Somi Singh

What did you do this past week?

I spent this past week finishing up the Life project and finishing a Spark project for Big Data Programming. I also enjoyed Thanksgiving with friends and family. On Friday I attended the talk with two of Professor Downing’s former students.

What’s in your way?

With exactly one week left, I need to study for exams and finish one more project. Given that the semester is just about over, I need to stay motivated to finish this semester on a high note instead of just going through the motions. Probably because of all the recruiting stuff, this semester has been pretty exhausting.

What will you do next week?

Next week I am going to take the last exam and turn in the last project for Big Data, study for the upcoming OOP exam, and finish a few more interviews. Several companies I was very interested in earlier didn’t reach out to me until just now, so I only have a limited time to interview with them before my other offers expire.

If you went, what did you think of the talk by Google?

I enjoyed hearing from the former students about how their career paths have taken them along very different paths having both graduated with degrees in CS. The talk wasn’t exactly about Google, but moreso the potential paths one’s career might take them. I would have liked to hear more about Google internals but alot of that might be confidential.

What was your experience of Project #5: Life?

I think the project was interesting and finding the appropriate way of abstracting Cells was a good learning experience. Like most of the projects, the material we used to implement the solution wasn’t formally taught in class until after the project was due. This is probably by design but it would have been nice to have the walk-through beforehand!

What’s your pick-of-the-week or tip-of-the-week?

Part of the challenge in leveling the economic playing field is the democratization of salary information. Along with negotiating, knowing what range a company pays its employees will help make sure you aren’t being shortchanged. www.Glassdoor.com is one resource for researching companies, and www.levels.fyi is another.