r/cscareerquestionsCAD

Hey everyone, I was fortunate to get two offers for the upcoming fall semester for my first co-op but I'm a bit lost on which one I should take. Keep in mind my main goal is to use this internship to hopefully help me land SWE roles for my next internship.

The first one is a statistical programmer at StatsCan where the job description describes it as a co-op focused on building open-source data pipelines and analytical workflows using R / Python, working with Git, and modernizing legacy systems through ETL processes and unit testing best practices.

The second offer is also a government Junior Tester Analyst position at IRCC where the job description describes it as a co-op focused on software quality assurance and testing for enterprise web applications, including manual and automated testing in Java, writing test cases, tracking defects in Azure DevOps, and collaborating with developers to ensure system reliability.

Any advice on which one would help me more would be much appreciated, thanks!

I’m a 2nd year CS student at UBC with a 4.0 GPA. Is it actually true that school name and GPA don’t matter, meaning I don’t really have an advantage over other applicants even though I attend a top 3 CS school?

I’ve spent most of my time focusing on academics, so I only have a few personal projects and I’ve done a lot of LeetCode, but I don’t have any internships yet. I’m in UBC’s co-op program where I alternate between school and work terms, so I’m planning to start applying for internships soon.

How much does attending a top school and having a high gpa help? Is having strong projects and internship experience really all that matters, or does school reputation and GPA still provide a meaningful advantage?

edit: also how much of an advantage is being in ubc coop vs applying on your own?

I am a recent graduate from UBC in a field related to CS. I have zero work experience (I failed to get any internship/coops so far) but I have passion projects related to C/C++, Rust, Go, Python, computer graphics, desktop GUI applications. I have never made any genuine friendships so far so I have no professional network. I have no idea if I can get a software job related to my expertise. There are lack of jobs and the competition is brutal. Not to mention that my severe hearing loss makes things 100% harder. I don’t know what to do anymore.

Hey yall I wanna share a feel good. I made a lot of dumb fucking decisions lol

Started a bachelors of cs in 2019. Basically dicked around partying and gaming for 2 years. Was stuck in first year classes for my entire 3 year venture at university like an idiot.

In 2022 I decided to move back home and drop out. Serious depression hit me as I debated the dumb decisions I made in the past few years. Got a job working retail for 6 months. During that time, my friend convinced me to apply to a local college for a 3 year diploma (was a coop program)

Began the program in Jan 2023. Felt like a dumbass went from a bachelors of cs to doing a diploma at a college. Anyway w the help of my wonderful friends/classmates, we got through first year and it was time to look for coops.

All summer and September of 2023 was me stress applying to internships/coops. Was praying and crying for one. Ended up getting a 4 month software qa role in my city starting Jan 2024. The pay was buttcheeks but it was experience!!! So stoked

Once this internship ended (4 months long), I had received a return internship to the same company for September 2024. went back to school for summer of 2024 where my dumbass was mentally burnt out and failed ALL of my summer classes. Luckily my employer didn’t care and still brought me for September for a 4 month coop. The catch was since I failed the classes, I wasn’t allowed to find my 3rd and final coop until I completed those classes.

So after my 2nd coop I powered through a year of classes, catching up on failed courses and whatnot. Meanwhile my classmates went on to their 3rd coop and having a good summer, my dumbass was schooling away.

This turned out to be a blessing as I ended up finding an even better company, remote, and f500 for a software qa role. This one was a year long and I’m currently there now.

My friends have all graduated and working ft and I’ve been stressed wondering what’s ahead after this internship. But I finally fucking did it.

I secured a swe ft role at a defense company.

7 years later I’m happy to say it was worth it. I wish I had better discipline in my life but I fucking did it!!!k

I’m currently in a stable government software development role using a more niche tech stack (Apex, PLSQL). I may have a 2-year opportunity that would give me hands-on experience in a much more marketable technical area (AWS).
The downside is that I may lose my permanent status.

Work revolves around:
- cloud account setup and management,
- installation and configuration of vendor products,
- some ongoing maintenance of those products,
hands-on technical work,
- development and maintenance of supporting documentation,

- From a career-growth perspective, is 2 years enough time to build valuable experience and pivot into better opportunities later?
- Is giving up permanent stability too risky in the current Canadian tech market?
- I’m early in my career and trying to decide between stability now vs building more marketable skills for the future.

Would appreciate honest advice.
Thanks.

I recently attended two interviews for Java Full Stack Developer roles.

Both interviews followed almost the same pattern. The interviewer noticed that I have **1 year of experience in .NET/C#**, asked me a few basic Java and Spring Boot questions, and then ended the interview by saying, *"We'll get back to you."* After that... complete silence. No rejection, no feedback, nothing.

I've been learning Java, Spring Boot, SQL, Hibernate, REST APIs, and building projects to transition into the Java ecosystem, but it feels like my previous .NET experience is becoming a barrier rather than an advantage.

Has anyone here successfully switched from .NET to Java?

* How did you convince interviewers to give you a chance? * Should I keep applying to Java roles, or should I first gain more experience in .NET and switch later? * Is there anything I can do to improve my chances of getting past this initial screening?

I'd really appreciate hearing from anyone who's made a similar career transition or has experience hiring developers.

Thanks!

I am currently @ 3 YOE making ~ 200k (RSUs are down but hoping refreshers make up for it)

I am probably a solid 2-3 years away from a promo

What are my current options if I want to increase my TC?

Are there any shops in Canada that can beat this pay?

Is my only option to go down south?

Thanks!

Pretty much the title.

For context: going into 3rd year cs at queens, done 2 internships and going to Fidelity Canada for fall

I’ve seen many interns go from big banks -> shopify -> etc

Is fidelity investments canada on the same level as these canadian big banks?

So my school is super greedy and want me to pay $4000 throughout the length of my 16 month internship in order to be in their official internship program.

They want me to register every semester, and thus pay $4000 for what is essentially one course. I think that’s fucking stupid and would like to get out of it.

The problem is they know the contacts of some people in my company (I gave it to them before knowing this stupid rule) and they contacted my workplace.

When I protested they said it’s mandatory and that the employers get a tax credit from us being in the internship course.

My question is: can anyone confirm this? Have you guys been in a similar place? What do you recommend I do? I don’t want to get in trouble with my workplace or school but it just feels so fucking unfair ESPECIALLY because we don’t qualify for OSAP or any kind of bursaries.

Hello, I hope you're doing well. I'm an intl that got into u ottawa for cs degree and math + econ (both co-op). I'm still debating on which one I should go for. I was more inclined for CS, and I talked to a few alumni, but the current job market looks brutal right now.

Wanted to hear some opinions from this sub and what you guys think the job market will look like in 5 years.

Hi All,

Little bit of background. Ive been working under the title of "SWE" for a little over 2 years now at a mid - large financial company with TC sitting around 100 - 105k. The catch here is I work on the ServiceNow platform. I do get to write code, however its mostly scripts. I have developed APIs for integrations on the platform and created custom AI Agents actively being used in our production instance.

Some more information - The company does not have any traditional Software Engineering teams for me to hop to.

I also have the opportunity to work along side our Network engineering team and potentially make a switch into that field or have some networking skill under my belt to make myself a better engineer in general. Would this be a potential good switch to make if I in the future wanted to make a jump into any big tech companies?

I am very lucky to be in my position given the current job market we are in but id love to get some advice!

Thanks :)

Looking for some advice on when to give notice during an internship.

I'm currently finishing a software QA internship (meant to end Dec 2026), however I found and I'll relocating to a new city to be starting a full-time software engineering role at a defense company in September. Everything is finalized (offer signed, clearances approved, start date confirmed).

My contract says I only need to give two weeks' notice, but since this is a co-op/internship, I'm wondering if I should give more.

For context, I applied for this internship in 2025 around June 10, had interviews later that month, got the offer in mid-July, and started in September. Since internships are usually recruited for months in advance, I'd like to give my current employer enough time to find a replacement.

Would you tell them now (late June), wait until after signing a lease for my move, or give notice sometime in July/August?

I know legally all I have to do is 2 weeks but out of courtesy (really nice team) I wanted to do it a bit earlier

Curious what others have done in similar situations.

Hey guys so I recently graduated highschool and I was fortunate to land a data entry internship interview which I have next week. It’s basically entering data using some software.
I have some experience programming with Java however I’m at a beginner-intermediate level. I have some projects such as a wordle game, and a banking simulation. I also designed some arduino projects like a animatronic arm and claw machine which I designed and built and used AI for the code.

The internship is specifically for highschool students if you are wondering how I got it with such little experience. Ontario btw. Company is also super small.

I have no idea how the interview will work and could really use some advice. I have done interviews before for random summer jobs and they have went great. This is the first time I’m doing it for a tech-adjacent role.

Please give me tips, advice, what can I expect, and how to stand out. I will review my programming skills just before the interview as well.

Rn I have a job that I’ve been at for almost 2 years mostly working with typescript, node, react and some Terraform/Golang but I wanna do some game dev. It’s still early days for me and I’m 25 so I reckon I can take a more stressful/harder job compared to this one but every game dev job requires game dev experience which I do not have. Any suggestions?