Working with numbers and people

February 2, 2007 10:45 AM

What makes sense as a summer job for a math and sociology major who does a little bit of everything?

Alright, I've decided that it might make sense to shrug off my Peter Pan complex and find myself a summer job that has something, anything to my schooling. Here are some relevant points:

-I'm a third(ish)-year sociology and math major at a well-respected Canadian university. I have some 100- and 200-level economics courses from a former major, as well as a decent amount of computer science (Java) up to data structures and algorithms, and first year business and accounting.

-Finding any job through my school's career centre (as well as attempting to work for any major employer in my school's city) is practically useless because most of the people at my school are in co-op, and I was too at one point, but no longer am (in part) because...

-My cumulative GPA is crap. We're talking 2.7-ish as a result of more or less failing second year. My most recent semester average was a 3.3, so things are looking up.

So, where do I look? I have co-op experience as a web app developer and a sys admin/training person (both for my school, but different departments), but I haven't had a useful job since halfway through second year university. (Truth be told, I'm pretty flaky and lacking in punctuality.) I know PHP, Python and C++, and enter the occasional programming contest, but I don't have a wealth of projects in my portfolio. I'm on the board of directors for an reasonably large student corporation, so I have some business experience as well. To add to this, I've written tech articles for my university newspaper for the past few years, so technical writing isn't entirely out of the question, either.

I want to somehow roll my two majors into something vocationally useful, like marketing analysis. Failing that, I want to do something quantative or CS-related other than the web dev stuff I've been doing forever. But where do I start?

posted by thisjax to work & money (3 comments total)

Do you have any connections? Friends, friends-of-friends, friends who know recruiters? Maybe a staffing firm?

Another place to start is to find companies in the industry you want to work in, and go to their corporate web sites. Chances are there will be a link on the front page about employment opportunities, and given the time of year, there might have something about summer internship programs as well.
posted by jbiz at 11:06 AM on February 2, 2007

If you haven't already done so, it's worth looking at the listings on the Canadian Government job website. You can narrow your search to jobs for students. I once got a great summer job as a researcher (for documentary films) through a government listing. The job was funded by some obscure Ontario government programme.
posted by sueinnyc at 11:17 AM on February 2, 2007

I'd suggest finding a NSF Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU). I believe that some of those programs are open to non-nationals. (I seem to remember a Vietnamese girl in my program).
posted by chrisamiller at 12:01 PM on February 2, 2007