What You Need to Succeed in Computer Science

i've made a lot of videos trying to give you the best advice that i learned when i was a computer science student but if we want to bowl everything down that i've said in those videos and what i've learned to give you the best advice to succeed as a computer science student well this is that video you may have heard me say some of these things in the past but that's because i truly believe what i'm saying and the simple fact that there's hundreds of thousands of students graduating with a computer science degree every single year across the world and even more new people getting into it than that so if i have to repeat myself sometimes those are the reasons not to mention that if you're anything like me you need to be reminded about things time and time again so if you've watched me say it in the past well this is a reminder for you to practice the best practices what's the number one tool one needs as a computer science student well it's a solid laptop to carry to and from class in particular the lg gram 14-inch two-in-one laptop and i want to thank lg for sponsoring this video i've held off on recommending a laptop because i wanted to ensure it was a perfect fit for computer science students and i'm confident in recommending this laptop for all those who have asked me in the past what laptop should i get as a computer science student well the lg gram 14-inch two-in-one it comes with everything you need in the box a charger of course which in all honesty you may not need given its battery life can last over 20 hours a usb-c to ethernet adapter and the beautiful and sleek lg stylus pen i mean just look at that i am surprised at how lightweight the lg gram actually is and with its compact design while it's still maintaining a solid 14 inch 1080p display it makes for the perfect size to carry to class with plenty of screen real estate to code i also love the fact that it's a two in one because sometimes i like to type my notes but more often than not i like to write in my notes and with the lg stylus pen along with the lg grams touch screen i can write my notes right on the laptop and not have to worry about looking things up in my notebook i've once said before my biggest issue with books is that i can't control f the same goes for notebooks but when you have your notes written on the lg gram i'm actually using the nebo app you can look up and navigate to whatever word you want but let's talk about coding with it and well what is there to discuss with the latest 10th gen intel processor 16 gigabytes of ddr4 ram alongside m.2 ssd if you don't understand what i just said that's okay all you need to know is it'll handle any code you throw at it not to mention the cpu has iris plus integrated graphics to handle game development 3d processing or just play some video games and all the other laptop makers need to take note this is how it's done all the ports you need without sacrificing on size on the left side of the laptop you have a usb 3.1 and hdmi 2.0 and a thunderbolt 3. on the right side you have a second usb 3.1 a lock slot a headphone jack and a micro sd card slot along with the usb c to ethernet dongle that comes in the box you have everything you need and even after looking at this laptop for weeks i really appreciate the fine details of the lg gram that just ties everything together you have the fingerprint reader nearly bezel-less design up to 20 and a half hours of battery life things that you want in every modern laptop but this one actually has it and because many things are turning remote especially in the world of computer science and software engineering it makes online courses and virtual video calls a breeze any code you need to push any client call or school meeting you have to take you can do it from anywhere in the house i mean you may be used to it but i haven't had a good laptop in years so i've kind of been milking this luxury taking my laptop from the couch to the office to the kitchen to the porch i do everything everywhere and not just work i've been watching yu-gi-oh and hulu some of my favorite content creators on youtube and it's the lg gram two in one that allows me to do that the specs are top notch the battery life is amazing the fact i can use it as a tablet with the lg stylus pen anytime i want it's just the perfect laptop for me and i think is the perfect laptop for any computer science student if you need a new laptop i highly recommend clicking on the link in the description and checking out the lg grand 14-inch two-in-one laptop what i really want you to focus on to succeed as a computer science student is really immersing yourself in the world of computer science this is the entire theme of this video because if you go half-heartedly at something your results are going to show it think about some of your favorite people and whatever aspects of life those who seem to be the smartest or the best they didn't get there by just doing it you know maybe 20 30 40 hours a week no they really were immersed in the world and and treated this as a passion something that wasn't only their job because you can consider being a full-time student as a job but also as their hobby which all their time spent outside of this job is basically also working on this job and that is for the ultimate goal of learning as much as you can within computer science and obtaining that degree and i say it like that because you're not just after grades when i'm talking about succeeding in computer science you can get good grades but still not know all that you should know your grades are important and it shows what you've learned for the most part and your degree shows that you completed all of it but your main goal here is to learn as much as you can about this profession and about whatever emphasis you decide to throw yourself into dedicate yourself to the craft don't treat us something that's just a means to get a job to make money but something that you enjoy doing something that you love to do because you're going to be doing this for the next 40 years of your life so in and out of your computer science courses you need to constantly learn and constantly practice but how do you constantly learn and practice like what are the best ways to go about doing that and that is studying before during and after your course well maybe not during but before and after and what about the before you're you may be thinking well how am i going to study before if i don't know what we're going over well you do most professors will upload the entire curriculum for your entire semester in that course and you're able to go online whether it be blackboard or the personal website and check out what chapter you're going to be learning in the next class what you want to do is with that book or whatever resource that you're using in that class study that it may not make much sense because this is your first time learning that type of thing but would you rather it make no sense when you are learning it on your own before class or make no sense when you have a professional your professor teaching you about it at least when you look at it before you go to the class you have a slight familiarity with it but when you go to your class after that slight familiarity that's when you're actually able to learn things and then of course whatever homework you're assigned or project you're assigned use what you learned in that class from what you studied before that class and apply it to whatever you need to work on for that class basically what i'm saying is look ahead of the curriculum and prepare yourself for the class just as you would perfect prepare yourself for a test now you know how you can teach things about what you did do but you can also teach teach people things about what you didn't do well something that i probably should have done better make making more friends within my class within my computer science classes because i didn't really make many i mean i did join a club and whatnot so maybe i had a few here and there but they weren't like friend friends they were just kind of school friends that we would just i don't know hang out at the club or in class and that was basically it i'm not saying you have to be best friends with some of these people in class but i think that would benefit you because if you become really good friends and that is another friend with the similar passion as you and that just further um applies i guess what i was saying before about immersing yourself in the scene immersing yourself is not just you studying on your own but it's also you having other people to encourage you to study or maybe other people who can help you study and that would be friends in the class and just as you would want to have friends that can help you and you can help them and kind of bounce ideas and knowledge off of each other you all you also have one that is basically being paid to be your friend okay maybe not your friend but your professor whether you go to office hours in person or do office hours online they're there to help you so if you run into a problem you need to contact them and not only do you just contact them about the problem and they'll say oh yeah well you got to do x y and z most professors will help you understand why you got to do x y and z and you learn a whole lot more just talking with them about a particular problem than you thought you ever would or if even if you solved that problem yourself so it's good to run into these problems especially when you're a student because you have someone there that knows the answer to these problems and that can help you and if you actually solve that problem but may not understand how you solved it be upfront your professor will appreciate you saying look i figured this out but i'm not sure exactly why this is working the way it's working can you help explain this to me and they'll help you understand that that is a resource that i highly undervalued in my early years of computer science but i definitely gained a little bit more confidence to go into these uh these office hours and talk with my professor or email my professor about basically anything that i had trouble with and it helped tremendously now enough about what you can do and who can help you how can you help yourself other than just studying studying studying is not only studying studying studying for your computer science classes because everything ties together okay maybe not art history but everything else when it comes to the math your computer architecture courses or any other boring courses when in reality all you want to do is code code code everything you learn in those courses i just mentioned will help you in your coding course whether you realize it or not because if you have an understanding of the math that you use especially when it comes to discrete math when you work with data structures and things of that nature that is really going to help you excel in the coding aspects because it gives you that foundation that you can build upon with those coding aspects i've said it time and time again but computer science is not about coding and coding is hardly even about learning the syntax of the language that's the easy thing you need to learn everything along with it the data structures the algorithms how everything ties together in order to build what you need and the more you're able to learn about these other aspects of computer science that may you may not think you need the more fine-tuned your skills will be all right so once you've already started applying all these different things that i told you about what do you want to do okay you have a goal in mind where you want to get a job outside of college but what is the easiest way to get a job outside of college it's knowing somebody who can give you a job what's the way to do that if you don't know anybody already internships i got my full-time software engineering job from a relationship that i made during one of my internships and two of my internships one at norfolk southern which is a fortune 500 company and another at nasa were both applied i applied for both of them online one of them was from my computer science advisor sent out an email and i applied and another one i just went searching online and i saw this looks interesting let me apply to that and then we went from there and those relationships allowed me to get that full-time job that dream job outside of college it's just internships offer you so much as a student not only are you building your network for a potential job in the future but you're also getting paid as a computer science student you 99 of the time you're going to be getting paid out of the dozens maybe even closer to 100 jobs that i looked at only one maybe two if i want to give the benefit of the doubt that did not offer pay for computer science internship and not only that but you can get paid three to four thousand dollars a month so student that's pretty good but not only those two things you're building your network as well as getting paid to learn that is the whole point of an internship to learn as well as to see if you're a good fit for that company internships get your foot in the door so you can showcase your skills to a potential employer and they already have this time and internship invested into you so it incentivizes them to put to hire you on for that full-time job that they have in mind that's that's the reason why a lot of these companies have internships not only for you know good politics but because they want a potential employer to come on and the internship is kind of a test run oh also it's not even that nerve-wracking when you go into a job you're like i'm getting paid i gotta really perform at my job but for an internship sure you're getting paid but they know you're an intern they don't expect you to know everything in the world you're in the learning process they know you're in the learning process they're there to help you sure they want the work that they expect out of you to get there but they give you the benefit of the doubt they give you a little bit more leeway than if you were a full-time employee and while of course you want to perform the best you can in order to potentially get a good job at that company later on like i said it takes a little bit of weight off your shoulders because it's an internship and i can go on and on and on about these little aspects of what i've learned in as a computer science student but if you want to succeed in learning as much as a computer science student as well as preparing yourself the best for a job upon graduation considering that's probably your end goal i think the main points i hit in this video are exactly what you need to succeed as a computer science student i did not intend that to rhyme share this video with your friends if they're also computer science students if you found some value out of this video i'd appreciate a like not for my own vanity but because it helps the youtube algorithm subscribe if you like videos like this and i really appreciate lg for sending me their two in one laptop and sponsoring this video and supporting the channel i really do i hope you all can check out the link in the description and support them as well if you're interested in a laptop especially the two-in-one it's a really cool laptop check out that link i'll be forever grateful they'd appreciate it as well and i'll see you on the next video

Channel: ForrestKnight

Views: 115,217

Keywords: computer science, cs, comp sci, computer science student, student, college, succeed in cs, computer science success, software engineer, software developer, developer, computer science vlog, computer science regrets, college regrets, my regrets as a computer science student, regrets in college, software developer regret, what i wish i knew before computer science, 5 things i wish i knew before computer science, 5 things i wish i knew cs, 5 things i wish i knew, things i wish i knew

Id: D1qnuKSfPOg

Length: 14min 13sec (853 seconds)

Published: Tue Nov 24 2020