Is schoolwork a complete waste of time?
I realized that my GPA had absolutely no bearing on whether I got interviews or not. I currently have a 3.5 but I don't include it on my resume. I maintain a full scholarship as long as I have over a 3.0... so then doesn't that beg the question, what even is the point of getting As?
I already don't go to any lectures and I maximize my efficiency by using the urgency of doing assignments and studying for exams last minute.
Then if I already have, let's say a 95%, if the final project is worth 8% and takes up 20 hours of my time, aren't I better off spending that time learning more SWE skills and building projects I care about, and choosing to take the 87%?
I honestly think the only reason I am still completing projects like these is because it just "feels really bad" to tank such a hit to my grade, so I'm curious to hear your guys' thoughts on this.
Discussion
(5 comments)- 5
23 days agoSDE @ Amazonaren't I better off spending that time learning more SWE skills and building projects I care about, and choosing to take the 87%?
Yes you are, but be honest, are you actually spending that time learning more SWE skills and building projects? Or are you spending it socializing and relaxing? While I do think school is a low leverage activity in helping you become successful in tech, the reality is that most of the activities you would do on your own are even lower leverage.
So unless you have a top internship, are spending the time doing lots of leetcode, taking courses on relevant technologies or are contributing to open source with that free time you are probably better off focusing on school and squeezing all the learning you can get. After all, you are paying hundreads of thousands of dollars for that education.
99% of students who don't focus on school and just get by are spending their freetime playing video games or socializing. They are avoiding doing hard things which is ironically the number one skill as an SWE.
1% of students ignore their grades and get multiple fall, spring and summer internships or just speedrun their classes and graduate early. They then graduate college as a hyper qualified software engineer with a low GPA.
You need to be honest with yourself about who you are. If you are spending all your free time playing video games and socializing you are probably in the 99%. I personally am definitely in the 99% and had to focus on my grades throughout college. I also felt like it was really hard and demoralizing and it felt like I was doing almost 0 relevant SWE work. But it taught me how to do hard things, and I got really good at getting good grades. By my junior and senior years I was able to work a part time internship, launch many side projects, get a FAANG internship while still maintaining my 4.0.
Many of my friends who "didn't focus on school" had to cheat their way through tech interviews and didn't have the willpower to grind leetcode or work hard at their SWE internships / jobs once they got them.- 223 days agoSoftware Engineering Intern [OP]Notion
I actually don't play video games at all (used to be heavily addicted) and genuinely spend my time building SWE skills (and speedrunning classes to do this), and I believe this was the only reason I was able to get an internship at Notion. In a way I think I already know the answer to my own question but was wondering if full-timers have the same retrospective view.
My concern is that I have a lot of friends who are tunnel-visioned on a 4.0 but don't develop their actual skills and thus they end up with 0 interviews, and there's a slight discomfort when I tell them that I actually think they're wasting their time on school, because I feel that I'm right but also not sure if people in the industry agree with that.
- 4
25 days agoEmployee @ RobinhoodSchool generally lags far behind the industry, so it's hard to get the same ROI from school compared to a proper internship.
Just spend the bare mininum maintaining above a 3.0 & shift that time saved to find more internships, build more practical software through clubs, or to do some paid research for school.
- 123 days agoSoftware Engineering Intern [OP]Notion
Would you say that doing research for school is highly valuable? I always wondered this since the actual research being done always seems very niche, curious to hear your thoughts.
- 023 days agoEmployee @ Robinhood
It's valuable if you get paid and you're using somewhat modern technology. If you're doing it for free labor, you might as well do a side project though.
