Ask HN: How to make the most out of time at university?

But also, computer networking. Rarely does anyone technical actually understand how computer networks actually work. If you learn it and continue to expand your knowledge over your school and career, you'll be super valuable in computing.

Basic home-level networks on IPv4 or IPv6 are easy, start there. Then learn how the Internet actually works, lots of the different protocols, dive deep into a few of them, read broadly about many of them. When you go to interview somewhere and they ask you some brain teaser or normal interview question related to networking, answer it but then offer up other info showing that you actually know how networks work. You'll impress a smart interviewer. Just don't be cocky about it.

I've seen this before, and it's funny and decent advice. I got awful sleep most nights in college, just because I'd stay up too late, not even to get work done, just screwing around with YouTube and such. Sleep is huge.

Take later classes if you can. You might think that toughing out an 8am class isn't too bad, but I've done this to myself three times (seriously didn't learn my lesson). The alternative is to go to bed earlier, which can work, but there's a lot of fun and friendship to be had at midnight on a Wednesday sometimes, that's what's so interesting about university.

I involuntarily slept through a serious chunk of my Vietnam history course since it was 8am is a dark, cool room. Adjacent this that anecdote - figure out how to apply the 80/20 rule (paredo distribution) to school. Most things follow it, and school is no different. That Vietnam class I was barely conscious for? I learned how to read a book efficiently and got straight Bs on everything. For me, I was completely fine with Bs in a gen-ed class that didn't take much of my time. It let me put my effort towards my CS classes, where I really wanted to do well.

Disclaimer: this is a Poland-centric comment, your academic environment may vary

If a faculty member offers you to join some kind of project they're involved in, by all means go for it.

You'll be exploited for free or for minimum pay, you'll get random urgent requests to get something done quickly on a Friday evening, and you'll get stress migraines.

But I still recommend doing this if you have a chance, and here's why:

- chances are the job is unique, odd, and not something you'd be doing in the corporate IT world. I once found myself teaching a class of art students how to build iOS apps, with ~24 hours of experience in Swift and having never owned or used any Apple device.

- if it's an official contract and you get paid for it, it can become the crown jewel of your CV even if it wasn't rocket science. Especially US-based readers of your resume will value academic achievement.

- you can combine the additional work with regular coursework or a master's thesis, which will help you get more mileage from the time you're spending. Keep in mind this is still much more than would be normally expected from you.

- if you prove to be useful, you'll be on good terms with a potentially important faculty member

Things to keep in mind:

- get ready for a really stressful few months

- expect to be exploited to no end

- don't expect any promises you hear to be fulfilled, except what is written on your contract with the university if you get one

- there will be pressure to go deeper and deeper, and you will hear them discrediting the value of other things you might be planning to do such as a corporate IT career. You need to know whether you want to stay or not, and you need to base this decision on realistic prospects, not on someone's visions and promises (see #3).

Source: one official short-term contract and one unofficial project assistance

Second this advice. Some of my favorite classes that I took were electives where the professor was passionate about the subject. I even got an offer to go on an archaeology trip over the summer (which I sadly had to decline as I accepted an engineering internship that summer).

A lot of off topic advice in this thread. OP was interested in Employability:

>I'd like to ask you for advice on how to make the most out of the time during my studies, so that I won't have trouble with employment.

So the absolute best advice is to get into Internships early and often during your time in University. It's the most foolproof way to be employed by the time you finish. You will have the most important skill employers look for in this field. EXPERIENCE. You could stack 3-4 internships by the time you finish and if you are doing one when you graduate and you weren't horrible it's almost certain your current employer will hire you full time and if not you already have a stout CV to shop to other employers.

TLDR: Get an Internship ASAP!