My major requires a lot of stuff. Two projects once a week, mid-term after mid-term, hundreds of pages for reading, programming project after programming project, group projects, etc - pretty much everything is a project! They call is the ISYS junior core, they take all of the students who had just entered the ISYS major and they put is in to one block of four classes. We have to take these classes at the exact same semester and they must be taken together since almost everything we learn is intermixed with the other classes. This allows for group projects and assignments that cross class borders. I actually like it quite a bit because there is so much to learn and you can see how all your different subjects intermix to form that entity that is your profession.
On top of all the homework, the professors tell us more things we must focus on, preparing for internships AND the masters program all ISYS people can do; we can get our bachelor's and master's degrees at the exact same time. This all adds even more to our workload because applying for an internship is essentially looking for a summer job that is really prestigious and getting prepared for the master's program requires studying for the GMAT and getting really good grades in our classes. It is fun, but takes so much time! We have to cram so much in to our schedules in such a short amount of time, it is almost impossible to find all the time needed to accomplish it.
What really gets us, is how much we have to prepare for internships. They are important, they will help us get really good jobs in the future, and allow us to grow in our work skills, but man, what it takes just to get anywhere with these things are ridiculous!
I want to bring up the example of the career fair I went to last week. Many great and powerful companies were there, trying to draw in the best talent they can attract to their companies. One walks between all of these different companies, asks questions, and selects which ones they would like to learn more about, maybe they will leave a resume for future reference; me, I go for all the free food and stuff they give everyone. You find the companies you like, you apply for their positions, and then you wait for an interview, weeks pass, and nothing comes of it. But you were told to find an internship, so you just keep on going, looking for the next available internship opportunity.
To be honest, I don't like career fairs, all these companies are talking to hundreds of people to fill in one to about five positions. People say you go to network, but in reality these recruiters do not really remember who you are to often, and after you get their cards to keep in contact, you do not know what to say or ask that the possibility of an email slowly dwindles. That and most of the companies at the career fairs tend to not be the best in all circumstances. But at the same time, I love the process of trying to find an internship! One must find creative ways to present themselves, they must research, develop themselves, and continue to learn from failure, that is something I like from these fairs.
In the end, there is so much to work towards to finding a career, and it is great my program is striving so much to get us focused on starting now, because that is what you have to do to find the bets fit for you, it is a competitive world out there and the sooner we start planning on it, the better our chances are in the future.
Do I know what I want to do exactly? Not really, there are too many possibilities, but one thing is certain, my major is not going to make it easy for me to just toss it aside and not know what I want to do.
