Brewer

This year will be my first working in retail on a Black Friday. I work at Hhgregg, and electronics and appliances retailer in the eastern half of the United States and I will be working 21 out of the next 24 hours.

What stories (good or bad) do you have from Black Friday, either as a customer or an employee?

I know life in the Valley isn't cheap, but how much could I expect to spend on a shared apartment? I'm 20, single, and I don't mind having multiple roommates.

I've heard that when I go to look for an internship one of the most important things for a potential employer will be the projects that I've done in my free time.

This will vary from employer to employer, but what is it that you would be looking for when you see my projects? What would get me bonus points and what would make me lose points? What is important to you? Good documentation and commenting? Optimization? Apparent effort? What is a deal breaker?

I didn't attend MIT, Stanford, or any other school of note. I'm a computer science major at Memorial University of Newfoundland in Newfoundland, Canada and I'm wondering how much of a disadvantage I'll be at throughout my career as a software developer for going to such a lesser known university.

You can say that after a few years of working the university you attended doesn't matter much, but there will also be a sort of “club” for those who went to a higher caliber university. I screwed up big time in high school and I feel that I'm being somewhat punished now because I don't have the option to attend MIT (I wanted to go through their EECS program).

Do you think I am at a disadvantage? I don't mean just because I won't have a degree that says Massachusetts Institute of Technology across the top, but because I'll have a lesser education. Not to disrespect to professors at my university, but the CS program is a bit of a joke.