Staff Report
Published Feb. 20, 2013

Computer science students at the College of Charleston are heading into a high-demand field, graduates of the college said Tuesday during an alumni symposium.

Arpan Kotecha, team lead of predictive technologies at Citi, talks to College of Charleston students as JR Armstrong, an IT architect at Equifax, looks on. (Photo/Leslie Burden)

College of Charleston students listen to alumni of the computer science department. (Photo/Leslie Burden)

“Charleston alone is adding tech jobs at an incredible rate,” said Josh Walton, a junior software developer at Sparc. Walton graduated from the College of Charleston in 2011. “The opportunities are there.”

Walton and eight other graduates answered questions from students during the symposium and talked about their experiences after graduating from the college. The panelists work for local companies, including Modus21, Hawkes Learning Systems and the Medical University of South Carolina. Graduates who spoke also work for Equifax, Aster Data and Citi.

Walton told the students to stay nimble after they graduate and be open to new technologies.

“Computer science is moving incredibly fast,” he said. “You have to be able to pick something up much quicker than other people.”

Drew Connelly, a graduate of the class of 2002, told students not to chase the latest technology just because it’s new. Connelly said the students should be open to new coding languages but to find something they enjoy and focus on that. Prognosticators will say certain languages are dead, but that’s not always the case.

“As you hone your skills, try to focus on your problem-solving ability,” he said.