In this blog, I will walk you through the mistakes that you should avoid in your college life and Career, So fasten your seatbelts🔥and Let's get started🚀
1. Tutorial Hell
This is the most common mistake people make in their early stages and sometimes in their professional life too, which is getting stuck in the tutorial loop.
Many of us start our programming journey by watching tutorials, and those tutorials create an understanding of the concepts in our minds. Folks often make mistakes like watching the whole tutorial first and implementing the understanding later, which is not a good practice because at the end of the tutorial you will forget the stuff you learned while watching it and you will be nowhere.
Another mistake they make is that they totally depend on a tutorial and think "Yes, there is nothing outside of this particular tutorial." If I did this, I would be able to make out everything. " They blindly follow it and create the same project or program that they see in the tutorial. By doing this, you are putting yourself in a comfortable state where you're getting the same errors as that tutorial person is getting and solving those things with the help of that tutorial. In this thing, your own understanding is not used in order to solve that issue or fix it. I agree that you need to know some things at first, but repeating these things over and over will get you nowhere in the long run. So what's the solution?
Solution
When you're learning from a tutorial, don't just blindly follow it. Keep in mind that there are other things also present which might not be covered by that tutorial. The other thing to keep in mind is to try to play with the code that you write. What I mean by this is to make changes to the code base that you have made and try different things with it. This will help you to encounter some errors, which will help you to understand how to debug and how to fix an issue using your understanding. Also, try to create a different project on your own through the learning that you gain from that tutorial. You can also contribute to open source projects too.
Always remember, you will only be getting about 30–40% of the value from a tutorial, and the majority of that value will only come when you extend that project and make changes to it or architect it according to your needs. The whole conclusion is to do something on your own.
2. Value of Online Certificates
Let me ask you a simple question. How often do you wait to get certificates for a session you attended or even for course completion certificates?
Most of us attended or completed a course just to get a certificate, and this will help me get future opportunities. Let me break this myth of yours: "It will not add any value to your resume."
It's great that you have attended any session or completed any course, but did you ever think about the learning that you get? Have you ever applied your knowledge to create something that adds value to society or helps to solve a real-world problem?
Always focus on learning, not on getting certificates like these attendee or course completion certificates.
NOTE: Certificates like AWS Professional Certificates or equivalent professional level certificates sometimes help you out just to get you filtered out from a larger number of applicants, so don't ignore those. This thing is totally dependent on the job requirements for a particular role.
3. Is Competetive Programming necessary?
See, it depends from person to person. If you want to be a competitive programmer and want to represent your skillset on a global level and you enjoy doing it, then go for it, but if you're doing it just for the sake of getting the job, it's not mandatory. If you are good at DSA knowledge and development knowledge and have some good projects, you will be able to crack the company's interview; additionally, you can solve some easy and medium Leetcode questions for practice, and that will suffice ( NOTE: The entire scenario varies by market).
For those who are actually focusing on competitive programming, please take guidance from those people who are actually doing amazing in that field.
4. Learn in Public
Now, this is also a mistake that folks often make, which is not sharing their work on social media. I am not saying that it is compulsory to share things; it's OK if you don't want to, it's your call, but what that means is that you should share your learning on the social platform and get feedback on it. If you're doing some stuff on your own in a corner of the world, that's good, but you will not get any visibility. People will share their perspectives with you when you share your learnings on these platforms, and you will be appreciated and recognized for the work you have done.
This is also a mistake that folks often make, which is not sharing their work on social media. I am not saying that it is compulsory to share things; it's OK if you don't want to, it's your call, but what that means is that you should share your learning on the social platform and get feedback on it. If you're doing some stuff on your own in a corner of the world, that's good, but you will not get any visibility. People will share their perspectives with you when you share your learning on these platforms, and you will be appreciated and recognized for the work you have done.
"Learn in Public, Build in Public and Grow in Public"
5. Choosing a PERFECT Tech Domain
Now this one is the most common mistake folks do which is wasting their time thinking "Which domain is best for my career", "Which domain will have more career opportunity ", "Will this domain exists in the future as well, What if it disappears"?
One question I wanna ask to you is "Do you know the current technology very well and do you have your fundamentals and basics clear"? If you say "NO" then you're wasting your time thinking about it.
Just pick up a technology and start using it and make stuff using it. Try different domains like ML, Web Dev, Android, whatever you want, just pick any one of these and see where your interest lies and dive deep into it.
Another thing is don't try to learn everything at the same time like today you're doing Web Dev then you shift to Android after a day or a week, things take time to learn, don't try to be a MASTER on DAY 1. Focus on clearing your basics and fundamentals.
Remember one thing Technology is advancing day by day but one thing is very common on which every technology is built on, which is THE FUNDAMENTALS. If you are clear with them you're very much ready to learn new things in the future as well.
In the Tech world you will always be in your learning stage.
6. Comparison
Folks often compare themselves with other people, like "That person is doing amazing things", "Everyone is getting a JOB but not me", "Wow!!! He/She is so lucky".
STOP IT, NOW!!!
The biggest problem is that you just see the success of that person but not the journey, the struggles that person has gone through. Everyone has their own journey, and you will have your own. Just be inspired by the journey and struggles of the person, and ask them for advice.
It's okay if you miss any opportunity. There are plenty of jobs in the tech field if you're skilled enough. Don't compare and just focus on building yourself because, in the end, you will be the only one who is responsible for your current situation.
"Maybe one day, Your journey of success might inspire someone in the future who is at the same stage as you're today"
7. Poor communication skills
This is also a very common problem, which is having poor communication skills.
You should know how to ask questions to a person. Don't just say "hi" or "hello" in the DM's of a person. Add some context and research that you have done to find a solution to that problem for which you're asking for help.
You can also refer to my tweet for more deep understanding Click me
8. Skipping college subjects
People frequently skip college subjects because they believe I only need to know how to program and that college studies are a waste of time.
I know some subjects are too boring to study, which have zero relevance and are not needed in the field but are still introduced as your subject. However, subjects such as OS, Networking, DBMS, and DATA STRUCTURES AND ALGORITHM should be prioritized because they are the foundations of computer science.
On the other hand, try to maintain a CGPA of at least 8+.
9. FAANG Based Mindset
People often think that there are no other companies apart from these big tech MNCs like FAANG. This is the wrong mindset. There are a lot of companies present in the world and you can apply there. You can also work for a good tech startup. Even in today's world, good tech startups are paying more than these big tech MNCs. So applying to an MNC is not worth it? No, applying to these companies and working there is not bad, but the thinking of "You can do nothing if you can't make it to these big MNCs" is bad.
10. Finding Good Mentors
One more mistake folks make is they take guidance from those people who haven't tried that particular thing or who don't have any experience in that particular field, and because of this, many folks get caught in this TRAP of being scammed.
Always take advice and mentorship from those people who are working in those fields and have relevant experience in that field.
Conclusion
I have tried to include as much true information as I can. I hope you will not do these types of mistakes in your learning journey. Do share the blog with as many folks as you can so that everyone can get this information.
At last, I just wanna say Work so hard until you no longer have to introduce yourself and You have to be comfortable in being Uncomfortable
Credits
Kunal Podcast with Alex and Rahul
Find me here --> My Twitter