EBoard 01: Getting Started

Approximate overview

About the class

2:30-2:40

Course site: https://rebelsky.cs.grinnell.edu/Courses/CSC281/2023Fa.
Three primary goals
- Introduce you to possible career paths via alumni
- Develop skills to help you succeed
- New this semester: Practice with tech interviews
Disclaimer: The standard model of tech interviews is inequitable and does not really test for the things people think it does.
Rationale
- Help you reflect on what you might do with your CS degree (or at least what you might do in computing with your CS degree)
- Build/practice skills that might help you succeed in finding the career you want
Class model
- Weekly visits by alumni (and a few others)
- Alumni will also do recorded practice tech interviews with a few students. Others will watch/skim them.
- Others will also conduct their own interviews.
- We will debrief each week. What went well / went less well / what did we learn?
- Alumni will also give short descriptions of their career paths, their normal workdays, and such. Plus answer questions.
If you do the regular work and show up to class, you get an S.
If you don’t, you get an F.
The “textbook” is “Cracking the Coding Interview”. It is completely optional. But it has some good tips that we may not cover in class.

2:45-3:45

A leader/founder of Brilliant Black Minds.
Regularly trains people on technical interviews.
I met him in a course designed to encourage faculty to include tech interview training in their courses.
If all goes well, I’ll figure out the technology to get him to class. I think we agreed upon Teams.

3:45-3:50

Covid is back on campus. I have multiple students who report having Covid. Consider masking.
Attendance.