HOW TO START OFF WITH TECH IN COLLEGE

Published: 2019-08-10 05:53:54


“Technology like art is a soaring exercise of the human imagination.” — Daniel Bell

I am 2nd year B.tech Computer Science student of Cochin University of Science and Technology. This article is kinda describing how I actually started off with technology and got involved with everything.
I will talk of various aspects which helped me get through and will tell how you could approach to begin with any domain you love to.


“Let’s go invent tomorrow instead of worrying about what happened yesterday.” — Steve Jobs


Googling is an ART …

So yeah , you must have heard somewhere from your seniors or any other source that googling anything in seconds is like magic. You get millions of resources in a single click. Its an art and there’s no secret to it , its just that about the habit you have incorporated within yourself.
So for any beginner out there who has recently joined college or someone who wants to pursue and learn tech should surely master this art before jumping into anything. So in the present world, it turns out that being adult is mostly googling how to do stuff.


“It’s really not complicated.” “Yeah, I’m sure I can just Google it.” ― Matt Wallace

“We want Google to be the third half of your brain.” 
― Sergey Brin(Co-founder of Google)


Start off with BASICS….

If you ever approach someone experienced in tech, he/she will surely recommend you to first brush off your basics. If I get to college and placement aspect then DATA STRUCTURE & ALGORITHM is a domain which I suggest would never be regretted if deep dived.

Many big companies like Google,Amazon,Facebook look for DSA in the interviews. Even if neglecting the placement aspect and just considering for the time being that you want to dive into tech out of interest , in that respect also DSA and competitive coding holds great importance.
Just think of something you do on daily basis,like without which life might be very difficult for you. I would think of food,just dont have it for a day or starve for more than 6 hours you might feel uneasy.

Coding and problem solving is also similar thing in tech. It enhances your ability to think,builds your ability to approach a problem with the best of the best possible ways, you will learn how to analytically think and solve a problem and analyze it’s space and time complexity.

“Always code as if the guy who ends up maintaining your code will be a violent psychopath who knows where you live” 
― John Woods


Choosing the RIGHT Programming language..

Currently, I guess there are thousands of programming languages which exist and many more might be created while your reading this blog. Nobody knows the exact figure.

Many, many people have invented “one-off” programming languages that they used for a particular project, and never bothered to tell anyone else about.Wikipedia shows a list of the actually known language right but there more to it,List of programming languages .

So how to decide which programming language you wanna go with. There are standard languages for each domain through which you could approach it, but considering problem solving and coding I guess you have many options as a programmer, the most popular ones being C, Java ,C++, Python and many more.

The decision depends on what you want to start off with. I use JAVA for competitive coding because I have being using it since my school days but you can go with anyone you wish to.

COMMUNITY is the key to success..
So just think for a sec what basically a tech community is ? No worries if you went blank, I’ll elaborate on it.So community is all about contributing and growing and learning together.

“In learning you will teach, and in teaching you will learn.” 
― Phil Collins

Communities have great significance in bringing diversity in technology and by forming strong communities and by looking out for each other, I believe people from different backgrounds and mindsets bring out the best.

Tinkerhub ,a non-profit organisation which has been taking exceptional efforts to propagate tech and initiate a learning environment ,was the one from where my intererst in tech originated.

So a Den Tea Party organised by Innovaden was where many members from the Tinkerhub community were present and thats where my entire journey into tech started off.

30th Sep,2018(My 1st ever community meetup)

EVENTS and CONFERENCES…

Events are places where you can meet like-minded people,share your ideas , learn and get in touch with them.

Attending conferences was valuable for me personally as by exposing myself to the most cutting-edge ideas of various fields , introducing me to the people generating and working on them , listening to their beginning gave me self-belief that I could surely be one of them someday if i could work tirelessly with an enthusiatic nature and zeal to learn everyday.

“When everything seems to be going against you, remember that the airplane takes off against the wind, not with it.” 
-Henry Ford


Having a MENTOR..

“A mentor is someone who allows you to see the hope inside yourself.” — Oprah Winfrey

Mentoring matters , a mentor could be anyone (a professor , a colleague ,a senior) who you could look up to. Although the guru model of mentoring implies that mentors must be fountains of wise advice , but I feel one of the most important characteristics of good mentors is listening.
I feel having consistent contact with your mentor is not that important but atleast he/she guidance should be with you when essential. The feedback you get from such people is tremendously important.

“My mentor said, ‘Let’s go do it,’ not ‘You go do it.’ How powerful when someone says, ‘Let’s!’” — Jim Rohn

Lastly I would just say ,Internet has a big hand in today’s success of the people , anything and everything you need is available in this network of networks which can take you miles and help you accomplish triumph.

“A goal without a plan is just a wish.” 
-Antoine de Saint-Exupéry