This guide provides a broad-ranging checklist to work towards a successful career as a software engineer.
Whether you are a Freshman or a Senior, there is always plenty of things you can do right now to improve your chances of success in the technology industry.
{% hint style="warning" %} Note that no one is an expert at everything and no one will be able to complete 100% of the items below. It’s okay and normal that you won’t know everything, and that you won’t complete this entire checklist. {% endhint %}
Take things one step at a time. Try to focus your learning and time around particular goals. There’s an enormous amount to learn and do, and it’s really easy to get overwhelmed. Think of this as a guide towards getting your first/next technical internship and then first full-time role after graduation.
Top-level goals:
- Create an effective resume and LinkedIn to prepare for your internship search
- Acquire technical internship interview readiness for phone screens and on-site interviews
- Acquire confidence developing in one industry tech stack beyond what’s taught in classes
- Work in at least one software internship position by summer of Junior year
- Strengthen your professional network with more engineers and motivated peers
Key action items:
- Develop an understanding of what being a software engineer involves
- Sign up for our “Mobile App Design” workshop series to learn about mobile app design, how to code mobile apps, and learn from industry experts.
- Apply for 3+ early pre-internship summer programs (Freshman/Sophomore)
- Complete a first course (SE101 or SE102) of our software fundamentals course series
- Complete one or more of our special topics courses (iOS, Android, Cybersecurity, etc)
- Complete a second course (SE102 or SE103) of our software fundamentals course series
- Participate in our virtual career fairs which connects students directly to companies
- Apply for as as many technical internship positions as you possibly can (Sophomore/Junior)
Or complete additional action items:
- Further studying for technical interviewing, either by yourself or with peers leveraging online resources
- Find at least one mentor you can check-in with periodically that can provide you support or sign up for a mentor through our tech mentorship program
- Personally mentor at least one student earlier in their career than you to strengthen your own understanding
- Help lead a class as a TechFellow on at least one course they completed or provide technical support to other students
- Work in a 2nd technical internship before graduation
- Contribute to your first open-source project
- Launch a side project (web app or mobile) that some number of people other than yourself actually use
- Attend local hackathons or coding events to collaborate on code and meet new students/engineers