As someone who's been working in software engineering for over 15 years, networking in college is the most important thing you can do. Go join the club for your major and meet friends and show that you're an asset to your classmates and peers. It is much easier to get an interview and job from a referral from one of your college friends than random job postings online.
Networking is important in every field, but Software Engineering it is huge like you say. It also goes for promotions. It seems job postings that are promotions are merely a HR requirement to appear open. I interviewed for several jobs and each time the person who got it was another person with my title, but they happened to be more boss-pleasing people. I keep quiet and do my job, so I don't get many opportunities even though I ask my manager to give me some, I'm ready for more. Opportunities go to people the management would like to go out and have a beer with.
Time management…I remember staying up super late to try to “study” or figure out how to code some mega proj until 5am. When really I should’ve just slept early and worked it with a fresh brain.
I truly believe on this statement. Currently I'm taking my Master and the amount of studies + working is extremely high. My only lucky is having my partner who constantly reminds me to take a good time of sleeping so that I can calmly solve my problems and manage my things.
ah that was me with IAs during IB in a nutshell. i was staying up on coffee and a half broken brain while my roommate slept consistently by 12am every night. by the end of our term she got 38 out of 42 ib points while i got 34. her IAs were completed early. and mine just barely scratched the surface + i barely knew what i was doing. ever since then i copy her healthy habits of being punctual and disciplined. so blessed to have her. i no longer get headaches nor feel sleepy in class and can focus way better and became more alert at doing deep work. still waiting for my results.
Nah, it depends on what kind of person you are. If you're a night owl, staying up late will be more productive for you. If you're an early bird, you should do your stuff in the morning. There's no one way fits all, even though American culture tries real hard to make you think that if you don't wake up early you're not working hard enough. I know personally that the best thoughts come to me at night when everyone is sleeping because I feel a sort of freedom that I can't express. I also know that if I made myself wake up earlier, I would end up doing jack sh*t and my whole day would be ruined because of a bad start.
As someone who's going into uni for CS this fall, I just want to thank you for sharing this awesome advice! It made me reconsider a lot of things that I had originally planned (for example taking bird courses in place of courses I'd actually find interesting) or trying to do everything at the same time (school, side-projects, LeetCode, interview prep, etc...). I also really liked the emphasis on time management and making friends as I feel those are the two things that people (myself included) often overlook when it comes to college. TL;DR: Cool video, loved the advice!
Without certifications it will be hard to get an IT job. Instead of going to college you would be better served getting certified rather than a college education. Hiring managers prefer certifications over the degrees anymore. also a degree is just outdated theory that is taught whereas certification is theory and practicality. Companies already expect you to have experience.
@@peteherrera1502 that might be true for IT, but I’m trying to become a machine learning engineer and many jobs prefer or even require a masters. Also, while it is true that CS degrees are very theory intensive, you also gain a lot of opportunities for practicality (research, internships, etc…) depending on which university you’re affiliated with.
I was genuinely petrified to go into my first year this fall for CS, but after seeing this video it just gave me clarity and guidance that I need! Thank you!
Without certifications it will be hard to get an IT job. Instead of going to college you would be better served getting certified rather than a college education. Hiring managers prefer certifications over the degrees anymore. also a degree is just outdated theory that is taught whereas certification is theory and practicality. Companies already expect you to have experience.
Sayhyun, a lot of good advice in this video and might I add a few things: 1. CS can be a broad field, therefore explore those niches, mine being Cyber Security, but there's others like Machine Learning. Explore them! 2. If there's an opportunity to learn something new, take it, you'll never know how it will turn out. Lastly, in regards with the "On Making Friends" portion, this goes for us graduates as well: attend events such as conferences or competitions, I've made some good friends at these conferences and met potential connections such as recruiters to explore career wise. I graduated back in 2021, B.S. in Comp Sci: Concentration in Cyber Security.
Hey! Just finished my first year of a Maths & CS degree. I completely relate to the staying up late -> falling behind -> stay up late, cycle haha. But I think it's much easier in hindsight to say I wish I took the harder classes. I took a bunch of hard classes and that in turn decimated my social life, sleep, mental health, physical health, etc. I think one of my biggest lessons from this year was to take easier classes. Who knows, maybe later in life I'll wish I took harder classes, or maybe I'll be thankful I didn't.
Just completed my cs degree and heavily agree on side projects and being passionate about what you’re working on. You’re more likely to be more motivated if you work on something you’re interested in. One piece of advice I have for new undergrads is to start a project based on what you learn from your introductory courses and optimize it as you continue through other courses. This can show your foundation and how you first thought things through versus how that’s changed when you took another course. This will give you a lot to talk about in interviews
love the video! u can completely ignore the rest but here's my two cents: i think one of the hardest things about college is that four years isn't enough time to learn all that you want. i'm two years into my degree and i'll be able to take upper levels starting my second semester of junior year. i want to do game dev, vlsi, and comp arch and those are all time consuming and you need to take them one at a time to do them well. by the time you're done collecting degree requirements and prereqs, you're already a senior and there's no time left for anything else. 😭 also, you need to actually pass classes and that's the hardest part of taking a bunch of hard classes together to learn more. it's so hard to win, mate 😭😭
always appreciate the perspective 🙂 yeah, it really is tough, but you got this! Folks who managed to get to the upper level classes sooner I was always envious of.
@@jreamscapetrue but you'll never have another time in your life to be able to purely be able to focus on the pursuit of knowledge for 4 years like college. (maybe when you retire)
@@litical3719yes you do, and you don’t just stopped learning because you left school. Working professionals have to learn new things to keep up with the CEU’s and maintaining their licenses/certifications all the time. The key is time management. It’s not like you’re learning the same course in the 4 year college either, you’re learning 3-4 classes per semester, 2-3 classes per week for like a few months. I was working part time during undergrad and work full time during my master program. Sounds like you never had a job.
@@rubiirae (never had a job , ok lol) While u may learn on a job majority of what your learning is to accomplish a goals rather than learning the field itself. Also in colleges there are many jobs that allow u to work and study. Night auditing , being a da, working for a library, planet fitness, being a ra, being a ta. Also when your in college you have direct access to experts in what your learning while being in a class of people doing the same. While u can find these experiences outside of college it's usually not as easy to get loans, and some companies won't pay for your schooling while doing some alternative options. Also since going to college it's gives u more inspiration to take lower paying jobs and be more frugal so u can focus on learning .
Dude, you sound like a very mature person! you've built character, on top of a sound technical and engineering background. Congrats! I don't know where you are in your career, but you are certainly going to have a great one! no matter what you're doing right now (take it from an older CS professor). Best of luck in whatever you do.
thank you for this video!!! I just graduated from highschool and this video is what helped me the most so far to get an idea about college life realistically. I like how realistic you are and straight forward!! and the video itself is pretty well made!! Thanks Sayhyun!!
College is the one place where future millionaires and billionaires will be in one central place My advice for anyone who decides to go is to make it worth it Major in STEM or really consider picking up a trade if not STEM Network, network, network. For CS students link up with other students and attempt to build a startup Find your ‘people’ there and build, dream, work, and create
This sounds like solid advice. Or if you’re like me, 30 and considering a career change into CS via online college, find local meetups and collaborate with other devs.
I honestly have watched many " what would I do if i was a Computer Science major again" kinda videos but ur is the one that felt more realistic ,genuine and I am sure for some reason It will stick to me all throughout College as I am starting my Computer Science degree tommorow.Thanks really
add a bit of reading and these become my 6 professional goals of 2025. written down in my block note, i couldnt have imagined that someone (who has graduated ) would recommend the things i am doing now as a 1st year student (or trying to) add to this that the courses you mentioned you wanted to take (filmamking, creative writing.. ) are all things that align perfectly with my interests, not that im gonna take them, because that's not an option as im not even a cs student. Nevertheless, great advice, great video, really heartfelt and genuine. thank you sayhyun.
I'm going back to college to do Electrical Engineering in my ealry 20's. I want to learn the foundation of technology that is beneficial for me later in AI/ML . EE is the heart of technology and EECS strongly overlaps each other. My small advice is CS, EE are hard, you'll feel overwhelmed. Math is important, you will love math once you know how math is close to our lifes. Just because I hated math since little. I got my GED last year, currently in community college.
@@redtree732 Some colleges don’t have a CE program. They called it EECS; moreover, I think EE is well packed better with EMag and more math which can help me do everything. I know a lot of EE’s in undergrad pursued CS later in MS/PhD. Sure, pursuing CS is not mandatory, there are tons of field for EE. Technically, AI is a subfield of EE.
so much true bro! great video! Im currently at 2nd year in CS, really love what Im learning, everything reduces to problem solving and its amazing, also C++ supremacy!!😂
Amazing video! Definitely agree on making side projects and doing as much as you can to get experience as well as networking with the right people. I personally wish I did more of these things during my time in college but it is what it is.
berkeley cs undergrad here! i rarely comment on videos, but i just wanted to let you know how valuable, relevant, and powerful your advice was. thank you! subscribed! :)
Loved this! It honestly couldn't have come at a better time for me, since, fingers crossed, I'm finishing uni december of next year. I feel like I've wasted my early years (mainly due to the pandemic but also impostor syndrome seeing how there's classmates that are actual monsters because of how much they know and o) but I feel like I'm _finally_ kinda getting things back on track. One of the things that have become more difficult to me than usual (part of ADHD I guess) is studying for classes that I really don't like (like accounting and a Java/C# project that's being more frustrating than anything lol) and having side projects and things I'd like to learn more on my mind. At least I found out that I want to specialise on cybersec and I've been trying to grind that as much as I can so I guess that's nice :D
I found it interesting that you mentioned about CS being more of an "art" degree. I will say that I am not CS, but rather EE, but usually we wind up inside the same boat academically. Something I I find that is commonly misunderstood about engineering, is that it's not primarily a technical degree. First and foremost, engineering is about designing. Engineers are designers. In the same way that an artist may attend college to broaden their social and creative backgrounds to be able make better designs, An engineer studies in college to broaden their technical and theoretical backgrounds (and some parts social/creative as well) to design better solutions to a given problem.
it becomes harder and harder to make friends as you progress in life or when you're out of school because you're either an introverted person, or because you never really developed these skills... you were just around kids that would talk to you all the time in school... if you set an extroverted to a new town where they have to start fresh, they're making friends EASILY :)
This video definitely helped me out alot as an upcoming junior in high school. I’m absolutely terrified to go to college, and plan to do a dual degree in some Biology-related major & Data Science (or CS) so I know I’ll have to work 10X harder if I want to graduate.
I agree with this video 100%. We often forget that education is meant to teach you new things, even if the topics are unrelated or boring. What you get out of it will develop your brain and you actually learn a lot about what the classes are teaching you. Like for U.S. History, its teaching you how to do research and looking up events. Math - How to solve problems and finding ways to solve that same problem but in different ways English - Well, English. lol, jk. But it teaches you how to document and how you word certain things. Which also goes on how to document a good paper. Many many things that we benefit from these classes. The only problem is that we view it from a different angle.
1:16 even though I agree that classes can be the main knowledge source of our future , I strongly believe that in 2024 and beyond, people can build a solid foundation on their own, without relying on classes or professors. Thoughts?
I kind of agree to an extent. You have so much tutorials and resources out there on the web these days that you don’t really need to go to college for these things. But self teaching is a challenge on its own because you need to know how to manage time, keep yourself motivated, and finding the right place to look for help. College provides sort of a roadmap and gives you hand on activities and feedbacks from professors/students to further build your foundations. I remember studying Japanese on my own and I hit a roadblock on grammar that I never understood for like 2 years and sort of gave up until I took a Japanese class in college and it just clicked.
I relate myself to this content. I have a CS degree, and I chose all the hard modules that I found interesting or I could imagine to work in it in the future. Many opportunities open up when you have different knowledge. I didn't mind my decisions at all, even if it had given me a hard time. I had classmates who went on modules that were related to web design, and today, they couldn't find a job in it, but they also don't have other knowledge, which they regret. Because all the years they were concentrating on one field. I won't say it's a bad strategy if one person wants to be in the frontend, but if that didn't work out, then at least there is something else you can go back to because has a basic knowledge in it already.
Honestly, this was a great video to watch for me as I am going into college as a CS major next this fall. I definitely took note of the tips you said lol and hopefully it’ll help out my college experience
My honest advice to someone regardless of major: make friends, network, and make sure the professors know who you are. This will get you a job. Of course be somewhat competent as well.
13:03 “There’s something about being physically close to people while facing the same kind of hardship that brings you closer together” You’ve essentially described the military 😆
It’s also important to take a few classes outside of your major that are not of interest to you. This will force you to learn things because you say you’re going to learn them. This is very important in your future.
To be honest, everyone always says "create something to solve a problem you have" so that way you can make something you're passionate about. But I really have trouble thinking of something I'm having a problem with and if I CAN think of it then the tool likely already exists. I don't know if I'm just not thinking about it enough or what but that tip has never really worked for me since most of the problems I encounter tend to be solved already.
I was pretty fortunate to have realized before I started uni. A person spends a third of the day sleeping, a third learning/working, and a third for rest/hobbies/activities. For me I turned the last third into learning/work, so by the time I finished uni after 4 years, I pretty much had 8 years worth of experience. Technical interviews were no biggy because the projects I worked on were so much more difficult. With so many things and distractions today, this was something super hard to do. I made it work - gave up games for four years.
Watching this on my senior year of my major Could've done stuff a little better, especially with the practicing during off-semesters thing. First starting out the degree, I thought the plan would have everything laid out for me and that there would be classes dedicated to practicing leetcode and getting ready for interviews. Which never happened lol Same for time management. Still a hardcore procrastinator, saving assignments for the last couple days if not the last, then locking in and doing it in a few hours. I *have* improved since high school at least. I now make sure to at least tackle a part here and there so that final rush isn't so bad
sayhyun,thank you very much for your advices. im in 2nd year of my cs major. thr most i struggle with is 'time management' i wanna fix this,this semester. let's see
1: Hard courses help you build your research and analysis skills and helps you manage time so as to avoid failed/incomplete work. 2: The liberal arts courses teach you how to read for comprehension and how to write proper essays. You want these to be Writing Emphasis (WE) courses. 3: Liberal arts courses also help you develop verbal communication skills. You are unlikely to get the same experience in a technical (e.g., EE\CS) degree program.
Advice to this guy. Game development is a dead end. Long hours, lousy money, and user bosses. Steer clear. It's the worst subspecialty of computer science.
Like all things, you gotta love it. At the end of the day, all these creative endeavors in entertainment are time sinks and gambles. Thus why if it works out those long hours are rewarded...sometimes... listen indie is easier at this point than aiming to work in AAA
new software engineers always start out wanting to do game development because they like playing games. what they don’t realize, is most programming is like playing a puzzle game and can be incredibly fun. game dev on the other hand is a lot of repetition with extremely difficult concepts. i started out with game dev, now i’m a kernel dev and i can’t state how much easier kernel is than game dev
unless you create a game on roblox, where you'd just insert a bunch of free models related to skibidi toilet and you'd be set off with making easy $4-5k a month
I totally understand. My undergrad CS was based in Pascal. My brain still thinks in Pascal. It's taken me years to break out of top-down Pascal and default to thinking in terms of thread concurrency. I eventually mastered libdispatch only to have Apple deprecate it in favor of Swift's Async/Await. Old dogs don't learn new tricks quickly. Yep. I'm 64.
I double majored in cs and finance, and struggled to decide with path I wanted to take. I got a finance internship one summer for a company in seattle, but I didn’t like it. now I’m doing a swe internship post-grad and feel like I have so much catching up to do. I definitely wish I would’ve prioritized getting more swe internships and college/being more in involved lol.
I am from india and college is really hard here no break in all 4 year no Summer or winter break even when temp is above 50c and attendance is compulsory to appear in exam just 1 week break after every sem amd our classes are continuous like school 8:30 to 4:00 with 2, 50min break on most weekdays(sometimes just 1 break)college sucls here just wanted to put the burden out not to mention oudated curriculum like in 1st year no programming and and i in 5th sem now and we have not learnt classes and cpp till now just c in 3sem not fine for study from UA-cam
Hey man just watched your video, great stuff. I’m at Central Michigan right now for CS. I am wondering if you could share maybe a list of some of the most marketable skills to have as a Software Engineer so that we can tailor our class choice and side projects to what employers are looking for. Also, did you go to Ann Arbor campus or Dearborn? I’ve been looking to transfer there or maybe do a masters there.
I graduated from U of M about 25 years ago, are they still not offering Java for credit? I took a lot of additional classes at Washtenaw Community College that really helped in my programming career. Unix shell programming and system administration classes were very valuable.
After watching the full video, I just have some thoughts about part 1 with education. I think your ideas are great but it only suit for great universities in the world. For some people like me in the normal university I just feel that I cannot learning anything useful in the class. In our campus, we cannot choose courses that what we really want to learn. We force to study all the classes that inside our program and they are really bad. So, can you make a video about how can CS students learn by ourselves and what to learn is useful for work? BTW, appreciate for this video, it is really good!
LOL bro I am 5 years out and I think about this all the time now. The tech electives I should have taken knowing what I know now and how I want to shape my career...Also I totally understand working in Java/Kotlin and still thinking in c++, even though all my professional experience has been in JVM land lol
Currently following a diploma in IT. There's so little in the course right now to do and I have so many side projects that I really have to finish really makes me think: Do I really have free time?
It's easy to say to take hard computer science classes but if you fail the class after all of that trying, it's on your transcript, you lose your tuition and time investment.
I am 46 and have just been accepted to do this degree. The maths terrifies me. My initial degree was in film and media and psychology. It's either this, law school or pharmacology. Should I be scared of the math involved in this degree?
Hello there，I‘m in my second year of computer science degree，and I‘ll have chose a specialization from cloud computing，data analystic，data engineering，network engineering and game engineering. Which specialization should I chose if I want to become a software engineer after graduation？
can you explain “how to study” efficiently and how not to brute force it? I feel like, despite my best efforts, I often end up “brute forcing” my productivity by forcing myself to sit down and grind all day
This is so me… which is why I’m going back for computer science. I realized I’m not passionate about video game art so in 2 years I’m going back to completely restart. I wasted my first 4 years and It won’t happen again
just realizing bro is using a chopstick as a tripod 😭 lmao
good eye 😉
As a mic stand?
Bro is embracing his culture to the next levels
Wait that’s genius, why didn’t I think of this 😂
That's 10x engineering honestly, you can't learn that shit in college.
As someone who's been working in software engineering for over 15 years, networking in college is the most important thing you can do. Go join the club for your major and meet friends and show that you're an asset to your classmates and peers. It is much easier to get an interview and job from a referral from one of your college friends than random job postings online.
Now a days the clubs are full of lgbtq propganda or women or politics.
Really helpful advice!
In lieu of joining a club, find people to study with.
Networking is important in every field, but Software Engineering it is huge like you say. It also goes for promotions. It seems job postings that are promotions are merely a HR requirement to appear open. I interviewed for several jobs and each time the person who got it was another person with my title, but they happened to be more boss-pleasing people. I keep quiet and do my job, so I don't get many opportunities even though I ask my manager to give me some, I'm ready for more. Opportunities go to people the management would like to go out and have a beer with.
May I ask? Because I, m not getting it. Computer majors should be studying in University, why everyone is saying college though.
Time management…I remember staying up super late to try to “study” or figure out how to code some mega proj until 5am. When really I should’ve just slept early and worked it with a fresh brain.
I truly believe on this statement. Currently I'm taking my Master and the amount of studies + working is extremely high. My only lucky is having my partner who constantly reminds me to take a good time of sleeping so that I can calmly solve my problems and manage my things.
ah that was me with IAs during IB in a nutshell. i was staying up on coffee and a half broken brain while my roommate slept consistently by 12am every night. by the end of our term she got 38 out of 42 ib points while i got 34. her IAs were completed early. and mine just barely scratched the surface + i barely knew what i was doing. ever since then i copy her healthy habits of being punctual and disciplined. so blessed to have her. i no longer get headaches nor feel sleepy in class and can focus way better and became more alert at doing deep work. still waiting for my results.
Nah, it depends on what kind of person you are. If you're a night owl, staying up late will be more productive for you. If you're an early bird, you should do your stuff in the morning. There's no one way fits all, even though American culture tries real hard to make you think that if you don't wake up early you're not working hard enough. I know personally that the best thoughts come to me at night when everyone is sleeping because I feel a sort of freedom that I can't express. I also know that if I made myself wake up earlier, I would end up doing jack sh*t and my whole day would be ruined because of a bad start.
When I was younger I stayed up late to study, less distractions.
in the real world, most of your best code will be done between 10pm and 1am LOL
As someone who's going into uni for CS this fall, I just want to thank you for sharing this awesome advice! It made me reconsider a lot of things that I had originally planned (for example taking bird courses in place of courses I'd actually find interesting) or trying to do everything at the same time (school, side-projects, LeetCode, interview prep, etc...). I also really liked the emphasis on time management and making friends as I feel those are the two things that people (myself included) often overlook when it comes to college.
TL;DR: Cool video, loved the advice!
best of luck!
Without certifications it will be hard to get an IT job. Instead of going to college you would be better served getting certified rather than a college education.
Hiring managers prefer certifications over the degrees anymore. also a degree is just outdated theory that is taught whereas certification is theory and practicality. Companies already expect you to have experience.
@@peteherrera1502 that might be true for IT, but I’m trying to become a machine learning engineer and many jobs prefer or even require a masters.
Also, while it is true that CS degrees are very theory intensive, you also gain a lot of opportunities for practicality (research, internships, etc…) depending on which university you’re affiliated with.
I was genuinely petrified to go into my first year this fall for CS, but after seeing this video it just gave me clarity and guidance that I need! Thank you!
I am feeling very scared as I'm basically a noob
Without certifications it will be hard to get an IT job. Instead of going to college you would be better served getting certified rather than a college education.
Hiring managers prefer certifications over the degrees anymore. also a degree is just outdated theory that is taught whereas certification is theory and practicality. Companies already expect you to have experience.
Sayhyun, a lot of good advice in this video and might I add a few things:
1. CS can be a broad field, therefore explore those niches, mine being Cyber Security, but there's others like Machine Learning. Explore them!
2. If there's an opportunity to learn something new, take it, you'll never know how it will turn out.
Lastly, in regards with the "On Making Friends" portion, this goes for us graduates as well: attend events such as conferences or competitions, I've made some good friends at these conferences and met potential connections such as recruiters to explore career wise.
I graduated back in 2021, B.S. in Comp Sci: Concentration in Cyber Security.
How Is it going for you right now?
Hey! Just finished my first year of a Maths & CS degree. I completely relate to the staying up late -> falling behind -> stay up late, cycle haha. But I think it's much easier in hindsight to say I wish I took the harder classes. I took a bunch of hard classes and that in turn decimated my social life, sleep, mental health, physical health, etc. I think one of my biggest lessons from this year was to take easier classes. Who knows, maybe later in life I'll wish I took harder classes, or maybe I'll be thankful I didn't.
I appreciate the perspective! Everyone is different 🙂
Plus I did not do a dual degree, that definitely requires more work than a single one
Hi I wanted to ask the university Im going for has CS & math as a major and not CS alone are they the same thing or different
Do things that will build your knowledge that's all. There are easy ways and hard ways to do that
LOVE LOVE LOVE your advice! They should make this video a mandatory watch for every incoming freshman.
Just completed my cs degree and heavily agree on side projects and being passionate about what you’re working on. You’re more likely to be more motivated if you work on something you’re interested in.
One piece of advice I have for new undergrads is to start a project based on what you learn from your introductory courses and optimize it as you continue through other courses. This can show your foundation and how you first thought things through versus how that’s changed when you took another course. This will give you a lot to talk about in interviews
Thats such a good advice! Its kinda like a growth journal of sorts. Thank you, I might try it
love the video! u can completely ignore the rest but here's my two cents: i think one of the hardest things about college is that four years isn't enough time to learn all that you want. i'm two years into my degree and i'll be able to take upper levels starting my second semester of junior year. i want to do game dev, vlsi, and comp arch and those are all time consuming and you need to take them one at a time to do them well. by the time you're done collecting degree requirements and prereqs, you're already a senior and there's no time left for anything else. 😭 also, you need to actually pass classes and that's the hardest part of taking a bunch of hard classes together to learn more. it's so hard to win, mate 😭😭
always appreciate the perspective 🙂 yeah, it really is tough, but you got this!
Folks who managed to get to the upper level classes sooner I was always envious of.
Dude... you don't have to stop learning
@@jreamscapetrue but you'll never have another time in your life to be able to purely be able to focus on the pursuit of knowledge for 4 years like college. (maybe when you retire)
@@litical3719yes you do, and you don’t just stopped learning because you left school. Working professionals have to learn new things to keep up with the CEU’s and maintaining their licenses/certifications all the time. The key is time management. It’s not like you’re learning the same course in the 4 year college either, you’re learning 3-4 classes per semester, 2-3 classes per week for like a few months. I was working part time during undergrad and work full time during my master program. Sounds like you never had a job.
@@rubiirae (never had a job , ok lol) While u may learn on a job majority of what your learning is to accomplish a goals rather than learning the field itself. Also in colleges there are many jobs that allow u to work and study. Night auditing , being a da, working for a library, planet fitness, being a ra, being a ta. Also when your in college you have direct access to experts in what your learning while being in a class of people doing the same. While u can find these experiences outside of college it's usually not as easy to get loans, and some companies won't pay for your schooling while doing some alternative options. Also since going to college it's gives u more inspiration to take lower paying jobs and be more frugal so u can focus on learning .
Thank you for the down-to-earth and realistic advice. I feel better and more prepared for college now!
Dude, you sound like a very mature person! you've built character, on top of a sound technical and engineering background. Congrats! I don't know where you are in your career, but you are certainly going to have a great one! no matter what you're doing right now (take it from an older CS professor). Best of luck in whatever you do.
thank you! appreciate the compliment 😁
This is the best advice I’ve ever had for majoring CS. I hope old me can find this advice.
Commenting for the algorithm!! Really great vid
thank you! 🙏🏼🙏🏼
thank you for this video!!! I just graduated from highschool and this video is what helped me the most so far to get an idea about college life realistically. I like how realistic you are and straight forward!! and the video itself is pretty well made!! Thanks Sayhyun!!
wow a video that actually has honest advice and this really resonated to me thank you so much for sharing
College is the one place where future millionaires and billionaires will be in one central place
My advice for anyone who decides to go is to make it worth it
Major in STEM or really consider picking up a trade if not STEM
Network, network, network. For CS students link up with other students and attempt to build a startup
Find your ‘people’ there and build, dream, work, and create
This sounds like solid advice.
Or if you’re like me, 30 and considering a career change into CS via online college, find local meetups and collaborate with other devs.
Or definitely take some business classes as elective in preparation of going into a startup alone.
Lmao and who are you to give such advice? A billionaire, I’m sure (millionaire doesn’t mean much anymore, even a plumber can become a millionaire).
@@redtree732millionaire is still a millionaire ma
how can i make it worth it pls
I honestly have watched many " what would I do if i was a Computer Science major again" kinda videos but ur is the one that felt more realistic ,genuine and I am sure for some reason It will stick to me all throughout College as I am starting my Computer Science degree tommorow.Thanks really
add a bit of reading and these become my 6 professional goals of 2025. written down in my block note, i couldnt have imagined that someone (who has graduated ) would recommend the things i am doing now as a 1st year student (or trying to) add to this that the courses you mentioned you wanted to take (filmamking, creative writing.. ) are all things that align perfectly with my interests, not that im gonna take them, because that's not an option as im not even a cs student. Nevertheless, great advice, great video, really heartfelt and genuine. thank you sayhyun.
I'm going back to college to do Electrical Engineering in my ealry 20's. I want to learn the foundation of technology that is beneficial for me later in AI/ML .
EE is the heart of technology and EECS strongly overlaps each other. My small advice is CS, EE are hard, you'll feel overwhelmed. Math is important, you will love math once you know how math is close to our lifes. Just because I hated math since little. I got my GED last year, currently in community college.
it sounds like you want to study hardware. why not major in computer engineering (CE)
@@redtree732 Some colleges don’t have a CE program. They called it EECS; moreover, I think EE is well packed better with EMag and more math which can help me do everything. I know a lot of EE’s in undergrad pursued CS later in MS/PhD. Sure, pursuing CS is not mandatory, there are tons of field for EE. Technically, AI is a subfield of EE.
so much true bro! great video! Im currently at 2nd year in CS, really love what Im learning, everything reduces to problem solving and its amazing, also C++ supremacy!!😂
Thank you so much for making this video, very informative!
Very genuine advice. I really hope I knew these when I was still in uni.Thank you so much for sharing though!
loved the video bro. the camera the subtitles the realness your genuineness. thank you for this.
Amazing video! Definitely agree on making side projects and doing as much as you can to get experience as well as networking with the right people. I personally wish I did more of these things during my time in college but it is what it is.
Great video! Time management is really an important skill i also need to work on
berkeley cs undergrad here! i rarely comment on videos, but i just wanted to let you know how valuable, relevant, and powerful your advice was. thank you! subscribed! :)
thank you for the comment!
Loved this! It honestly couldn't have come at a better time for me, since, fingers crossed, I'm finishing uni december of next year. I feel like I've wasted my early years (mainly due to the pandemic but also impostor syndrome seeing how there's classmates that are actual monsters because of how much they know and o) but I feel like I'm _finally_ kinda getting things back on track.
One of the things that have become more difficult to me than usual (part of ADHD I guess) is studying for classes that I really don't like (like accounting and a Java/C# project that's being more frustrating than anything lol) and having side projects and things I'd like to learn more on my mind. At least I found out that I want to specialise on cybersec and I've been trying to grind that as much as I can so I guess that's nice :D
nice! glad you found a discipline you like, keep going 👊🏻
Thank you, it feels very genuine what you say, good luck
I found it interesting that you mentioned about CS being more of an "art" degree. I will say that I am not CS, but rather EE, but usually we wind up inside the same boat academically. Something I I find that is commonly misunderstood about engineering, is that it's not primarily a technical degree. First and foremost, engineering is about designing. Engineers are designers.
In the same way that an artist may attend college to broaden their social and creative backgrounds to be able make better designs, An engineer studies in college to broaden their technical and theoretical backgrounds (and some parts social/creative as well) to design better solutions to a given problem.
This is an excellent video, full of great suggestions with real examples!
it becomes harder and harder to make friends as you progress in life or when you're out of school because you're either an introverted person, or because you never really developed these skills... you were just around kids that would talk to you all the time in school... if you set an extroverted to a new town where they have to start fresh, they're making friends EASILY :)
Good stuff. Shared this with my two oldest kids. Thanks.
Lots of great advice here. Current UM CS student. Thanks
This video definitely helped me out alot as an upcoming junior in high school. I’m absolutely terrified to go to college, and plan to do a dual degree in some Biology-related major & Data Science (or CS) so I know I’ll have to work 10X harder if I want to graduate.
I agree with this video 100%.
We often forget that education is meant to teach you new things, even if the topics are unrelated or boring.
What you get out of it will develop your brain and you actually learn a lot about what the classes are teaching you.
Like for U.S. History, its teaching you how to do research and looking up events.
Math - How to solve problems and finding ways to solve that same problem but in different ways
English - Well, English. lol, jk. But it teaches you how to document and how you word certain things. Which also goes on how to document a good paper.
Many many things that we benefit from these classes. The only problem is that we view it from a different angle.
Thank you 😊! Wish you the best
Save all your course materials for after-graduation review and foundation building.
Great advice! Go Blue
Really amazing video bud! Thank You ! :)
absolutely goated video
Very useful information as i look forward to major in CS. Thank you, gained a sub here. Cheers
1:16 even though I agree that classes can be the main knowledge source of our future , I strongly believe that in 2024 and beyond, people can build a solid foundation on their own, without relying on classes or professors. Thoughts?
I kind of agree to an extent. You have so much tutorials and resources out there on the web these days that you don’t really need to go to college for these things. But self teaching is a challenge on its own because you need to know how to manage time, keep yourself motivated, and finding the right place to look for help. College provides sort of a roadmap and gives you hand on activities and feedbacks from professors/students to further build your foundations. I remember studying Japanese on my own and I hit a roadblock on grammar that I never understood for like 2 years and sort of gave up until I took a Japanese class in college and it just clicked.
So you are impliying the importance of a roadmap , but you still can have a roadmap without going to the classes on college no ? @@AZ-zz4kn
I relate myself to this content. I have a CS degree, and I chose all the hard modules that I found interesting or I could imagine to work in it in the future. Many opportunities open up when you have different knowledge. I didn't mind my decisions at all, even if it had given me a hard time. I had classmates who went on modules that were related to web design, and today, they couldn't find a job in it, but they also don't have other knowledge, which they regret. Because all the years they were concentrating on one field. I won't say it's a bad strategy if one person wants to be in the frontend, but if that didn't work out, then at least there is something else you can go back to because has a basic knowledge in it already.
Thank you I will keep this in mind in 2 years =)
Honestly, this was a great video to watch for me as I am going into college as a CS major next this fall. I definitely took note of the tips you said lol and hopefully it’ll help out my college experience
im starting college next month and im really nervous, but i will keep this advice in mind!
Dont go into CS.
@@randomfellow1483 *refuses to elaborate*
Sound advice and good video!
My honest advice to someone regardless of major: make friends, network, and make sure the professors know who you are. This will get you a job. Of course be somewhat competent as well.
Amazing video brother ! ❤️🙌
13:03 “There’s something about being physically close to people while facing the same kind of hardship that brings you closer together”
You’ve essentially described the military 😆
Good luck. Great vid
on umich waitlist rn for cs and praying i get in, thanks for the advice cool vid
best of luck!
same! good luck to both of us :)
@@Sayhyuun update got off LFGGG
@@iwanttoleave6305 AYYY lets goo 🔥 congrats!
Hey i just graduated and im going into cs next year and this video covered a lot of my concerns for next year. Thank you!
Graduated in 2013 from CS, but even so this is really solid advice. I wish I had known this back then.
LOVE THİS VIDEO!! THANKSS, I'm on my third year now and i wish i knew these things before T-T
The computer science field was flooded when I took a Fortran class in the 80's.
Very sage advice. Thank you
It’s also important to take a few classes outside of your major that are not of interest to you. This will force you to learn things because you say you’re going to learn them. This is very important in your future.
Lots of excellent advice here.
cool video, I don't get summers off. Full-time every single semester accept summers, which are a little over half-time. Michigan sounds like a breeze.
To be honest, everyone always says "create something to solve a problem you have" so that way you can make something you're passionate about. But I really have trouble thinking of something I'm having a problem with and if I CAN think of it then the tool likely already exists. I don't know if I'm just not thinking about it enough or what but that tip has never really worked for me since most of the problems I encounter tend to be solved already.
i’m about to make a vlog covering this very thing! stay tuned 🙂
I was pretty fortunate to have realized before I started uni. A person spends a third of the day sleeping, a third learning/working, and a third for rest/hobbies/activities. For me I turned the last third into learning/work, so by the time I finished uni after 4 years, I pretty much had 8 years worth of experience. Technical interviews were no biggy because the projects I worked on were so much more difficult. With so many things and distractions today, this was something super hard to do. I made it work - gave up games for four years.
I take easy classes as well, mainly because I'm scared to jump into C++ right away. I have one W in CS in Java.
Please use UA-cam videos to learn C++. Please simple programs in C++ and this will help you learn programming.
My only personal issue that I have is, I tend to forget what I learned in my previous classes. Really planning to take internships for that reason.
Watching this on my senior year of my major
Could've done stuff a little better, especially with the practicing during off-semesters thing. First starting out the degree, I thought the plan would have everything laid out for me and that there would be classes dedicated to practicing leetcode and getting ready for interviews. Which never happened lol
Same for time management. Still a hardcore procrastinator, saving assignments for the last couple days if not the last, then locking in and doing it in a few hours. I *have* improved since high school at least. I now make sure to at least tackle a part here and there so that final rush isn't so bad
sayhyun,thank you very much for your advices. im in 2nd year of my cs major. thr most i struggle with is 'time management' i wanna fix this,this semester. let's see
Great video, thank you!
Love your videos❤❤
thank you!
1: Hard courses help you build your research and analysis skills and helps you manage time so as to avoid failed/incomplete work.
2: The liberal arts courses teach you how to read for comprehension and how to write proper essays. You want these to be Writing Emphasis (WE) courses.
3: Liberal arts courses also help you develop verbal communication skills. You are unlikely to get the same experience in a technical (e.g., EE\CS) degree program.
It was really helpful 🤗
This is really well thought out advice! Great video 👍
Im 31 and just now a freshman at ASU Online for CS. Hoping the online nature of it is still worth it and doable.
Thx for the advice!
Advice to this guy. Game development is a dead end. Long hours, lousy money, and user bosses. Steer clear. It's the worst subspecialty of computer science.
Like all things, you gotta love it. At the end of the day, all these creative endeavors in entertainment are time sinks and gambles. Thus why if it works out those long hours are rewarded...sometimes... listen indie is easier at this point than aiming to work in AAA
@@C.S.Argudo Problem is that game dev shops have a rich record of promising the moon and stiffing people. Like I said, it's a sucker's game.
new software engineers always start out wanting to do game development because they like playing games. what they don’t realize, is most programming is like playing a puzzle game and can be incredibly fun. game dev on the other hand is a lot of repetition with extremely difficult concepts. i started out with game dev, now i’m a kernel dev and i can’t state how much easier kernel is than game dev
unless you create a game on roblox, where you'd just insert a bunch of free models related to skibidi toilet and you'd be set off with making easy $4-5k a month
I totally understand. My undergrad CS was based in Pascal. My brain still thinks in Pascal. It's taken me years to break out of top-down Pascal and default to thinking in terms of thread concurrency. I eventually mastered libdispatch only to have Apple deprecate it in favor of Swift's Async/Await. Old dogs don't learn new tricks quickly. Yep. I'm 64.
Amazing !!
I double majored in cs and finance, and struggled to decide with path I wanted to take. I got a finance internship one summer for a company in seattle, but I didn’t like it. now I’m doing a swe internship post-grad and feel like I have so much catching up to do.
I definitely wish I would’ve prioritized getting more swe internships and college/being more in involved lol.
Very few friends:) not little. That said... Absolutely loved this video. Super good that i shared and forced few students to watch this
thank you so much man
I am from india and college is really hard here no break in all 4 year no Summer or winter break even when temp is above 50c and attendance is compulsory to appear in exam just 1 week break after every sem amd our classes are continuous like school 8:30 to 4:00 with 2, 50min break on most weekdays(sometimes just 1 break)college sucls here just wanted to put the burden out not to mention oudated curriculum like in 1st year no programming and and i in 5th sem now and we have not learnt classes and cpp till now just c in 3sem not fine for study from UA-cam
Cool video!
Hey man just watched your video, great stuff. I’m at Central Michigan right now for CS. I am wondering if you could share maybe a list of some of the most marketable skills to have as a Software Engineer so that we can tailor our class choice and side projects to what employers are looking for. Also, did you go to Ann Arbor campus or Dearborn? I’ve been looking to transfer there or maybe do a masters there.
100% correct!
appreciate this video man
appreciate this comment!
I graduated from U of M about 25 years ago, are they still not offering Java for credit? I took a lot of additional classes at Washtenaw Community College that really helped in my programming career. Unix shell programming and system administration classes were very valuable.
After watching the full video, I just have some thoughts about part 1 with education. I think your ideas are great but it only suit for great universities in the world. For some people like me in the normal university I just feel that I cannot learning anything useful in the class. In our campus, we cannot choose courses that what we really want to learn. We force to study all the classes that inside our program and they are really bad. So, can you make a video about how can CS students learn by ourselves and what to learn is useful for work? BTW, appreciate for this video, it is really good!
3rd sem currently in university. Wish me luck
Go learn it bro, u looks young and it's never too late
Bro is 3 year late into my college journey but ey. W advice.
sorry fam, better late than never? 😅
Java is so hard lol I am struggling in it this semester. I am loving web programming more and more
LOL bro I am 5 years out and I think about this all the time now. The tech electives I should have taken knowing what I know now and how I want to shape my career...Also I totally understand working in Java/Kotlin and still thinking in c++, even though all my professional experience has been in JVM land lol
haha glad others feel the same, i feel validated for sharing this opinion 😄
Currently following a diploma in IT. There's so little in the course right now to do and I have so many side projects that I really have to finish really makes me think:
Do I really have free time?
It's easy to say to take hard computer science classes but if you fail the class after all of that trying, it's on your transcript, you lose your tuition and time investment.
Real question, what/where did you go to make the dating sim game? Also, Id love to see it.
I am 46 and have just been accepted to do this degree. The maths terrifies me. My initial degree was in film and media and psychology. It's either this, law school or pharmacology. Should I be scared of the math involved in this degree?
Have you started already ? Not the hottest in math lmao this also terrifies me
@@snowinoctoberrrThe math is not as bad as you would think. Just brush up on your basics.
Hello there，I‘m in my second year of computer science degree，and I‘ll have chose a specialization from cloud computing，data analystic，data engineering，network engineering and game engineering. Which specialization should I chose if I want to become a software engineer after graduation？
can you explain “how to study” efficiently and how not to brute force it? I feel like, despite my best efforts, I often end up “brute forcing” my productivity by forcing myself to sit down and grind all day
I agree on taking hard unit which I done halfway after my degree. I still regret to take some units that are super easy just to get higher cgpa.
This is so me… which is why I’m going back for computer science. I realized I’m not passionate about video game art so in 2 years I’m going back to completely restart. I wasted my first 4 years and It won’t happen again