Don`t be fooled by the fact that customer service is not in the title of your target job. Success in your targeted job will require you to confidently and effectively communicate, influence, and interact with co-workers, partners, and vendors.

Options will vary depending on the organizations you are involved in, but ample opportunities exist. Here are more...

Don`t be fooled by the fact that customer service is not in the title of your target job. Success in your targeted job will require you to confidently and effectively communicate, influence, and interact with co-workers, partners, and vendors.

Options will vary depending on the organizations you are involved in, but ample opportunities exist. Here are some suggestions:

- Serve as the point person for a partner organization or several partners
- Customer service representative
- Act as the formal liaison with other organizations or departments at school or in your company
 ...less

Getting a summer internship in this field is the best way to secure a full time offer. While it is possible to get hired without prior tech company experience, many of the large technology firms take upwards of 60% of their summer interns as full time hires. If you cannot find an opportunity in the area you are interested in, broaden your scope. Almost any r more...

Getting a summer internship in this field is the best way to secure a full time offer. While it is possible to get hired without prior tech company experience, many of the large technology firms take upwards of 60% of their summer interns as full time hires. If you cannot find an opportunity in the area you are interested in, broaden your scope. Almost any real world exposure to a technology company is valuable in increasing your understanding of how technology companies run and helping you stand out in the recruitment process. The value of this experience is incredibly high. Consider offering your services for free.
 ...less

Prepare for your interview. Do some research well before your interview to understand what you should expect. Will you be asked coding questions, design questions, your thoughts on the company’s products versus competitors? Practice interviews with friends and mentors. You will have to be able to show your enthusiasm for the industry as well as your technica more...

Prepare for your interview. Do some research well before your interview to understand what you should expect. Will you be asked coding questions, design questions, your thoughts on the company’s products versus competitors? Practice interviews with friends and mentors. You will have to be able to show your enthusiasm for the industry as well as your technical capabilities in order to get hired. The interviewer might ask questions to examine your creativity. Be prepared to think on your feet and answer questions such as, “if you were to design a new communication device what features would it have.” Show him/her how you are uniquely suited for this position – you have the technical background but you also have the ability to relate to customers.
 ...less

As a Program Manager, part of your responsibility will be to design software requirements specifications (SRSs). An SRS is used by an organization to understand a customer or potential client’s system requirements and dependencies prior to any development or design work. SRSs help to ensure that both the client as well as the organization understands one ano more...

As a Program Manager, part of your responsibility will be to design software requirements specifications (SRSs). An SRS is used by an organization to understand a customer or potential client’s system requirements and dependencies prior to any development or design work. SRSs help to ensure that both the client as well as the organization understands one another’s requirements prior to development and design. Well written SRSs accomplish the following goals: provide feedback to the customer, serve as the parent document for inputting design specifications, and serve as the product validation check. Most successful SRSs are written in language that is exact, lacks ambiguity, and maintain precision throughout; nothing can be open to interpretation.

Consult your course catalogue and take any computer science or related courses that require you to develop technical specs.
 ...less

Studying project and product management is helpful, but nothing beats real experience. You should be prepared in your interview to provide 1-2 examples of relevant experiences you have had. To get some experience, look at projects that need to get done in groups you’re involved with. Does your church, dorm, favorite non-profit, varsity sports team, or sorori more...

Studying project and product management is helpful, but nothing beats real experience. You should be prepared in your interview to provide 1-2 examples of relevant experiences you have had. To get some experience, look at projects that need to get done in groups you’re involved with. Does your church, dorm, favorite non-profit, varsity sports team, or sorority or fraternity need a new website or someone to plan the big event? Can you add a new tradition to your group’s yearly agenda? Ideally look for opportunities that provide exposure to as many of the following as possible:
- Budgeting and forecasting
- Conducting a survey
- Client or key partner relationship management
- Quantitative and qualitative analysis of data, programs or initiatives
- Management of a community program
- Time management and organizational skills
- Collaboration with other departments or key constituencies
 ...less

A conversation with an alum on the phone may open up an opportunity that would not have existed otherwise.

Organizations of all sizes and types rely on technology. Consult Internship postings at your career services office, dice.com, other leading job boards. In addition, consider full time entry level postings at local companies. Some may be open to having an intern.

Read popular tech blogs to follow industry trends and commentary on the companies that interest you.

Reach out to your professors. Ask them if they have any projects you can help them with and get practice developing technical specs for them. Volunteer your time for free. Ask them if they have any sample technical specs for you to take a look at. This will help give you a sense of the kind of document you want to create.

There are many websites that explain how to properly write technical specs. Post questions and read other’s responses on various technology blogs to see what sites and courses they find the most helpful in learning how to write SRSs.

Good Program Managers are able to take what a customer says, and translate those needs into technical specs used by others to build the product. Consult your course catalogue. Generally these classes fall within the computer science department. Coursework should cover the following topics:
- Computer architecture and organization
- Human-computer inte more...

Good Program Managers are able to take what a customer says, and translate those needs into technical specs used by others to build the product. Consult your course catalogue. Generally these classes fall within the computer science department. Coursework should cover the following topics:
- Computer architecture and organization
- Human-computer interface

 ...less

For jobs that require programming, it’s essential to have practical experience with the language(s) you’ll be expected to use in the job. Even for those whose jobs merely require working programmers, coding experience can be critical. Regardless of whether you take formal classes or have a technology internship, you can stay current with new developments by  more...

For jobs that require programming, it’s essential to have practical experience with the language(s) you’ll be expected to use in the job. Even for those whose jobs merely require working programmers, coding experience can be critical. Regardless of whether you take formal classes or have a technology internship, you can stay current with new developments by building web sites and designing databases for yourself or others. Analyze the needs, design, construct, and test and maintain it.
There are numerous ways to obtain practical, non-academic programming experiences:
- aid or volunteer to do web programming (for local small companies or non-profits)
- Design and build your own web sites and databases

 ...less

Engineers typically work as part of a team that may consist of other engineers as well as individuals from other functions within the organization. You may be working on just one area of the code, but your work must integrate effectively.
- Any computer science program will offer classes with group projects.
- Get a friend or several friends together  more...

Engineers typically work as part of a team that may consist of other engineers as well as individuals from other functions within the organization. You may be working on just one area of the code, but your work must integrate effectively.
- Any computer science program will offer classes with group projects.
- Get a friend or several friends together to develop a website for an organization or for yourselves.
- Consider working on open source software which will allow you to create software content through incremental collaboration with others.

 ...less