I am an attorney in the field of intellectual property and see this kind of problem rather often. There is a lot that can be done, but it will take you only so far.

On the legal side:

1. If your idea can be protected by industrial / intellectual property right: do it. File for patents, design patents etc. Create an information trail regarding your copyrights etc. pp.
2. Secure everything “around” your idea. File for a trademark in the respective classes, buy domain names etc.
3. When dealing with partners, do your due diligence: who are they, are they reliable, do you have personal experience working with them.
4. Yes, do the legal stuff (NDA, protection from IP contamination etc. pp.), but do not expect miracles here.

On the real world side:

1. Be freaking quick. You idea is worth perfectly *nothing* if it is not executed. Lots of people have good ideas all of the time. So what.
2. You idea, if it is good, *will* be stolen anyway. There is a point where your product is no longer the important factor, but the trademark, emotion, brand recognition, goodwill, service etc. pp. you will have built around it.
3. Use common sense when dealing with people.
4. Treat the people you work with fairly, do not give them an extra incentive to work around you.

Set yourself a task to build something reasonably complex. It does not matter if it’s a copy of something else, but you have to build it from scratch, and you have to finish. It’s often that last 10% that’s the hardest, and the place where you learn the most. Ideally you can do this as part of your course, if not, do it yourself.

Pay attention to the theory. Programming languages change, operating systems change, sometimes really fundamental stuff will change. But logic does not, and being able to translate a requirement into logical code is still a big skill.

Accept you are in an industry where you will be constantly learning for the rest of your career. Make it clear you are capable and like doing this on your CV. If you have a gap in work, try and use it usefully - there’s even free online courses that give a certificate. Learn anything any everything you can, as you never know when it might be useful - I still use early 2000s HTML skills to build emails, for example.

It’s likely the tools you are using in Uni are pretty out of date. Try and at least get hold of up to date ones, or learn about them. Even learning about things like Jira and Git and other support systems is hugely useful.

Do not forget people skills. A huge chunk of your work is translating what people say into code, and not everyone communicates the same way. As you get more senior, it can end up with 90% of your time dealing with people things, not computer things. Try and get some interpersonal and management skills, and show those on your CV. Even working in retail shows skills in working with customers.

The best way to be introduced to industry is to seek out internships. There are a few ways to do this:

1. Find companies you're interested in, visit their websites, and apply to listed internship opportunities.
2. Ask your professors for leads. They often have inside channels to companies that hire interns.
3. Publish a paper at a conference in a field you're interested in. You'll get noticed by someone if your work is interesting to them. This can easily lead to an internship. It's also generally good for your education and resume.
4. Go to career fairs. This will give you exposure to many companies, but keep in mind that they are inundated with applicants at these events. That said, if your resume stands out, someone will notice and contact you for an interview.

Good luck. I hope this helps!

I think it is fairly common to get out of school with a degree and feel like you can't do much.

I personally would ignore most of Pablo's advice. I think his advice is geared a lot further down the learning curve.

There are a few things you should do:

• Write code every day. Try to build small apps. Push to github every day. Blog about what you learn.
• Try and get into the best learning community you can. Try to meet smart people. Try and get a good job (and that is a job where you will learn a lot)
• Read a lot. But mostly you just need to write code.

There is a saying that every poet has 10,000 bad poems in them. You probably have 10 or 100k bad lines of code in you. Write as much code as you can, and be very deliberate about learning as you go along.

The book I recommend is Code Complete.

[Answering anonymously, as this touches on HR issues.]

Here's a conversation I have several times in January with faculty I trust: "Who are your best students this year, and what are they doing for the summer?". I can usually hire on a half-dozen of these folks as interns, and the interns I hire tend to get hired on into the organization, find good jobs elsewhere or start grad school.

Faculty get a lot of calls like these.

At your age you should be mature enough that getting excellent grades isn't an issue, and you should have enough experience that you're seen as an asset to have in a class and someone who helps other students who are struggling. I would expect that your programming assignments are done on time and consistently run without error.

If all this is the case, then approach your professors about how to start making contacts in the software industry. Most of your professors will have those kind of contacts (or know people who do). If you're seen as a budding rock star they'll be happy to pass your name along.

If you're only a middle-of-the-road student at a middle-of-the-road university, things get much harder. If a faculty member decides to recommend you, that recommendation will come with a frank assessment of your abilities. (The best students also get a frank assessment.) Companies aren't lining up to hire B- students anymore (outside of the top departments), so don't be the B- student.

It's a no shocker.A majority of CS grads are not good at coding.

First of congratulations of understanding that you are not good at something. Most of us are in a dillusion that we are good at everything.

Well, coming back to the question, there are tons of other things that come very well under the umbrella of being a CS grad. I will take all the options point wise where amount of required coding and interaction with computer decreases.

1. Start designing databases. If you are good at RDBMS, SQL and understanding basic problems, DB Architecture is a good alternative to being a programmer.
2. Analyst: another great option if you are sound logically and can do a lot menial excel work and prepare visually good charts.
3. UI/UX designer: mostly consisting use of third party software. Though this requires some practice and some software proficiency, coding in this case is null. From here onwards, almost no programming is required.
4. Take up management/ enabling roles: work as business developer or in sales. Depending on your own caliber, you can achieve great heights being from CS background.
5. Try for public services.
6. Become a high school teacher.
7. Take up vocational training or start retailing.

However, learning programming can be fun if done the right way. It would be great if you give your best shot at learning it before rejecting it totally.

Hope this helps.

In my opinion the real difference is self-learning and sense of priority.

Computer Science is a vast area and you cannot learn all of it even in your whole lifetime. You will mostly touch a very small part of it in your entire career. And great computer science students try to specialise. However traditional classroom learning is based on concept of generalisation. This is where self-learning skills come into play. Good computer science students explore their area of interest beyond the limitation of their academic curriculum. They use internet and read books to explore the depths. They are curious. They question everything. They exploit all resources that are available.

Sense of priority helps in utilising time efficiently. As a student many computer science students try competitive programming or open source contribution or research work. Some try to do everything but fail miserably. Great students optimise their learning curve. They choose to do stuff depending on how much they are learning and how will that learning help them in achieving their long-term goal. They don't run away from hard work.

First of all, help yourself. Whatever work you are going to do, first of all you will have to work in it and after that you will have to tell people about that work. If people like your work then they will definitely join you. and will work as a team with you.

Whatever work you are doing, first of all assess how well you are able to do that work because it is possible that you are looking for some people related to the work you are doing and they do not know that much. As much as you know, because only people of slightly lower level will join you, because you will be slightly above them, then you will be very good in giving instructions and will be able to get the work done even better. Whoever will be your team.

Imagine if a person has a very big firm and he has to run a firm and owns it. And after some time, the owner of a small firm came and asked him to come and join me, then surely he would be able to join.

Therefore, first of all you start with yourself, after that people will automatically start joining you.

Your idea is worthless. It’s how you make those ideas happen that matters.

The most brilliant idea, with no execution, is worth $20. The most brilliant idea takes great execution to be worth $20,000,000. - David Sivers, founder of CD Baby

To quote Stephen Key from his article for Entrepreneur - Don't Let the Fear of Your Idea Being Stolen Hold You Back :

Stop giving in to your fear and follow the steps below to protect yourself instead.

1. Do a thorough prior art search.

You can hire an outside firm to do this, but you should also search for prior art yourself, because it’s you who must become an expert. Familiarize yourself with all of the relevant intellectual property that has come before you. Find your innovation’s uniqueness.

2. Learn about manufacturing processes.

There are many ways of doing this, including watching YouTube videos and visiting manufacturing facilities. How will your product be made? What are all of the ways it can be made? You need to know. Designing a product that cannot be manufactured is a grave mistake. You may need to hire an engineer to work with you. Make sure to have anyone you discuss your invention with sign a non-disclosure agreement and a work-for-hire agreement.

3. Study up.

Read your industry’s trade magazines. What new materials are being used? Where is the industry headed? Consider attending a tradeshow and/or a seminar. You need to keep your finger on the pulse of what’s happening.

4. Be selective about what companies you choose to work with.

Is the company inventor-friendly? Has it licensed an idea before? Are there any lawsuits or complaints that come up when you Google the company? Do your homework.

5. Maintain a paper trail.

Put everything in writing.

6. Don’t give anyone a reason to try to work around you.

If you ask for too much up front, the company will be less inclined to work with you. Be reasonable.

7. Think ahead.

When I write my own provisional patent applications, I try to steal my idea from myself. I think, if a company were to steal this from me, how would it? I think about manufacturing processes and materials.

Don’t let fear control your actions. Take responsibility. We’re entrepreneurs, after all. Risk is inherent.

Lower your bar. I know it sounds condescending but it helped me.

When I started I had very high regards for my skills but that was not the case till I started actually interviewing.

So what did I do ?

Went for easier interviews kept polishing my skills in parallel and got my self-confidence back after it was wrecked and then finally cracked some good ones.

One more thing : You got your GPA good great, now just forget it. Its of no good now, practice solving problems you will fail but if you stick to it you will improve and get where you want.

Another Hack… Do this if you are in urgent need of a job. Remove GPA from your CV. People tend to ask more difficult question if they see higher GPA not their fault its just that they expect more and trust our grading system. I was asked to do this, but I didn't because I had the luxury of ample time to fail and pick myself up but may be you dont have that luxury.

One of the most enduring mysteries of bitcoin is that of its founder, Satoshi Nakamoto. Little is known about him. He essentially disappeared after releasing the bitcoin whitepaper.

Nakamoto’s importance to the bitcoin ecosystem goes beyond being a founder. He is a philosophical godhead of sorts and is frequently invoked in discussions relating to the future development of bitcoin. For example, each party in the bitcoin/bitcoin cash fork last year claimed to carry on Nakamoto’s original vision. The bitcoin founder also holds a large stash of his cryptocurrency worth $5.8 billion, according to a Time magazine article last year. Given that there will only be 21 million bitcoin in the future, Nakamoto’s holdings have the potential to significantly affect its price, if and when they are traded.

While there have been numerous efforts over the years, the search for Nakamoto has proved elusive. Several individuals have been “uncovered” or names proposed but none has been proven to be Nakamoto beyond doubt.

Here are three people who were supposed to be Satoshi Nakamoto.

Dorian Nakamoto

This was, perhaps, the most high-profile revelation of bitcoin’s founder. Dorian Nakamoto was “uncovered” as Satoshi Nakamoto by Newsweek in a March 2014 article. Publication of the article caused a mini-hullabaloo in the crypto and wider tech community as this was the first time that a mainstream publication had attempted to find out the identity of bitcoin’s creator.

Newsweek claimed several similarities between Satoshi and Nakamoto. For example, both were supposed to have libertarian leanings and a Japanese connection. (Dorian, who graduated in physics from California Polytechnic and worked on classified defense projects, is Japanese-American). The article’s author also claimed that Nakamoto told her that he was “no longer” involved with bitcoin and that he had “turned it over” to other people.

Nakamoto later denied the quote and claimed that he had misunderstood the question. He thought the Newsweek journalist was asking him about his previous work with Citibank.

The magazine’s biggest mistake was to publish a photograph of Nakamoto’s home. As several security experts pointed out, a cursory image search on the Internet easily revealed its exact location. While they did not believe that Dorian Nakamoto was bitcoin’s founder, the crypto community was aghast that the magazine had disclosed his details.

Still the media circus was not without profit for Dorian Nakamoto. A fund set up for him raised 67 bitcoins. The fund was the bitcoin community’s way of saying “thanks”. He cashed the bitcoin last year and, according to one estimate netted $273,000.

Craig Wright

For the most part, individuals suspected of being Satoshi Nakamoto have denied the claim or remained silent. That has not been the case with Craig Wright, an Australian scientist. (See also: Has The Bitcoin Creator Been Found?)

Wright was introduced to the world at a Bitcoin Investor’s Conference in Las Vegas in 2015. When asked about his credentials, Wright claimed that he was “a bit of everything” and listed his degrees, including a Master’s in statistics and two doctorates. He also said that he had been involved with bitcoin for a long time but he “kept [his] head down”. Subsequently, Wired magazine wrote a story featuring Wright, claiming “strongest evidence yet of Satoshi Nakamoto’s true identity.”

That evidence consisted of similarities in timestamps on Nakamoto’s blog entries and Wright’s blog, leaked emails and correspondence with Wright’s lawyer which referenced a “P2P distributed ledger”. Wright is also supposed to have provided direct proof of his involvement in one of the emails. “I did my best to try and hide the fact that I’ve been running bitcoin since 2009. By the end of this (a tax dispute with the Australian government), I think half the world is going to bloody know,” he wrote. (See also: Self-Declared Bitcoin Creator Sees Company He Inspired Sold To Private Equity)

On the face of it, the proof seemed solid. But later articles doubted its veracity. For example, one of the articles questioned the validity of timestamps on Wright’s blog. Another doubted his credentials. Slowly, but surely, evidence and facta emerged that unraveled the case for Wright’s claim to being Nakamoto. Even Ethereum cofounder Vitalik Buterin, who is otherwise reticent about politics in the cryptocurrency world, came out against Wright as Satoshi.

But Wright remains unfazed by the criticism and has parlayed the media attention to carve out a prominent role within the crypto community. He is currently Leading the Charge to split Bitcoin Cash, a fork of bitcoin. He is also chief scientist at nChain, a startup that is building a competitor to the original bitcoin.

Problem solving skills are essential for programming and doing well in life. Bombing interviews are unrelated to your programming skills. You can have average programming skills and still get a too notch job.

To nail a programming interview, you need to differentiate yourself. If you aren’t confident, you need to be passionate. If you aren’t passionate, you need to be brilliant. If you don’t code fast, you need to be architect quickly. All you need to do to do well in an interview is nail a strength. And if you do it right you may be considered for even top of the line jobs starting jobs.

You gotta show them the potential. And if you can make them confident in you, that’s the ticket.

But yeah if you want to be a good programmer, you’ll need to get better problem solving skills, leverage your tools/oppurtunities, and learn how to ask better questions. Those 3 imo, matter the most.

I'm not sure this is the solution you're looking for, but: you don't.

If you are at the point where you're asking this question (no matter what's the domain) then you're at your starting point. The "big shots" (think Google, video game heavyweights, etc) are so far up that it's like wanting to jump high enough to touch the Moon.

That doesn't mean all hope is lost! The first step would be to chose the area that you're interested in: mobile/ deskop? frontend/ backend? applications/ games? etc. The next thing is obvious: get a job. Second year of college or masters? In any case working during college is good for your CV because it says you're ambitious and perseverent.

By getting a job you learn how the industry works (a little): you learn how the interviews for such jobs go, you learn how to work with people, you learn what working at such a job presumes (it's not all about coding).

Most people ask for experience (at least 2 years). After the first two years at your first job, it's time to re-evaluate your options: are you paid well enough or do you have access to a much higher pay if you switch jobs? After pondering this, talk to your boss for a raise (if you wanna stay) or go to a few interviews and line up your next job. Your second job should better reflect what technology/ language you wanna work with.

After getting your second job and staying there for at least 1-2 years, you're on your way.

If you're thinking about networking some bosses in the domain, it will be possible but highly unlikely. This domain is highly lucrative but only if you have capable people. Nobody will hire your for a huge sum if you're not directing a team of devs or if you're not a great architect with a lot of skills and knowledge of many systems, languages, algorithms, coding guidelines, etc.

Hope that covers it, at least roughly.

Don't create a project for yourself.

Get to know the problem people around you are facing and look out for the solution.

If your friends are in trouble to create their resume, then create a Online Resume Builder.

If you are college students don't know how to manage their pocket money(I'm sure no body knows), then create a web application or Mobile application for it where one can open app and list their expenses.

Build a Quiz Website.

Build a online Voting system

I have many ideas to tell. But I will not.

Because just TRY. Make a solution for a problem.

All the best.

Hope this is helpful.

#iamsrithan

An interviewer would consider anything above 3.0 as being above average.

But of course, that doesn’t mean very much. Interviewers don’t actually pay much attention to GPA unless it is exceptional — say, 3.8 or above. The interviewer is looking for your interests, your study skills, your work ethic, your overall personality, your ability to fit with a group, your leadership skills, and numerous other qualities.

Your question asks for what would be considered “good”, and also what would be considered “above average”. It varies among schools, of course; some schools are noted for rigorous academic achievement to earn high grades, others are more tolerant and want all the students to “look good”. But for any school, a GPA in the 2.-something range would be considered average or mediocre, indicating at most a routine student more suited to maintenance work than to programning or design.

A “good” GPA would be perhaps 3.2 or so. Exceptional, as I said, would be 3.8 or above. But please recognize, your GPA no matter how high, won’t get you a job. However, an uninteresting GPA will probably eliminate you from consideration. It shows either that you weren’t smart enough to do well, or (more likely) that you were more interested in other things (girls, cars, partying, travel, lying in bed, dressing oddly, listening to rock) than to the work at hand. Employers only want to hire people who are interested in accomplishing the work at hand, before anything else.

The thing to realize about programming is that it's not entirely technical. We all like to pretend that there's a close analogy to chemistry. Put the right pieces together and with 100% certainty, you will get a specific result, which should be entirely predictable because they are due to physical laws.

Everything about software is more like driving a car. Why does an automatic transmission shift into reverse before drive? Why is the speed limit so high in this area? Because someone had to make a decision, one day, and said so. Just about everything about software is artificial, which means that sometimes things only make complete sense when you understand the person who put it together.

So is it tough? It depends on what you mean, and the answer is both yes and no. Some answers that might be of use:

• Any idiot can learn the basics. You have some operators that usually look like the arithmetic you've been doing since elementary school. You can make choices. You can repeat things. You can box up parts of the program into little reusable pieces. That's seriously 90% of your tool kit, in one sense. You might have to give it some time and practice for it to sink in, but like I said, it's like learning how a car works. You take some of it on faith and practice until it becomes second nature.
  
• In another sense, you know the joke about infinite monkeys producing Shakespeare's plays? We've got a lot of monkeys in this industry, making little things to make programming easier. Since you don't want to waste time re-inventing the wheel, part of a typical job is to sift through the (pardon the image, but I don't want to change metaphors) monkey poo to figure out if any of it is useful, and you have an obligation to use some of it because it's owned by your employer. It can get frustrating and overwhelming. The people who are good at it, get used to it. The people who don't, panic. Or vice versa. I think a lot of people are drawn to the field because of the chaos.
  
• Likewise, working on an annoying problem for long periods of time, especially when it's for something we all know is useless (the overwhelming majority of most jobs is just presenting data), isn't for everybody. I'd say it's the toughest part of the job, for most people.
• Then there's the psychology. Like I said, everything is artificial, made with some intent. Can you figure out why? Can you guess what the problems are going to be? Just as important, when your boss or a customer wants something, can you figure out what their actual needs are? Because they often don't actually know and are relying on you.

So, some of it's easy. Some of it's hard. Some of it's extraordinarily infuriating to the wrong person.

I don't mean that as an insult to anybody. I mean it in the same way that not everybody can play professional sports. We can all learn the rules and train to become really good, but there's only a handful of people around who would enjoy doing it.

And I want to point out that I went to school with people who nearly flunked out of school early on, but finally pulled it together and have been very successful since. Like I said, it's not all logical, so sometimes you need to just accept the weird and let it sink in.

The question boils down to whether it's worth it. For me, it has been. Since just about everything runs on software, it's a field where you can literally go anywhere and do anything (at least along with your company). You can play with social networking one day and spend the next looking for RNA strands to block cancer cells. With the right contacts and experience, you can work in a city center or out on a beach in the middle of nowhere. You can be completely insulated from the business side of the product or have a seat at the table arguing about budgets and schedules.

But on the other hand, if you're not the right person, then you become this guy: Programming Sucks. What he describes about projects is fairly accurate, but there are a lot of people who, like I said, see all the weirdness and embrace it. They come to work in the morning excited about walking into a political minefield and pray silently for the day when they can program in something that sounds like a chimpanzee talking. They don't, in fact, burst into tears over some piece of "Good Code," because they know there's a way to improve anything. He's the guy who (no offense to the author, who I've never met) probably should have considered a different major in college.

(Think that guy is unique? Enjoy the following ten-minute meltdown about time zones. The rest of us call stuff like this "a Thursday.")

I point this out because you did mention that it was fun. It's like a lot of things in life that, if you're enjoying it and doing it right, it's always going to be hard. The better you get, the more challenges you're going to want. The easy jobs are the ones where you feel like it's slowly killing you, but I think that's true of any career.

Sure --- here's one. Despite the prominent display of a search bar at the top of the page and prompting that occurs with each new question, Quora is still plagued by users asking questions that have already been answered multiple times (e.g., "I am a computer science student. Can you recommend ideas for a graduation project?").

For your project, consider this problem from a UI/UX perspective: how should the site have been set up differently to allow you to have seen previous answers? Should you have needed to acknowledge the previous answers prior to being permitted to ask a question? Should questions that appear to be too similar to existing ones require moderation before going live? Should users be penalized if too many of their questions end up being merged?

Consider that most of the problem lies in the lack of specificity of these kinds of questions. Asking for a graduation project in compiler theory is probably unique, and if it isn't, the question is rare enough so that duplication isn't bothersome. Would part of your solution allow responders to mark the question with "Not enough information", causing the question to be suppressed until the requested information is provided?

As part of your related work, let me recommend Eric Raymond's How To Ask Questions The Smart Way. The underlying problem goes back at least as far as the early days of USENET. If you feel that you are part of an expert community, you're motivated to conform to the social expectations of the community in order to continue reaping the benefits of membership. If you are not a member of the community then, in game theoretic terms, you have very little to lose by lobbing a frequently-asked question into the discussion. If someone answers you, great! You received expert advice for free. If you're met with withering rudeness, well, you didn't invest much and didn't lose much. The costs --- in terms of excess traffic -- are borne almost entirely by the community.

Solving this problem would make an excellent senior project.

Thanks for the A2A.

GPA never matters unless you are trying to get into IVY league or some specific schools, or job types. Of course, those places have their own perks, e.g. connectivity, name, lower application/offer ratio.

Know your business. Get a good grip of one of the languages, if you want to stay in the software side. Get better at it. If you look at recent jobs in CS, most interviews require extensive coding. And they are very specific about the language. So, your best chance would be knowing one of the core languages in CS. I have friends who do not even have a CS bachelor’s degree, working in the field of CS. Because they know coding.

If you're still in high school, it's way too early for you to decide you're not good enough. The learning curve is tough, particularly at first, but that's why programming jobs pay well. And it's also why people who are really into the field like it -- we like the feeling of solving challenging problems.

From what you're saying, it sounds like you're making real progress, especially if you're developing a grasp of fundamental computer science concepts. And it sounds like you like the field.

It's always possible you aren't smart enough, but it seems like you haven't been at it for nearly long enough to make that call. Also, developing a grasp of computer science is much tougher than just learning to write code (although that's tough enough!) The fact that you're tackling the tough parts of the field at first, and making headway, means it'll get easier soon, once you get past the really tough conceptual hurdles. Starting in high school means you'll have a leg up on the typical CS student who doesn't actually begin to wrestle with computer science in a real way until university.

If you get a couple years into a CS degree in college and you realize you hate it, you can always change your mind then. Hardly anyone finds it easy, because it's a difficult field. The real question is whether you get enough joy out of the challenge to make it worth tackling something tough.

It sounds to me like you're doing great, and probably just have unrealistic expectations, maybe based on how pop culture depicts computer geeks who never seem to have any difficulty understanding things. Quit the field if you don't like it or can't make any progress; don't quit the field just because you are holding yourself against an unrealistic standard.

If I've learned one thing over the years as an engineer, it's how vast the topic of engineering itself can be and the seemingly endless number of disciplines it covers. When I can't find the information I need to an engineering question, I head to Eng-Tips Engineering Forums. This is a fantastic forum to connect with other engineers from all over the world focusing on engineering topics you didn't know existed. The people are friendly and want to help.

You can also consider joining a professional organization such as ASME or AIChE (depending on your field of study—these are just two that come to mind from my own experience). They usually have reduced fees or are free for bona fide students. Of course, LinkedIn is also a great place for networking.

Good luck!

ANY work should be difficult, frustrating, and challenging at times, and especially now, when you're young and learning. Don't let that dissuade you from a gratifying career path. If it's easy NOW, how bored will you be in just a few years, with a teeny bit of mastery under your belt?

I'm also going to say this generalization: Girls and women dismiss their own talent & skill at a *devastating* rate in comparison with boys and men. Our high schools need to offer a girls-only a course in cultivating arrogance. "Work on your arrogance" was one of the best pieces of career advice I've received to-date.

If you're a straight A student considering a Harvard course, damn straight you're smart enough to pursue a career in STEM! As an exercise - just try saying out loud - with a straight face: "I'm a straight A student, considering taking a Harvard course, but I'm probably not smart enough to study X". Does that sound silly? It does to me.

And please, oh please, this industry desperately needs smart women! This place is littered with guys that cobbled together a solid C average, and hacked out a degree from that college that advertises on late night TV and they do just fine. There's lots of smart people from all types of educational backgrounds.

If you're interested at all - go for it. Programming is a good basis for lots of different directions, and there's a wide range of opportunities. Logic, diagrams, clear thinking through of cause and effect, risk analysis are all very portable skills, even if you no longer code. For me - I was self taught in a programming language most people think is pretty quaint if they've ever heard of it. I haven't written real code in 18 years, however, my code base is still in production, survived Y2K and chugging away. I recently left a job I could do with one hand tied behind my back for one that offers a lot more challenge -- largely because I got frustrated with being bored!

If you're bored at work at 24, you've found a McJob, not a career. Plan for a career.

First of all, I belong to your category! SO I KNOW WHAT YOURE GOING THROUGH!

I can suggest on what I do! If you think its worth, do give it a try!
(Do tell what you are planning to do!) I hope you are placed!

Steps:

• Revisit basics! No problem on earth can't be solved without knowing basics!
• Don't go for hackerearth/hackerrank/tough problems now! It won't help you now but will demotivate you further!(I have learnt the hard way!).
• Try simple problems. Since you can't modularize the problem, like me, I try to modularize simple problems for which I know the solution!(for example, some menu driven problems where each item is a mini problem - go for these kinds of problem for which you know the solution). Basically what it does is it increases your self confidence and performs a check on whether you are thinking correctly! Spend as much time until you feel like you can break enigma code as if it was nothing! :)
• Increase the complexity of problems gradually, don't just jump from hello world to developing an os! (Hope you got the point!); else you might have to start all over again!
• Once you clear small hurdles smoothly, revisit the basics! Don't skip!(I made a fatal error for which I forgot some basic points and again was demotivated when followed the next step).
• Now you can solve hackerearth/hackerrank/enigma codes if you like! :)
• If you succeed -> Congo! Hard work paid off! If not -> find what went wrong and dedicate enough time to rectify it! DONT LOOSE HOPE!

Hope it helps! Feel free to comment!! Reply if it has helped/what you are following!
Thnx for reading!

I'm pretty sure you know the answer already, so let's talk about the assumptions around the question instead.

GPA is something you worry about when you're not doing anything else well. If you're rewiring your dorm with fiberoptic cable, if you're putting together a supercomputer out of Raspberry Pi's, if you're rewriting LLVM to generate power-efficient code, if you're getting your security research published and are already attending conferences to share your work, then, surprise!, nobody much cares about your grades.

Some people don't latch on to a project like that, and to look at their resume all they did was dutifully attend classes. If that's the path you want to take, you'd better do it unusually well.

If you don't have a big project or two and your grades aren't that hot, well, can you tell me why I should hire you?

Thanks A2A.

As you have not stated what kind of background you have I will assume that it is average. I believe that there are some things that your should know before starting college.

1. Know your editor - Know at least one editor. It can be Eclipse and Netbeans. Also know how to run programs with notepad and cmd.
2. Know at least one version-control service- I would suggest that you know how Git works. Git is very useful to keep track of your code.
3. Browse through Coursera and edX- There are tons of online courses that you can take to complement your studies at college. Just don't go overboard and drop your CGPA.
4. Practise healthy coding habits- Lean to document your code. It will help you in the long run. Also give sensible variable names. Please.
5. Know about different sites that will help you in debugging - Go through sites like Tutorials for SAP Payroll, ASP.Net WP, PouchDB, MFC, SAP HR, Yii, Clojure, Aurelia, CoffeeScript, CPanel, Laravel, SAP Webi, MS SQL Server, pinterest, Indian Polity, Teradata, Windows10, Stack Overflow. They won't make much sense now but keep them in mind when you run into some problem.

These are all I have right now.

Hope I helped.

Cheers.

You need to identify exactly what you are weak at.

1. Programming language usage?
2. Translating the logic into code?
3. how to frame the logic/problem solving strategy? Okey if you answer is any one of them, I might try to answer them. If you are not good in Programming just because of the "terrible" data types and "terrible" language constructs of C/C++ . Then start with Javascript or Python. Use any of this two languages to implement your logic. Once you grow enough expertise in problem solving, then learn C/C++ and such variants. If your problem is in translating the logic into code---> then write the logic in any scratchpad at first formally in pseudo-code format or draw a flow-chart or such step by step format. Then start coding so that you achieve the goal. But if your problem is regarding framing the logic/algorithm: Go through Data Structures and Algorithms: Read CLRS:Introduction to Algorithm, Study Lipschutz DS, go through the course: Introduction to computer science and Introduction to Algorithms from MIT Opencourseware. Then practise. Follow the Data Sciene guide at Topcoder. Practise harder. Then study Advanced DS by peter brass. You are done!