Advice for a 3rd Year CS Student

Not the most experienced one over here, but it has been 12 yrs since I graduated from my college. So only advice I will give you is to enjoy these 2 months to your fullest, travel as much as you can because these are the last 2 month summer holidays of your life. So enjoy them to your fullest. Baki career optimise karne ke liye toh puri life padi hai.

Might sound demotivating but time for exploration" is now over. Many students of your batch will already be interning this summer.

My 2 cents;

• Get a good grip on development. At this point you should try to get super good at the basics of computer science and become capable enough that you should be able to build at least 30% of whatever you could think of. Like say I ask you to make a website similar to let's say hackerrank/leetcode, a site similar to excalidraw or even a compiler for a toy language, you should have atleast some idea about how you could start or you atleast should be capable enough to generate a rough roadmap of how and what to build first. Doesn't have to be 100% accurate but must be 30% accurate.

• Develop an intent of learning. If you consider it a "job" or a "chore" to learn new things, it will become harder. However if you would enjoy learning new concepts, it will be both fun and fast. This might be generic advice, but it's correct advice.

• Be knowledgeable one. Knowledge beats IQ. By knowing alot, you are not just making your brain like an encyclopaedia but also nourishing it. Knowledge you acquire will add to your experience. And experience will carry you forward. Your experiences will further help you to solve even the toughest of the problems. This is the one absolute mantra to become more hire-able.

• Start working on your resume. This is the time. Next year this time you would be preparing for placements, so you have barely a year. Start working on creating a nice resume. You can look at profiles of people you admire and take a page from their book. Try to emulate them if possible but make sure to add your own flavor to it. Make sure you develop T shape resume where you have speciality in one field but aren't clueless in others.

• Don't ignore leetcode grid. Even though startups are the only ones hiring in this market, leetcode skills are still getting paid nicely. Being a good leetcoder will be a big + if you are a good dev.

Skill-up. If you’re looking for job leetcode, if you want to start something of your own start it right away opening a company only costs 20k do it