LinkedIn recently unveiled a new way for prospective college students to narrow down their university choices and it offers a unique snapshot of the Boise CS industry. LinkedIn, a professional social networking site has over 100 million members throughout the United States. Each member completes a profile that includes their past and current work experience as well as their educational achievements. LinkedIn is now leveraging this information to provide prospective college students information regarding the best universities to attend if they desire to work in a particular field or even if they want to work in that field in a particular area. So what did we learn based on this new data from LinkedIn?
BOISE SOFTWARE/PROGRAMMING INDUSTRY DOMINATED BY BOISE STATE ALUMNI
This new LinkedIn tool puts out a ranking of colleges based on the number of alumni they have working in a particular field and even the number of alumni working in that field in a particular area. When manipulated to look for alumni in the CS industry working in the Boise area, you find that Boise State University ranks well ahead as the largest provider of alumni to the Boise CS industry. See the bottom of this post for a screenshot of these rankings. While the particular numbers of alumni aren’t completely accurate, there are probably thousands of CS industry professionals that aren’t on LinkedIn currently, this sample is a good representation of the whole.
These rankings affirm the desirability and success of Boise State CS graduates among local industry. Boise State CS students benefit from a high number of internship opportunities that pay well and begin early in their undergraduate careers. These internships are one of many reasons that graduates benefit from 100% job placement at graduation. Additionally, Boise State CS maintains close relationships with local industry, highlighted by a highly involved Boise State CS Industrial Advisory Board and industry partner involvement in the Expand.CS scholarship program, seminar series, and other collaborative opportunities. These industry ties result in a curriculum that is updated to provide students with the skills industry needs and allows for numerous internship and networking opportunities well ahead of graduation.
It’s certainly a time of great growth and excitement in the Boise CS industry and Boise State University alumni have been and continue to be an integral part of fueling that industry at home and abroad.
