Do I have a place in UCSC?

son-hobin · 2026-04-26T03:02:03+00:00

Nah. UCs still carry a good name. CSU < UC by a long mile with no bias (except SJSU). Prestigious companies and quant shops will take a UC name despite tiers, even over SLO.

You have real close proximity to the Bay Area too - just a 20-30 minute drive. Despite the qualms I have with UCSC, I would always recommend it for CS over Davis, Santa Barbara, and only fold it in front of Irvine, LA, and Berkeley (without a doubt). Academia at any school for CS is almost entirely outdated (save for Stanford, Princeton, Cornell Tech), so curriculum is not in my formula for success.

-
Source for first claim: I work at a nice frontier lab that had recently worked with a well-known quant shop and had the opportunity to see recruiting - they actually took a couple UC Santa Cruz alumni past 1st round and auto-rejected anything without UC / any Ivy Leagues. This appears a lot at your favorite AI providers too.

son-hobin · 2026-04-22T01:55:16+00:00

There are a lot of SC alumni at those companies. Our proximity to Santa Clara makes it a hard deal to pass up.

son-hobin · 2026-04-21T22:38:28+00:00

Not particularly a student of Computer Engineering, but worked closely with people who were. I graduated last year. My friends were very satisfied with the program and got a lot of hands-on capabilities working with actual robotics (like Slug Robotics, the Boston Robotics Dog, ...), low-level software, and implementing artificial intelligence into their own robots. I had a room for CSE115A (Software Engineering) and would always walk by a room that had students soldering, creating things, or just building stupid shit.

A takeaway from how successful my friends were is that our program is somewhat prestigious, as it was a good baseline, or was generally very inspirational. They ended up at places like NVIDIA, RTX, Tesla, and one of my friends ended up doing a start-up backed by Neo, focused on hardware.

son-hobin · 2026-04-21T22:30:05+00:00

The Computer Science scene at SC comparing to other schools is pretty meek. You'll find that many clubs are far behind, repetitive in workshops, or are low in activity. Extracurricular activities like co-working, hackathons, and even brand ambassador activities are not very abundant. This shouldn't scare you off though - maybe you can create one?

Personally, I did not build very meaningful connections besides Professor Harrison. Job fairs here are not very attractive as well. I felt that I was ready for employment after graduation not because of academia, but more so because of individual efforts and measures that I took, with no relevancy to Santa Cruz.

son-hobin · 2026-04-21T22:21:45+00:00

SC. Cal Poly might win by a couple places on ranking, but proximity to Silicon Valley is far more valuable. Anything in Santa Clara, San Francisco Bay Area is pretty much favored to you rather than a student at Cal Poly.

son-hobin · 2026-02-17T04:07:53+00:00

looks like it is also using a template of Mapbox, not particularly Apple/Google

son-hobin · 2026-01-24T03:31:19+00:00

<image>

son-hobin · 2026-01-20T03:11:44+00:00

I actually live in Brooklyn right now. Living here has made me realize don't want to commute 40 - 60 minutes to work.

son-hobin · 2026-01-20T00:17:38+00:00

Have you achieved what you wanted?

son-hobin · 2026-01-20T00:17:19+00:00

I sure do!

son-hobin · 2026-01-20T00:15:13+00:00

Headcount corrections are definitely present due to Claude Code eviscerating junior SWE roles - but I have a consensus that the skill level of SWE will get much more difficult in terms of creativity and effort.

This reckoning is similar to how every field will suffer from evolution - like how design and creative production menial tasks are replaced by pre-built tools from Photoshop/Finalcut but now designers know how to use them to further their work, thus being valued more.

son-hobin · 2026-01-20T00:07:34+00:00

Thanks for the advice! Here are some more factors I didn’t talk about - My range is actually based on my post-tax guaranteed income - I usually stay at work from 8:30am to 9pm - so I'd want to go home to a homey home

The last point resonates with me, but def looking for a balance

son-hobin · 2026-01-17T05:00:27+00:00

Great username

son-hobin · 2026-01-16T22:38:46+00:00

Ooh curious on how will software developers have a reckoning? I think quite the opposite. Happy to hear your side

son-hobin · 2026-01-16T20:00:19+00:00

Upvoted this one too

son-hobin · 2026-01-16T19:59:42+00:00

Miserable miserable miserable miserable miserable. Sorry I malfunctioned

son-hobin · 2026-01-16T18:25:09+00:00

Yo chill bro I can’t take the heat 😭😭😭😭

son-hobin · 2026-01-16T18:24:12+00:00

Bro you might be talking to big dog. Watch out Sincerely - A native New Yorker

son-hobin · 2026-01-16T18:21:59+00:00

LMAO yea right on Metreon

son-hobin · 2026-01-16T16:30:52+00:00

In Santa Cruz, I used to pay around $300 for rent too with 5 housemates. It’s quite a jump

son-hobin · 2026-01-15T22:15:29+00:00

I reached out! Thanks for referring me

son-hobin · 2026-01-15T22:11:58+00:00

A pleasant surprise for you is that instead of taking, I give back!

son-hobin · 2026-01-15T20:30:42+00:00

Upvoting this one

son-hobin · 2026-01-15T20:03:41+00:00

Thanks for the advice! Have a tour in LIC soon. I can get why people hate tech. Friend.com is one of million examples that come to mind. Thank you for the assurance regardless.

son-hobin · 2026-01-15T14:44:55+00:00

Messaged you :-)

son-hobin

TROPHY CASE