Internships and Careers in Computer Science

Careers related to computer science are routinely found on various "best jobs" lists because of their wonderful combination of excellent pay, satisfying work-life balance, and personal reward in seeing the great impact that computing can have throughout society. 

Saint Louis University Career Services is a great resource for all SLU students and alumni seeking internships or jobs. It offers a variety of services including one-on-one counseling, resume reviews, and mock interviews to get prepared to apply for internships and full-time employment upon graduation. It also organizes two large on-campus career fairs each year (one in the fall and one in the spring), and host a variety of companies who do on-campus interviews to recruit SLU students.

Equally importantly, Career Services maintains an online listing of internship and full-time employment opportunities in Handshake. Once logged in to Handshake, you can search for positions based upon desired majors that employers identify or geographic regions.

Student Opportunities Website

While Career Service's Handshake system is the primary resource for a wide list of opportunities, the CS department does occasionally get announcements or requests both about internship and employment opportunities, but also local events, hackathons, volunteer opportunities and so forth. For this reason, we maintain an internal Google site where we post opportunities that we hear about (you must log in with slu.edu credentials to access it). Once on that site, it is possible to register to receive automatic email notifications whenever a new post is made; click the settings cog icon and then under "Site Actions" click on "Subscribe to site changes."

Internships in St. Louis

With our location in the midtown area of St. Louis, our students have access to a strong technology community, with operations for many Fortune 500 companies and a vibrant start-up community. This provides outstanding opportunities for summer internships, for part-time work during the academic year, and for future jobs after graduation.

Some of the big-name employers in St. Louis who show great interest in computer science students include Boeing, Centene, Citi, Deloitte, Enterprise, Express Scripts, KPMG, Maritz, MasterCard, Microsoft, Monsanto, and World Wide Technologies. Other students have worked for smaller companies or even started their own companies.

Our campus is within walking distance of the Cortex Innovation Community, a vibrant 200-acre (and growing) innovation hub and technology district. Cortex is home to SLU's Research Innovation Group which works on technology transfer and commercial partnerships. Cortex is also home to the weekly Venture Cafe (every Thursday from 3-8pm), which is a great place for students to connect with members of the tech community in a friendly and informal setting. Also in downtown St. Louis is the T-REX Technology Entrepreneur Center, a coworking space and technology incubator.

Companies Hiring SLU Computer Science

SLU's computer science students have an excellent track record in obtaining paid internships in industry while completing their studies and in full-time employment after graduation. Those opportunities are not just at traditional technology/software companies but also at companies throughout various sectors of industry where computer science skills are reshaping the way business is done.

The reach of our alumni network is strong. Past SLU CS students report being interns and/or full-time employees at the following organizations.

Graduate Internships

In order to register for CSCI 5910:  Internship with Industry there are several steps that you need to follow.

1. You must have an offer letter from the company that you want to work with.
2. You should go to Handshake, which can be found under myslu.slu.edu/tools.  Once there you need to request an internship experience.
3. Here are screenshots of the form and the information that you need to complete it. Note that learning outcomes are marked optional, but you should fill this out. Learning outcomes depend on your specific experience.  These should focus on the things that you hope to learn during your internship.
4. Once the initial Handshake request is approved by the instructor, you will be able to start the learning contract.
5. As part of the contract you need to fill out you need to include: your student information and the job responsibilities.
6. Through DocuSign the contract needs to be signed by the student and job supervisor.
7. It will then go to the CS Department's graduate coordinator, who is also the instructor for the course.  If changes need to be made they will contact you. Otherwise, they will sign the contract.
8. Once the contract is approved you will be signed up for CSCI 5910.  Note you may take the course multiple times, but only 3 credit hours will count towards your degree.  Typically an internship of 20 hours a week or more will count for three credit hours. Shortened internships will count for less credit.
9. Meanwhile, if you are an international student and need CPT.  You should make an appointment with International Services.