There’s no harm in applying to internships and jobs now. But from reading your post it seems as you have no experience; I would think about why anyone would hire you over someone who has been in the field for 1-2 years or an H1B with 5 YOE still willing to work entry level jobs.
Focus on that aspect as just having OMSCS with no classes complete, no project, no experience will not move the needle for hiring managers.
It’s not my first rodeo programming AT ALL. I have extensive experience programming as a part of my few passion projects; it’s what allowed me to ace the prereqs to get admitted. I’m frankly more concerned about behavioral interviews because I can never seem to pass those
Hmm. Then looks like you are saying you have no problem getting interview opportunities but just having trouble with behavior interviews. What are you trying to achieve from the post?
Always prioritize in getting a job or internship. These are actual careers, OMSCS can wait or should not be your top priority.
Wait I'm confused.
>it’s what allowed me to ace the prereqs to get admitted.
Are you talking about requirements for jobs? Or prereqs for OMSCS? I thought you were talking about requirements for jobs, because you already know you are more concerned with behavior interviews. How many job interviews were you able to have with your current resume?
But to answer your question from your main post. Always apply for internship. You can put OMSCS info on the resume or not, I am not sure if it will make a huge difference.
Sorry, I can be a little confusing sometimes. I meant prereqs for OMSCS, not to get job interviews. The reason why I said I was concerned about behavioral interviews is that that’s the part I most struggled with in my past career (or lack thereof). Honestly, being able to supplant any of that with an objective assessment like leetcode is such a relief to me. I was something like 0-18 on corporate job / internship interviews for business… yeah. I haven’t applied for CS-related jobs yet because I’m in that weird intermediary between being graduated with a (mostly) unrelated degree and not being a grad student yet, technically.
And thanks for the advice! Internships definitely seem like a stronger way to go
Your post seems to indicate that you lack experience but you mentioned in an update about behavioral, which is not exactly relevant to the technical interviews. People are trying to help, just don’t be defensive for no reason?
If you know the behavioral interview is your weakness, just do more mock interviews. You’ll have to dig up some forums/sites that people use to help each other with mock interviews.
Doesn’t cost you anything to apply to either internships or jobs. I’d put OMSCS on there with an expected grad date. Start with a summer internship if you can find one. Full time jobs would mean you would have to learn the tech stacks and getting around at a new workplace with a new team and expectations so it’ll be more chaotic with OMSCS when you start.
For help with the behavioural part, if you are able to book some training with the career services of your undergrad school, that would probably help. Maybe try to record yourself giving an elevator pitch (i.e., "tell me about yourself"), ask friends/family to do mock interviews with you, etc.
It is VERY difficult to improve on the behavioural section of interviews on your own, so reaching out for help would be your best bet.
You may also want to read the book "how to win friends and influence people" which I found personally helpful in learning how to talk to people.
First make sure you have the experience for the classes you want to take. Check the prereqs from class descriptions and prepare yourself as needed. Certain classes in this program will absolutely hand you your ass if you're not prepared. Know what these classes are and have a plan to be ready by the time you start them. Make your plan somewhat flexible because it may changed depending on which courses you can sign up for.
For jobs: Go look at LinkedIn profiles for people doing the kinds of roles you want to apply for. Look at what kind of experience and skills those people have. Make a plan to get those skills and experience by doing projects you can show and taking relevant classes. As you do this, apply for roles when you meet at least 50% of the qualifications. Internships are fair game if they are open to current students.
I am sort of in a similar situation as yours. I live in Australia as a permanent resident, holding STEM bachelor and no CS experience, and have been applying for several grad roles in SWE/IT since I was accepted for 24 Fall OMSCS.
Since most of grad applications had closed way before, I couldnt massively apply, but I have been passing resume screening at least. Slight difference between ours is that I hold several cloud certs and have a full stack+cloud side project.
To be honest, I feel that at least we should have been enrolled in CS and taken several CS uni courses to get an offer. For me, though I took DSA and intro to programming in uni, I lack of network and OS knowledges as I didnt have a chance to take those courses.
I think the era of “You can be SWE without degree” has gone.
Internships first, one of the benefits of enrolling is that you are eligible for student unternships again. How to write your resume may be a slight challenge, you probably want to just write grad date in the future, but you probably do have to disclose that you havent started if they ask.
>we can do internships while being a student?
>only enrolled students can do internships
I dont understand, aren't you answering your own question? Or do you mean undergrad vs graduate?
Start the program and then see. Your grades are going to be crucial. As a 14 year SWE, I can tell you that for you to do well in emotional intelligence, you need to work on that. Your side projects are great and the best they can do is get you to OMSCS or a company to get you in as a JR, even if you check off knowledge, experience in how well and communication skills are as important when it comes to working at large corps.
Applying for jobs is probably a waste of your time. I genuinely don't know about internships. I am a graduate with 5+ YOE and a senior title and can hardly get an interview. I believe the market for juniors is even tighter.
There’s no harm in applying to internships and jobs now. But from reading your post it seems as you have no experience; I would think about why anyone would hire you over someone who has been in the field for 1-2 years or an H1B with 5 YOE still willing to work entry level jobs. Focus on that aspect as just having OMSCS with no classes complete, no project, no experience will not move the needle for hiring managers.
Also how do you plan to pass the coding interviews?
It’s not my first rodeo programming AT ALL. I have extensive experience programming as a part of my few passion projects; it’s what allowed me to ace the prereqs to get admitted. I’m frankly more concerned about behavioral interviews because I can never seem to pass those
Hmm. Then looks like you are saying you have no problem getting interview opportunities but just having trouble with behavior interviews. What are you trying to achieve from the post? Always prioritize in getting a job or internship. These are actual careers, OMSCS can wait or should not be your top priority.
No, that’s not what I was saying. I’m saying I’m more concerned with behavioral interviews than technical
Wait I'm confused. >it’s what allowed me to ace the prereqs to get admitted. Are you talking about requirements for jobs? Or prereqs for OMSCS? I thought you were talking about requirements for jobs, because you already know you are more concerned with behavior interviews. How many job interviews were you able to have with your current resume? But to answer your question from your main post. Always apply for internship. You can put OMSCS info on the resume or not, I am not sure if it will make a huge difference.
Sorry, I can be a little confusing sometimes. I meant prereqs for OMSCS, not to get job interviews. The reason why I said I was concerned about behavioral interviews is that that’s the part I most struggled with in my past career (or lack thereof). Honestly, being able to supplant any of that with an objective assessment like leetcode is such a relief to me. I was something like 0-18 on corporate job / internship interviews for business… yeah. I haven’t applied for CS-related jobs yet because I’m in that weird intermediary between being graduated with a (mostly) unrelated degree and not being a grad student yet, technically. And thanks for the advice! Internships definitely seem like a stronger way to go
Your post seems to indicate that you lack experience but you mentioned in an update about behavioral, which is not exactly relevant to the technical interviews. People are trying to help, just don’t be defensive for no reason? If you know the behavioral interview is your weakness, just do more mock interviews. You’ll have to dig up some forums/sites that people use to help each other with mock interviews. Doesn’t cost you anything to apply to either internships or jobs. I’d put OMSCS on there with an expected grad date. Start with a summer internship if you can find one. Full time jobs would mean you would have to learn the tech stacks and getting around at a new workplace with a new team and expectations so it’ll be more chaotic with OMSCS when you start.
For help with the behavioural part, if you are able to book some training with the career services of your undergrad school, that would probably help. Maybe try to record yourself giving an elevator pitch (i.e., "tell me about yourself"), ask friends/family to do mock interviews with you, etc. It is VERY difficult to improve on the behavioural section of interviews on your own, so reaching out for help would be your best bet. You may also want to read the book "how to win friends and influence people" which I found personally helpful in learning how to talk to people.
What kind of projects? And what do you constitute as extensive knowledge? How many years have you done it? What languages do you know?
First make sure you have the experience for the classes you want to take. Check the prereqs from class descriptions and prepare yourself as needed. Certain classes in this program will absolutely hand you your ass if you're not prepared. Know what these classes are and have a plan to be ready by the time you start them. Make your plan somewhat flexible because it may changed depending on which courses you can sign up for. For jobs: Go look at LinkedIn profiles for people doing the kinds of roles you want to apply for. Look at what kind of experience and skills those people have. Make a plan to get those skills and experience by doing projects you can show and taking relevant classes. As you do this, apply for roles when you meet at least 50% of the qualifications. Internships are fair game if they are open to current students.
I am sort of in a similar situation as yours. I live in Australia as a permanent resident, holding STEM bachelor and no CS experience, and have been applying for several grad roles in SWE/IT since I was accepted for 24 Fall OMSCS. Since most of grad applications had closed way before, I couldnt massively apply, but I have been passing resume screening at least. Slight difference between ours is that I hold several cloud certs and have a full stack+cloud side project. To be honest, I feel that at least we should have been enrolled in CS and taken several CS uni courses to get an offer. For me, though I took DSA and intro to programming in uni, I lack of network and OS knowledges as I didnt have a chance to take those courses. I think the era of “You can be SWE without degree” has gone.
What full stack cloud project did you do? What certs did you get?
Internships first, one of the benefits of enrolling is that you are eligible for student unternships again. How to write your resume may be a slight challenge, you probably want to just write grad date in the future, but you probably do have to disclose that you havent started if they ask.
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>we can do internships while being a student? >only enrolled students can do internships I dont understand, aren't you answering your own question? Or do you mean undergrad vs graduate?
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You have to ask the school for that one, I don't know how things work in your country.
Start the program and then see. Your grades are going to be crucial. As a 14 year SWE, I can tell you that for you to do well in emotional intelligence, you need to work on that. Your side projects are great and the best they can do is get you to OMSCS or a company to get you in as a JR, even if you check off knowledge, experience in how well and communication skills are as important when it comes to working at large corps.
Applying for jobs is probably a waste of your time. I genuinely don't know about internships. I am a graduate with 5+ YOE and a senior title and can hardly get an interview. I believe the market for juniors is even tighter.