Ask HN: I'm an incoming freshman to college for a CS major, what should I know?

#1

Post by fish45 » Sun, May 31, 2020, 6:33 PM UTC

I've been coding since I was young, so I'm not worried about struggling academically, at least in my CS classes. I'm more interested in knowing what I should do now to give me an advantage in getting a job or otherwise.

All advice is appreciated!

Re: Ask HN: I'm an incoming freshman to college for a CS major, what should I know?

#2

Post by verdverm » Sun, May 31, 2020, 6:50 PM UTC

Learn your first (class's) language now, so when you are learning you can focus on concepts not syntax.

Learn bash and master the terminal, bash programming guide, advanced bash PG, https://github.com/hofstadter-io/jumpfiles

Consider Vim

Be involved in the CS groups, this is where the smartest people are

Talk to your faculty all the time

Get into research

Build things that aren't for class

Hit me if you like, email is in my profile

Good luck!

Re: Ask HN: I'm an incoming freshman to college for a CS major, what should I know?

#3

Post by zekehernandez » Sun, May 31, 2020, 7:04 PM UTC

You should know why you want a degree in CS. Because if it's solely to get a job in software development, know that it's one of the longest and most expensive ways to reach that goal, especially since you've been coding for such a long time. There are many other reasons one would want to go to college, and if they apply to you, feel free to disregard this comment. But to reiterate, if your only goal is to be a software developer, I would try to see if someone will hire you with the experience you have now, or maybe do a bootcamp of sorts.

Let me add more nuance: I'm not trying to say that a CS major won't be valuable to a software developer, or that it doesn't have advantages over a bootcamp-like thing, or just raw experience. But there are tradeoffs, and I think a lot depends on what kind of software development you want to do.

Re: Ask HN: I'm an incoming freshman to college for a CS major, what should I know?

#4

Post by fish45 » Sun, May 31, 2020, 7:28 PM UTC

zekehernandez wrote: post #3

You should know why you want a degree in CS. Because if it's solely to get a job in software development, know that it's one of the longest and most expensive ways to reach that goal, especially since you've been coding for such a long time. There are many other reasons one would want to go to college, and if they apply to you, feel free to disregard this comment. But to reiterate, if your only goal is to be a softwa…

To be honest, I would consider finding some sort of bootcamp type thing if not for my parents being pretty dead set on college. I do have a lot of stuff I want to learn which will, in my limited experience, be a lot easier to to understand with a formal education.

I've been looking for a software dev job for the past few months and almost everything I've found that's more than a WordPress/shopify job wants a bachelor's. Do you have any advice for getting a software dev job straight out of high school?

Re: Ask HN: I'm an incoming freshman to college for a CS major, what should I know?

#5

Post by RNeff » Sun, May 31, 2020, 7:32 PM UTC

College is more than just learning a vocation. Another goal is evolving yourself into a well rounded human being. Each quarter / semester take one course outside your comfort zone. Public speaking, improv theater, drawing, photography, music, philosophy, film production, drama, writing. Join a non-tech club. Learn new stuff, and how to relate to non-nerds. Expand your abilities, world view, and persistence.

Re: Ask HN: I'm an incoming freshman to college for a CS major, what should I know?

#6

Post by bdcravens » Sun, May 31, 2020, 7:39 PM UTC

Find a language and learn it deep (at this point, I'd say probably Javascript).

Find opportunities to work on code someone else has written. Triaging bugs in open source projects (even if you aren't involved, but are just following along in issues) is great.

If you can become involved in open source, working on someone else's project, that's a great way to learn the communication skills needed to function in a career.

Learn CI/CD.

Learn SQL.

I'd strongly encourage you to minor in business.

Get as good as you can at public speaking, whether in coursework or on an extra-curricular basis.

Re: Ask HN: I'm an incoming freshman to college for a CS major, what should I know?

#7

Post by bra-ket » Sun, May 31, 2020, 7:43 PM UTC

start doing competitive programming as early as you can , enroll in ICPC https://icpc.baylor.edu/ and join competitive programming weekly group at you school (or start one if you don't find any)

this is a good book for preparation https://www.amazon.com/Competitive-Programming-3rd-Steven-Ha...

participate in contests on https://onlinejudge.org/, topcoder or similar on weekly basis (you will hear a lot about leetcode as a hard prerequisite to getting a job these days, but it's trivial for people who do competitive programming)

you will learn much more from doing that for a couple of years than any college can teach you

Re: Ask HN: I'm an incoming freshman to college for a CS major, what should I know?

#8

Post by veeralpatel979 » Sun, May 31, 2020, 7:49 PM UTC

I'd say choose an area to specialize in. Whether it's security, graphics, drones, something else...find what you like and don't just gravitate toward AI/machine learning/blockchain since that's what's hot.

Re: Ask HN: I'm an incoming freshman to college for a CS major, what should I know?

#9

Post by mixmastamyk » Sun, May 31, 2020, 7:52 PM UTC

zekehernandez wrote: post #3

You should know why you want a degree in CS. Because if it's solely to get a job in software development, know that it's one of the longest and most expensive ways to reach that goal, especially since you've been coding for such a long time. There are many other reasons one would want to go to college, and if they apply to you, feel free to disregard this comment. But to reiterate, if your only goal is to be a softwa…

Disagree. Skip a CS degree and be instantly skipped over for coveted jobs. Sure you’ll still get a job. Ask me how I know.

Re: Ask HN: I'm an incoming freshman to college for a CS major, what should I know?

#10

Post by _fqqr » Sun, May 31, 2020, 8:01 PM UTC

bra-ket wrote: post #7

start doing competitive programming as early as you can , enroll in ICPC https://icpc.baylor.edu/ and join competitive programming weekly group at you school (or start one if you don't find any) this is a good book for preparation https://www.amazon.com/Competitive-Programming-3rd-Steven-Ha... participate in contests on https://onlinejudge.org/ , topcoder or similar on weekly basis (you will hear a lot about leetcode…

I second this. Competitive programming helps you develop skills that I find important in a career and that, in my opinion, had a strong influence on my current success.

There are many benefits and things where Comp. Programming can help you, but the most obvious one is how interview questions in FAANG (and similar) companies are easy compared to your weekly Comp. Programming contests.