What We've Learned
May 23, 2018
A couple of days ago, we marked the end of our undergraduate years and both graduated with a B.S. in Computer Science. It's been a long bumpy road, sometimes a little too bumpy to the point we thought we would tip over.
As we reached the end of the study of our Degree, we began thinking if we could turn back the time, what would we have done differently? Quite a few things, that's for sure.
Something we did not know to be so crucial, was the use of a portfolio. We thought "Well, our resume should pretty much speak for itself, right?" No. NOPE. Something we had wished others told us, or at least learned/knew about much earlier on, was to have a portfolio showcasing the projects we've done. Listing the projects we've done on our resume with no way for the recruiters to see those said projects was the fastest way for recruiters to deem we were not who they needed. The portfolio shows that we didn't just copy and paste the textbooks to our brain but actually know how to apply the information we've learned.
When we went to a Career Fair at our University two years ago, where we were essentially interviewed on the spot for internships, we didn't have a portfolio. It was quite evident though that after going through the painful small interviews at this Career Fair, we needed one because all of these recruiters had asked questions along the line of "So what side projects have you done?".
In our minds at the time, the school projects that kept pilling up were more than enough to keep us occupied. As we continued down the line of companies there, it was clear that the recruiters were expecting more from us.
1.
We would have started our Portfolio the moment we declared our Major as Computer Science.
One thing we can both confirm is that by the end of the projects we've completed for our courses, we've grown as programmers. The reason we say the moment we declared our major as Computer Science, is because it would have been great practice for us to continue to grow as developers.
2.
We would have started our side projects* earlier on in our Degree.
Although those side projects we would have made probably wouldn't go anywhere near our current portfolio, it would have helped us grow as programmers. Side projects don't have to be the most complex project you've ever created, but the mere point of it is to better enhance your skills, and continue learning new things from the mistakes you'll make during and after each project (and trust us, there will be plenty - but that's good!! You need to make mistakes to learn. The process of most of your projects won't be as smooth as butter, but that only means you've gained far more knowledge and experience from the mistakes you've made!).
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* Side Projects: Projects we assign ourselves to create.
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From our experience, we found ourselves learning at a better pace as well as enjoying the projects we were doing far more, simply because they were projects we came up with. And doing side projects doesn't mean they have to be done solo all the time! They can be, depending on your preference, but doing it with a friend or a fellow classmate even, makes it all the more fun. You get to hold each other accountable, more than you would when you do these side projects solo - and it's a great excuse to hang at a cafe to get the project done.
Now, don't get us wrong, we did enjoy our school projects and learned a lot from them, but the difference with side projects is that it's your own - hence you have more flexibility with it, you have more fun with it, and you probably take a little more pride in it too (but don't get too prideful, always stay humble, folks!). Also, there isn't a grade that gets stamped on it at the end!
3.
Learn different programming languages on our own time.
At the beginning of our degree, for about two years, our courses only exposed us to Java. Because of how it was taught, we both learned to dislike Java with a passion. Well, paired with not so great teaching, the computer program Eclipse* was not really the most aesthetically pleasing program to stare at all day long. It was actually only in our last year that we were exposed to HTML & CSS, JavaScript and Python more in depth. We took an introduction course at General Assembly located in New York City - an educational organization - on HTML & CSS the year previously so we weren't so foreign to HTML & CSS when we had to work with it in our course.
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* Eclipse is where we wrote our Java programs.
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The interesting thing though is that the course we took in University that taught us a lot about HTML & CSS was not even a mandatory class we needed to take, it was an elective we thought sounded pretty cool!
If we knew how many other programming languages existed - fetus us in our degree thought Java was all there was because that's all we were exposed to - we would have gotten to work on mastering those other languages.
Moral of the story: Don't wait on anyone (including your professors) or have very high hopes that you will learn everything you need to know from your courses. There's so, so much to learn. So, start small and build on your own! You'll learn the art of teaching yourself so many things, and you'll even train yourself how to better learn things on your own using multiple outside resources.
Shout out to Google, W3 Schools and Stack Overflow for being there for us when our professors weren't!
SEE YA IN THE NEXT ONE
SEE YA IN THE NEXT ONE
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