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Re: Computer programmers!!!!!!
They've got good Co-op programs at both UofA and UVic as well. In my opinion, I wouldn't get a degree these days without Co-op, it just makes you so much more attractive to employers when you finish. It also gives the student an opportunity to try different fields without making long term decisions. A win/win situation in my books. It just takes a little longer to finish, but you are earning as you go. It still floors me when we get new guys in from non Co-op programs that have only worked at Subway during their breaks!
It's true that this thread was about programming, so I guess my suggestion of CE was slightly off topic. But, I find that most of the CS guys that I work with start off with too little HW knowledge. In my particular role, the HW aspect is very important in order to keep things functional during software changes and/or feature additions, so my job probably wouldn't fall into a traditional programming category.
Most guys at work have Electrical Engineering degrees, which gives them a big bias towards hardware. Computer Engineering seems to be a good middle ground for people that may be interested in topics other than pure programming (like me!)... It also seems that a CE degree gives you much more flexibility to move between HW and SW jobs if that is of any interest.
I find for the type of jobs that I'm interested in:
EE -> too little SW experience
CS -> too little HW experience
CE -> just right!
Originally posted by Kor
It's true that this thread was about programming, so I guess my suggestion of CE was slightly off topic. But, I find that most of the CS guys that I work with start off with too little HW knowledge. In my particular role, the HW aspect is very important in order to keep things functional during software changes and/or feature additions, so my job probably wouldn't fall into a traditional programming category.
Most guys at work have Electrical Engineering degrees, which gives them a big bias towards hardware. Computer Engineering seems to be a good middle ground for people that may be interested in topics other than pure programming (like me!)... It also seems that a CE degree gives you much more flexibility to move between HW and SW jobs if that is of any interest.
I find for the type of jobs that I'm interested in:
EE -> too little SW experience
CS -> too little HW experience
CE -> just right!
) PLUS, U of C engineering offers an internship program, which is a 16 month work term between your 3rd and 4th year. Believe me, unless you royally screwed up your internship (which is damn near impossible), you've pretty much guaranteed yourself a job once you've graduated (assuming you enjoyed your internship). To me, a 4 month coop work term is too short for anything. You just don't get the same level of experience ...heck, after 4 months, I still knew nothing! It takes longer than that to settle in and really figure **** out.
I think that most people that just graduated with bachelors in CS couldn't even code something... I've seen lots of people come through my work out of school and they need a lot of handholding... and that's totally cool because I would expect nothing less. There is a big difference between hammering out some code that "does the job" and writing something that is extensible, scaleable and easy to support.
I hear ya loud and clear, believe me! There are some people in my graduating class that couldn't code the 'hello world' program without help. We shared a data structures/algorithms class with some 3rd year CS people (when I was in 3rd year engg) and then shared a computer graphics (openGL in c++) with some 4th yearr CS people. I tell ya...the engineers coded circles around the CS people (honest, no flaming meant). Different profs I guess, but even the CS TA's (who did both CS and EE lab's) knew the difference (favored to the engineers!). Who knows...maybe my year just got lucky. I did oodles of coding during my work term, nevermind all the OO code I had to write to get my damn robot to work 
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