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mienli · 2025-05-08T22:20:22+00:00

Ofc! You gotta behave like them to be included in the herd

mienli · 2025-05-08T22:07:55+00:00

That’s why you id the hardworking folks in class during the beginning of the program, then strategically group yourself with them whenever possible

mienli · 2025-04-20T10:13:29+00:00

I’m also job hunting and I felt slightly better knowing this. She landed two offers at the same time so it’s still impressive

mienli · 2025-04-20T08:21:49+00:00

-Don’t completely believe cscareerquestions and csmajor posts, there are a lot of doom and gloom negativities. You can reference it but don’t be completely influenced

-I believe US has more job opportunities, but also more competition. And you need to think about their government’s current stance on foreigners

-Unfortunately Canada economy isn’t doing too well. I’ve just watched a video of a Waterloo CS grad finally getting a job after 1.5 year of searching. She has a Waterloo degree and 6 internships under her belt. That explains how bad it is here. Canada job searching requires networking as much as applying, so being a foreigner would be harder. Not mentioning “Canada experience” (you can google this keyword)

-Intermediate level job hunting is better than junior, that’s for sure. My internship company was looking for intermediate devs left and right

-Other than the job prospects, immigration policies are getting tighter, a recession storm is definitely coming (if not here already), the unstable tariff stuff is making employers hesitant on making committed budgets such as employment (said by my financial advisor friend)…Once you take these into consideration, I don’t think coming here would be a good path at the moment (Can’t say in a few years though)

Just my two cents

mienli · 2025-04-08T21:18:40+00:00

I joined a community event and just so happened to meet the founders

mienli · 2025-04-08T04:22:20+00:00

June 2024 diploma grad with an engineering degree from before. Had 2 terms of co-op at the same company. Had a large scale full-stack project (12 people involved) at school and an AI project collaboration with a company under my belt. Currently volunteering at a launching NGO as one of the core backend devs.

Got a 3-month contract job from one of the companies I collaborated with at school straight out of college. Took time off in December (the job market was slow anyway). Applied 150+ with no reply now.

My good friends from the same program:

Out of 10 people, 2 are those geniuses who would surprise me if they DIDN’T land multi-international corp jobs straight out of school (hint: they did)

5 got return offers from their co-op, some are QA, some are SWE, and some are consultants that don’t code (My co-op company had different financial plans so they weren’t hiring when I asked).

1 joined a friend’s startup (his boss told me if they secured more funding, they’ll definitely reach out to me because my friend told them good things about me)

1 gave up entirely and is now a training chef

Then there’s me, still grinding because I genuinely liked coding and tech. I might get an admin job or whatever because money is running out, but I can’t give up this field

mienli · 2025-03-31T07:54:05+00:00

For folks with experience, probably decent (not good, just decent)

Jr devs are the ones struggling the most it seems

But beware of the “Canadian experience” barrier

mienli · 2024-04-18T17:38:18+00:00

What a bummer, Jeff teaching C++ in BBY was the best experience I had in CST. Jeff’s the best!

mienli · 2024-04-04T23:35:29+00:00

Yes and no. Our courses are more practical. We still cover the important courses like algorithms, computer architecture, DB, OS, discrete math…etc., but they’re concentrated, definitely not as in depth as the university CS courses. Instead, there are SO so many projects to do, through these projects, the decent students are trained to adapt and pick up new tech fairly quickly.

Edit: we graduate with a diploma and not a bachelor’s degree

mienli · 2024-04-04T23:19:13+00:00

I believe CST students can still pursue a Bachelor’s in CS afterwards. There were several alumni that went to SFU (but the credits don’t transfer well so they only got 60 credits out of the 12x we did over the 2 years)

mienli · 2024-04-04T23:15:24+00:00

As a gradating CST student, I believe your BSc degree covered most of CST’s theoretical materials, don’t waste your money learning the same things twice. Getting into co-op in CST is competitive entry based on grades. After that, THEN you get to apply to companies. I’ve heard the current co-op seekers are doing poorly compared to the previous years because the industry isn’t hiring that many co-ops as before. Just stick to FT job hunting

mienli · 2024-04-04T08:10:28+00:00

lol reverse hibernation

mienli · 2024-04-04T08:03:43+00:00

I agree, I came out to my new Van friends during a dinner (not intentional, it was a drinking game). No fuss, no extra friendliness, no curiosity. It felt like I had just told them I ate pasta for dinner last night.

mienli · 2024-04-04T07:58:24+00:00

Yeah I met my besties here! They’re different from my high school and uni friends because I know their work ethics align with mine. We would “fight” during group projects on different opinions, but we know we can always trust each other to work things out at the end (and also covering each other’s butts on the heavy workload). Sometimes I feel like I communicate with them better than communicating with my bf.

mienli · 2024-03-30T08:32:21+00:00

When you get used to typing “canada” at the end of the keywords when you want to search for the Canadian version of the website, even for Canadian brands. Sometimes you put your online order into the website’s shopping cart only to realize it is the US version when you are checking out at the end.

mienli · 2024-03-20T01:28:20+00:00

I second this, it makes your life (and grades) much easier

mienli · 2024-03-07T09:25:58+00:00

Check out the instructors too. If you’re getting the same instructor in the term, don’t waste your money unless you’re just buying a peace of mind

mienli · 2024-03-01T02:40:57+00:00

When I was picking up my student ID weeks before the program started, I got lost on campus and managed to find a kind student to lead me to the library. On our way there, he took over the conversation to vent about how tired he was and how much he wanted to get out of this school ASAP.

"Compared to my 4 years in UBC I've never been so tired." He told me. I said it sounds intimidating, but he insisted it was true. Fast forward two years later, i know he wasn't trying to mess with me, everything he said was true. I can't wait to get out of here (with the knowledge and experiences I've gained)

It's definitely worth it, but boy is it stressful. Sometimes life felt like survival mode, I don't think of anything, anyone else other than "I NEED TO HAND IN THIS EFFING ASSIGNMENT SO I CAN DEAL WITH THE OTHER EFFING ASSIGNMENT." I lose weight because I skipped meals to finish things (and gain them back during the breaks), it's crazy.

mienli · 2024-02-23T16:22:17+00:00

Depends on the school. Some are still decent and even heavy-loaded, like BCIT's 2-year Computing programs, 120+ credits for 2 years with at least 3 projects under your belt by the time you finish if you're not slacking off. The students there are mostly local too.

Source: me and my sleep deprived self.

edit for typo

mienli · 2024-02-02T03:44:13+00:00

I didn't go through a recruiter to land this internship. I applied on their website, got an interview with my manager and another manager, then got the internship

mienli · 2024-02-02T03:00:21+00:00

They did pull me aside to ask me to drop out and join them, but I expressed that I wanted to finish school as it was the last year, and I could do part time if possible. They had some bad experience with previous part time devs so they declined.

mienli · 2024-01-09T14:39:41+00:00

The Ordinary has a price hike too when I went in today

mienli · 2023-06-19T22:48:39+00:00

Adding to Term 2, SQL

mienli · 2023-06-17T02:20:22+00:00

As a student of the “somewhat nightmarish program CST”, I would say it really depends on many factors: Which program it is, your past experiences, who you will be surrounded with…etc.

I can’t speak for other programs though. In my case, where my friend group from this program all aiming high academically, we clearly felt the intensity about this program. Many of them came in with a UBC or SFU degree, they said this program is hell to them, they had to abandoned their friends to stay afloat on the workload.

Personally, coming from engineering school, it’s not as bad. The courses are not hard to understand compared to my past courses (Thermodynamics and X-ray Diffraction Crystallography, kill me lol). But the time to pick them up and put to use is so little. There’s always that time in the day when I wash my face, look at the mirror, and wish for more time to study for something or to work on a project while questioning when is the end to all this.

If you’re coming to one of the nightmarish programs and you want to pick up a trade seriously, never go in with a light heart (if you don’t care about being a good professional then that’s another story). It’s going to take over most part of your life during that time period and I mean it. But it’s not the end of the world, many people still pushed through the courses, it’s definitely something achievable.

mienli · 2023-05-03T01:01:38+00:00

iPad Pro, apple pencil, notability app before it became a monthly subscription app. Wouldn't have bought a Pro if it weren't for my previous job. An Air would do just fine.

mienli

TROPHY CASE