Ask HN: What do you wish you knew when you were a CS student?

Re:Ask HN: What do you wish you knew when you were a CS stud... by arduinomancer on Saturday October 02, 2021 @12:30PM (#28729917)

It’s not worth trying to get really high grades or be top of the class.

Focus on understanding the material and getting “good enough” marks.

This will be really obvious once you’re out of school 3+ years.

I now look back and think “why the hell was I trying so hard, that shit means nothing now”

It’s hard to understand that though if your identity is based on being “the smart one”.

You’re much better off putting that time into LeetCode or side projects or just having fun.

The second thing is it’s much much easier to get into a specific area of software development as an intern.

So if you’re interested in something specific that isn’t web dev like ML/graphics/compilers try to intern in that area.

It’s a lot harder to switch areas once you’re not a new grad because you’re expected to be able to just deliver without months of ramp up.

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Re:Ask HN: What do you wish you knew when you were a CS stud... by jimmyvalmer on Saturday October 02, 2021 @12:48PM (#28730057)

> Focus on understanding the material and getting “good enough” marks.

This is a good advice but it's a bit like telling a kid her seashell collection is worthless. Perspective is by definition something you develop over time.

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Re:Ask HN: What do you wish you knew when you were a CS stud... by seth17 on Saturday October 02, 2021 @12:46PM (#28730046)

As a current CS student who’s getting tired of stressing out over grades, thank you. I think I was starting to have this realization but someone else putting it into words really helped.

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