philipcristiano’s posterous

Philip worked as a web developer for a web-startup called Songkick.com  

in London. He maintained plugins for various media players and designed a cross-platform application and API.

Courses and/or topics covered in the curriculum that were helpful on the job:
CS 260 (Data Structures)
CS 265 (Advance Programming Tools and Techniques)
CS 350 (Software Design)

Can you give specific examples of things you did that made use of some of those topics?
While it’s not really mentioned until 350, design patterns are part of any good software project and when you’re working in a team you need to know them. Coming into the project I had to learn the system, which was full of patterns, and add new pieces. The most significant time was implementing an API for our web site in a way that worked well with the existing system but could be easily extended in the future.

Can you explain a memorable moment for you at your co-op, whether it be while working or about your experience?
My company completely paid for my stay in London. They were completely understanding and helpful in allowing me to explore Europe and even make trips back to the US when I needed to. Work wise, I designed a cross-platform application in multiple languages that had to work with a standard server API that I also implemented. It was the most significant project I’ve worked on and will also be the most widely distributed one when it is released in April 2009.

Why do you think co-ops are important? What have you gained from your co-op?
Normally co-ops are mentioned as a way to help prepare you for a job. What I don’t see mentioned is how the co-op also affects your remaining time at school. Classes don’t always include great explanations of how what you’re learning will help you in the future. On a co-op you get to see how well you know something, learn new things, and become more prepared for the classes you have left.

While trying to debug some RSS stuff I came across this through google.