What's the BEST Way to Advance Software Engineering as a College Student?

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it is Wednesday morning it's raining like crazy outside my windows are fogged up um fingers are crossed this uh audio receiver the battery was dead which is seemingly impossible because it's been charging overnight like all the other components um last time I plugged it in when I was driving the whole audio was garbage um I've already lost this week I've lost two recordings because my camera was somehow muted for two two of the drives and then this one I might have to toss if it's all garbled but I might as well talk about the topics orst case it's practice um so I have um and maybe I'll start using this more I have a profile on topmate and top mate.io is like a it's a thing where you can basically advertise uh like mentorship and coaching and that kind of stuff but I signed up

for it I haven't really leveraged it a lot um done uh a little bit there but I don't advertise it maybe maybe it's a good way to get uh people to like submit ideas and stuff for this um for this drive right now there's a I don't want to say like a steady stream but there's a little bit coming in on comments and DMS and stuff that I can I can chat through but perhaps is it uh is the Channel grows and stuff um I can use topmate for that now full disclosure topmate like it's uh you end up like as a Creator you offer paid for services but uh I have it listed in my profile every single dollar that I make from topmate I'll be donating so I think that might be a super cool opportunity that um say there's a lot of

people submitting questions for these drives if uh if I can't get to all of them you know that people are sending in DMS if I prior the paid ones uh then I can basically uh like just donate the money that comes in I think that's kind of cool it's a few bucks um so maybe we'll do that in the future but for now whatever send me your your stuff um so I wanted to talk about one of the the DMs I got on there and uh that's because I didn't realize that I had my profile was set to like offer like a free service which is like priority DMS which um I don't know I I didn't realize my profile was set up like that so it's kind of a misleading to someone because not like none of my DMs are priority uh I I

have a Discord community that I use for that um because it's really difficult to make sure that I address everyone in a timely manner um sorry I got to turn left here and this guy was going so slow um so like for me to offer priority dmss and not even realize that's a service I'm offering I feel pretty bad for the person now it was also set to be zero doar so I don't know what their expectation actually is but I'm not offering a priority service where someone has an expectation that they're getting a response very quickly for free um not because I think that I'm better than anyone I just literally don't have time for that and it's really difficult to prioritize that kind of thing um so just full transparency like it's it's just not realistic um like there's people that will that

will message me on LinkedIn and they'll be like hey like interact with my post and I'm like not to not to be an but like I literally don't have time for that I don't have time for people to be dming me saying like please like repost my stuff please like my stuff like I got so much other stuff going on that it it's just the cognitive load for me to go like responding and like you know like I got I got stuff to do sorry um but let's talk through what this request was so college student um kind of broken down into three major uh aspects of his question sorry give me one sec as I turn right here um it's really rainy out so I just want to make sure I'm paying extra close attention um oh man the highway is going to be

jacked up great okay so college student they wanted to know um essentially like which programming languages to focus on like how to stand out and um strategies for learning which is like a the one of the really difficult um aspects of answering really general questions like this is like there simply is no right answer and I don't want to like mislead people in thinking that if I give them advice on this that this is like the way to go because what'll happen is like they'll inevitably hear some other advice that's different and then they'll be like well which I mean that's not what Nick said or this other person's saying something different and it's like there's no there's just no one right answer for this because it's too generic uh and even if it was more specific I don't want to say there's one answer

for it anyway um okay so let me just double check where I get on the highway here skills and Tech programming languages and um ways to learn so I think the first one that's important is like when it comes to skills and Technology you know a couple ways to look at this one is like are you literally just looking for the statistically the most employable thing out of the gate if that's the case like like I don't know this person's goals at all right um if that's purely the case uh I don't have the stats in front of me but I believe from talking with John vaner of latterly IO um there is like despite how many front-end developers I see like I feel like anecdotally what I view online from interactions there's an overwhelming majority of new developers are frontend developers um apparently there's

also a huge demand for that too like that is one of the biggest demands as well just in the industry so um if that still holds true and like please do your research I think this is the thing like I can tell you this stuff but you have to go validate it right um and things will change like you might be watching this a year after I record it and who knows um this highway is so jacked up I can't believe it right now so if that's the case and you're like just trying to go for maximum employability like do your research figure out what's the most in demand uh you can go look for stats online on this kind of stuff um it's a good it's a good skill as a software engineer to be able to do this kind of research and uh

do this analysis but if that's your goal that's what I would say prioritize the the technology areas that are the most um like I think some people will see like oh AI oh blockchain um and like those those might be very good right those might be very good because they have uh high paying roles but I also think that they're the most like in a bubble uh for sure like and you'll have lots of like startups that are like hey like we're a blockchain company hey we're an AI company and like uh you're the the likelihood of being burned on those things I also think is very very high so um I don't think there's any one right place but maximum employability probably some type of front-end uh Tech if you're talking about domain and stuff different story there too um the nice thing about

software development is you can go into any industry essentially because any industry will need some amount of digital representation uh especially making sites and having things uh being digitized in terms of uh workflows so uh if you're not purely looking for maximum employability and I think this is a maybe going to sound kind of weird but I think like trying different things and then feeling out what you enjoy and the reason I say that is cu you might well the reason I say it might be weird is because you might say well Nick does that suggest it's not maximum employability and like maybe maybe not hyper optimized for it out of the gate but I can feel feel like I can say this with some confidence that if you focus on the things that you like and you get good of the things you like

sorry I turned on the heat in here and it's it's not going down at all oh my God as blasting hot air in my face and like it would the fan wouldn't turn off but like I was going to die um if you you start optimizing for the stuff you enjoy then I think you're going to get better at it faster and that gives you a competitive advantage over other people so anyone just to give you an example someone might say Okay front-end development is maximum employability especially in this domain and you might say well I hate both of those things I don't enjoy them someone else might say I also hate both of those things but someone told me that's the way to maximize it if if you instead find something that you enjoy doing your learning will be much more effective and you

will become better faster and then I think that you can look for opportunities in that space in particular so I think that you can build out this Advantage uh by taking the opportunity to explore and and kind of find the things you like so why I'm saying it might not be fast or out of the gate per se but I think that it leads to some interesting opportunities um so I I think you have to balance those things out um in terms of languages uh I talk about this a lot with people uh there just is no best there just isn't uh it's the wrong question to ask uh I know that I understand why people ask it they're like hey I only got so much time I want to optimize my career path there isn't a best and like it's it's an unqualified question

and I I don't mean the person asking it's unqualified although arguably if you're you're not in the industry yet you could say you're unqualified but what I mean by that is like there's not enough context added to the question best at what best best to learn as a aspiring software developer that plans to do what what kind of things are you going to build are you just looking for like purely the easiest uh an like anecdotally the easiest programming language to learn are you looking for the fastest uh programming language in terms of operation in which context is it the fastest are you looking for something that's on the most platforms that makes it the best the be the best programming language is completely unqualified because the best at what there is no universally best programming language or else we all would have dropped the

rest of them we all would have said oh it's time to migrate to the best language so there is no best uh but I understand why people ask this but but I think a better question to ask is like like what is even to say the best in this context doesn't make sense but the either the most popular or the you know uh give me examples of the easiest languages to use or uh yeah most popular I think is probably a good one um for like mobile development right and then or for for web development then you might have people saying well obviously JavaScript typescript um but you need to qualify it right you can't say what's the what's the best language to use because if you ask me that and you want my personal opinion I like C personally I personally use C for

literally anything that I can so much so that I realize that JavaScript and typescript is heavily used in frontend development heavily and because I am not skilled at those languages and I'm significantly more skilled at C I will use something like Blazer and I will use blazer because I can use C in Blazer so if you say Nick what's the best programming language for me it's C but I gave you context as to why and now if you said Nick well you need to go build a green field project for this company and it needs to be the most performing thing ever I would say okay great like do you have a time constraint on that because if you do then I'm still probably going to use C and just make sure that I'm optimizing the crap out of literally every single line of code

I write right but but otherwise if there's no time limit I would say well let me go learn uh C or rust or C++ right like let me go learn that if there's no time constraint because those languages like so like using rust for example does have garbage collection so if given enough time if I could become as proficient as I am in C or at least comparable um I could arguably make a more performant program but that I feel like that's like completely ridiculous like way to approach things so um I'm just giving you an example of like the thought process so best programming language does not make sense to ask um best for what best in what context qualify it with something else so this person who messaged me did not say what they want to be doing if they said Nick I

want to be a mobile developer I want to make Android applications I probably wouldn't tell them to go Learn Python right away although if they said Nick I want to do that but I want to start out with something else I just want to learn syntax because I I find it very difficult uh as I'm starting out you know in in college I'm getting more programming classes and like just the syntax like I can't seem to grasp the really simple Concepts then I might say hey like maybe if you try out python this will be a very good stepping stone for you because you don't have to worry about all these other things you can more more easily focus on syntax right like have it as a building block and then if you're like okay I want to do some mobile development great now you

understand some of these building blocks like you understand how you how to write for loops and uh conditionals and like you just have like more stuff under your belt then go into um you know uh the other other types of languages that are more domain specific so I think that's what I would recommend sorry I'm just checking the the map here cuz this is pretty insane okay it looks like it's solid red the entire way home but it seems like it's moving but I'm going like 35 miles an hour so pretty crappy um okay so those are a couple of ideas for this person right I know it's probably not the qu like the answer that someone wants but I think this is what makes it really difficult I get questions like this all the time all the time and it's really difficult to answer

effectively because there's just not enough context so for example if you were listening to this and you're like well Nick I have those same questions and like I I want to ask you them or I want to ask someone them but like I keep getting these crappy generic answers it's like not to not to insult the question but like it's because it's a crappy question there is not enough context in the question for me to give a good answer unfortunately so if you are listening to this and you're like I want to know feel like ask in the comments or message me but qualify it right like here's what I want to do if you just for example for this individual they said I'm a college student can you tell me the best like programming language to learn no I cannot unfortunately I would love

to be able to just tell you that but I cannot tell you that and it's because there is no answer to that question right best for what so feel free to you can comment below you can send me a message but try to qualify what you're asking about because without it I have to give you generic answers unfortunately otherwise you're just getting my opinion like my personal opinion for Nick what's the best programming language C it's a bestest because I like to use it I'm effective at it it's not going to be the best for you uh necessarily so last part of the question this person had one sec last part they had was around strategies and I've had a couple people on LinkedIn reach out for like a call it like a coffee chat or like a like they're they're also like college kids

and they're looking for like not necessarily cuz I don't have capacity for it I'm sure it's kind of in their interest to have like uh regular mentorship but I've made it clear like I don't have capacity but I can do you know for these individuals did a couple of calls with them and what's really fascinating to me is like they're hyper concerned that like they're not doing enough right like I need to stand out they know it's competitive and uh these students are like one in particular just to give you an example so goes to the University of water that's where I went as well so at the University of waterly you get six internships before you graduate your program so you have two full years of work experience which compared to many places is an insane Advantage because you graduate and on your resume

you have up to six jobs jobs you can go back to the same internship if they offer you to go back but up to six jobs in two full years of work in Industry so already just from going to that school and it has a good reputation is like one of the the best engineering schools uh in Canada for sure uh people will argue best again not qualified uh aside from engineering but so they have a huge Advantage already okay and then they go but okay like what about so this for this individual they're participating in all these extracurricular things that are related to like software development robotics things like that like they're doing so much and they're still coming to me going like I'm like I'm nervous though what else should I be doing and I'm like man like you're doing more than like

99.9% of all all people in this space and I think like I don't think people like to hear this but I think it's kind of the reality for not just like software engineering but like anything anything that's competitive right is like let's let's back up for a second Let's Pretend software engineering wasn't competitive okay so let's just assume you can go into the you I don't know like whatever level of Education right you're like okay well I just want to become a software developer and you just go online and you can go apply to jobs and like they're they're just readily available um you know pass your interviews and stuff but like the requirements are pretty low not competitive like how much effort would you put into that the an like realistically the answer is probably not very much because you don't have to okay

now switch out software developer in that example for any other job right so again just make it up right just for the sake of conversation let's pretend that um being a a a project manager uh at whether it's software or not your project manager at a construction company let's pretend that was uh not high requirements not um you know jobs readily available you see tons of them online you go apply do your interviews kind of pick the place you want to go like how much work do you put into doing that if it's that straightforward to get the job but again the answer is probably next to none like just the minimum that you'd need to pass your interview because if it seems like there's plenty of them available the competition's loan so it's the complete opposite kind of perspective when when things are competitive

right so flip it completely on its head the requirements that are posted for most jobs are high and people don't like it they'll say like you know boot camp grad should be factored in self-taught should be factored in because there's lots of great Developers for that and you're absolutely right but if you if you were a company and you just needed to filter out more people you just continue to raise the bar I'm not saying that that's good or bad but if you have a thousand applications if you have a th000 applications it logically makes sense to get through the Thousand applications that you would just find ways to raise the bar then you have fewer applications to go through and the theory would be that since you raised the bar you will find better candidates I'm not saying this is uh always going to

work out but that's the logic behind it so the requirements go up and you still have tons of people applying so what should you be doing and the reason I don't think people like this is because it means more work but the answer is more the answer is more so if you are doing a bunch of stuff to try and stand out so you're building your side projects you're um doing what you're you're looking at tutorials online like these are all good things don't get me wrong and I encourage that you go build things right 100% but there's going to be out of all of the applicants for these jobs there's going to be some percentage that purely are applying uh based on you know um they're new to the industry they did a boot camp they went to school whatever it happened to be

and they're applying they they haven't built anything yet or they have no prior work experience in the industry and they apply so there's going to be a large percentage like that then you have another percentage of people that are like no I'm going to invest my time and I'm going to start building more things on the side to kind of get this practice I'm creating the experiences for myself so you have that percentage of people and then you have the people that are like well I'm going to I'm going to be organizing meetups or going to meetups for like people that are trying to learn more and like so then there's a percentage of people doing these extra things like there will always be people doing more and again you might not want to hear it because it sounds like it just means more work

but there is always people doing more so if you want to remain competitive I like I I don't know how to to say it any other way except like be doing more things and you might say Nick I don't have time for that and I get it but like you have the same number number of hours in a day as anyone else right so I'm not saying that it's what you have to do I'm not saying you must go program 24 hours a day or else I'm just saying that there will be other people that are prioritizing it more heavily and that's outside of your control like what they're doing but there will be people doing that you might say I have a a family like I have I'm currently working at another job and I don't have you know I have my my full-time

job and I'm doing school and you're expecting me to build side projects uh and I have my family like Nick I don't have time and I I understand but like all that I'm trying to say is someone else that you're competing against is making the time so when you're when you find it's very competitive like this is why other people are finding the time to go build things to go practice more to go have these other experiences they're creating software development related experiences that they can put onto their resume so it's not um like if it sounds unfair it's because like it it is unfair everyone has different like life paths and things like that right so we have the same number of hours in a day but what you're filling them with will look very different so I I just want to share that

perspective because I feel like it sucks to hear right like no one wants to be told like hey someone else is putting in the work and you're not it's not to suggest that like you don't want to be putting in the work it's not to suggest just that you're not smart enough to or whatever right that's that's literally not the words coming out of my mouth what I am saying though is someone else is doing it so that's what your competition is that intersection light was out um so like for some of the specific that I would recommend I think there's a lots especially in college uh go participate in uh in uh hackathons go participate in there's like a lot of like extracurricular stuff like robotics club or anything else that's related to building software for things like please go do that if you

can carve out the time for it um if you have the opportunity for internships 100% do internships maybe there's uh something you can volunteer for building software for so you're getting some of that experience um people will freak out about that advice too and they'll say well you should be getting paid like yeah I agree you should be getting paid but like I don't know if you can find that grade if you can't I don't know what to tell you you can either not do it or do it up to you um so you know build uh build projects on the side does not have to be a business in fact if you're just starting out I think most people get paralyzed by this because are like I don't have a business idea most of us don't have business ideas that's okay uh that's not

the goal you don't need to have a million users or something just build stuff build stuff if you get to a point where you can have something where you're like hey I'm going to get users for this that's totally cool you are going to be working up against a different set of skills when you're trying to Market and sell something though just as a heads up but a lot of really interesting and and unique skills that come out of that so I'm home now I hope that wasn't too um frustrating to listen to but you know I just want to I want to give you man I can't see anything my own driveway I want to share like yeah competitions out there it's not just software though so if you feel like it's unfair for software developers like pick any industry that's got competition right

but um yeah we'll chat soon