Jon Terry
Position:
Application Development Engineer
Employer:
Interactive Software Systems, Inc.
Job description:
Assist senior engineers in the development of
tools that access information across heterogeneous databases.
Salary range:
$30,000-$35,000
Employment history:
Graduated with an AB in Mathematics, June
1996
High School Mathematics Teacher 09/96 - 05/97
Software Engineer 10/97 - ?
Suggestions for students:
1) Your job search will be much
easier if you have some experience working in a field relevant to your
target field of interst. Thus, the importance of opportunities like
summer internships cannot be overstated.
2) It is well worth the cost to have a professional career counselor
review your presentation materials (e.g. resumes and cover letters)
and help you focus on a job-search strategy. I saw one (3 sessions @
$65 ea.) and it really helped me.
Advisor/student relationship:
In order to get the job I had to
make a 20 minute presentation to a group of managers and employees.
It was a technical presentation; I had to describe the steps necessary
to configure two of the company's products to work in a new
client-server environment. This turned into a 2 week research project
on my part resulting in an eight page, 2500 word report.
The reason I mention this is that I know that you want to do the
best job you can in preparing graduates for the technical job market.
Hence, one thing you might think about is to require some oral
presentations in upper division classes. The point I'm trying to make
is that, regardless of the approach is used, employers want candidates
to DEMONSTRATE their ability to solve problems. The course work should
exercise this.
E-mail Jon
Date of last update: Oct. 19, 1997
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