I am in some mediocre college in some corner of India. Am about to complete 3rd year C.S. in a month and a half.
I have no idea how to go about "finding an internship" as everyone seems to put it. Looking at online advice, I find that a primary way is to "use your contacts". I am sad to say that I don't have many friends(those I have, I am trying to get help from them for all it's worth), and my family can't help me as they have no idea about the software industry.
My college has no official facility for aiding students in this, and the few faculty members who had contacts in "whatever" part of the industry have favoured some students that they have personally come to know. (Though I hear that the "internships" they got involve them stocking equipment in some small companies.... still it's something?)
I'm getting nervous. I am considering just spending the coming summer refining my skills in C++ and begin learning MySQL and C#, both of which I have zero experience in. Maybe work on my own project... like a library management system.
Relative to those in my college, I think I am among the best programmers there, but that isn't saying much as a lot of students can barely write basic code.
I have experience in teaching myself C++, and DirectX9 having created a Tetris clone, some basic 3D apps (bouncing balls), and a basic console-based, text-file-database-using library management system (which I plan to improve this summer).
Is it alright if I spend my summer so? Will I be able to get a job later on? I know I have to improve my social skills to get anywhere in life, and I will try, but say I am stuck like this till 4th year's end... will such self studying, online learning help me in landing a decent job? Perhaps after I have learned a bit more, joining some open source project?
