Completing side projects
The first way to gain real-world experience that’s relevant to a CSA that we will discuss is side projects. Side projects come in two broad categories – paid projects, where you are doing real work for others, and projects, where you are working on your own doing something that resembles real work that others may need.
For the first of these categories, it’s likely (and indeed recommended) that you would be working in areas that contribute to the experience you’ll need as a CSA, but not performing the CSA role. On these projects, you may find yourself helping to define and implement infrastructure, writing application code, designing and implementing database schemas, helping with requirements analysis or QA testing, or several other things that contribute to the overall success of a project. The key at this point is making sure that you are looking for opportunities to contribute without putting yourself (and, by extension, your...
