Guaranteed Work Experience

Throughout your time in the program, you will:

• Participate in five professional development activities each year.
• Complete required career readiness activities in Career Gateway and courses like CS190 or STAT170 (students will be automatically enrolled in the required course).
• Report internship, work experience, and employment offers.
• Complete any required program-specific coursework.
• Complete Career Gateway career readiness tasks, including uploading a resume and completing surveys. Students are responsible for their progress and for reporting work experience offers and acceptances.
• During the fall semester of the third year, students who have not received an internship offer or reported an internship must enroll in the College of Science experience preparation program during the following spring semester.

Each academic year, students are expected to complete five (5) professional development opportunities as part of the College of Science GWE. Professional development opportunities that satisfy the Guaranteed Work Experience requirement are promoted by the Indianapolis Career Council through Career Gateway and myCCO. Students should participate in these designated opportunities to ensure they receive credit toward the annual requirement. Students may attend events and activities in Indianapolis and West Lafayette. Eligible professional development opportunities include:

• Career fairs
• Networking functions
• Skills workshops
• Industry-sponsored events
• Up to two career consultations with a member of the Indianapolis Career Council or the Associate Director of Student Affairs. These can be accessed through BoilerConnect. Consultations are available Monday - Friday between 9 am and 4 pm in the Engineering, Science, and Technology Building, Room 239.

Examples of qualifying experiences include:

Short-Term / Project-Based Micro internships

• Research experience
• The Data Mine projects*
• Part-time internship
• Project-based work

Seasonal / Summer

• Summer internships
• Research experiences
• Fellowship opportunities

Part-Time During the Academic Year

• Learning While Working
• Practicums
• Part-time internships

Full-Time Rotational

• Traditional co-ops
• Projects throughout the academic year

*Data Mine projects must be at least a semester-long partner project that meets weekly with mentors to count as a GWE experience.

The Indianapolis Career Council may add additional qualifying experiences to the list.

Faris

As a Computer Science student at Purdue University in Indianapolis and CS Ambassador, I’ve always looked for opportunities that allow me to bridge classroom theory with high-impact, real-world software engineering. My pathway to finding these opportunities has largely come down to staying active in the local Indy tech ecosystem attending events, engaging with local organizations like TechPoint to then later win 2 Xtern challenges with MISO and Cummins, and building relationships within the community.

Working as a Software Engineering Intern at RoboSource was a tremendous experience. Instead of just working on isolated tasks, I had the opportunity to contribute directly to custom client consulting applications including work touching organizations like the NCAA as well as internal system architecture.

The most rewarding part of the experience was the culture of mentorship and problem-solving. Collaborating with seasoned engineers pushed me to write cleaner, production-ready code, deepen my full-stack skills, and understand how to architect systems that truly scale for clients. It played a huge role in shaping how I approach software development today.