent countless hours messing with code but I haven't actually built anything worth while and have had no experience in a job, which leaves my CV looking very empty. What would be the best route to follow to get some experience that I can actually quote? I feel that I am not good enough/experienced enough at programing to follow the open source route and I lack the experience to secure any sort of internship(and I think I would have to wait till next summer to even get one, as winter ones seem very rare, unless anyone knows of any UK-based companies that accept people over the winter?!).

If there is anyone out there who has been through a similar path, what did you do to get experience in programing, besides the toy examples that aren't interesting to prospective employers?

9 comments

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calbucci
Build a website and launch it. Nothing says you can do stuff more than showing the stuff you've done.
doyoulikeworms
I caught a lucky break and was able to snag an internship at a (at the time) pretty tip-top Silicon Valley company. I'd definitely grab your network firmly and give it a good shake. Something good could fall out.
Ronkdar
90% of my programming experience came from this: clubs and hobbies.

I'm sure your school has some sort of club you can join. For me, it was our IEEE student branch, where we competed in a robotics competition every year.

No club exists? START ONE! It's fun! Being a founder is fantastic for your resume, and you'll get a lot more experience than just programming.

In the next year or so, do anything you have to to get an internship.

Find a fun project to do on your own. Personally I prefer things I can touch, as opposed to PC applications. If you haven't before, check out the Arduino platform. I can give you lots of ideas of fun (and useful!) things you can do with it.

stonemetal
I lack the experience to secure any sort of internship Isn't that the point of internships, to give experience to those without any? As far as open source goes, if you don't think you have the ability to contribute read the source until you feel like you understand what is going on in the project. If you still feel like you can't contribute to a project then try to come up with an ancillary project, like a gui front end for a DB project or some sort of convenience tool.
Ronkdar
To be fair, a large number of employers of interns are looking for some sort of significant experience (though limited to job experience).
SubZero
I'm still in my University program, and am writing this at my internship. I was COMS for a year and a half. After the first year, I was confident in Java (don't hate), but the only job I could get was contruction or an oil field job. I've been an IT now for 5 years. I recently switched to Management of Information Systems with a focus in security. Anyways, after your first year of COMS, don't expect to have any jobs. Your more difficult programming will come next year, and then you will become a good asset for a company. If you REALLY want a job, reverse engineer a program that's already out there, or just program your ideas.
ig1
Build something significant yourself. It can be a web app, a game, whatever. Just pick something that interests you and build it.
dsmithn
Everyone has mentioned programming, but that's the not only kind of experience that helps.

If you aren't familiar with Linux, start getting comfortable with it. I got my first internship with my only real qualification being that I knew my way around a shell. My tasks were mainly just running scripts on a regular basis, but it lead to getting experience in a lot of other areas.