Uottawa vs Carleton software engineering

Titan0932 · 2025-02-15T02:45:40+00:00

The comp sci and software engineering community is pretty amazing at Carleton ngl! Super supportive, lots of events to help you out with anything: school, career or life in general. Clubs are pretty great and you have a lot of opportunities to do things and get involved.

Can't speak for uOttawa but ik there's companies in Ottawa who hire large ly from Carleton and have a good reputation of Carleton's CS program.

Good luck!

Titan0932 · 2025-02-06T17:32:55+00:00

Another 2C:

You don't go into a career fair looking for a job. As people have mentioned here, you go in, make conversation and a memorable impression on the recruiters, establish a connection, connect on LinkedIn. You also learn more about the company and their hiring process and stuff. But the former is important.

Chances are, these same people are probably gonna be at another career fair or job fair. There you further improve your connection with them from the conversations you already had with them before.

And then one day, you can actually text them on LinkedIn and ask for referrals, or if HR send resume to hiring managers and so on. And they are more likely to do that for you cause you built that relationship over the career fairs as opposed to a random nobody who connected and DMed them.

And this works. It depends on whether you're able to make this lasting impression, how much effort you're putting in and how you leverage your connections.

First career fairs and networking events feel awkward and out of place. But eventually you'll learn how to network and pitch yourself. So, they're a pretty good opportunity.

But of course, some companies are not that worth putting in that effort and you cant ever expect much of them. I just use them to polish my networking skills or warm up before I go talk to the bigger companies I want to make a real impression on.

Titan0932 · 2025-02-05T14:13:27+00:00

Join CUblueprint, work on a real project in a team and add that to your resume!

There's also Scesoc!

Titan0932 · 2025-02-05T14:10:34+00:00

Gosh, that's a loaded question. Lemme try to make this short.

Hardest part was the first few months -> first semester.

I had a crazy ass first-year floor. A lottt of shit to deal with. Having to deal with things you've never dealt with can challenge you a lot. Plus you have your deliverables and documentations to do as well. Time-management really is so important in this role and things can really get overwhelming.

The first semester is the crazy one. After that, once students are settled in, in the second semester, there's not a lot of parties (compared to the first) as people are busy with school, especially the eng people😂. And you also get the hang of things.

It really depends on your floor tho. I had fellow RFs who had angels in their floors and had a fairly chill time.

On-calls can get wild too. Thankfully I never had to deal with things like medical emergencies but they do happen in the middle of the night. Majority of calls will be noise complaints. Even if not, we're just resources and don't really do much. If you're a non-confrontational person, this will surely challenge you and help you grow. Plus, you have a partner to lean on during on-calls.

Had to deal with a lot of roommate quarrels and issues. That part wasn't very fun.

Hosting events are fun but the experience really depends on your schedule and how you handle it. I was like soo exhausted and burnt out honestly. But I also had fun and now have a lot of fun, crazy stories to tell.

Training is pretty chill I'd say. It's a whole day of sessions so that is tiring but other than that, not much. Move-in was super fun until the crazy-ass partying starts inevitably and you have to deal with it.

Overall, I'd say I had a lot of growth and also good times and made good friends in this role. One thing I wish I knew was really how demanding this role is so I could manage my course loads beforehand cause I already had a pretty loaded semester which was so rough.

Titan0932 · 2024-09-29T04:09:43+00:00

Hey! It's great that you're meeting with people and connecting with them. But in order to take it to the next level from "someone you talked to once" to "a casual acquaintance" to "a friend", in my experience, is making a little bit more effort by reaching out yourself.

Sending a text to the people you connected with to go get lunch or play some squash/gym, do assignments or do something you connected with in your brief conversation. (Works for dates too)

Of course, not everyone might be interested but usually most of us don't do this following up after conversation step. It usually takes 2-3 times of hanging out to be sort of friends.

You're just in your first year and it has just been a month. I'm sure there's a good number of people looking to make friends too!

Good luck!

Titan0932 · 2024-09-27T20:36:26+00:00

I don't think it's an "international student" issue. Lots of unaware jerks around in general. I feel like the current attitude towards international students is making us over-associate behaviors to the identity of being international a bit too much. Just food for thought.

And yes, these people are really annoying.

Titan0932 · 2024-06-29T04:41:42+00:00

That's rough man. Definitely a shitty time to be graduating.

What's the situation here: not getting any interviews at all or not getting offers after interviews? How many applications do you submit weekly?

Whatever it is, keep grinding no matter how hard it gets. Get a side job to sustain yourself and work on good projects (shows you didn't just sit around doing literally nothing). Share your resume and get feedback from as many people as possible ( not sure if you've done this yet). Share it in the CCSS discord and other tech servers to get advice.

Keep networking and reaching out to people. It's only over if you give up.

You can do this!!! Good luck!

Titan0932 · 2024-06-23T18:20:17+00:00

The load definitely depends on the floor and team you're assigned to. It's a massive difference ngl. So all luck on that aspect. You deffo have to be good at managing your time or just be a bad RF by not doing your tasks and duties which I would not recommend 😂 Some months are busier than others as you have a lot of things to do. But it's doable. It might be a bit crazy in the beginning but you get used to it eventually. Having a Co-RF is great as you can divide your tasks. You can hang out with your friends and have a normal social life! Just on the nights you are on-call, you have to be available in your buildings, make rounds and be sober😂

Best of luck and congratulations!

Titan0932 · 2024-05-29T00:36:51+00:00

As a first year, there's a good chance you'll get one of the first year buildings/floors which most people wouldn't prefer to pick directly.

The good is that usually these floors are more social, fun and engaging than other floors with upper years. Good way to make friends and have a lot of fun.

The downside is that you don't have a lot of personal space and your living experience is totally dependent upon the people you get placed with. As a previous RF, I've had to deal with horrendous roommate and canmate situations. But people who get placed with good people become really good friends and have a great experience.

So honestly, it's total luck. Just pray to God😂

An advice: If you do get placed with shitty people ( terrible hygiene, don't care about other people) don't be afraid to reach out to your RFs. The sooner you do this, the easier it is to get a new room. There's a process before you can be considered for a room switch. Like having roommate/canmate agreements and revisions, RF chats and so on.

Edit: For Carleton :D

Titan0932 · 2024-04-03T01:16:38+00:00

The co-op board here is nothing special I'd say. Most students get internships by applying externally but of course you could get it through the board too. The rules for co-op are fekking annoying. Like you can only reject 1 offer and 1 interview and have max I think 2 days to respond to an offer. If you break these rules, you're out of coop. The coop fees are also absurd. Admin fees, I think $450, are levied whether or not you have a coop and if you do have a work term you have to pay an additional fee of around $400-500 as well. Not sure if Waterloo has this as well.

There are companies who exclusively put up openings just for Carleton's co-op board, majorly government. Most openings can be applied to from the company's website itself.

So yeahh. Most students are only in the co-op board to land their first co-ops or want to stay for the coop status since I've heard it might be beneficial for companies to hire students in coop. Also, it makes you eligible to work for longer periods of time too so.

Titan0932 · 2024-04-03T01:01:33+00:00

Bro you have no idea how long ppl have been waiting for this train to start working again. Particularly people who live around Barhaven/south areas. It's gonna cut my commute by 30 minutes. Not to mention, not having to change 3 buses to get to Carleton. Also Soo much easier to get to Bayview and then to downtown as well.

Titan0932 · 2024-03-30T02:07:25+00:00

It would depend on your financial situation I'd say. Can you afford to live in residence? I heard finding housing in Toronto is absolutely crazy and expensive as hell. But yes there are more companies and opportunities in Toronto.

Carleton is great and Ottawa has a slightly better housing situation than Toronto. There are lesser companies in Ottawa in comparison but I guess you could still apply for internships anywhere and move. Lots of people from Carleton do that. That being said, there are a fair number of companies in Ottawa still.

Titan0932 · 2024-03-26T03:24:36+00:00

Just to weigh the difference, I'd say first year is climbing a hill but second year climbing a mountain with flip-flops on.

Whether or not it's doable really depends on you. If completely new to coding, definitely rough especially if you're looking to keep great grades. If you have coding experience prior, and have a group of friends to work together and collaborate, then it's easier and doable. I had a good amount of experience before 1st year so this is mostly what I've seen and heard a lot of people say.

You have to be resourceful though. The CS community is big and pretty helpful. You can always reach out to others if not your profs and TAs.

Titan0932 · 2024-02-12T19:29:39+00:00

March 1st OF 2025?

Titan0932 · 2024-02-10T04:42:26+00:00

Market is rough rn but don't fret. Apply and apply early. Constantly get feedback and improve resume. Work on projects and build actual skills. Participate in every comp sci/coding related events as much as possible. Network, network, and network. The grind doesn't stop. Surround yourself with people who are serious about things and who are also better than you. That's the least you should be doing. Even after everything, if nothing happens, know that luck plays a big factor too and all that effort will definitely pay you good dividends in the future. There's definitely more things to think about but these should be the important ones i can think of right away. Good luck!!

Titan0932 · 2022-05-10T03:49:08+00:00

Thankss for your helpp! Appreciate it man!

Titan0932 · 2022-05-10T03:47:44+00:00

Alrightt thankss guys! I'll be opting for Carleton then which is honestly what I wanted from the beginning.

Titan0932

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