For Columbia CTA students.

February 2, 2001

It was a pleasure to meet so many of you tonight at the seminar. I hope that the experiences of the four of us helped give you some perspective and encouragement about pursuing your careers in the technology field. I enjoyed meeting you, speaking to you as a group and finding out more about you individually after the seminar.

Contact information for the recruiting firm I highly recommend:

The Firm: Williams & Harris, LLC
The Contact: Susan Trinkofsky

e-mail: susan@williamsandharris.com
Telephone: 212-967-1411
Fax: 212-967-8584

If you call her, please tell her right away that you are a CTA student from Columbia and that you were sent by Frank Dellapolla. She is an excellent resource and was the person who got me the job that launched my career as a programmer. I spoke to Ms. Trinkofski on Monday February 5th and she is anxious to hear from and assist placing Columbia CTA students as she helped me five years ago. Do call her and email her your resumes as soon as possible.

 

As I said to many of you, I highly recommend you finish your final projects. Not only should you finish them, you should "over-engineer" them, as I like to say. Make a statement and make it your work of art. I might post the binary of mine at a later date so you can see what I did in C. If you contact me here, I'll try to answer your questions as best as I can.

I have received a number of questions. I have, therefore, posted a FAQ section.

My advice at the moment, follow your instincts, keep coding and enjoy.......!

My best wishes to all of you in your 3rd and 4th terms in the CTA program. It was a pleasure to meet you all.

Sincerely, Frank M. Dellapolla

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UPDATE:02/27/2001

Thank you for the many, many emails and extremely positive feedback in the weeks following the seminar. I was extremely gratified to hear from so many of you and to hear so many "good" things. I'm certainly happy if I was able to encourage you in any way to keep moving forward in your IT career plans. I emphasize again, no matter the condition of the economy, if you can break into the field (and you will), you will be very successful - as long as you apply yourselves.
I've heard from some of you that you already have interviews lined up due to the contact(s) I've provided! Congratulations and GOOD LUCK! Please let me know how your interviews go. Others have told me they are waiting to get further into their 4th term before trying to land an interview... That is a good strategy. As I said at the seminar, pick a good final project and give it your "all". That will be a good prep for you as you get ready to interview and join a firm.
I was happy to have had the chance to meet one of you (Simon and his wife Marlene) at one of my recent performances in Manhattan! That meant a lot to me and I thank you for coming!
A quick word on the "economy" and "hiring": Many companies, while not freezing their hiring, are starting to hire a bit more judiciously due to the state of the market and consumer confidence. This may or may not last through the year, although I suspect hiring for technology will be strong overall as 2001 progresses. While many of you won't have much "practical" experience to bring to your interview, you will have a strong knowledge base of your subject. I emphasize, most strongly, that you present yourself well and with intelligence and "grace". Even the $150/hour consultant is having a tougher time these days because he's got to prove himself all the more on tech interviews (as happened recently to a friend of mine)... companies are seeing the benefits of hiring people who are fairly new to the field at the lower, entry-level rates - provided they seem bright and receptive (and capable) at the time of hire. So work hard... and be confident.

Frank