studying comp sci

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by phantomchan

by phantomchan

COMPUTER SCIENCE @ UNI

I’m actually a second year uni student! I know, crazy. You don’t see a lot of people my age on this platform.

But, people might be interested in what I do and what not, so why not rant about it? (Oh and feel free to ask me questions, I’ll try my best to answer in another chapter!)

STRESS & COMPETITION

Luckily, I go to a school where students genuinely try to help each other. Otherwise, that environment would be hella toxic. I mean, some competition is good, because people have a lot of pride and it makes them want to work more, but at the same time it should be about competition with yourself, assessing if YOU are where you want to be personally, not based on other people.

I don’t feel competitive with other people’s results. If they do well, that makes me happy! For me, stress comes with the feeling of falling behind. When it seems like I’m not spending enough of my time studying.

I like to do a lot of things, things that don’t involve studying. But every time I do, guilt creeps up on me. Like, damn I should’ve revised this, or, damn, why are you so lazy?!?

For example I like to go to a bookstore and just read for a few hours. During that time, as I turn the pages, I’m always thinking that I could spend that time studying instead.

Ugh! Just let me enjoy reading goddamn.

Another thing—I study computer science. (Could you guess that? Lmao). And with computer science, there’s a LOT a student has to do. Getting internships is a grind. And if you miss out on an internship, you are suddenly way behind your peers. Because internships stack. The more internships you have, the better internships you can get. Alternatively if you don't have an internship, it’s even tougher to find one the next year.

And getting internships is so tough. You have to start pumping out and submitting your CVs in September, because companies give out offers in a rolling basis. And then after you pass that, you usually have a coding challenge. If your code doesn't pass over 70% of the tests, you’re cut out. Then! You have a phone interview, and then a couple more on-site interviews. Each interview is about an hour, assessing your technical skills. (Sorry, most companies don’t really care about your personality, and behavioural questions are usually squashed into the 5 minutes at the beginning of your technical interview).

Despite all this, you still can get rejected. And you have to try again the next year. Which is so exhausting.

Also, technology is always moving so fast, it gets overwhelming. You always feel like you have to learn, learn, learn. It doesn’t get easier when you go to industry. In fact there’s more pressure, because you’re getting paid.

So it feels like I should spend my spare time doing all things tech, brushing up not only on programming but also theory. Agh!

Then comes the issue of my hobbies. Writing, learning languages... I’m always too tired to do them. And it frustrates me, because I used to be passionate about these things.

The tech field is exhausting.

Also, it may be because I’m just lazy. But this is how it is. I’ve learned to live with it, but to those who want to get into this field, I thought this may be helpful for you guys!