Ask HN: Any tips for a college freshman enrolled in computer science?
College is starting in a few days, but seeing the current job market, I am feeling a bit scared. I am looking for recommendations on what to focus on during my studies to ensure I am employable. My main goal is to secure a job by the time I graduate.
- qazxcvbnmlp
Don't spend too much time online. The collective conscious of online can be disconnected from reality. People who aren't successful tend to spend their time complaining online whereas you rarely hear stories of normal people success online.
Focus on meeting real people and understanding their problems and how you can help. Your connections during college will probably matter more than a particular test score.
Get a job (any job) during college, it shows you're employable and can navigate with the unpleasantries of being employed.
Oh! And dont’ stress too much! Enjoy the ride. Think of it all like a fun new video game. Take in the new levels with curiosity. Have fun! Many people who have jobs now would love to be in your shoes again. Embrace it, enjoy that time of life!
- WhyComboNadir
Throw yourself into it if you love it. The world is going to change many more times before you're even done your undergraduate studies, so there is no point in trying to predict it. Just arrive at graduation having had an awesome college experience (especially the people you'll meet), know how to learn stuff quickly, and be flexible.
I'm sure that during your studies, through serendipity, you'll find great opportunities to pursue that you couldn't possibly imagine right now. Give yourself the greatest surface area for luck to find you.
Since you posted this here on HN I can already tell that you're the type of person who will not be short of opportunities and already has a good surface area for luck to find you.
Good luck!
- openasocket
Biggest thing I can recommend is to focus on the fundamentals, even if it doesn’t seem like it’s something you would use in practice.
Learn data structures and algorithms. Understand finite state machines and context free grammars. Learn at least some mathematics. Discrete math, Boolean logic, and statistics. Learn how operating systems work, networking, databases, compilers, machine code, low-level details like registers and the cache hierarchy. Learn more obscure programming languages: like Lisp, Prolog, Haskell, and Forth.
You probably won’t use those in your day job, but they will open your mind to fundamentally different ways of thinking about problems. Honestly, just try to learn as much as you can about as many different areas of computer science as possible. Don’t worry about learning version control, the latest web frameworks, or working with AI, at least not until the very end.
You want to come out of college with two things: the ability to learn new things quickly, and having a wide breadth of knowledge to draw upon. As someone who regularly interviews candidates, that’s what I’m looking for more than anything else.
- ThrowawayR2
Knowing how the software development lifecycle really works and how to write reliable, shippable code _without using AI as a crutch_ will put you ahead of your fellow students when you graduate. Don't neglect learning it, even if it's not taught in your classes.
Knowing the CS theory that college is trying to teach you well enough to apply it will put you ahead of your fellow co-workers when you are a senior developer. Don't neglect learning it. The people who say "I never needed to use CS for my entire career, lol" are the people most easily replaced by AI.
Don't neglect understanding how to use AI to create code but don't become dependent on it either.
Don't neglect your writing courses. Reading and writing clearly is how you interact with your fellow developers and, of course, AI. Too many developers are lousy writers and wind up stuck in the lower ranks because of it.
- ok123456
I started college right after the .com crash. Everyone who treated their education as a simple wealth maximization optimization went into other majors. The number of incoming CS majors was approximately quartered. (Software? That is all going to be outsourced!)
By the time I graduated, computers were cool again.
Predicting the job market is like predicting the stock market. You don't necessarily know where things are going to end up, and simply being reactionary will lead to sub-optimal outcomes.
Learn things that are hard to do, or you wouldn't finish if you weren't coerced with a final grade.
One positive in the current environment is that people who actually know computer science won't be forced to toil endlessly on what are essentially CRUD systems, and can move on to solve second- and third-order problems where their actual computer science skills can pay off. We can stop reinventing (slower and slower) webpages and 3270 terminals.