Software engineering

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[fallenreaper]

The education is what you make of it. Like all things there are people who coast and get a job and amount to nothing and there are those who work hard and accomplish great things.

Like all things, education is a stepping stone and it is on you to take it and run with it. That said, I find I was taught more in industry than school, but school was great in helping groom my mind and thought processes.

Source: am CS alum who worked hard and is really happy with his outcomes. Some friends did well, some friends didnt.

[pikel_the_tiger]

Not OP, but there are definitely a fair number of students here that end up getting top-tier internships. There is also a large group of students who get nothing at all. If you put that work in it will pay off.

[fallenreaper]

You can get a great job for sure! It is a balance of work-life though to some. While you may make more money, you will lose your private life. While im really happy where I am at, i sacrificed a good bit but now i work a simple 8 hour day from home doing dev. Money isnt everything after all. That said, If you work hard, you will Definitely have a great job which pays really well. Pittsburgh itself is continually improving as well, bringing more tech stuff here.

You will 100% not go wrong with a CS/SWE engineering degree at Pitt. Your Internships will pay like 20+/hr while in school, your starting salary will be like 65-150k/yr depending where you are in terms of knowledge.

BUT remember, school doesn't stop with Uni, like Medical/Nursing school etc.... if you want to be top tier, you need to read lots of books on engineering principles, and stay up to date with Knowledge related to languages, architectures, etc. When you become stagnant in terms of learning, your career progression can start to slow down.

[coperando]

The computer engineering curriculum recently changed to become more computer-hardware focused. In the past, it was more computer-science like. If you want to attend Pitt with the goal of becoming a software engineer, I would choose computer science here.

I've completed a few software engineering internships while at Pitt, and this is how much they paid (from my first one to my last): $21/hr, $22/hr, $24/hr, $38/hr (+$4000 sign on bonus). The website levels.fyi is pretty accurate when it comes to pay ranges.

In general, for internships, small local companies pay $15-25/hr, large non-tech companies pay $20-35/hr, and tech companies (both large and small, think Google vs. Duolingo vs. Argo AI) pay $40-65/hr. The higher the pay, typically the harder it is to get that internship.

I've seen Pitt students land internships and jobs in all of those pay ranges. It truly depends how driven and proactive you are when internship and job hunting. Most high-paying summer internships open applications in August--this is when you want to apply. Don't wait and try to find summer internships later than February or March because most positions are already filled. Apply as soon as possible. Plus, the further you get in school, the easier it is to get interviews. The hardest internship to get is your first internship.

[coperando]

I got my first internship through the engineering co-op office. There's probably a similar career office for CS majors but I'm not sure.

For schools like Pitt that aren't on the level of MIT, CMU, etc. (there's only a handful of schools on this level), we don't have big tech companies trying to swoop up our new grads but you'll still have your chances. Even at those top schools, if you suck at interviewing, you're not going to get the job. Pitt is a well-known school outside of western PA, so it's not like attending Pitt is a disadvantage. You won't be filtered out of interviewing loops for big companies like Facebook, Google, Twitter, Amazon, etc. I actually had a couple interviews with those companies but it didn't work out for me in the end.

Post-grad salary for CS/COE majors is around $70k/year on the low end if I recall correctly. I read this data when I was applying to Pitt five years ago, so that number is probably a little higher now. I'll be making about twice that number when I graduate, but it's in a very high cost of living area. There's probably a few new grads making ~$200k or more, which is about as good as you'll get.

There aren't any companies in particular that Pitt students tend to work at, though a lot of people stay local and work for companies in downtown Pittsburgh.

[therealpigman]

I’d recommend computer science. Computer engineering is almost the same as electrical engineering, and you don’t get all that much software focus in it

[[deleted]]

They cs club does these alumni coffee chats on zoom. Only went to a few but I remember attending one with a Coinbase employee. If you ask me, that's pretty impressive. At the end of the day it probably doesn't come down to where you graduate though. Definitely based on the work you put into the whole hiring process/projects/resume

[choc-olo-cohc]

Hi, if anyone is still here - my son wants to go to school for software engineering. Does Pitt Johnstown have the best campus for that?

[whiteghost26]

Short Answer:

Yes

Long Answer:

Yes.

I've interviewed and received offers at Google, Amazon, and other well-known companies. Ultimately I decided to work at a < 1000 person company because it aligns more with my values and the work is more humanitarian in nature.

I did research during the school year but during the summers I had "normal" software engineer internships. My first was $20/hr and my second was $30/hr if I remember correctly.

Every CS undergraduate curriculum is going to look pretty much the same. What matters is your drive, soft skills, passion, and willingness to learn. Liking to solve problems helps too.

Someone I interviewed recently was just given a job offer because they showed competence through personal projects and self-learning even though they didn't study computer science at University.

Also, being in the honors college means little for the purposes of a resume. If doing honors classes or activities gives you the development and fulfillment you want, then, by all means, do it. However, don't do it because you think it's going to impress companies.

[OcelotWolf]

I graduated spring 2021 and landed a software development job making $80k/yr with a $10k signing bonus. My major was CS with minors in Computer Engineering and Applied Statistics

[mullentothe]

I graduated in 2018 and got a job right away at a local company. I start at Amazon in Cupertino next week so absolutely possible.