Ask HN: Just turned 20 any advice to a you IT student | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Just turned 20 any advice to a you IT student

6 pointssonderotis17 comments

Try to find some lower level programming that you are into and drill really deep. That's IMO the best way for a technical person.

If you don't have the interest or the grit, then you need to have the heart to dive into the business side. You are gonna be the go-to person.

IMO the first way is infinitely better financially and mentally especially if you can get on the track early in career. You will be light years ahead of your peers who need to struggle leetcode to get into a sucking ass frontend job. Go deep, go compiler, go OS, go FPGA, go CTF.

In short, either narrow + deep, or shallow + broad. Gotta be one of them to survive.

Also, don't get married too soon. Know your partner well before doing that. Marriage is a tomb anyway. People gotta be really lucky to find a marriage that is really good, and a mediocre one kills you from the inside.

In the old days, the landscape was all about ATMega. But what about now for those just getting started? Looking at ARM-based options seems unnecessarily complex.

Build a diverse network made up of your peers while in school. Don't get caught up in the competition trap, thinking you always have to be better than the next guy to get ahead. It can work, but as they say, it's lonely at the top, and your ROI in building relationships with future leaders is high - something you'll never regret as you try to figure out which way the wind is blowing.

Always show up on time. It sends an important signal. If you show up really early, be sure you are working. Don’t close your office door to hide from others. Stay off your phone when at work Your time is limited. Figure out core things to learn in depth. At your ten year high school reunion you may be surprised how successful some people are who did not go to college.

If you do programming, learn a few different languages. Don't get yourself pigeonholed as "a Python programmer". If you can write Python you can learn another language

This is good advice.

A large toolbox containing different programming languages will allow you to solve some problems easier than knowing one language only.

Perhaps Rust, C, Python, Bash (for CI stuff).

Find a pattern book and at read it to learn the basic patterns .. and anti patterns.

If you only have a hammer then everything looks like nails ..

Learn Ubuntu or some other flavour of Linux or *BSD. It's free and contains usually all the tools you need. This makes sense if you have the time to learn. Usually you have time to learn while young ..

How do I make companies believe I know a few different languages? They always say that whatever I learned during uni, it doesn't count. This includes side projects.

over the course of your career, technology will change at least 4 or 5 times, unlearning is as important as learning. Technology changes - people don't. What you need to learn at Uni is not syntax but critical thinking, active listening, and good story telling. Always be quietly selling yourself. Find the why. There are far worse things than caring too much. Kindness is never wasted.

Buy a Mac and buy a ThinkPad. Run Windows and Linux on the ThinkPad. Learn a bit about them all.

Make sure you can write words just as well as you can write code.

5 things:

   1. Work smarter, not harder.

   2. There is *zero* loyalty as an employee. If you have no shares, leave.

   3. Start investing right now.

   4. Build a startup at least once.

...and finally.

   5. Do NOT wait and *take* risks.

*1: Work smarter, then also work harder

nah, working harder is what “THE MAN” wants you to do. you should do everything else in life harder than you work. the worst advice that is given to young people is to work harder and there is nothing close 2nd

Change jobs often. With each job change comes a raise (hopefully) and an opportunity to learn something new.

For me this has been every 2 years.

Stay curious, build side projects, and don't be afraid to ask questions. Tech evolves fast, consistency beats perfection. Also, take care of your health.

Depends where in the world you live. Most advice based on Silicon Valley / FAANG is of limited value elsewhere, especially outside of the USA. The need for IT skills is rapidly becoming table stakes in most industries. Especially with AI/ML performing many of the entry level tasks. In very general terms, I would suggest studying some non-IT domain. For example, biology for biotech opportunities. Hard engineering disciplines are another good area.

Get some tail. Do shit with your friends. Bogart the joint.

In 10 or 20 years you won't reminisce about the time you stayed home on a Friday night and read the kubernetes documentation.

go into trades

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