What I hope my step-son does this summer

My 20 year old step-son has just finished his first year of Computer Engineering at Ryerson University. I am keen for him to get a job, less for the money (although he can definitely use that) and more for the life experience. He's not normally an outgoing type, so most jobs in the retail sector are a closed book to him. I have done some research into what various opportunities exist here in Toronto, and he has applied to a few jobs, but there don't seem to be a lot of suitable opportunities.

Failing a job, I'd like to set him a summer project, something that he'd work on over the summer, and at least have some experience on working on a project. It's possible that I would work on it with him on this project.

I'd love it if he picked up Perl, but so far his programming experience has been limited to C/C++. I gave him Learning Perl last year, and he wasn't that intrigued by it. PHP might work, and he did express some interest in looking at that language -- I figure if that works, I should be able to show him how the same thing is done in Perl -- and that might convert him.

Anyway, just wondering if anyone has any suggestions about the situation. Thanks.

Alex / talexb / Toronto

"Groklaw is the open-source mentality applied to legal research" ~ Linus Torvalds

Comment on What I hope my step-son does this summer

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Re: What I hope my step-son does this summer by samtregar (Abbot) on May 16, 2008 at 03:12 UTC
Looks like the Google Summer of Code application deadline already passed for 2008. That kind of stuff might be a bit out of reach for a first year programmer anyway. At about the same point in my education my father helped me get an internship in the QA department of a company doing software development. It wasn't coding but it gave me a chance to see what life would be like as a programmer. Maybe you can find something like that for him. -sam	[reply]
Re^2: What I hope my step-son does this summer by talexb (Chancellor) on May 16, 2008 at 03:58 UTC
Nice suggestion. He did do some QA work about 18 months ago at my place of work, and he quite enjoyed it. He has enough brainpower to do programming, with some training, so, for now, I've set him up with some PHP training materials. It's not my first choice for languages, but if he can get experience with that, he'll have a running start at work in a few months time. Many of the jobs that he looked at wanted PHP. Sigh. I wish it were Perl, but he'll have time to learn Perl later. In any case, I think he needs more exposure to the Linux shell before he's ready for Perl. Alex / talexb / Toronto "Groklaw is the open-source mentality applied to legal research" ~ Linus Torvalds	[reply]
Re: What I hope my step-son does this summer by chromatic (Archbishop) on May 16, 2008 at 00:24 UTC
I can think of a project or two that combines computer science, C, and Perl....	[reply]
Re: What I hope my step-son does this summer by Gavin (Archbishop) on May 16, 2008 at 10:58 UTC
In the UK the Universities have Student Ambassadors who are employed by the University to assist the Student Recruitment Team with recruitment events. These include things like open days, school and college visits, supervision of activities, tours, workshops and clearing. The recruitment events vary and can run through the day, on an evening or on a weekend so the hours are very flexible and there is usually work available to fit any course timetable. There are opportunities also during the summer recess for summer schools. I would have thought similar opportunities exist in Toronto. The wage is the bare minimum in the UK but the experience gained as an ambassador will stand him in good stead for future job opportunities. It may also help your stepson to become more outgoing and get some valuable life skills in dealing with the everyday problems that occur during these events.	[reply]
Re: What I hope my step-son does this summer by jhourcle (Prior) on May 16, 2008 at 15:49 UTC
Most schools have a 'Job Center' or something similar that receives job descriptions that local employers are trying to fill -- some of it's for recent/soon to graduate folks, but they also tend to get summer and intern opportunities. Failing that, look to whatever government offices are in the area -- Town/City/County/District/Province/whatever. Unfortunately, some of them may not offer paid internships, but it could give him experience. I work for a government agency in the US, and we have a more formal internship program (paid, but you'd have needed to get your resume in 2 months ago, as they all go into a pool, and we pick those who seem to have a compatible background for the work we're doing.) ... but I'm also a Town Commissioner, and I know we have various programming tasks that could be done, and if we had a good applicant, could probably squeeze some money out of our contracting budget.	[reply]