frontpage.
newsnewestaskshowjobs

Open Source @Github

fp.

Open in hackernews

Ask HN: Any tips for a college freshman enrolled in computer science?

4•NotParth11•1h ago
College is going to start in a few days. But seeing the job market, I'm a little scared. What do you all recommend that i should focus on so i can be employable and actually have a job by the time college ends?

Comments

jschveibinz•38m ago
Fear is normal. Jump in.

Learn how to learn. Get really good at that. That is the essence of your college experience. Perhaps consider a minor in a life science, hard technology, or other field that has good employment prospects.

Everything is software these days--it's going to be about applying software rather than pure programming skills.

Take a physics class or two. Learn how and why things work.

If your school has co-op work--do it. It raises your employment prospects at graduation.

Expect to have to consider multiple options/tracks in your career ahead. Adaptation and flexibility will be important. The world is changing quickly.

You can't study everything in college, but you will need to be ready to study and adapt in the years ahead. Good luck and do well in school.

One more thing: be social. Your network of friends will be extremely valuable to you.

ThrowawayR2•33m ago
Knowing how the software development lifecycle really works and how to write reliable, shippable code _without using AI as a crutch_ will put you ahead of your fellow students when you graduate. Don't neglect learning it, even if it's not taught in your classes.

Knowing the CS theory that college is trying to teach you well enough to apply it will put you ahead of your fellow co-workers when you are a senior developer. Don't neglect learning it. The people who say "I never needed to use CS for my entire career, lol" are the people most easily replaced by AI.

Don't neglect understanding how to use AI to create code but don't become dependent on it either.

Don't neglect your writing courses. Reading and writing clearly is how you interact with your fellow developers and, of course, AI. Too many developers are lousy writers and wind up stuck in the lower ranks because of it.

gcheong•8m ago
Focus learning well the fundamentals of the field as they will underpin everything else. Try to keep your finger on the pulse of industry in some way beyond whatever they are teaching in your classes (industry conferences, trade orgs, etc.). Try for internships during the summer break to get an idea of what people's day to day is like today and where it may be headed. Have a backup plan (e.g. pre-med).
jleyank•7m ago
If you want a developer's career, make sure you study something other than CS in uni. If you have some basis in an engineering or scientific field, speciality fields can open that can't be easily filled. It also helps to actually learn how to create something from blank paper: come up with an idea, spec it, make a prototype, cycle through revisions. This "muscle memory" is the basis of the software development. And it provides an opportunity to learn debugging - perhaps the single skill that will carry over into the AI sunny uplands.

And as others have said - do it yourself, put off using crutches such as AI until you understand the process.

Aispa: User-Centric System Prompt Auditing for Large Language Model Applications

https://arxiv.org/abs/2607.28617
1•tcp_handshaker•42s ago•0 comments

FIFA, Thrive

https://www.marginpoints.com/issues/2026-08-01-fifa-thrive
1•historian1066•1m ago•0 comments

Vintage Computer Festival at CHM (today and tomorrow)

https://computerhistory.org/events/vintage-computer-festival-4/
1•utopcell•2m ago•0 comments

AI Questions Spoil Book and Movie Heat on 'Call Me, I'll Hide the Body' Novel

https://deadline.com/2026/07/ai-questions-debut-novel-book-film-buzz-1237013254/
1•speckx•3m ago•0 comments

A free online book on modern software architecture

https://oleksiyp.github.io/arch-book/
1•oleksiyp•6m ago•1 comments

People found a way to stay "online" on Teams, Slack, and Zoom while being away

https://medium.com/@Edem.mirotan/the-trending-free-online-browser-tool-remote-workers-cant-stop-u...
1•Adam-Hincu•7m ago•0 comments

Juno – Online J IDE

https://jsoftware.github.io/juno/app/
1•meken•11m ago•0 comments

Advice for First Ten Customers

1•noreplydev•12m ago•0 comments

The Attention Rebuild: How 2026's Open Models Made 1M Context Fit on Machines

https://vettedconsumer.com/the-attention-rebuild-how-2026s-open-models-made-1m-context-fit-on-mac...
1•ermantrout•13m ago•0 comments

'It beggars belief' as DWP 'drags its heels' over subpostmaster prosecutions

https://www.computerweekly.com/news/366646239/It-beggars-belief-as-DWP-drags-its-heels-over-subpo...
1•latein•13m ago•0 comments

AIs Anna Delvey Problem: How Enterprises Are Faking It Till They (Don't) Make It

https://sdarchitect.blog/2026/08/01/ais-anna-delvey-problem-how-enterprises-are-faking-it-till-th...
2•SanjeevSharma•15m ago•0 comments

We Need to Quarantine Aliens on the Moon, Scientists Propose

https://www.404media.co/we-need-to-quarantine-aliens-on-the-moon-scientists-propose/
1•Brajeshwar•17m ago•0 comments

Do Language Models Flatten Your Business? We Tested Four Real Ones to Find Out

https://industrycontents.com/language-models-flatten-brand-positioning/
1•ticust•18m ago•0 comments

Pgtestdb's template cloning approach to testing is fast

https://brandur.org/fragments/pgtestdb
4•brandur•19m ago•0 comments

BMW Is Showing Commercials on Their Car's Dash Screens as a Treat

https://www.theautopian.com/bmw-is-showing-commercials-on-their-cars-dash-screens-and-they-want-y...
2•CharlesW•22m ago•2 comments

Scope of Hacks on U.S. Water Supply Widens as Evidence Points to Iran

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/08/01/us/politics/iran-cyberattack-water-systems.html
17•jbegley•23m ago•2 comments

Leaked Document Names Mainstream Journalists Taking Pay-for-Play Trips to China

https://nataliegwinters.substack.com/p/exc-leaked-document-names-mainstream
3•sleepyguy•24m ago•0 comments

Disabling Blocking on Dual Pi-Hole DNS Servers with a Shell Script

https://justinribeiro.com/chronicle/2026/07/30/disabling-blocking-on-dual-pi-hole-dns-servers-wit...
2•speckx•24m ago•0 comments

Carl's Required Reading

https://carlkolon.com/reading/
3•cckolon•29m ago•0 comments

US Military F-35B fighter jet crashes and burns at California Marine Corps base

https://www.cnn.com/2026/07/31/us/military-jet-crash-california-marine-base
2•teleforce•33m ago•0 comments

Kenji/Serious Eats – 30-Min Pressure Cooker Pho Ga

https://www.seriouseats.com/30-minute-pressure-cooker-pho-ga-recipe
3•stasomatic•33m ago•1 comments

Crystal Wars – turn-based strategy on a fresh Voronoi map every match

https://play.crystalwars.io
6•VertexNoord•36m ago•2 comments

The Bedrock of Software Design

https://alex.draftist.io/blog/the-bedrock-of-software-design-ycqvcedsj
4•birdculture•36m ago•0 comments

The Absent Narrator

http://blog.funcall.org/ai/2026/07/31/absent-narrator/
2•varjag•37m ago•0 comments

Indexing the Data Lake for Online Point Queries

https://engineering.atspotify.com/2026/7/indexing-the-data-lake-for-online-point-queries
8•kalaracey•39m ago•0 comments

AI Adoption Is Dividing Friends, Families and Co-Workers

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-07-30/how-chatgpt-and-ai-are-dividing-friends-and-fa...
2•theanonymousone•41m ago•0 comments

GitHub has alternatives, but no replacement

https://lalitm.com/post/github-alternatives/
29•lalitmaganti•41m ago•10 comments

Show HN: Netmnt 0.2.0

https://github.com/thongor77/netmnt
3•magetriste•45m ago•0 comments

What Luxury Housing Does to Homelessness [video]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rQW4W1_SJmc
2•felineflock•53m ago•0 comments

SupererDuperer

https://www.shirtpocket.com/blog/supererduperer
3•zdw•54m ago•0 comments