Postsecondary Opportunities

This following chapter is written in the bias of Mr. Jasper Park. The following is based on his personal experiences, his peers' experiences, and his former students.

(Edited September 2023)

Your degree does not matter as long as you are a right fit for the company.

You can literally have a degree in political science as long as you know how to code for a tech company.

How to get a job in the Tech Industry

Skills Needed:

• Programming Background --> Do you have your basics knowledge in your field? Do you know how to create in the environment/language/stack the company uses?

• Consistent Learner --> can you study and figure it out own your own?

• Social Skills --> Are you a valuable human being in a team that can convey what you do and contribute to meetings?

• Experience --> Do you have practical experience or is your knowledge only theoretical?

If you have a job title that you like, analyze all the qualifications and requirement that job title states from multiple postings.

This will narrow down what you would need to know by the time you interview.

Route to a Career

1. University Program (4 to 5 Years)

2. College Program (2 to 3 Years or even more)

3. College to University Transfer (X Years)

4. Bootcamp Program (3 Months to 2 Years+)

5. Self-Study / Portfolio Based (Depends on you)

Differences between CS & Engineering

• Most CS programs are smaller subsections of the university itself. Therefore, it shares resources with all other "faculties".

• Most Engineering programs are offered by a separate school. (Much similar to business/commerce programs in universities). This often means that they have their own set of classes, professors, and budget compared to different faculties a university may have

CS Requirements

• ENG4U (Grade 12 University English)

• MHF4U (Grade 12 University Advanced Functions)

• MCV4U (Grade 12 Calculus & Vectors)

• Three other U or M level courses to create a Top-6 Average.

Engineering Requirements

• ENG4U (Grade 12 University English)

• MHF4U (Grade 12 University Advanced Functions)

• MCV4U (Grade 12 Calculus & Vectors)

• SPH4U (Grade 12 Physics)

• SCH4U (Grade 12 Chemistry)

• One More U or M Course to create a Top-6 Average.

General Requirements

Minimum 40 Hours of Volunteering Services. More the better.

You should have a diverse extracurriculars that highlight your athletics, leadership, diversity, passion and work ethics. These extracurriculars can be from inside and outside of school.

Compete in Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry, and Computer Science contests. Results don't really matter as long as you try it seems. (this may change in the future). DECA and other comparable competitions also are good.

Improve on your writing skills for all the entrance essays.

Some universities started to do video interviews. ** (needs more research)

Both degrees often get you the same jobs.

What to do after high school ranking:

1. University of Waterloo Engineering (Computer, Electrical, Mechatronics, Software, and System Design)

2. University of Waterloo Computer Science

Both programs are rated very high above the rest because only one thing: CO-OP. U of Waterloo offers the best co-op program in Canada.

Nothing else is really all that special about the university.

Getting into a CO-OP program DOES NOT GUARANTEE you are co-op placement. You still have to interview during your midterm seasons.

The only reason Waterloo has a high rate of co-op because the students that don't get co-op are kicked out of the program.

3. Schools with at least 4, 8, 12 month internship programs.

University of Toronto is a well respected school with the best graduate program in Canada (not the best undergraduate program though). University of Waterloo might be considered a "3A" ranking because they are just closer to more tech-based companies by sheer geographical location.

McMaster, Queen's, and Western all offer similar internship programs.

All four of these universities are interchangeable and very reputable. Although Queen's > Western any day.

4. University of Ottawa Co-Op

The only reason that I cannot place this higher than the third option is because I currently don't have enough graduates from the school to track their career trajectory.

Their co-op program is very similar to Waterloo's and it should give a very good career advantage to their graduates.

5. College

Ontario has a strong portfolio of great colleges and they offer specialize programs for the tech sector. These programs will often be , include co-op, and financially cheaper compared to going to a university.

6. Alternatives

• Go to a 4 year program of your choice and invest all your free time to improving your resume.

• Try a bootcamp

• Try taking a gap year to study and code on your own

Other Great Programs

1. Computing and Financial Management @ U of Waterloo

2. Business Administration (BBA) and Computer Science (BSc) @ Wilfred Laurier University

3. UBC and McGill are both great out of province destinations

4. Engineering Science @ University of Toronto

5. Biomedical Computing @ Queen's University

Self-study Certificates Programs

• Google Career Certificates --> A great way to learn specialized skills in a industry of choice

• AWS Certifications --> Amazon Web Services (AWS) is a system that powers most of the Internet, Amazon offers a lot of certification courses to help you learn how to set them up

• Microsoft Certifications --> Azure is a very strong professional cloud service that helps a lot of businesses. Getting certified in any field that utilizes Azure is a good way to get into the industry