Matei

• Friend in Romania who started as a humanities/art major
  • Transferred to CS in sophomore year of high school
  • Had 0 coding experience at first
• You need to be on the same level as other applicants
• How to get ahead – side projects are the easiest way
  • try technologies
  • learning experience
  • even if it’s not for a course
• Idea of side projects is important for gaining experience and for freshening up as a CS individual
  • industry is rapidly evolving and changing
  • even if you have academic experience you still will need to learn quickly

Kyle

• Agrees
• Employers don’t really care about what your major is when applying for CS jobs
• Lots of the stuff you learn in class isn’t overly applicable to industry
• Data structures and stuff is good for LeetCode
• Learning how to program and work with libraries is what you have to learn on the job
• Having experience in the above is good – side projects better than coursework in that regard

Emily

• Companies have stopped caring about majors in recent years
• Big Ns have removed their college requirement
• They are open to hiring everyone
• College degree does give you that extra step to help stand out
• Degree means nothing w/o practical experience, projects, skills, passing the interview
• The degree is only 1 line on your resume
  • They will read it and move on
• They want to make sur you can do the work that they expect out of you