{"by":"wallflower","id":967234,"kids":[967371],"parent":966986,"text":"First, congratulations on being offered the opportunity to talk to your peers. I would echo many of the comments here to go outside academia and CS and focus on what you have learned by coding for pay and pleasure.<p>How to build your personal online coder reputation, begin contributing to the community (open source, blogging) - focus on what you personally have done/not done and your experiences good and bad with sharing and collaborating. And what's it like starting? or working at a startup<p>My point here is focus on experiences that have made you learn. Come in as peers who have been out in the external-college real world and tell them about the real world (calibrate their expectations)<p>I think most of the students are expecting a standard tech briefing, and I challenge you to switch it up on them. Promise some soup du jour tech topic but change it to talking about the real business world (change it after audience is seated so you get the students who probably would have skipped a real-world/business topic oriented lecture).<p>One of the most valuable lectures I've ever crashed was one for Ch.Eng seniors on how to get the job you really, really want. I directly respect the impact of that lecture with giving me enough real knowledge to apprach interviewing with confidence.","time":1259549119,"type":"comment"}