internship and lisp

[babacan]

Greetings,
Currently I am a computer science student and soon will be applying for intership at some software companies. At collage, beside OOP languages such as Java, we heavyly use scheme & lisp (done using almost all MIT books such as HTDP, SICP etc) and I believe I have a solid understanding about them.

Now; I think it is a big plus for me because in my country, all other collages only teach & use OOP languages while I have good functional programming background in addition to OOP , secondly my computer science department is unique in here because all other collages have computer engineering programs when it comes to "teach" programming/software development.

With these features, at intership interviews I somehow need to "market" myself to the interviewer inorder to seperate myself from others and grab a decent job, what points would you advice me to mention at interviews to achieve this, thats where I need your help :)

Cheers

[CptPicard]

Well, I think you are perfectly correct about your assessment that your knowledge of Lisp is a strong point... it really is. If I were hiring I would really consider you apart from others because of this -- it shows you are able to take a different kind of look at problems.

Oftentimes in interviews there are questions about your own interests and special skills... I guess that is the part where you could mention that. A company that doesn't ask that kind of questions is not interesting to work for :)

[ankursethi]

Contribute to open source. Contributing to a large software project shows that :
1. You are motivated enough to code.
2. You are competent enough to get acquainted with a large codebase and then work on it.
3. You are familiar not only with the programming languages, but also with the various tools generally used in development (version control, profiler, debuggers).

BTW, applying to Google Summer of Code might also be helpful. Who knows, you might find a project written entirely in the Lisp dialect of your choice :)

If the person interviewing you is smart enough, you'll land a decent job with GSoC on your resume. If they're stupid, oh well ...

EDIT: I thought you were applying for a job. I just saw it was an internship. Well, FOSS will help you there as well.

[babacan]

Thanks for the replies :)

FOSS will help you there as well.
May I ask you, are you referring Free and open source software by Foss?

[nvteighen]

BTW, applying to Google Summer of Code might also be helpful. Who knows, you might find a project written entirely in the Lisp dialect of your choice :)


Like this one in Scheme? https://launchpad.net/freetruco ;)

(Ok, it's my project and currently, my solo work...)

[ankursethi]

Thanks for the replies :)

May I ask you, are you referring Free and open source software by Foss?
Yep. BTW, nvteighen's post reminds me there are several projects on Launchpad you might want to check out.