Way forward for a student? Advice please?

Some really good advice given!

I completed what you're doing last year. In IT Hons this year. Come by the IT side and chat to me. Will give you some advice and stuff that's geared to UKZN studies.

In the meantime, do your tuts (all of them on your own), attend lectures (you will get A's, even if the lecturer is seemingly useless), from third year become a tutor, from now I have an opensource project you can work on at campus, PM me for details.

My electives out of the 4 needed were Economics 1a and 1B, Management 1A and a second year Maths course. After the restructuring though, you may be limited to just math, physics and chem courses.

All the best with the studies and keep in touch.

eb :)
 
Last edited:
Ghost02 said:
Thanks guys, what would you say the possibility of relocation out of the country would be?
Click to expand...

Depends which country. Without a masters degree, its almost impossible to get into the UK now. Its also difficult to get a visa for the US. Because of your age, Australia might be a good bet. I dont know too much about their visa requirements.

If you have family in Holland, thats also an option, althought the economy in Europe is knackered.
 
Thanks again for all the feedback guys, would you guys recommend doing honours at a different university? I don't have an issue with UKZN but I don't know if employers would care? Is it seen as a bad university that people avoid or would I be seen in the same light and have the same career opertunities if doing my honours at UKZN?
 
My opinion would be this:

* You will work on many projects in your spare time for fun. Archive your code and keep track of everything you create. Employers will be interested in this expecially when you have no initial work experience.

* I don't think it will be that beneficial to do honours straight after your current course - get a job, rack up a years experience. After that one year of experience you can start looking for a new job which will allow you to increase salary and get a more serious development position.

* Once you've secured this second position use the extra cash you earn to do honours or something like that through UNISA. DO NOT allow a company to pay for your studies - this is how they suck you in and force you to stay at their company which is not always beneficial. If you get fired you will have to pay them for the studies. If you don't get fired they lock you into something like 3 to 5 years which then means you are subject to their salary increase/benefit structure which might not be good.

* Once you have finished the studies (should be 2 years through UNISA for an honours course) use this new qualification as leverage for a substantial raise. If the company is not willing to give you a SUBSTANTIAL raise then start looking for other places to work. There are tons of development positions available that will pay you what you worth.

* Don't be loyal to a company because they will NEVER be loyal to you. Don't make a bad name for yourself but if a better opportunity comes along grab it with both hands and don't let go. Companies need to understand that a job/career is to benefit you and that you work to live not live to work.

* Never let a company take advantage of you. If you're not willing to work overtime, say so. If you are, make sure they know they are paying for it. TRACK ALL OVERTIME on a timesheet and make sure they pay you for this.

* Be friendly and knowledgeable and always try to learn something new to help the business out.
 
^^vampire^^ said:
My opinion would be this:
* Once you've secured this second position use the extra cash you earn to do honours or something like that through UNISA. DO NOT allow a company to pay for your studies - this is how they suck you in and force you to stay at their company which is not always beneficial. If you get fired you will have to pay them for the studies. If you don't get fired they lock you into something like 3 to 5 years which then means you are subject to their salary increase/benefit structure which might not be good.
Click to expand...

This is excellent advice! Actually all the advice in the post was excellent.

However, I'm doing Honours so for me to not recommend it wouldn't be a true reflection of my opinion. I may be heading down the academic/R&D route so I guess its different. I know many devs without Honours and they are earning well.

Once again, excellent post ^^vampire^^ :)
 
I would say do honours right away while you are in study mode. If you want to do honours that is. Gap years are normally not a good idea.

As for getting a job overseas - probably a little more difficult than here, but it depends on the country. It would really, really help if you could secure a job before you left, or at least a place to stay for free while you get organized. However, I found it impossible to get a British job before I moved there. But when I actually got there, it was fine.

I say a little more difficult for two reasons. The first is VISA/Passport. Some countries will need you to get a highly skilled VISA, and I hear places like the UK want at least a masters before they give you that. But maybe you have a passport or something.

Also, South Africa has a SEVERE skills shortage which will make it easier for you to find a job, provided you are actually qualified. Other countries might not have such a shortage. They will still have demand though I think. Also the UK and Europe is going through a tougher time economically, which means growth is slowed, which means not much development is taking place (comparatively that is, there is always some). So they might hire you if you had 5 years of experience, but not as a grad. This is because graduates represent an investment to them - they hire you to train you up, so that one day you will be able to produce good code. But that takes time, time which they would not have to spend on a senior developer.

But this is all theoretical, and its going to depend on the economic climate when you actually finish studying, and the country that you want to move to. In 4 years time, things in Europe could be significantly better than here. Who knows?

Its also worth mentioning that you will learn a lot in a development job that you would not learn in university. You learn the part that I refer to as the engineering part of programming, because it is applying computer science to real world problems. This has all sorts of implications, like source control, maintenance, debugging, whether its best to leave something as is or fix it, how to design a system so as to make maintenance easier, how much of a system should you/could you change when that system is in maintenance, etc etc. Lots of stuff that they will mention at university but you will not really have a chance to learn. This is also why work experience is often a good idea - you will start to pick these things up early.
 
^^vampire^^ said:
* Once you've secured this second position use the extra cash you earn to do honours or something like that through UNISA. DO NOT allow a company to pay for your studies - this is how they suck you in and force you to stay at their company which is not always beneficial. If you get fired you will have to pay them for the studies. If you don't get fired they lock you into something like 3 to 5 years which then means you are subject to their salary increase/benefit structure which might not be good.
Click to expand...

Sometimes you just don't have a choice... I had to get a bursary, or I would have had to pause my studies. I don't regret it. I'm paying of my debt when I'm moving jobs now, and it is not so much.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top
Sign up to the MyBroadband newsletter
X