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Advice for working during a computer science gap year

I've got my A-level results back, did pretty well but got rejected from my firm choice to study computer science anyway, so I've decided to take a gap year.
I want to work, ideally something related to computer science in London, but I'm really not sure where to start looking.
Thanks for any help :smile:

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Reply 1

MindMax2000

Universities Forum Helper

Original post by kiliawawa

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Congrats on your results. Did they meet the requirements of your firm choice?

I would look for internships (there are plenty of startups that are in tech, but they are competitive; you can alternatively look for large companies and banks that offer tech internships). The thing about these is that they tend to be for uni students in their perultimate year of study. You will have to sift through quite a few of these to find something that would offter work experience for school leavers.
Otherwise, I would network a lot to find an opportunity. Whilst it's not going to be too difficult to bump into someone who is looking for IT staff, they tend to be picky about whether you have the skills and calibre to do the work (even at entry level and there being a strong lack of candidates in the industry).

Likewise, you can try to find something at an IT maintenance shop and fix up computers. They usually don't require any prior qualifications.

What I am a little hesitant about are apprenticeships should you wish to go onto to do a degree. Apprenticeships are great if you want a job, but they tend to require longer term commitment.

In the meantime, I would recommend looking into getting a professional certification (recognised by the industry) in a specific IT role that you want. These tend to help with employment prospects after your degree, although you can easily do them now to get a relevant job. I would avoid anything that considered the equivalent of Level 3 or above under the NVQ framework (if applicable), because there is a chance that it can affect your student finance for your degree.