Advice on Career and Education from the Computer Science Department at CCSF

Get Educated

• Advice on Choosing Computer Science classes at CCSF
• assist.org has official info on which courses transfer where (articulation agreements) - check it out if you plan to get a Bachelor's Degree. For best results, look at the information By Major.
• The CCSF CS Department Website has links for more info, including related CCSF departments, and descriptions of our certificates, degrees, and courses.
• If you already have a bachelor's degree of any kind, a Certificate is recommended instead of a second undergraduate degree.
• If you don't already have a degree, we encourage you to pursue our A.S. Degree in Computer Science, then transfer to complete a B.S. in CS.
• To receive a certificate or degree, you must submit a form to Admissions and Records in the first month of your final semester completing the requirements.
• Programming Languages:
  • Here is an historical Glossary of Programming Languages
  • An article on how to determine which programming languages are most popular
  • CodeEval's most popular programming languages of 2013
  • The TIOBE Programming Community Index gives a very rough indication of the popularity of programming languages.
• What Skills Do I Need To Get Hired? This video shows the importance of communication skills for tech jobs
• The Horizon Report is a valuable way to see what's coming next in business and technology.
• In technology, one has to keep learning constantly. Here are some good sites for further study:
  • W3 Schools has lots of free tutorials, that are at about the right level for community college students. They cover topics related to Web development, including HTML, XML, scripting languages, etc.
  • IBM Developer Works has lots of free tutorials as well, at a higher technical level than W3 Schools. They are focused on open source technologies such as Web development, Java, and Linux, as well as IBM technologies.
  • Code Academy is a great interactive coding web site for JavaScript and more

Get Connected

• The CCSF student Coders club is a great resource for sharing information, collaborating with other students, etc. They have brought several guest speakers to campus, and are organizing some great activities for the summer.
• Keep in touch to find out about internship opportunities, industry trends, etc.: Join the LinkedIn group for Computer Science at City College of SF and/or Become a fan of the CS Department on Facebook! (Click on the "Like" button after following this link.
• Beware of how you present yourself on social networking sites: employers often use them to find out more about you.
• LinkedIn is a good place to make professional connections. You can search for who in your network is at particular companies, etc.
• Ways to gain experience and connections in industry:
  • Build a Portfolio! Setup a GitHub account and start posting projects there. Companies love to see an applicant's code on GitHub or similar, such as a blogs, with projects publicly posted for comment, review.
  • Contribute to Open Source projects online, such as with the Mozilla Foundation.
  • Join industry groups through Meetup such as SF New Tech, Girl Develop It, and Learning Android Development.
  • Go to Hack-a-thons and build some experience (and a portfolio) there
  • Attend conferences such as these that focus on under-represented groups:
    • Apply for a scholarship to attend the Tapia conference. The experience is invaluable and they will meet employers like Google, Intel, Microsoft, who have summer programs available. They normally recruit from the scholarship students who attend. The conference is in February. 
    •  A supercomputing conference program for students. Again, this experience is invaluable and they have the opportunity to meet employers who can offer internship. This conference is usually in November.
    • Grace Hopper conference for female students. This conference is in October and also offers a scholarship to attend. 

Get a Job

• Internships are really valuable, and usually paid. QA (Quality Assurance: software testing) is one good place to start. Contract/Temporary work can often be found through agencies. Many jobs are posted on craigslist and monster.com
• CCSF Computer Science Job Listings on AfterCollege.com Career Network are exclusive to Computer Science Department students and alumni and enable you to Network with Computer Science Department alumni, Search relevant job and internship opportunities, and Receive updates on scholarships, new jobs, and important announcements. Accept this invitation to join the network by clicking here.
• Most tech companies have internship programs, so check out the web sites for companies you're interested in.
• Most Tech Job interviews involve problem-solving questions. Practice! Problem solving interviews are commonly at a white board or on phone via shared document editing. These interviews are collaborative problem solving sessions - you discuss your ideas with the interviewer, get feedback. They often involve Data Structures and Algorithm questions. Interns at Twitter get 4 back-to-back 45 min interviews, each of them focused on solving a different problem. One example question on TDD: what test cases would you use to verify a FIFO queue is working correctly?
• Internships at National Labs: for the spring and fall, this is a part time program that is available at Berkeley Lab and Livermore Lab. The students would go through this application program. Although it is also available in other National Labs, the student can choose their first and second choice Lab. A summer program is also available.  
• National Labs Internships specific to community college. This is also throughout the national labs and Berkeley and Livermore are included.

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