Category Archives: Uncategorized

Who Will Win ‘Best Commencement Speech of 2013′?

Posted on May 6, 2013 by Sara Mooradian

Over the weekend, Twitter CEO Dick Costolo did a great job in kicking off the race for the best commencement speech of 2013.  While delivering his 15 minute address to University of Michigan graduates, @DickC drew on his experience as a stand up improv comedian and kept everyone both entertained and inspired with his message to “be in this moment.” He also managed to shamelessly live plug the company that pays his salary, Twitter by sending out the following:

It’s quickly gaining popularity and will likely become one of the most viral commencement speeches joining Steve Jobs’s 2005 speech at Stanford and Conan O’Brien ‘s 2011 Dartmouth speech.

So that begs the question… Who will give the next great speech?  There are a lot of heavy hitters lined up across college campuses in the next few weeks.  Here’s a quick summary of who’s speaking and where.

The Geeks

Drew Houston Dropbox best commencement speech of 2013

Drew Houston, co-founder and CEO of Dropbox will deliver the commencement address at MIT’s 2013 ceremony.

Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak will be headlining University of California, Berkeley’s address on May, 18, 2013.  Nate Silver, the world’s most famous statistician will speak at Ripon College in Wisconson and  Drew Houston, co-founder and CEO of Dropbox will take the stage at MIT’s ceremony on June 7, 2013.

The Comics

Stephen Colbert, Comedy Central’s own Dan Rather will be hosting speaking at University of Virginia’s ceremony on May 18, 2013. And technically, you could put Dick Costolo in this category as well, although he probably belongs with the geeks.

The Politicians

POTUS (aka President Barack Obama) will speak at not one, but three commencements this season.   He spoke at Ohio State on May 5th and will speak at Morehouse and the US Naval Academy in the coming weeks.  On the other hand, Vice President Joe Biden will only speak at one, the University of Pennsylvania’s podium on May 13th.

President Bill Clinton will also be on the circuit and will speak at Howard University’s commencement ceremonies on May 11, 2013.

 

The Mayors

The next two could have been lumped in under politicians but it’s more fun to give them their own category. It will be the battle of the mayors with New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg speaking at Stanford on June 6th and Newark Mayor Corey Booker at Yale on May 19th.

The Spiritual

And in two of this season’s best ‘gets’, Tulane will be hosting his Holiness the Dalai Lama on May 18th and Harvard scored Oprah Winfrey as it’s keynote on May 30th.

 

If you missed Dick Costolo’s speech, here it is in its entirety.  He has set the bar pretty high for the 2013 commencement speech class. Here’s hoping there are some more good ones:

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Top 10 Cities For New College Grads in 2013 and Companies That Are Hiring There

Posted on March 19, 2013 by Sara Mooradian

Top Ten Cities for New college grads and the companies that are hiring thereForbes.com wrote an article today featuring Rent.com’s published list of the top 10 cities for new college grads to live in 2013.  My feeling is that if you have coding skills the world is your oyster (what does that mean anyway?). That said, you may want to move to a city where some of your friends will also stand a chance at landing a decent job and be able to pay rent with some moulah left over for a social life.

So we thought we’d match up the list from Rent.com with some of the companies that are connecting with students on Readyforce in case you want to look in one of these “top ten” cities.

City Mean annual income Median price for a 1-BR apartment Unemployment rate Companies on Readyforce(Click on the name to visit their profile.)
Atlanta, GA $46,600 $800 8.4% The Builder School
Boston, MA $57,500 $1,590 5.9% Hubspot
Achievers
Lose It!
Houston, TX $47,500 $800 6% The Square Foot
2 Sigma
Denver, CO $50,300 $970 7.4% Sendgrid

Wayin
Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minn. $49,800 $900 5.1% Avenue 81
Seattle, WA $54,800 $1,300 6.7% Facebook
Expedia
Dallas, TX $46,200 $900 5.9% Capital One
Raleigh, NC $45,200 $800 7.5% Bronto Software
Washington, DC $62,900 $1,600 5.2% Adashi Systems
Echo Ditto
Raytheon
SI Government Solutions
Blue Wolf
St. Louis, Mo. $44,200 $960 7% Second Street

 

Source: Rent.com via Forbes

Good luck!

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Top 5 Things I Did to Get 5 Job Offers

Posted on March 15, 2013 by Sara Mooradian
Maxwell Elliott Hired At Originate

Maxwell Elliott

The following post was submitted by one of our Readyforce students: Maxwell Elliott from Ohio State University. Maxwell connected with over 25 companies and received 5 job offers after creating a profile on Readyforce.  He recently accepted a position with Originate. Congratulations Maxwell!  

 

When other students ask about how my job search is going they seem very surprised by my answer.  They cannot seem to believe that someone could connect with over 25 companies and receive more than 5 offers.  Those who are intrigued by my results ask, “What do you recommend I do to have the same result?” and this is what I say:

1.    Learn things outside of class:  The most uncomfortable feeling is when you get the question “So what do you work on in your free time?” and you have nothing to talk about.   There is no better response to this question than giving the interviewer a link to your application. Find what you like to work with and just start doing it. Like web development? Show it by studying a web framework and then make a website.  Don’t worry if what you make is already out there, you will learn so much just from making something and sharing it with others. Also it doesn’t matter what you learn outside of class, the interviewer will see your passion. (School projects are great but most interviewers will quickly discover if it is a school project, stand out and do you own projects!)

 

2.     Aim High! : You never know what you can achieve when you haven’t even tried!  Before I started using ReadyForce, I was about to accept a position in Columbus Ohio.  I wanted to live and work in the Bay area but I thought “How can I achieve that?”  One day I said, “I am just going to start applying to jobs in the Bay area”.  After joining Readyforce, applying and interviewing many, many times, I found a great job in San Francisco with Originate.  Looking back I am so glad I tried to apply in the Bay area at all.

 

3. Solve every problem you can on CodeEval:  CodeEval is amazing because you can practice on so many problems and CodeEval saves your answers!  The more problems you solve the higher probability you have of seeing a previously solved problem come up in an interview, which is huge. (Protip: Make sure to solve FizzBuzz)

 

4.     Never get discouraged! : At the end of the day we are all just students and we make mistakes.  Did you just bomb your Facebook interview? Yeah, it sucks but what matters is that you don’t get depressed.  Many companies will say no, some will say yes but if you get depressed or negative it will show up in the interview and will give others an edge.

 

5.    Get a profile on ReadyForce: ReadyForce provided me with the best bang for the buck for my job seeking efforts.  ReadyForce also allows you to keep track of whom you are currently talking to which help as you talk to more and more companies. I received so many connections just from this site!

I hope that these tips help you with your job search and I wish anyone reading this the best of luck with their interviews!

-Maxwell.

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More Good News for CS Interns

Posted on March 12, 2013 by Sara Mooradian
Average hourly intern wage by class. Source: NACE

Source: NACE, 2012 Internship and Co-op survey

If you saw the post on the salaries for the 2012 graduating class and used that info to decide to major in CS, you are probably wondering now what am I going to do for an internship?

Luckily, there’s tons of companies on Readyforce that are looking for interns.  We profiled some of them like: Facebook, 10gen, Box, and Chegg to name a few…

Are you wondering what you might get paid? Well, according the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE) your intern salary will probably depend on your year and your major.

The good news?

If you are a computer science/IT intern you will be doing better than most at an average of $19.10/hour. 

Connect with companies that are hiring interns on Readyforce. Use the filters on the company dashboard to find them quickly and easily.

Source: NACE via ERE.net

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