The talk on hivetracks and the bee informed partnership was a great insight into ways companies can be responding with user data as well as an interesting overview of bee technology I had never even considered. Hivetracks uses anonomized data that works for the user rather than personalized data which abuses the user. The level of tracking going on in terms of bee health is reassuring and gives me hope for the future

1. Privacy isn’t something that is given. One has to set out to take it if it is really something that is important to them
2. There is more to a company than just job description and pay. The culture is something that can make or break your career
3. I learned how to manage my job searching resources and opportunities

Advice: Put yourself out there when searching for a job. Not applying to that one company you really want to work for , but don’t think you can is a lost opportunity.

The last lecture was inspiring. Seeing how Randy Pausch accomplished all of his childhood dreams changed my overall focus. I want to go out and seize opportunities in the same way he did so that if I were to suddenly find out I am terminally ill tomorrow, I would be satisfied with my life experiences

The wide variety of company culture discussed in class was interesting. The bar was set high by uber and netflix. They seem to strive to make everyone working for them comfortable so they can focus on their job. On the other hand, hearing about how toxic the culture of a company can be makes me appreciate the culture of the company I work for.

I greatly enjoyed the movie. It showed some insights into just how invasive government surveillance really is. The level of caution Snowden took, going as far as putting a blanket over his head, was concerning. It makes me question if there is more going on that the public is not aware of

The in class exercise where we looked up information on our classmates was interesting. It was not particularly surprising because I was already familiar with the potential privacy risks of having an online presence. I did not find very much on the classmates I was assigned to because they are aware of this as well

The presentation from Erika Cary was insightful, I learned about the different resume clinics and career development opportunities going on around campus. I was not aware of the Professional Closet events every semester. That is something I will keep in mind as I am most definitely a broke college kid.

Another resource that seems helpful is the big interview software. Having all of those tools for practicing my interview skills is extremely valuable and something I will take advantage of.

Handshake is something I have heard about, but have never used extensively. Hearing more about what it has to offer was helpful. I plan on using it as I continue my job search.

The discussion in class was interesting and informing. Ethics systems is not a topic that comes up in casual conversations with peers, so I learned alot. One thing I noticed was the overwhelming majority being from a similar background as me. Most people seemed to be raised Christian in one way or another. The more interesting part of it was comparing how people’s ethics systems work now. People from that group who felt strongly about their ethics system usually fell into one of two categories. Having an ethics system based mostly on the christian one or one developed through their own experiences. However, it seemed like the people in the latter category had ethics very similar to the people in the former category. It is interesting to me that so many people had very similar ethics systems despite using vastly different reasoning to come to that conclusion.

This raises the question of where does this ethics system come from? I am not saying that the class is a good sample of the average person in the world, or even at App, but the number of people this was true for makes this interesting. Do these ethics come from nature or nurture? It’s hard to tell from one discussion, but it is something I plan on continuing to look into in the future

My Best “in class” computing experience has been the helpfulness of all of the professors and teachers in the cs department. Throughout my time at App, part of what I have learned can be attributed to all of the professors who helped me with a concept I wasn’t understanding. Without these experiences I would not be able to be as capable as I am today.

My Best “outside the class” computing experience hasn’t been one single moment, but a culmination of many moments. These are all of the times that started with working on some code and not getting anywhere for hours. Those aha moments where everything makes sense and the code just falls into place.