How Am I Feeling as a Computer Science Sophomore at the moment?

#programming #computerscience #beginners #discuss

Hello everyone!

Welcome to my first dev.to post, where I aim to express my thoughts and feelings as a student, majoring in computer science. I started my blogging/journaling experience in my sophomore year (current), so my "journals" will relate to the present tense, and hopefully, I can continue til I graduate. Who knows, I may continue even after that.

I don't really have an outline of what I want to say or in what order I wish to say it; so I will write this in the most authentic way possible: type as my thoughts come to my mind.

First, let's talk about something that isn't talked about enough when you are getting into the field of computer science: imposter syndrome. As I attend my university classes, I tend to see students of all grade levels. Some may be incoming freshmen, motivated as ever and ready to take on a new challenge. Some may be sophomores, who feel like they are getting the hang of their undergraduate life, but can foresee the challenges ahead. Some may be juniors, who may be struggling at the moment, whether that be with studies alone or unclarity as to if they even want to do what they majored in. And lastly, some may be seniors, who are super excited to transition into the workforce, while others may be the complete opposite, shaken to their core because they haven't met their standards of what they imagined to have done by now.

As a sophomore, I can feel the sense of not being good enough. I look around me, and I see peers my age/grade acquiring internships, banging out leet code questions left, right, and center, and on track to be great. And while, initially I started writing this, as an extra thing to have on my developer portfolio website, I am starting to think it may be a good way to hold myself accountable.

Generally, I've always been a super competitive individual and still am. So while I do understand that imposter syndrome can break a person, I believe it is driving me to be more focused and hungry. It's almost the not wanting to be left behind mentality.

At the moment, I am making an effort to become a better developer. While college courses right now, aren't teaching much when it comes to job/interview-based skills, I am trying to make the effort and spend my own free time building my skills, whether that be working on a project, leet code, or watching videos of professionals within the field already.

I guess that transitions me to the second point I want to make: a lot of people don't realize how much goes into becoming a Software Engineer. It's not the day and age where you get a degree and BOOM, you have a job! Today a lot of things are required of a programmer, whether that be a portfolio, being good at leetcode/hackerrank/etc, being involved in extra-curricular activities, etc.

My final thought for today is while I am super motivated and eager to be a great developer, I don't understand where to begin. I'm conflicted, about whether I should focus my time on building my interview skills/ coding problem-solving skills or focus on maintaining my GPA, in college.