Ask HN: What can I do after graduation, but before I'm qualified for positions?

[multicore]

After reading this again, I can see how it might look like a brag post. I swear that it's not, I'm legitimately seeking advice.

I'm coming up on my senior year of college, but only discovered my love for computer science late in my academic career (I'm a math and biophysics double major). Because of this, I've only had about year of true programming experience.

And although I'm proficient in C/C++, Java, and Python, and have had two really interesting research positions (writing applications for HPC/supercomputers and hypervisor security research), I still don't feel like I have a whole lot of the experience people look for in programmers.

So as graduation comes up in the Spring, I'm at a dilemma. I need to either get a job, or go to grad school. But can anyone offer some advice on jobs I could look at that would help me continue to learn programming? Or, alternately, has anyone went on to get say, a Master's in Software Engineering, and could share their experiences about it?

[GitRHero]

What I've heard (and am about to find out) is that Master's programs in CS don't do much more than undergraduate degrees. Maybe if you're lucky you do a little more research, you write a thesis, and then you're in the exact same position you were a year or two ago.

What I'm thinking is.. Just start doing stuff on your own. Figure out things you want to make and try to make them. Join some open-source projects, start some open-source projects, build a portfolio of things that you made and code you've written that potential employers can actually look at. At this point I'm just regurgitating advice that I've heard too many times, but that doesn't mean it's not good advice.

[mehrdada]

The fact that you are listing "C/C++" as one of the languages you are proficient in implies that you are probably not aware of the vast complexity gap that exists between C and C++, and that contradicts with you being "proficient" in C++.

[multicore]

Which is yet another indication of the validity of my general premise: I'm looking for further experience.

[bazookaBen]

be an intern for the position you like