Here's my dilemma. I want to work in tech. Probably product management or UX design.
Everyone says go to UT. Or Texas A&M. Big schools with big tech recruiting pipelines.
But I keep looking at St. Edward's because their "Innovative" program sounds exactly like what I want. It's this interdisciplinary thing where you combine computer science with business and design thinking.
Sounds cool, right? But is it actually respected?
I reached out to a graduate on LinkedIn. She's now a product manager at a mid-sized tech company in Austin. Not Google, but not bad for someone five years out of college.
She said something that surprised me: "At St. Edward's, I learned how to talk to engineers, designers, and executives. My CS classes taught me enough to be dangerous. But my humanities classes taught me how to communicate. That's what got me hired."
Apparently, the school has this thing called the "Austin Tech Connection" where alumni in the industry come back to mentor students. She said she got her first internship through that network, not through some massive career fair where you're competing with 5,000 other people.
So here's my question: does the big school recruiting pipeline matter if a smaller school gives you direct access to people who actually work in the city where you want to live?
Because Austin is a tech hub. And St. Edward's is right there.
Maybe being in the middle of it matters more than having a famous name on your diploma.
I'm still deciding. But I'm not laughing at the idea anymore.
Everyone says go to UT. Or Texas A&M. Big schools with big tech recruiting pipelines.
But I keep looking at St. Edward's because their "Innovative" program sounds exactly like what I want. It's this interdisciplinary thing where you combine computer science with business and design thinking.
Sounds cool, right? But is it actually respected?
I reached out to a graduate on LinkedIn. She's now a product manager at a mid-sized tech company in Austin. Not Google, but not bad for someone five years out of college.
She said something that surprised me: "At St. Edward's, I learned how to talk to engineers, designers, and executives. My CS classes taught me enough to be dangerous. But my humanities classes taught me how to communicate. That's what got me hired."
Apparently, the school has this thing called the "Austin Tech Connection" where alumni in the industry come back to mentor students. She said she got her first internship through that network, not through some massive career fair where you're competing with 5,000 other people.
So here's my question: does the big school recruiting pipeline matter if a smaller school gives you direct access to people who actually work in the city where you want to live?
Because Austin is a tech hub. And St. Edward's is right there.
Maybe being in the middle of it matters more than having a famous name on your diploma.
I'm still deciding. But I'm not laughing at the idea anymore.