New York City College of Technology is a good school that is always wanted to help their student to progress in knowledge of specific field, but after I did the job search of network field, one thing I was kind of worry about is technical skills we are lacking. When I read across several job ads, I realized that I don’t have enough hard skills for me to compete with people who does. So the first thing that came up to my mind is City Tech. I was asking myself if the school prepare students with enough technical skill train rather than throwing bunch of theoretical knowledge before they step into a their career field.
To be specific about what I mean, Lets start with my department arranged curriculum for computer science and compare our computer program with other colleges’ computer program. I remember when I take the fundamental network class on the second semester in City Tech, my professor taught us about how to make cable, to be specific, RJ-45 cable; It is used for Ethernet connection between two nodes. Learn how to make cable is the most fundamental skill for a networking guy because they are the one who’s making the cable and hook up all computers, servers, and printer to form a network connection. Yet my professor did not show us how to make it practically rather than just lecturing the process of making it. Another example that shows the lack lab activity is when I took an advanced networking class. during that semester, my professor does make us build up a small network of 2-3 computers and couple switches and router. we also need to configure are connection devices in order to all devices to be cable to communicate with each other. although this is a very help practice toward my career, yet this is barely enough for the enterprise environment. we all know that the moment we got hiring into a computer or even a small computer, we have to deal with hundreds or thousand of devices that needs to be connect to internal network and monitor their behaviors. for us to be prepared, I think the school need to buy more equipment and set up variety of labs for students to practice their skills.
though City Tech computer system department is lacking labs and extracurricular, they does provide students with adequate amount of courses to prepare student for specific type of job. The school have major core module that student can choice as there future career path, so that student can be more focus on what they pick to study. However, there is one thing that I think it needs to be improve is lacking of class for specific certificate preparation. For example, in NYIT, the computer science department give student option to take Cisco based certificate class for those who aim on network profession. another thing that i think city tech is doing its work is internship class for undergraduates. when I did the job research, I realized that many employer require candidates to have certain amount of experience in order to qualify the position opened. internship class give students a opportunity to get a grasp of how real working field look like, it also helps students to gain as much experience as need when they ready to graduate. Internship becomes very beneficial for this purpose, but i think there need to have a slightly change to the curriculum, that we need to have more than just one internship class before graduation.
When I through all the university websites and degree curriculum, I found out many college require students to take math class beyond calculus one. I assume that this will help students to build up a strong problem solving skills, which I think is very important for IT people. I also see some college held many computer related events for students to communicate with people in the school and people from organization, for example: Stanford. Another thing that I would like to point out is lacking of field trip to sites that related to your career. this is important because what we learned and see in school might not be the same as the stuff that company use.
Soft skills is an area where I think City tech is doing at its best because students are requirement to take ate least 5 English writing and reading as well as speech related classed through out a bachelor’s degree for computer science. Moreover, many computer classes assigning student with minimum of 1-2 presentation in order for students to practice and prepare their communication skills when they head out for work.
Although I City Tech Computer System Department is improving its quality of curriculum every semester, I urge the department to consider the areas that needed to be improved constantly, such as lack of variety in course, lack of lab activity bonded with real world technology, increase the needs of math skill level as well as certificate training. Among all, I hope these weakness and suggestion would help our college to become a better choice for those who is interesting in technology.
1. City College of New York 9. Hunter College
2. NYU Polytechnic 10. Buffalo University
3. Carnegie Mellon University 11. University Florida
4. Stanford 12. Michigan State University
5. College of Staten Island 13. Binghamton University
7. RIT 15. Columbia University
8. Georgetown University 16. UCLA
