Career Advising Workshop Exercise for Software Engineers

Carnegie Mellon University’s Silicon Valley Campus (CMU-SV) attracts science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) students who want to make an impact in Silicon Valley, an area known for its innovative and entrepreneurial culture. The goal of the various CMU-SV masters programs is to provide a transformative educational experience – one that changes how the students perform in the workplace. The students are immersed in a “learn-by-doing” environment that makes them valuable members of the workforce as they graduate with practical experience in high-demand technical areas. Despite this “state-of-the-art” graduate education in software engineering and software management, when it comes time to find employment, these students are often confused about career direction. When asked, “Tell me about your ideal job,” many of the students describe generic software developer or software manager positions that, in reality, vary widely within the software industry. While they are full of enthusiasm and passion for the subject matter, some students have no clear notion of how to map passionate job activities into the job search, and they are often overwhelmed by the number of job postings in the software engineering and software management fields.