Final Blog Post

 There’s a lot to take away from this class, but the three most important things to me are:

Understanding privacy policies. This does not mean that you should be reading through every single one each time you sign up for a new service, but it’s important to know in general how companies collect and use your data. The privacy policy for some companies even states that you can request to see what information they have collected about you and request it to be deleted.

Owning a small business in the software industry brings with it more challenges than one may expect. In the case of learning about HiveTracks, I learned a great deal about how startups are formed, how they grow, and the array of legal and technical challenge they face along the way.

How to be more comfortable with public speaking. Senior seminar is not a public speaking course per se, but giving presentations in front of an audience is something that is required throughout the semester. I learned to make sure I was always prepared and through sheer repetition I learned to be more comfortable speaking in front of a room of people.

Internships are super important and as someone who will graduate with two internships, here is my advice on the topic. 

First, build a portfolio of personal projects. Whatever you are interested in, there are so many resources online to help you get started. Publish it on GitHub and list it on your resume. Interviewers always ask about projects to see how much you understand and if you can explain your thought process back to them. Without relevant experience, projects allow you to showcase your knowledge.

And if you don’t know what you want to do, web development is always in demand.

Second, get your resume reviewed. It always helps to have a second pair of eyes to help point out things you may have missed or offer advice.

Third, apply like crazy. Not 20-50 applications. I mean send out 100-200+ applications, especially if you don’t have experience. I have never attended a career fair so I can’t give my recommendation here, but I do know several people that have landed jobs from them.

This last one is optional, but practice interview problems on Leetcode. Not all companies ask these types of problems but most larger companies do.

I hope this advice helps. The job search process can be difficult but remember that landing the first job is always the hardest.