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Re:I'm taking a year off college to upskill/work. Advice? by pcthrowaway on Monday June 19, 2023 @02:31PM (#36394858)
I think I would have benefited from upskilling before graduating, so I'll go against the grain and say it might not be a bad idea.

I graduated in 2012 and had to spend a year after graduating upskilling, because my program left me woefully unprepared for the job listings available, and my GPA wasn't very good, so I wasn't qualified for any internships while I was studying.

My situation might have been a bit different though; I spent 9 years getting my bachelors part-time while working full-time in the service industry. I never learned more than the bare minimum to pass my classes and didn't realize how important it was to do that while in university. I also never really absorbed the knowledge learned; because I wasn't applying it while learning it was all very abstract to me.

After graduating, I realized every entry level job expected a bunch of knowledge I was lacking, so I spent a year doing online MOOC courses and working on personal projects. Then after a year, I met someone at a conference who gave me part-time paid work that we called an internship (I was very marginally productive during that time, as I was still playing catch up, but I wasn't making much so I think it worked out OK for both of us)

Taking time to apply the knowledge and build personal projects before graduating would have been a boon to me, as a lot of opportunities for things like internships were no longer available after graduating. I think the whole situation set my career back by 2 or 3 years.

Also, considering this is one of the worst economies to graduate into, you need to be able to hit the ground running once you graduate, with as much experience as possible.

Re:I'm taking a year off college to upskill/work. Advice? by doublemint2202 on Monday June 19, 2023 @02:47PM (#36395048)
The economics terrify me.
Re:I'm taking a year off college to upskill/work. Advice? by pcthrowaway on Monday June 19, 2023 @03:15PM (#36395374)
I have 10 YoE now, and same.

Best of luck. There's a good chance having a business double major might do well to make you stand out as someone who can do the product management side of things in addition to the more technical work

Re:I'm taking a year off college to upskill/work. Advice? by doublemint2202 on Monday June 19, 2023 @03:21PM (#36395455)
PM seems to be the plan if my startup doesn't pan out.