I graduated in 2002 in computer engineering. From my experience: 1) Employers don't know what a degree in computer engineering is. They make you explain that to them, and if you have to explain what your degree is you've already lost.
2) The computer science undergraduate degree at LSU is currently not accredited. 3) There are never any full time jobs available in BR doing entry level Unix/Linux administration. They all want something ungodly like 10+years experience. 4) Any job postings either through LSU or in the paper are already filled. 5) The I.T. market in Baton Rouge is stagnant. I got a part time contract position at ExxonMobil through contacts right after I graduated (doing access and web programming). They cut the contract off four months later. I then got another part time job with a local web company, who forgot they didn't have enough work to keep me on longer than 2 weeks. I was self employed for another 6 months until I was lucky enough to meet an I.T. manager at a job fair who didnt' want to hire any foreigners. All of the previous jobs were MS. Intermediately I had a LAMP job but they were only paying me 8 bucks an hour. BTW for those who think START training is good, I was a student worker at the Office of Computing Services in 1999-2000 during the inaugural START session and wrote much of the section on memory, motherboards, CPUs and the like. Look for me under the August 2000 list of graduates ;) http://appl003.lsu.edu/START.nsf/$Content/Track+2+Graduates?OpenDocument On Mon, 28 Mar 2005 23:53:22 -0600, michael dolan <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > A few things: > 1. Classes - I'm at LSU, and I'm set to graduate in a little over a > year. I'm actually an English major, but I don't know if that will have > any effect on my job prospects. I've taken the first computer science > class (which is just basics and MS office applications), and I'm taking > two ISDS classes right now. I'm set to take another ISDS class on > network security this summer. I would really like to take some > interesting computer science classes, there is one on e-commerce, 2 on > networks, etc. To take the interesting classes, you have to take more > programming classes than I have time to take before I graduate. I don't > really want to take any more programming classes, but I don't know if > that will have any affect on my job prospects either. > 2. Certs - I'm thinking about both A+ and Network+ to start, but maybe > MS certs would get me a better job. Or, should I not waste my time and > money and jump straight to something harder? > 3. BR - I think I might be in this area for awhile, just what is the > job market here like? I've done a little browsing on monster, and there > are some jobs, but they seem so specialized. > 4. Internship - one of the classes you can take at LSU in ISDS is > basically an internship class, which I would like to do, but A) I work > full time during the day and B) I wouldn't know where to find a local > company that might use linux, would want an intern, and would want an > intern at night. > 5. Money - Right now I have a full time job at LSU that has nothing to > do with what I want to end up doing. I don't make very good money > (about 28+), but I'm worried I might move down the pay scale if I got a > job on the bottom rung of a field. > > Basically, if you were in my position, what would you do? If you had to > do your pre-job education over, what would you do differently? > > I would really appreciate any help any of you could give me, because > honestly I'm kind of worried about this. > > Michael > > _______________________________________________ > General mailing list > [email protected] > http://brlug.net/mailman/listinfo/general_brlug.net >
