Guys I'm in my second year of uni studying CS and I hate myself. I've managed to get all As and a few Bs this past year 1/2 but I feel I've learned nothing. Like I understand nothing and I just "get by". I feel like I can't think for myself and can only solve equations and write programs if I'm spoon fed the instructions. Is uni really a meme? I feel like the only good thing that's come out of this is I've learned time management and a few cool concepts about calculus and shit from various CS courses. Tell me theres a light at the end of the tunnel.
Guys I'm in my second year of uni studying CS and I hate myself...
Xavier Taylor
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Elijah Torres
i just started, how fucked am I?
Angel Anderson
university is for connections and a diploma saying you're the minimum qualified to get past hr screening, if you want to LEARN you need to take your education into your own hands right now and start researching the subjects you're being taught as well as subjects you're finding interest in - for examples go read programming language manuals or documentation for the languages you're interested in, read the documentation of any tools you find interesting, read books on programming languages, read books on computer science in general, and most importantly build and tinker with shit - apply the skills that you're learning to hobby projects that you can dump on github and stick on your cv for something to talk about in job interviews
if you have the opportunity take a gap year and get an internship at a cs company, it *should* guarantee you employment after your full education is complete if it's not a shit company and if not it's again something you can stick on your cv
try not to get burned out with your own personal learning and hobby projects, take breaks when you need then, but if you want to make the most of your uni years and get ahead of your class mates you really do need to treat education like it's a job and a skill you develop rather than it's something that you passively learn
Colton Garcia
Actual solid advice. Thanks man.
Logan King
also re: imposter syndrome, you'll learn far more on your job than you will at uni and if you're good at what you do you'll never stop learning
imposter syndrome happens to everybody, just remember you'll get over it eventually
Jeremiah Ward
I'm a junior at Penn State, and I feel pretty much the same. Comp Sci sucks, and I want to quit, but I'm far enough into it that changing major or dropping out don't seem worth it. I still have no idea what I know and how exactly it's gonna help me. Fuck
Hunter Diaz
I wish I was going to a uni like that. I'm going to a uni no one knows about, but at least they have close ties with Intel. Yeah I agree CS kinda sucks. I was not one of those people who thought it would be all about "gaymes!!!! bideo games!!! digital art!". I just wish I knew how intensive the program would be.
Imposter syndrome is something I feel legit every day. It sucks but Im trying to not let it get to me.
it depends
Dominic Foster
That depends, did you go to a good university? If not, you'll end only with a piece of paper, so you'll need to learn on your own.
First year is usually lots of math and just some basics of programming, though, so you'll probably get more practical courses later on. If you have any ideas, do some projects on your own, though, they always teach you a lot.
Also, a tip that most Americans don't seem to follow: get an internship after the second year (paid one, obviously), and then keep working part time until you get your degree (20 or 24 hours a week). This way, by the time you graduate, you'll have 2 years of experience (assuming a 4 year program). And also probably more money than you'd expect.
Jason Hill
Basically the whole point of college for CS is that you get introduced to the various concepts so you can find what you think is cool, latch onto it, and actually go out and explore that subject on your own. Getting an A in the class amounts to almost nothing because you can just go through the motions and do that, no one is going to look at it. At most your professors might call back to a more introductory course as you proceed with your education but that's about it. Most of the actual learning is going to fall on your head and what resources you use to get into it, including the people with degrees teaching you this junk if they're decent people. Ask them this question and they'll tell you about the same thing, the market is volatile and competitive and if you don't know what you claim to know you'll have trouble holding down a job (between companies laying off people en mass I mean)
Ayden Baker
If it is a 4-year program, then the heavy stuff is usually in the last two years.
Are you involved in any projects?
Jordan Miller
Its CS, not SE, so bad luck.
You chose wrong
But really if you want to program cool shit just like do it, go to github get a pair of hours in weekend to thung cool projecrs or explore /agdg/, etc...
Nowadays everyone can do a solo project/startup so stop crying and get to work.
Bentley Murphy
at my """""elite""""" uni most cs kids are retarded drones in it because its le epic "hot" field and the department enables them by dumbing courses down. if you go to a literally who uni its almost certainly worse. cs just fucking blows, ace your classes be likable with profs and do some research with one you like. or put more time into your own coding projects depending on what you want to do when you graduate. double major in math if that aligns with your interest, many more serious students and classes there at least at my uni. READ FUCKING TEXTBOOKS.
also be a serious student if your not studying bare minimum 40 hours a week reevaluate your fucking life(this may sound like a joke but there are insane numbers of faggots who don't do anywhere close)
Hudson Allen
To add to this, people should know about libgen.io. Free learning material for everyone. People also don't take metaskills / learning skills seriously enough. You have to make learning a daily habit. Cramming for exams like an undergrad isn't how you learn, and it certainly isn't how you learn things that matter to you. One or two pomodoro sessions per day is all that's required.
Also learn spacemacs and organize yourself with org mode!
Camden Brooks
came here to post almost exactly this, this guy gets it, have a cute gif instead
Jacob Perez
I give this advice myself but I don't actually have any projects to do and so I do nothing all day while building up the courage to kill myself.
Connor Stewart
Your field of study is literally irrelevant. I know many people who started in CS or even completely irrelevant shit like geography and went to engineering fields and did well, and not just SE or CE, but shit like tron and mech. Out of the gate you have near 0 experience so you are a blank slate that can now be tuned to any engineering discipline. Most if not all engineering disciplines use the same underlying school of thought, put smaller things together to make bigger things, that's it. The """difficult""" part is getting your foot through the door but you can always go with an agency in an emergency. This may not apply to huge companies like Google, and Amazon because they have very specific hiring criterion because of internal business politics, but for smaller companies or shit like the government they are much more flexible with whom they hire. If it all fails just use a work agency, they get paid when you get paid, so they will be all over your ass. If you choose this route though, don't take more than 10% loss on your paycheck, and preferably take the agencies that get paid by others and not you, like gov funded or corp funded.
John Diaz
Welcome to the hamster wheel, pal.
Isaac Cook
>Your field of study is literally irrelevant
Yep
The optical engineer at my last job had a fucking BA in biology
Nathan Fisher
idk i can't find the origin for this, seems to have been first posted by someone on a blog, and looks similar but not exact to the ova sprites. May be official art
Bentley Parker
>you'll have 2 years of experience (assuming a 4 year program)
education counts as experience for the purpose of an entry level job, and in general they're not hard requirements
the project doesn't need to be anything useful or innovative, it can be a reimplementation of a simple tool/utility or program for something you don't find the current software to do adequately - just look at how may file managers/desktop environments/image viewers/audio players/etc there are that are abandoned
also not to derail the thread with rolls but pic related is great for generic ideas
Nolan Murphy
Thanks for posting the full image. Was able to find it.
Tyler Lopez
Be creative. There's like a million other fields where you don't have to work with short sighted turboautists, and depressed burnouts.
I just said to myself "this isn't worth my time" and picked something that was. It is that easy.
Be creative, user.
Samuel Allen
On the real, if you can't solve problems and write your own algorithms, then switch majors. That is all your job will be. We sit in basically classrooms every day figuring out ways to make methods more efficient to save money on server and operating costs. There's hardly any coding what so ever.
And if you get a job developing new applications instead of maintaining one, it'll be even worse for you.
Fuck coding. Don't even think about it. Just write things out in English. Stop using Google. It doesn't help you learn.
You owe me $14.67 and hand me a $20. I want you to tell me how much change I will hand back to you, in dollars, quarters, dimes, nickels, etc. This is nothing more than basic math. Define some variables and work out the steps. Just use plain English to solve the problem. If you can do that, you can get a job. It's got nothing to do with knowing C++ or Java or Python. If you can't solve even basic problems, it's all pointless. Move to India if you just want to be handed instructions and code it.
Christian Bell
you've realized how little you know and how much there is to know. this is normal. carry on.
Blake Campbell
Levi Turner
Most CS students at my Uni are just normal people with maybe the first two rows full of autistic Asians. I'd say 70% take the web route learning web development, JavaScript, Ruby, MySQL, etc. The rest actually pursue software development.
Brandon Ortiz
Awesome, thanks for sauce
Leo Ramirez
>diploma saying you're the minimum qualified to get past hr screenin
Fuck this system.
Jeremiah Jones
this
Jonathan Russell
you can do just as well without a university education if you're competent enough but you'll have to work twice as hard as everybody else to prove you're competent because your coworkers are going to have a bias against you because they need to rationalise their 3-4 year, >$50-100k debt education
Elijah Ortiz
You'll learn with time bro. You have to do things for yourself to realize what's important. Education in general is a meme but it's up to you to make it useful.