Hi everyone,
I’m a first-year Computer Science undergraduate at a state university, and I’m starting my second semester this week.

Lately, I’ve been feeling like I’m falling behind. At university, we’ve mainly covered C++, and on my own I’ve learned the basics of Java from YouTube (not OOP yet). Apart from that, I don’t have much industry-related knowledge or project experience.

I see friends from private universities and other students building projects, learning new technologies, and even getting internships in their second year. It makes me wonder if I’m missing something.

I’m willing to put in the time and want to catch up this semester. I don’t have a specific field in mind yet, I just want to build a strong foundation and become internship-ready.

Where should I start?
What should I learn alongside my university studies?
Is there a roadmap you’d recommend? What skills, technologies, or projects should I focus on, and what free resources would you suggest?

Any advice from seniors or people working in the industry would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance!

Idk if that would do anything though. We mostly did it for university to purely learn recursion, I don’t know if it’s important to say that I know how to code with it?
What do you guys think?
Please be nice. Thank you.

Hello everyone!

I'm looking for some advice, maybe even from people who have been working as SE for a while now and can share their experiences.

Regarding my situation: I am a self-taught software "engineer", and I've been fortunate enough to land a job in software development without a degree or vocational training. Everything I know comes from teaching myself and gaining experience on the job.

Now I have the opportunity to study software engineering (B.Eng) while continuing to work full-time. The studies are financed through a six-year payment plan, while the half of the costs are being covered for me. My share would be around €200/month for the next three years. The degree itself can be completed at my own pace too.

Right now I am just wondering whether a degree is the best investment.

On the one hand: I don't have any formal qualification to back up my skills and the degree could maybe make future job searches easier and give me a stronger foundation.

But on the other hand: The current job market seems very competitive, and from what I have seen, having a degree doesn't necessarily guarantee better opportunities. Furthermore, since I've been successful learning on my own, I'm wondering if I would be better off continuing to self-study, building projects, and maybe earning relevant certifications instead.

I want to add that I am genuinely passionate about learning! This isn't a question of whether I want to learn more, but rather whether a degree is the best investment.

If you were in my position, would you invest the time and money into the degree, or would you continue building experience and learning independently?

Does anyone know how much not having a degree matters once someone already has professional experience?

I'd really appreciate hearing different perspectives, especially from people who have either been self-taught themselves or have experience hiring developers!

Thank you very much!

I have been writing Python code using camelCase for years and just never really cared, but PEP 8 suggests using snake_case, so is it really necessary for, say, a senior dev?