Over spring break I was at the ACM conference on CS education, and on a panel was Maggie Johnson, Google’s Director of Education and University Relations. She said that they have meetings with their new hires after they’ve worked 1 month, 2, 3 and 6 months. Here are some things new hires at Google say are hard about transitioning from college to working at Google:

1. Managing time well where there’s no structure due to classes, exams, semesters, etc.
2. Learning new things on their own.
3. Talking in front of groups.
4. Working in teams when there are real deadlines.
5. Playing well with others.
6. Dealing with managers.

Here in your degree program at UVa, we actually do some things to specifically address 2, 3, 4 and 5. You’re doing a self-learning activity here in CS2190, and courses like CS2110 and CS3240 focus on teamwork, groups and presenting your work to others.