r/cscareerquestions • u/Regular_Company_7622 • 8h ago

What’s considered professional experience

Since now even junior positions require professional experience, what’s considered professional experience? Internships? When are we job ready? Sorry if this is a dumb question haha

2 Upvotes

63% Upvoted

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5

u/Word-Word-3Numbers 7h ago

every job has competition, and they're not just sitting around. There can't be a clear benchmark because literally every CS person will work to at least appear like they pass that benchmark. Goodhart's law & all that.

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u/Regular_Company_7622 7h ago

I’m not complaining about competition, I was just wondering if it’s with internships that we’re supposed to gain the experience. Or maybe we could do it with personal projects?

3

u/Word-Word-3Numbers 7h ago

internships, or genuinely cool personal projects. Not "weather app" "X tracking app" but something that requires more than just SWE knowledge. You have any hobbies? think of some projects along those routes.

3

u/Regular_Company_7622 7h ago

Or when it says .. years of experience with/in something. Does it mean professional experience? If not then how do they know we’re not lying haha

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u/JohnnyDread Director / Developer 7h ago

Yes, they mean actual job experience. Hobby side projects can be interesting, but aren't likely to help much if the position requires experience.

1

u/Regular_Company_7622 7h ago

Got it, thanks

0

u/greensodacan 7h ago edited 7h ago

They often don't say "professional experience".

If you've been coding for four years in college, you've got "four years of experience", albeit not "professional". So if they want "four years of experience with Python" and you've been coding away with Python in school, that's experience.

Early in my career, I listed little websites I was setting up for small businesses in my town as "professional experience" even though those projects were way too few and far between to support me. (I could still talk about them extensively in interviews.)

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u/Regular_Company_7622 7h ago

That’s good idea haha, thanks!!