As far as classes go, if I’m interviewing someone fresh out of college (or current students looking for internships), it does make a difference what classes they took. That’s somewhat specific to what I do professionally though.
Pretty much anything I’d hire them for would involve some degree of systems programming and/or graphics. So, having one or more OS classes and/or graphics classes are significant. Of course if they are knowledgeable about those things by learning on their own, that’s great too, but that’s even less common.
Once someone’s no longer fresh out of college, education specifics become a lot less important, and the focus shifts to their career history. But for people without a prior history, there’s little else to go on. For example, if a particular internship or junior position involves graphics, it’ll make a big difference if the interviewee has some sort of introductory foundation of knowledge and won’t be starting from scratch. That could be a critical difference between two otherwise equal candidates.
TL;DR if you are a student with an interest in any interest in a specialty that you might want to pursue professionally, and there’s a course dedicated to that specialty, by all means take that course. Whether it’s graphics, or AI, or operating systems, or whatever. It could definitely help you get that first job or internship in that field. It sounds painfully obvious, but it must not be based on my personal experiences.
I'd say it's less what class you take and more what skills you have.
If you say you can use X programming language or Y framework, and you pass an interview you've got the job. It doesn't matter if X and Y were learned in a class or doing hobby projects. At the end of the day it's the same skill.
Most interviews for new grads are algorithms interviews, which requires some level of skill from an algorithms class, which is at most universities a third year class, which is why companies want people with a BS and not an AS.
Pretty much anything I’d hire them for would involve some degree of systems programming and/or graphics. So, having one or more OS classes and/or graphics classes are significant. Of course if they are knowledgeable about those things by learning on their own, that’s great too, but that’s even less common.
Once someone’s no longer fresh out of college, education specifics become a lot less important, and the focus shifts to their career history. But for people without a prior history, there’s little else to go on. For example, if a particular internship or junior position involves graphics, it’ll make a big difference if the interviewee has some sort of introductory foundation of knowledge and won’t be starting from scratch. That could be a critical difference between two otherwise equal candidates.
TL;DR if you are a student with an interest in any interest in a specialty that you might want to pursue professionally, and there’s a course dedicated to that specialty, by all means take that course. Whether it’s graphics, or AI, or operating systems, or whatever. It could definitely help you get that first job or internship in that field. It sounds painfully obvious, but it must not be based on my personal experiences.