Return-Path: Received: from RHODOPE.ABLE.CS.CMU.EDU by K.GP.CS.CMU.EDU id aa15290; 27 Sep 95 20:15:46 EDT Date: Wed, 27 Sep 95 20:15:37 EDT To: bovik@cs.cmu.edu Subject: Comments on Summer positions at various companies. From: Bob Monroe Dr. Bovik -- The following comments were offered by SCS graduate students discussing their summer positions for the summers of 1994 and 1995. ********************************************************************** Company name: IBM T J Watson Research Center "Nice environment of summer students; very competitive salary for a research lab, regular employees are nice but nowhere near as dynamic as students. " "I started worked at IBM by way of a co-op program [as an undergrad], and have sustained and grown my contacts since then. Getting a summer position is much harder without such contacts." ********************************************************************** Company name: Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) "The job wasn't completely up my alley in terms of research interests, but it was great for getting a feel for how NASA, and particularly JPL work. I also made some good contacts there. Compensation was enough to make it well worthwhile financially. Even renting a place there while still paying for my house here, I saved about 4 times as much as I would have had I stayed at CMU. I'm glad I went. It's an interesting place to be, and a relaxed work environment: informal dress, flexible hours, nice people. " ********************************************************************** Company name: Pixar "A very exciting place to be for anyone with an interest in graphics. Friendly environment, and some of the best people in the business to work with. I didn't wind up making a financial killing from the wage, mainly because I rented a car, which was expensive, but necessary." ********************************************************************** Company name: AT&T, Bell Laboratories "Bell Labs is a great place to work. I was essentially allowed to do my own thing. " ********************************************************************** Company name: Carnegie Group, Inc. "In general, I found Carnegie Group to be a good place to work. The people on my project were generally quite sharp and fun to work with. The work ranged from mundane to very interesting. I would recommend that anybody looking for work in Pittsburgh look into CGI, especially if you're interested in AI, machine translation, expert systems or business process re-engineering (BPR). " ********************************************************************** Company name: Digital Equipment Corp "I enjoyed the summer and felt that my opinions & work were valued. DEC SRC has a reputation for being an unpleasant place for women to work, but I didn't find this to be the case for me. They're aware of this reputation and trying hard to demonstrate that it's no longer true (if it ever was; I don't know). I learned a lot this summer, and had fun doing it. I also made contacts that will be very helpful in the future. I plan to apply for internships next summer, and would recommend it to others." ********************************************************************** Company name: Silicon Graphics (SGI) "I found SGI a very nice place to work. The atmosphere was reasonably relaxed, the pay was quite reasonable, and there were fun things to do (quite a lot of parties, movie previews, etc). " ********************************************************************** General comments and words of wisdom: * "One problem was that the prestigious intership programs are in competition, and may pressure applicants to accept offers before other programs have responded. If you're in this situation, be clear about it, and see if you can get an extension." * "If, like me, you're going to an area of the country you've never visited before, it's worth the hassle of driving there, so that you'll have a car available for sight-seeing and other fun stuff." * "Always bargain with the employer, especially if you feel they need you." * "Go to CA for the summer. It beats the hell out of Pittsburgh." ********************************************************************** (c) 1995 Robert T. Monroe. I reserve all rights of reproduction and distribution of this document. It is not to be reproduced or distributed beyond the Carnegie Mellon University School of Computer Science community in any form without the explicit permission of the author.