Degree & Year Graduated
B.S. Computer Science 2005
How did you become interested in your field?
My dad bought our first computer when I was 8 and I always wanted to learn more about how it works. I picked the right major!
What do you do for a living now? What do you enjoy most about your current career position?
My current position: Senior Software Engineer at Akamai Technologies. I work mostly in web development. I get to learn something new every day.
What have been the biggest challenges in your career?
I have to learn something new every day.
What is the best professional lesson you learned from the Computer Science Department?
In several of the programming intensive classes I learned: Medium sized problems can be solved incrementally. Write code that gets an inch closer to the solution. Many inches add up to solve big problems.
What was the best class you took? Did you have a favorite Professor?
It’s a tie between Systems Programming and Operating Systems. There was a lot of code in both classes which turned out to be a good thing for me. Professor Roch was excellent for Operating Systems.
What is your favorite memory from the time spent in the department?
Time spent in the lab working on team projects. The nights were never too late, but building the assembler in Systems Programming a few hours at a time in the evenings was a good time.
What advice do you have for our current students?
1. Do everything you can to get an internship while you’re still in school. It will teach you more than any summer school class and will likely get you your first job after graduation.
2. One thing I didn’t do very well in school…pay attention to the protocols; it turns out they’re really important. TCP/IP, HTTP, etc.
If you are an SDSU Computer Science alumni and would like to submit an alumni profile for the web site please email ajensen@mail.sdsu.edu