Computer Science students looking for summer internships are in good shape per the stats from Glassdoor.com. Check out the blog post
I had a great conversation with my high school comp sci students about this information. They could not believe how much these internships were paying. This was exactly the information that some of my students needed to get motivated to start writing more code.
There is quite a bit of buzz right now about all of the open tech jobs. Many articles are being written about the job openings and what is needed to get one. USA Today recently posted a nice article about all of this. Some of these high paying jobs that do not require a degree.
Texas recently passed HB5 which cuts down on mandatory graduation requirements and testing in order to give students options for graduation. One of the options allows for students to take Computer Science for 2 years in place of other graduation requirements. Texas recognizes the job demand in the tech field and they are attempting to give students more flexibility to start working towards those careers while in high school.
Having taught Computer Science for almost 20 years and worked in and around the field in various roles, I have come to realize that interest in the subject and determination are more often than not the best measures of success. A friend sent me a link to the following article that echoes some of those same thoughts.
I have quite a few friends in IT with no degrees that were so interested in Computer Science in high school that they did poorly in other subjects. They are amazing at what they do because they are so focused on what they love. I see these same students in my class. These students struggle in others subjects because they just do not care about anything else.
We need to do a better job of encouraging these students to keep doing it their way and realize that will be super successful. Hopefully, they will get a degree, but if not, they have a bright future ahead regardless as the demand for their skeelz is very high.
The demand for Software Developers will continue to grow and increase 22% by 2020. I hope my students are listening and reading all of these articles I keep posting.
HP CodeWars is just around the corner. It should be a good time. My students have done very well over the last 3 years and we hope to keep that trend going in 2013. If you are not near a HP CodeWars location, consider hosting your own high school programming contest. Students love to crank code in a contest setting.
Tech Salaries are Still on the Rise
It looks like high demand and relatively short supply of Computer Science graduates is continuing to drive up salaries.
It seems like this is the case year after year, but many students still aren’t getting the news.
It seems like I run across an article like this at least once a week. Most of the articles are strictly about the demand for Computer Science graduates, but the demand for Cybersecurity professionals is just as high. I spoke with a former student last week that has a Masters in a Cybersecurity related field and his career is going quite well.
I also had the pleasure last week of having lunch with 3 of my former students all of which are now in the Turing Honors Computer Science program at the University of Texas at Austin. These students are all freshmen and have all received numerous internship offers for the summer. The internship offers were all from highly respected companies with nice compensation packages. Almost all of their classmates had multiple summer interships offers as well and all of their friends that recently graduated had a large number of job offers from which to choose. It sounds like the UT Austin Computer Science program has it going on!
A friend just sent this video link which follows along the same lines as the rest of my post.
Lastly, if you are still searching for a Computer Science workshop for the summer, check of my workshop list. My workshops are a blast – we covers lots of material and have a ton of fun doing it. Cheers!
The University of Texas at Austin Computer Science Department is again holding a Computer Science camp for girls this summer.
The First Bytes Summer Camp for Girls will accept applications through the 23rd of March.
Many of my students have attended past instances of this camp and thoroughly enjoyed the experience.
Almost all of my students that attended the camp in the past have gone on to either minor or major in Computer Science.
Check it out!
This is a great article to discuss with your Comp Sci students or any students for that matter.
It gives students a better perspective of the kinds of things they may be asked to do if they get a job working in IT.
If you really want to know what the IT world looks like, check out the IT Crowd on Youtube.
The Internet episode is a must see!