As of today, I am a CSE student currently in the 3rd semester. My whole 2nd semester took place during the lockdown due to COVID-19 and thus, I tried to utilize this period to understand what are the major requirements for certain domains of coding.
In my opinion, in your first year in college, you should begin with development. Web dev or App dev, it doesn’t matter, but development plays a very crucial role if your focus is on getting placed. Talking about myself, in the first 4-5 months of my first semester, I did web dev, both front-end and back-end. It included HTML, CSS, javaScript, ExpressJS, NodeJS, MongoDB. HTML, CSS and JS are a must for a beginner, this blog which you are reading is a result of these scripts and languages. The backend can vary according to your choice, like Vue, Angular, React, MySQL. Once you are done with learning, you can start with a project afterwards. Try making a dynamic website, which responds to the commands of the user.
Basic knowledge of development can prove to be helpful in other fields as well. Like you can integrate your Machine Learning model with a website or mobile app. It is also helpful in Cyber Security in bug bounties or checking what level of attacks can an application face.
In case of web dev, I think it hardly matters from where you do it. Coursera, Udemy, YouTube channels, edX, all are the same, the only difference is that YouTube is more accessible and is free of cost.
Once you are done with development, you can focus on other fields such as Data Science, ML, Cyber Security, IOT, Cloud Computing, etc. For Deep Learning or ML, I would recommend DeepLearning.ai as an ideal specialization available on Coursera. You can apply for financial aid or get it for free if your University is affiliated with Coursera. Having some basic knowledge of Python would be a plus point for this specialization. For Cloud Computing, AWS and Azure are two great choices. You can easily find a good playlist for them on YouTube. Having some knowledge of Azure and .NET can prove to be helpful in the interview rounds for internship or placement at Microsoft.
If you are into ML, doing one or two good projects is sufficient, after that you should try to write a research paper or do a research internship under a faculty member of some reputed University. This will give a major boost to your CV. Once you have done this all, try to integrate your ML model with your application using some technologies like Flask and Django. This is important if you are interested in winning hackathons. In my University, Dell organizes a hackathon for campus placements and thus use of both development and ML is pretty helpful.
I don’t have much experience or knowledge about the fields of IOT and Cyber Security, but you can write your email ID or phone number in the comment section and I will provide you with some contact numbers of my friends who are a Pro in this field.
Quote of the blog:
"Don’t just write the code, be the C.O.D.E.(Community of Developing Engineers)"