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

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

#81

Post by alan-hn »

This might be a little different advice than what others are saying, but do a minor (or double major) in one of the hard sciences such as physics, chemistry, or biology. There is a huge amount of opportunity in computationally studying and analyzing data from these fields.

That and go to office hours, ask your professors about their research. See if there are opportunities to get involved in research yourself. This will expand your knowledge and understanding to depths far beyond most of your peers.

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

#82

Post by nicbou »

I have not seen it yet: go study abroad! It's a rare opportunity. Moving abroad becomes harder and harder as you age.

The advice here is great, but there's one caveat: don't focus too much on prestige. No one seems to care about this outside of university. Prestigious jobs are no different from regular jobs, so chasing them is pointless.

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

#83

Post by asfarley »

I’m going to slightly disagree with some of the other answers here, since I actually did travel and socialize a fair amount myself during the university years. It was fun, but if I could give my younger self advice, it would be: your financial life is starting now, not in 10 years. Travelling is interesting but humans are similar everywhere and people have lived happy lives for thousands of years without yearly international travel.

In terms of career advice: interview your employers just as selectively as they interview you. Take your time making a choice. Don’t hesitate to leave for better opportunities, even if you’ve only worked somewhere a short while. Do side projects. Try to charge by value, not by the hour; get some economic multiplier.

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

#84

Post by Claude_Shannon »

wwilim wrote: post #55

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 w…

Thank you! :)

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

#85

Post by Claude_Shannon »

markus_zhang wrote: post #40

Is there anything you find interesting? You mentioned game dev but there are different roles. Which part of game dev do you enjoy the most? Anyway Carmack gave some advice about getting into AAA game studios in a 2009 interview. Solid advice I'd say.

Truth be told, I'm not that into game development. It is fun, but I wouldn't want to work as either an artist or programmer in that. Pay's relatively low with high crunch.

I'll look up that interview, thanks.

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

#86

Post by markus_zhang »

Claude_Shannon wrote: post #85
markus_zhang wrote: post #40

Is there anything you find interesting? You mentioned game dev but there are different roles. Which part of game dev do you enjoy the most? Anyway Carmack gave some advice about getting into AAA game studios in a 2009 interview. Solid advice I'd say.

Truth be told, I'm not that into game development. It is fun, but I wouldn't want to work as either an artist or programmer in that. Pay's relatively low with high crunch. I'll look up that interview, thanks.

Got it and makes sense. His interview basically says he would judge a programmer by his projects. Even small ones like Tetris would count. But I don't think it fits other industries.

And yeah even if you want to go into game dev I'd recommend grabbing a few years of exp and go indie.

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