Contrastingly to day 7, today was great. I got to university
on time, the lectures weren’t a complete waste of time like yesterday’s
practical and best of all, I attended a placement networking night which gave
me a pretty good idea of what I want to do in the immediate future after
graduating.
But let’s not get ahead of ourselves and break down the day,
as usual, bit by bit. The first lecture was an hour long and since it was on
programming it went reasonably quick. NB not all computer science students love
programming, but it is a large chunk of the discipline itself.
After a 1 hour break in which I didn’t use as productively
as intended, followed the typical 3 hour contact period. 2 hours of a lecture on
Foundations of Computing followed by a 1 hour tutorial.
Speaking of tutorials,
today’s timetabled actually scheduled one in the morning between 9 and 10am but
we specifically got an email stating that it’s an optional “surgery” (whatever
that means).
Obviously, 9am starts are every students nightmare and since
I already done the worksheet for the tutorial due to previous knowledge, there
honestly was no point in going. With that said, the lecturer did say she was
surprised how half the cohort ended being there particularly since in previous
years the numbers were significantly lower.
On to the lecture itself. I expected a reasonably repetitive
lecture with content I had already learnt but to a pleasant surprise, I was
wrong. Most of the material was somewhat unfamiliar with the occasional accustomed
content.
This was also the first time (excluding the time on the very
first day of the very first lecture) I intentionally sat at the back of the
theatre. It was a fascinating experience indeed. Firstly, the guy to my right
completely knocked out as soon as the lecture started until the 1 hour mark
where a 10 minute break is customary.
Secondly, sitting at the back had more leg room than
anticipated which was a plus and it wasn’t too hard to concentrate on the
lecture either contrary to popular opinion. That’s also subject to the people
around so for instance, if you’ve got neighbours sleeping and students in the
row ahead playing games on their PCs or shopping at amazon then that’s a whole
different kettle of fish.
Regardless, I was unfazed by my distracted peers since new
content is often enjoyable when you’ve been hearing the same stuff in lectures
that you already knew. Sadly though, this is also the first time that I left a
lecture early to get to the placement networking night. Don’t get me wrong it
was definitely worth it but it’s not something I ever thought I’d do.
As far as the remainder of the day was concerned, my routine
was simply to go to every stall at the placement night, take advantage of all the
freebies available and most important of all, ask them the million dollar (or
pound should I say) question: Does one set themselves up for employment better
with an integrated master’s degree or a bachelor’s degree with a year in
industry.
For apparent reasons, one would think the latter is more
attractive in the eyes of companies since it builds actual experience in
industry; something a master’s student would be completely unaware of (unless
extracurricular experienced was gained of course).
There lies the conundrum indeed. Some company
representatives said the former whilst others the latter and some suggested it
depends on the company which wasn’t helpful at all.
Logically speaking, a
master’s is more prestigious since only the most academic of students can
complete such a rigorous course but you wouldn’t be wrong in thinking a year in
industry is difficult hence showing several transferable skills of students
which could make them more attractive employment wise.
I could go on to justify both sides but to be honest, I
myself am still a bit puzzled so I’ll just leave the aforementioned arguments
above. That’s all for today, be sure to check out tomorrow’s blog on day 8!
A was just about to end this post and a fellow commuter just
sat next to me with the whiplash film on his phone. And it’s on the best scene
as well! Yeah, you know which one I’m talking about. Just an interesting
occurrence.
Hope this helps!
No comments:
Post a Comment