1. Life after Stonehill CS Tom Wall twall@vertica.com

2. Background Graduated from Stonehill in 2009 MS from Brown in 2010 Straight to work in 2011

4. Why not Sick of homework Ready to stop being a poor student Ready to put your skills to use Ready for a change Too difficult Too expensive

5. Why Avoid real life A chance to learn more More jobs Better jobs Just to get it over with

6. What’s it like? Depends on the school/program Get to know (and advance!) the cutting edge Focus your efforts on a common topic ▫Coursework ▫Research ▫Internships Great chance to network

7. Masters vs PhD MastersPhD Short (<= 2 years) Little financial help Preparation for a career in the industry Year one: coursework, requirements Year two: focus on an area, do a project Long (4+ years) You get paid to go there Preparation for a career in research, academia or industry First few years: coursework, requirements Qualifications Final years: dissertation

8. My Experience at Brown 8 courses. That’s it! ▫(or 6 courses and a thesis) 4 Undergrad courses ▫Not much harder than the courses here 4 Graduate courses ▫Reading and presenting research papers ▫Research project

9. My Experience at Brown Larger department, larger budget ▫More resources ▫More courses ▫More knowledgeable faculty (no offense!) Industry recruiting ▫Lots of awesome tech talks & free food

10. Applying Paperwork Transcripts GREs Recommendations Essay

11. Applying - Advice Worth it to apply to many places, even at $50 per application Study for the GREs No need to bother with the CS subject GRE Don’t slack on the essay Research the school, contact faculty The first application is the hardest

12. Questions?

14. Process Qualifications Resume Applications Interviews

15. Qualifications Grades are just one factor Coursework Extracurricular activities Personal projects Internships ▫(we’re hiring!)

16. Skills to sharpen Linux Scripting Version control Unit testing

17. Resume Make it nice (LaTeX is your friend) Keep it short Show off your qualifications Don’t lie

18. Applying Do it during school, not after ▫Use school’s resources ▫Minimize gaps Apply to many places Do some research for your cover letter

19. Interviews Do more research than you did when applying Be ready to explain your resume Data Structures, Algorithms, Design They are interested in how you solve problems ▫Final answer not as important ▫Reason out loud ▫Ask questions

20. Do you have any questions? Of course you do!! Shows you’re interested and did your homework Good types of questions: ▫On their build/test/development environment ▫On their technology ▫On the employee life

21. Interviews - Resources http://www.glassdoor.com http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/Guerril laInterviewing3.htmlhttp://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/Guerril laInterviewing3.html http://sites.google.com/site/steveyegge2/five- essential-phone-screen-questionshttp://sites.google.com/site/steveyegge2/five- essential-phone-screen-questions