CSE492C: Navigating Early-Career Challenges

This course is intended for graduating seniors, but all are welcome.

Course goal: Prepare students to navigate nuanced situations specific to software-engineering industry careers, including:

Emphasizing impact to set oneself up for a promotion
Techniques to decrease onboarding time
Finding resources to learn on teams without documentation
Having difficult conversations with managers (e.g. addressing lack of work-life balance or difficulties working with particular teammates)

Intended impact: Going into industry with techniques to navigate new situations contributes to:

Short-term success: earlier promotion, better performance reviews, etc.
Long-term success: staying in tech, finding a job where one can grow and pursue rewarding projects, etc.

The discussions in this course will be based on not only my experiences, but the recurring themes I’ve seen from working with about 100 new grads and interns, as well as information from more senior mentors. Credit will be participation-based and the main course format will be short presentations with in-depth discussions of actual situations. Course communication will be done through Canvas.