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Do yourself a favor. Learn to code. Here's how.

I’ve said this to my non-techie friends countless times. It’s no secret that being able to code makes you a better job applicant, and a better entrepreneur. Hell, one techie taught a homeless man to code and now that man is making his first mobile application.

Learning to code elevates your professional life, and makes you more knowledgeable about the massive changes taking place in the technology sector that are poised to have an immense influence on human life.

(note: yes I realize that 3/5 of those links were Google projects)

But most folks are intimidated by coding. And it does seem intimidating at first. But peel away the obscurity and the difficulty, and you start to learn that coding, at least at its basic level, is a very manageable, learnable skill.

There are a lot of resources out there to teach you. I’ve found a couple to be particularly successful. Here’s my list of resources for learning to code, sorted by difficulty:

Novice

Never written a line of code before? No worries. Just visit one of these fine resources and follow their high-level tutorials. You won’t get into the nitty-gritty, but don’t worry about it for now:

Dash - by General Assembly

CodeAcademy

w3 Tutorials (start at HTML on the left sidebar and work your way down)

Intermediate

Now that you’ve gone through a handful of basic tutorials, it’s time to learn the fundamentals of actual, real-life coding problems. I’ve found these resources to be solid:

Khan Academy

CodeAcademy - Ruby, Python, PHP

Difficult

If you’re here, you’re capable of building things. You know the primitives. You know the logic control statements. You’re ready to start making real stuff take shape. Here are some different types of resources to turn you from someone who knows how to code, into a full-fledged programmer.

Programming problems

Sometimes, the challenges in programming aren’t how to make a language do a task, but just how to do the task in general. Like how to find an item in a very large, sorted list, without checking each element. Here are some resources for those types of problems

Talentbuddy

TopCoder

Web Applications

If you learned Python, Django is an amazing platform for creating quick-and-easy web applications. I’d highly suggest the tutorial - it’s one of the best I’ve ever used, and you have a web app up and running in less than an hour.

Django Tutorial

I’ve never used Rails, but it’s a very popular and powerful framework for creating web applications using Ruby. I’d suggest going through their guide to start getting down-and-dirty with Rails development.

Rails Guide

If you know PHP, there’s an ocean of good stuff out there for you to learn how to make a full-fledged web application. Frameworks do a lot of work for you, and provide quick and easy guides to get up and running. I’d suggest the following:

Cake PHP Book

Symfony 2 - Get Started

Yii PHP - The Comprehensive Guide

Conclusion

If there’s one point I wanted to get across, it’s that it is easier than ever to learn to code. There are resources on every corner of the internet for potential programmers, and the benefits of learning even just the basics are monumental.

If you know of any additional, great resources that aren’t listed here, please feel free to tweet them to me @boomeyer.

Best of luck!

mementoluceat-blog

I’d also like to add some more specialized resources!

Video games:

Easy game engines (virtually no coding):

Game Maker Studio (2D; free and paid versions)

GameSalad (2D)

RPG Maker (2D; numerous versions ranging from free to $69.99)

Stencyl (2D; free and paid subscription versions)

Scratch (good for kids and is more general; 2D; free)

More difficult game engines:

Unity (lots and lots of platforms; C# and JavaScript script; 2D, 3D, VR; free and paid versions)

Unreal (specializes in graphics; C++ and visual script; 2D, 3D, VR; free with a royalty on successful products)

CryEngine (Lua script; 3D; paid subscription and full license versions)

Mobile game development:

Corona (free and paid subscription versions)

SpriteKit (2D) and SceneKit (3D) which are built into the official compiler to create iOS apps (see iOS apps for more resources)

also all of the above game engines (cross-platform)

Game console development:

Game Maker Studio (with a paid subscription)

Unity

Unreal

CryEngine

Note that games can also be created on more general platforms like iOS and Android apps, but the resources listed above are specialized for game development.

iOS apps:

In order to develop iOS apps, you’ll need to purchase an iOS developer program membership for $99 a year, which requires an Apple account. Here are some general resources:

Xcode (the official IDE for iOS apps; can be installed on OS X)

Start Developing iOS Apps Today (Objective-C)

Ray Wenderlich iOS tutorials (Objective-C and Swift)

Code School: Try iOS (Objective-C)

Developing iOS 8 Apps (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7; Swift)

TutorialsPoint: iOS Tutorial (Objective-C)

How to Make iPhone Apps With No Programming Experience (Swift)

Swift Tutorial: Building an iOS Application (2, 3)

iOS apps are developed in the 2 official languages of Apple: Objective-C and Swift, the latter of which is newer and generally much easier to learn.

Objective-C resources:

the official documentation

TutorialsPoint: Objective-C Tutorial

Ry’s Objective-C Tutorial

Swift resources:

the official documentation

The Swift Programming Language (free official e-book)

Swift: A Quick Reference Guide

Xcode also has SpriteKit, SceneKit, and Metal built in, all of which are incredibly useful for creating apps that require elaborate graphics, particularly games.

SpriteKit resources:

How to Make a Game Like Candy Crush With Swift (2)

Sprite Kit Swift Tutorial

Create Space Invaders with Swift and Sprite Kit

iOS SpriteKit Physics Tutorial in Swift

Build the Game of Life (Swift)

SceneKit resources:

Scene Kit Tutorial: Getting Started (Swift)

An Introduction to SceneKit (2; Swift)

Metal resources:

the official documentation + other resources (Obj-C)

iOS 8 Metal Tutorial with Swift (2, 3)

Getting Started With Metal (Obj-C)

An introduction to 3D graphics with Metal in Swift

Also, in order to publish iOS apps, you’ll have to juggle certificates, app ids, and provisioning profiles. This process can be convoluted at times so here are some resources:

How to Submit Your App to Apple: From No Account to App Store (2)

Beginner Tutorial: iOS Certificates & Provisioning Profiles

Android apps:

In order to develop Android apps, you’ll need to register as a developer for a one-time fee of $25. Here are some general resources:

Android Studio (the official IDE for Android app development; free; can be installed on Windows, OS X, and Linux)

the official documentation

Getting Started

Android Tutorial For Beginners (2, 3)

Learn Android SDK From Scratch

Introduction to Android Development With Android Studio

Android apps are developed in Java and the layout is coded with XML.

Java resources:

W3schools: Java Tutorial series

TutorialsPoint: Java Tutorial

Core Java Tutorial

XML resources:

W3schools: XML Tutorial series

TutorialsPoint: XML Tutorial

For publishing (which is somewhat easier than publishing iOS apps):

How to Publish to the Android Market

3D modeling/animation:

Blender (can also be used to create games; Python script; free and open-source; can be installed on Windows, OS X, and Linux)

Maya (specialized script; free trial, free 3-year student subscription, and paid subscription versions; can be installed on Windows, OS X, and Linux to an extent)

3ds Max (Python script; free trial, free 3-year student subscription, and paid subscription versions; can be installed on Windows and OS X)

RenderMan (specialized script; free for non-commercial/educational use and pay-per-license for commercial use; can be installed on Windows, OS X, and Linux)

Misc. resources:

Stack Overflow is an ask-and-answer community for programmers. It’s amazing and will save your life. Sign up and don’t be afraid to ask for help.

Github offers a student pack (here) if you create an account and prove you’re a student. This gives you free access to a bunch of great programming resources for free for a certain period of time, such as Unreal Engine. Also, Github in general is a site that you can host your code on. Other users can see it, and “fork” it to make a copy of your code and modify it.

Parse is a backend service that allows you to store data in databases it hosts on its own servers. It lets you use push notifications, create users, store and retrieve data, etc. It’s compatible with iOS apps, Android apps, Windows apps, Xamarin, React, Unity, OS X, Windows, JavaScript, PHP, .net, Arduino, and Embedded C. It’s free up to a certain limit that depends on the services you use.

Cloud9, Codebox, and Squad are online IDEs that allow for real-time collaboration and support a variety of languages, so they’re useful for team projects.

And some general advice:

Your program will not work right away, 99% of the time. That’s okay. Do your best to figure out where the error is. Here is some advice on debugging (written for PHP but the methods can be generalized).

If you’re stuck, Google. Google like there’s no tomorrow.

Ask questions on a community like Stack Overflow.

For that matter, browse relevant Stack Overflow questions. You can probably find some solutions there.

Don’t be afraid to copy and paste.

Take breaks sometimes if you’re getting burned out. But don’t stay away from your projects for too long or you’ll lose track of its status.

Backup your code. On the cloud, on a USB drive, wherever. If your IDE has a backing up feature like snapshots, use it whenever you hit a milestone.

If your project is big, split it up into milestones and set goals. Don’t tackle everything at once.

Like the OP said, coding isn’t just for professionals and “geeks” anymore. Anyone can learn it if you really try, and with the rapidly expanding tech industry, learning coding can really broaden your opportunities.

If any of the links are broken, or you have a question or some information/resources to add, you can contact me through the askbox or the OP through his Twitter (as mentioned in his post).

If you’re interested, try some of these out and best of luck!

boomeyer

Great work expanding on my humble list to include a much fuller collection of resources for learning how to code! Cheers!

#coding

cognitia

an unpopular piece of college advice

sometimes it’s okay to skip lectures. A lot of college advice posts I see circulating within the study community insist that you commit to attending every single lecture. I don’t think that should necessarily always be the case.

If you’re skipping a lecture out of laziness, that’s one thing, get your ass to class. But if you’re skipping because you’ve evaluated that it’s more beneficial for you to skip, honestly go for it.

For example last semester, I went to like three weeks of my math class and then stopped going because the teaching was awful. I was wasting 4hrs a week in class taking notes that I couldn’t even use after the lecture. I decided that instead of going to class, during that time I would self teach from the textbooks/past tests. I learnt so much more during 1hr of self teaching than a weeks worth of lecture.

This past school year I took a full year sociology course. But in my second semester the sociology lecture time partially overlapped with the computer science course I desperately wanted to take. I evaluated and realized that I could keep up with sociology even without attending the full lectures. I ended up with a 96% in the class, after only attending half the years worth of lectures.

If you’ve taken the time to consider the implications of skipping lecture, and believe that you will be able to handle yourself or that it’s more beneficial to skip, then that is okay. The harsh truth is that some lectures are just not worth going to, and if you decide that this fact stands true for one of your courses, then don’t be afraid to do what you think is best.

I’m not encouraging you to skip lectures, after all you’re likely paying a handsome sum for the privilege to attend said lectures, and generally students who attend class do better than those who do not. I am, however, encouraging you to critically evaluate what might be best for you if you ever find yourself contemplating attending a particular class. As the generic “go to lecture” advice may not always be the best, it’s always good advice, just not always the best depending on who you are.

#college

queendread

Right now, I’m sifting through 50+ applications for a new entry-level position. Here’s some advice from the person who will actually be looking at your CV/resume and cover letter:

‘You must include a cover letter’ does not mean ‘write a single line about why you want this position’. If you can’t be bothered to write at least one actual paragraphs about why you want this job, I can’t be bothered to read your CV.

Don’t bother including a list of your interests if all you can think of is ‘socialising with friends’ and ‘listening to music’. Everyone likes those things. Unless you can explain why the stuff you do enriches you as a person and a candidate (e.g. playing an instrument or a sport shows dedication and discipline) then I honestly don’t care how you spend your time. I won’t be looking at your CV thinking ‘huh, they haven’t included their interests, they must have none’, I’m just looking for what you have included.

Even if you apply online, I can see the filename you used for your CV. Filenames that don’t include YOUR name are annoying. Filenames like ‘CV - media’ tell me that you’ve got several CVs you send off depending on the kind of job advertised and that you probably didn’t tailor it for this position. ‘[Full name] CV’ is best.

USE. A. PDF. All the meta information, including how long you worked on it, when you created it, times, etc, is right there in a Word doc. PDFs are far more professional looking and clean and mean that I can’t make any (unconscious or not) decisions about you based on information about the file.

I don’t care what the duties in your previous unrelated jobs were unless you can tell me why they’re useful to this job. If you worked in a shop, and you’re applying for an office job which involves talking to lots of people, don’t give me a list of stuff you did, write a sentence about how much you enjoyed working in a team to help everyone you interacted with and did your best to make them leave the shop with a smile. I want to know what makes you happy in a job, because I want you to be happy within the job I’m advertising.

Does the application pack say who you’ll be reporting to? Can you find their name on the company website? Address your application to them. It’s super easy and shows that you give enough of a shit to google something. 95% of people don’t do this.

Tell me who you are. Tell me what makes you want to get up in the morning and go to work and feel fulfilled. Tell me what you’re looking for, not just what you think I’m looking for.

I will skim your CV. If you have a bunch of bullet points, make every one of them count. Make the first one the best one. If it’s not interesting to you, it’s probably not interesting to me. I’m overworked and tired. Make my job easy.

“I work well in a team or individually” okay cool, you and everyone else. If the job means you’ll be part of a big team, talk about how much you love teamwork and how collaborating with people is the best way to solve problems. If the job requires lots of independence, talk about how you are great at taking direction and running with it, and how you have the confidence to follow your own ideas and seek out the insight of others when necessary. I am profoundly uninterested in cookie-cutter statements. I want to know how you actually work, not how a teacher once told you you should work.

For an entry-level role, tell me how you’re looking forward to growing and developing and learning as much as you can. I will hire genuine enthusiasm and drive over cherry-picked skills any day. You can teach someone to use Excel, but you can’t teach someone to give a shit. It makes a real difference.

This is my advice for small, independent orgs like charities, etc. We usually don’t go through agencies, and the person reading through the applications is usually the person who will manage you, so it helps if you can give them a real sense of who you are and how you’ll grab hold of that entry level position and give it all you’ve got. This stuff might not apply to big companies with actual HR departments - it’s up to you to figure out the culture and what they’re looking for and mirror it. Do they use buzzwords? Use the same buzzwords! Do they write in a friendly, informal way? Do the same! And remember, 95% of job hunting (beyond who you know and flat-out nepotism, ugh) is luck. If you keep getting rejected, it’s not because you suck. You might just need a different approach, or it might just take the right pair of eyes landing on your CV.

And if you get rejected, it’s worthwhile asking why. You’ve already been rejected, the worst has already happened, there’s really nothing bad that can come out of you asking them for some constructive feedback (politely, informally, “if it isn’t too much trouble”). Pretty much all of us have been hopeless jobseekers at one point or another. We know it’s shitty and hard and soul-crushing. Friendliness goes a long way. Even if it’s just one line like “your cover letter wasn’t inspiring" at least you know where to start.

And seriously, if you have any friends that do any kind of hiring or have any involvement with that side of things, ask them to look at your CV with a big red pen and brutal honesty. I do this all the time, and the most important thing I do is making it so their CV doesn’t read exactly like that of every other person who took the same ‘how-to-get-a-job’ class in school. If your CV has a paragraph that starts with something like ‘I am a highly motivated and punctual individual who–’ then oh my god I AM ALREADY ASLEEP.

#tips

timhortons

i hope youre all lying and hyping your cv/resume’s up

timhortons

i have never gotten an interview and not been offered a job position after it

timhortons

I mean lets be honest if everyone else is gassing theirs up like no tomorrow and you’re being as honest as you can who th are the recruitment team going to be more interested in

timhortons

There’s people working in my banks head office with me WITH MUCH MORE EXPERIENCE than me BUT ARE GETTING PAID LESS

timhortons

we’re doing the exact same job role

timhortons

the point I’m trying to make here is if you’ve handled finances for a company you’re now what i would call a treasurer my g, if you’ve done admin work you are now a secretary (or as I’ve put Management secretary)

timhortons

you help some kid with his homework? you’re a private tutor.

keep your bullets points for the job role as concise and important sounding as possible AND ALWAYS EMPHASIS THAT YOURE A TEAM PLAYER IF YOURE GOING TO WORK IN A TEAM.

timhortons

go into that interview room and get your story straight the night before and remember that interviews are two way conversatons yes they might be grilling you but at the end of it make sure to grill them BACK. do you have any hesitations about my qualifications? my suitability for the job? any feedback on my cv? how long have you been working at this company? do you like it here? whats the work environment like?

I ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS GET THE SAME FEEDBACK WHEN THEY GET BACK IN TOUCH WITH ME

“ive never been asked those questions before” / “you were one of the strongest candidates”

timhortons

throughout the interview emphasise that youre about progression, that you want more responsibilities than you did at your previous job, tell them the hours here are more suitable for me than my last ones were, AND WHEN IT COMES TO SALARY NEGOTIATION its all about continuity. tell them again that it boils down to progression. make up a reasonable figure for how much you were paid in your last role (do your research for how much the industry youre applying to or the role youre applying for pays, base it on that) tell them you expect more than you were previously paid. do not give them a figure. progression is your primary focus, tell them if youre progressing youre happy. leave it at that.

timhortons

LIE THROUGH YOUR TEETH AND GET THAT MONEY

infiniteglitterfall

I had an interview yesterday, at the place I’ve been temping, where I busted out the “is there anything about my skills or background that makes you concerned about my fit for this job” question for the first time.

Neither of my supervisors had never gotten it before either. They had to think for a while, and then it turned into them telling me how great I am and what they love about me.

This stuff is real. I would also say: none of it is lying. This is taking experience that you normally downplay and write off, and putting it in accurate words they’ll understand.

It’s hacking the capitalist system. Why ISN’T helping a kid with homework “tutoring”, when the only thing missing is a paycheck?

It’s especially important for anyone who isn’t a cis white man, because many of us are so thoroughly trained to feel like we are not good enough.

Privilege tells people they can fake it, and that they’re good enough just as people and can learn the skills on the job. Abuse and oppression tell people they aren’t good enough as people and that even their high skills are probably below average, and that unless they had the specific job title or were using certain skills officially, nobody will think it counts.

The goal is to at least fake the confidence of a privileged person, to give the employer a chance at seeing the skills that you’ve been trained to undervalue.

#tips

truebluemeandyou

How to Answer the Top 35 Asked Interview Questions from The Undercover Recruiter here. Go to the link for a high resolution image. Posted for friends looking for jobs this summer. Unfortunately you may also be asked illegal questions and these are two pretty good articles here and here.

Other good links I’ve posted regarding jobs:

15 Stories to have Ready for Your Interview Infographic.

10 Useful Grammar Tips for Your Resume Infographic.

Guide to What Your Clothing Colors Say About You During an interview infographic.

#tips

study-well

Writing a CV:

The perfect resume for someone with no experience (by businessinsider)

Guide to writing a CV

Common grammar mistakes to avoid on your CV

How to explain a gap in your CV

How to overcome common CV issues

What not to do on your CV

Should I include hobbies and interests in my CV?

CV layout: dos and don'ts

Free CV template

School leaver CV template

CV templates and tips

More free CV templates

Example CVs

How to tailor your CV to different industry sectors

Writing a Cover Letter:

How to write a cover letter

How to overcome common cover letter problems

Graduate cover letter template

Career break cover letter template

School leaver cover letter template

Free cover letter template

Referencing:

How to get a reference

References: workers’ rights

How to deal with employment references

How to include references on a resume

Interviews:

How to answer common interview questions

How to prepare for an interview

The interview itself

Advice to help you ace the interview

Answer curveball interview questions

101 Interview Questions You’ll Never Fear Again

Second interview questions and answers

Telephone interview questions and answers

Questions you should not be asked

What to wear to an interview: bloggers’ top tips

Group interview tips: do’s and don'ts

Interview questions for employers: What you should be asking

What not to do at interview

What job can I do?

How to decide what job to look for

How to find a new job

How to search for jobs online

Jobs in the retail industry

Jobs in the engineering industry

Jobs in the fashion industry

Jobs in the IT industry

Jobs in the motoring industry

Jobs in sport

Jobs in the education industry

Jobs in the energy industry

Careers with animals

Jobs in the media industry

Jobs in the leisure & tourism industry

Jobs in the catering industry

Jobs for history lovers

Jobs for geography lovers

Jobs for English lovers

Jobs for maths lovers

Volunteering:

7 Simple ways to make the best of volunteering

Benefits of volunteering

Benefits of mentoring

Volunteer Abroad

Resignation:

Resignation letters: What you need to know

Resignation letter templates

How to resign

How To Resign & Hand In Your Resignation Letter

Redundancy /Job Loss:

Deal with redundancy

Things to do if you lose your job

Claim Jobseeker’s Allowance

Jobseekers allowance (UK) overview

15 tips to survive a job loss

How to Cope With Job Loss and Move On

At work:

How to start a new job

How to have a good first day

How to hold onto your job

How to handle bullying in the workplace

Commuting: how far is too far?

How to get a promotion

Summer workwear advice

Office Style Trends 2015

What You Can (and Can’t) Wear to Work

Dealing with stress at work

How to deal with a brutal boss

#tips

penspaperandcoffee

Like A Boss: Writing A Resume

Resumes are possibly the hardest things you’ll ever write. Who knew one little page could be so problematic? Here are some of my tips on writing an effective resume:

The purpose of a resume is to get you an interview NOT a job!

Formatting is HUGE!

You will want to use 1-inch margins all around (if you have a lot to fit use 0.5 margins all around).

Do NOT use Microsoft word templates. Recruiters can spot these a mile away and most of them don’t scan well.

Use bullet points instead of long block paragraphs.

12 pt Times New Roman is always a safe bet.

Centered at the top should be your name in all caps with your city, state, zipcode | phone number | email underneath (this is for U.S.).

All your dates should be aligned to the right side of the document.

Your sections should be in bold and should be: education, related academic experience (if applicable), work experience, volunteer experience, acknowledgements, skills. You can rearrange these sections depending on which you think are stronger.

Content is IMPORTANT

Use parallelism in your bullets. For example they should all begin with action verbs (think: managed, conducted, analyzed, derived, and so on).

Use similar wording to what they used in the job description. If in the job description they mention analytical skills 3 times your resume better say “developed analytical skills by…” somewhere.

A good way to structure your bullet points is to start with what you did, followed by how you did it and ending with why you did it.

If you don’t have much work experience you can totally use projects you have done in courses that directly relate to the job or internship you are applying to.

CUSTOMIZE YOUR RESUME TO EACH JOB YOU APPLY TO!!

Printed Resumes

Use nicer quality paper (think slightly heavier paper or paper with a higher cotton percentage).

Make sure the paper is not wrinkled or has any kind of damage to it.

NO TYPOS

Recruiters receive many more resumes than they care to look at. Do NOT get tossed in the trash pile because of a simple typo. Read and reread your resume to make sure it is error free!

If you want someone to give a quick once over to your resume feel free to send it my way!

#tips

kimtivate

College is an exciting adventure — you’re moving away from home, meeting new people, and finally getting a true taste of independence (and lots of Easy Mac). For four years, you’ll be cramming a ton of knowledge — both academic and otherwise — into your head. In your eagerness to start this new chapter, make sure to keep in mind some important tips to making the most of your experience, which, in turn, will help you learn lessons that will last a lifetime.

Build bridges, don’t burn them. Make connections that will benefit both your personal and professional life.

Learn how to make coffee. You’ll need it.

If there’s something going on at your school or in the community that you don’t like, change it. Action builds character (and résumés).

Go to office hours! Spending time with teachers after class is no longer weird or embarrassing. In fact, it may be what makes or breaks your GPA.

Just because you can skip most of your classes and get the PowerPoint presentations or notes online, it doesn’t mean that you should.

Get an internship. Then get another internship. Get as much experience as you can, because when you graduate, everyone else will have a little piece of paper saying essentially the same thing yours does, so it’s important to do things that help you stand out.

Use highlighters and note cards excessively.

Grades are NOT everything. When you look back at these years, you probably won’t remember if you got an A or a C in Psychology 101, but you will remember that weeknight you stayed up until dawn, just because you could, making awesome memories with your friends.

Find a balance between fun and work. Grades are not everything, but they are still important. Trust us, it’s possible (we didn’t say that it was easy).

Accept that your college ID photo will be terrible, and know that you will pull it out in four years and claim that you don’t ever remember having that awful hair cut. Face it: everyone remembers, but you’ll treasure laughing at those photos later in life.

Check in with academic advisors every semester to make sure you’re on track and in the right classes for your major.

Don’t forget to use your student discount everywhere! Countless companies and stores — Apple, Verizon, and most movies theaters, to name a few — will often knock down the cost if you flash that college ID card. Most IDs don’t expire for several years after you graduate, so keep it around!

Go to review sessions. Seriously, sometimes professors are essentially going over exactly what’s on the test in these sessions. Why would you NOT go?

Take advantage of having a campus health care center nearby while you have access to it.

Find a “spot” in the library and let yourself get attached to it. When you go to study for a huge test, it will feel more like coming home than like sitting down to do work.

Make sure you know how to do laundry before you get to school, instead of waiting until after your favorite shirt goes from person-sized to baby-sized to figure it out.

Accept the fact that you won’t ace every test or paper. It’s almost an inevitability. Embrace it, and learn from it when it happens.

If you have the opportunity, study or work abroad. A semester or year experiencing a different country and culture, away from everything you know, is a once-in-a-lifetime experience.

Stock your dorm room with food from the dining hall. It’s not open 24 hours a day, and at some point you will definitely be awake and hungry when it’s closed.

If you’re not a morning person, don’t schedule early classes. No matter how much you want to believe you’ll go, you won’t.

Call your parents. You may think you’re doing them a favor, but you’ll be surprised how much good it does for you, too.

Try and avoid the freshman 15. The all-you-can-eat buffets are easy to fall prey to, but you’ll be physically and mentally healthier if you find a way to add a fitness class to your schedule or take advantage of free access to university gyms.

At some point, try to squeeze a good night’s sleep in there somewhere.

Take advantage of anything free your school offers. Swag, free classes, free clubs, free food — take it all!

Piling all of your classes on to Tuesday and Thursday so that you can have four-day weekends may seem like a good idea at the time, but it’s not. It means that all of your papers and projects will always be due at the same time, and if you miss just one day of class, you’ll get very behind.

Be studious.

Be spontaneous.

When you’re working on a paper or project on the computer, press save — A LOT. Back everything up.

Take care of your mental health. If you need something, don’t put it off until things hit a wall or spiral out of control. Ask for what you need, or seek it out yourself.

Don’t miss out on the college experience by going home every weekend to see old friends, families, or significant others. It’s great to maintain ties with people you love, but don’t let it stop you from building a new life where you are.

Allow yourself to change and grow. It’s mostly awesome, sometimes painful … usually a little bit of both at the same time.

#tips

mindelevator

Get Your Dream Job Series

Happy October everyone!

Whether you are finding an internship, job opportunities, or just any applications in general, you may need to submit a CV, a cover letter, and have an interview. And getting every opportunity may mean gaining and enhancing your skill sets, meeting new inspiring people, and a valuable challenge to yourself. Thus, if you don’t want to miss the opportunities, you may need to think about how you can perfect your CVs, cover letters and interviews in order to get the opportunity.

And here is a list of career tips (that will be published in October) that would help you.

CVs & Resumes

1. CVs & Resumes: Get Them Right to Get the Job

2. How to Write CV If You Have Nothing to Write About Experience

3. [Infographic] How to Get Your CV Seen

Cover Letters

4. Tips for Writing a Great Cover Letter

Interviews

5. Top Interview Tips and Tricks You Need to Know

6. How To Give the Best Answers For Interview Questions

Internships

7. Why You Should Apply for Internships

8. How to Get The Most From Internships

That’s it! We hope you would enjoy this month’s posts, including the Get Your Dream Job series! Tell me if you have any other posts that you would want for this series by sending me an email or go to the Contact Us page! You may also click here if you are interested in reading more Monthly Series!

#tips

the-more-u-know

24 Invaluable Skills To Learn For Free Online This Year

Here’s an easy resolution: This stuff is all free as long as you have access to a computer, and the skills you learn will be invaluable in your career, and/or life in general.

1. Become awesome at Excel.

Chandoo is one of many gracious Excel experts who wants to share their knowledge with the world. Excel excellence is one of those skills that will improve your chances of getting a good job instantly, and it will continue to prove invaluable over the course of your career. What are you waiting for?

2. Learn how to code.

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Perhaps no other skill you can learn for free online has as much potential to lead to a lucrative career. Want to build a site for your startup? Want to build the next big app? Want to get hired at a place like BuzzFeed? You should learn to code. There are a lot of places that offer free or cheap online coding tutorials, but I recommend Code Academy for their breadth and innovative program. If you want to try a more traditional route, Harvard offers its excellent Introduction to Computer Science course online for free.

3. Make a dynamic website.

You could use a pre-existing template or blogging service, or you could learn Ruby on Rails and probably change your life forever. Here’s an extremely helpful long list of free Ruby learning tools that includes everything from Rails for Zombies to Learn Ruby The Hard Way. Go! Ruby! Some basic programming experience, like one of the courses above, might be helpful (but not necessarily required if you’re patient with yourself).

4. Learn to make a mobile game.

If you’re not interested in coding anything other than fun game apps, you could trythis course from the University of Reading. It promises to teach you how to build a game in Java, even if you don’t have programming experience! If you want to make a truly great game, you might want to read/listen up on Game Theory first.

5. Start reading faster.

Spreeder is a free online program that will improve your reading skill and comprehension no matter how old you are. With enough practice, you could learn to double, triple, or even quadruple the speed at which you read passages currently, which is basically like adding years to your life.

6. Learn a language!

With Duolingo, you can learn Spanish, French, Portuguese, Italian, or English (from any of the above or more). There’s a mobile app and a website, and the extensive courses are completely free.

Full disclosure: BuzzFeed and other websites are in a partnership with DuoLingo, but they did not pay or ask for this placement.

7. Pickle your own vegetables.

Tired of your farmer’s market haul going bad before you use it all? Or do you just love tangy pickled veggies? You too can pickle like a pro thanks to SkillShare and Travis Grillo.

8. Improve your public speaking skills.

You can take the University of Washington’s Intro to Public Speaking for free online. Once you learn a few tricks of the trade, you’ll be able to go into situations like being asked to present at a company meeting or giving a presentation in class without nearly as much fear and loathing.

9. Get a basic handle of statistics.

UC Berkeley put a stats intro class on iTunes. Once you know how to understand the numbers yourself, you’ll never read a biased “news” article the same way again — 100% of authors of this post agree!

10. Understand basic psychology.

Knowing the basics of psych will bring context to your understanding of yourself, the dynamics of your family and friendships, what’s really going on with your coworkers, and the woes and wonders of society in general. Yale University has its Intro to Psychology lectures online for free.

11. Make your own music.

Step one: Learn how to play guitar: Justin Guitar is a fine and free place to start learning chords and the basic skills you’ll need to be able to play guitar — from there, it’s up to you, but once you know the basics, just looking up tabs for your favorite songs and learning them on your own is how many young guitar players get their start (plus it’s an excellent party trick).

Step two: A delightful free voice lesson from Berklee College Of Music.

Step three: Have you always thought you had an inner TSwift? Berklee College of Music offers an Introduction to Songwriting course completely for free online. The course is six weeks long, and by the end of the lesson you’ll have at least one completed song.

Step four: Lifehacker’s basics of music production will help you put it all together once you have the skills down! You’ll be recording your own music, ready to share with your valentine or the entire world, in no time!

12. Learn to negotiate.

Let Stanford’s Stan Christensen explain how to negotiate in business and your personal life, managing relationships for your personal gain and not letting yourself be steamrolled. There are a lot of football metaphors and it’s great.

13. Stop hating math.

If you struggled with math throughout school and now have trouble applying it in real-world situations when it crops up, try Saylor.org’s Real World Math course. It will reteach you basic math skills as they apply IRL. Very helpful!

14. Start drawing!

All kids draw — so why do we become so afraid of it as adults? Everyone should feel comfortable with a sketchbook and pencil, and sketching is a wonderful way to express your creativity. DrawSpace is a great place to start. (I also highly recommend the book Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain if you can drop a few dollars for a used copy.)

15. Make your own animated GIF.

BuzzFeed’s own Katie Notopoulos has a great, simple guide to making an animated GIF without Photoshop. This is all you need to be the king or queen of Tumblr or your favorite email chains.

16. Appreciate jazz.

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Have you never really “gotten” jazz? If you want to be able to participate in conversations at fancy parties and/or just add some context to your appreciation of all music, try this free online course from UT Austin.

17. Write well.

Macalester College’s lecture series is excellent. If you’re more interested in journalism, try Wikiversity’s course selection.

18. Get better at using Photoshop.

Another invaluable skill that will get you places in your career, learning Photoshop can be as fun as watching the hilarious videos on You Suck At Photoshop or as serious as this extensive Udemy training course (focused on photo retouching).

19. Take decent pictures.

Lifehacker’s basics of photography might be a good place to start. Learn how your camera works, the basic of composition, and editing images in post-production. If you finish that and you’re not sure what to do next, here’s a short course on displaying and sharing your digital photographs.

20. Learn to knit.

Instructables has a great course by a woman who is herself an online-taught knitter. You’ll be making baby hats and cute scarves before this winter’s over!

21. Get started with investing in stocks.

If you are lucky enough to have a regular income, you should start learning about savings and investment now. Investopedia has a ton of online resources, including this free stocks basics course. Invest away!

22. Clean your house in a short amount of time.

Unf$#k Your Habitat has a great emergency cleaning guide for when your mother-in-law springs a surprise visit on you. While you’re over there, the entire blog is good for getting organized and clean in the long term, not just in “emergencies.” You’ll be happier for it.

23. Start practicing yoga.

Most cities have free community classes (try just searching Google or inquiring at your local yoga studio), or if you’re more comfortable trying yoga at home, YogaGlohas a great 15-day trial and Yome is a compendium of 100% free yoga videos. If you’re already familiar with basic yoga positions but you need an easy way to practice at home, I recommend YogaTailor’s free trial as well.

24. Tie your shoelaces more efficiently.

It’s simple and just imagine the minutes of your life you’ll save!

#tips

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self discipline tips

here are tips I discovered very recently:

something is better than nothing. 5 minutes of work are better than zero. Just because you missed something on your schedule doesn’t mean you can’t still work on it, even for 5 minutes. Grow and build on this.

second drafts / reviews can be done after.

Don’t think you are going to do your very best work on the first try. Take the weight of perfectionism off your shoulders.

don’t think about doing it. just do it as fast as you can.

build on your productivity, not your failures.

If you come from a past of procrastinating and now feel motivated to change and discipline yourself, do NOT try to do everything at once.

if you have a set of different goals to accomplish, begin with the most important one. Wait until the rotine of working for that one settles in (you feel productive and comfortable-ish), and then begin with the next. Repeat.

this way you’ll be building your way up and not juggling everything at the same time, hoping everything works out.

be patient with yourself, you’ll get there!

set smaller deadlines for your goals

have monthly and weekly-ish deadlines

e.g. if you are doing a project, due 22nd Feb, set personal deadlines, like have Introduction written by 2nd Feb, have Methods written by 10th Feb, have project complete by 18th Feb.

take them as seriously as you possibly can, don’t miss out on yourself.

write realistic daily tasks and don’t stop until you finish them. after them you can do whatever you want

on writing realistic daily tasks, the secret is knowing you can only do so much in one day, but trusting you can accomplish everything in the course of any period of time (a week, or 2 weeks or a month, etc.) because you will combine the work from all these different days.

it’s very tempting to write down all the tasks you need to accomplish in one day to just get over with it, but the real deal is you won’t accomplish half of them. You’ll feel very unproductive then, wich leads to demotivation.

spread daily tasks in the time necessary.

have a consistent sleep schedule.

if your mind isn’t ready everything will fall apart.

have one rest day per week where you plan nothing, do whatever you want except studying. this can be harder than you expect!

(don’t forget these are effective only if you actually put them into practice! good luck babes!!)

#tips

prettyboistudies

how to not be so fucking exhausted all the time: energy management in college

a guide by prettyboistudies

hey, you. do you wake up exhausted every morning? do u feel exhausted all day? do u feel the need to take a nap at noon? do u long for your bed every moment of your day? if so, THIS IS THE GUIDE FOR YOU.

1. restructure how you eat.

you shouldn’t eat in college the same way you ate at home – by that I mean, three meals a day is not going to get the job done. firstly because you probably don’t have the time – i certainly don’t. so instead, break up your nutritional needs among 6 or 7 snack times through the day. (try not to make every single one of those a granola bar.) Seriously, having apples around has saved my ass on many an occasion.

snack options include: fruit (like apples, oranges, bananas, etc), yogurt, hummus, baby carrots, trail mix, popcorn, cheese sticks. stuff like that.

2. keep moving.

you really shouldn’t go more than 30 minutes without moving around at least a little. This can be problematic when you’re in long classes, but try to stretch and move every once in a while. if you have to, leave to “go to the bathroom” and take a short walk.

3. holy shit, please sleep.

constant all-nighters are super tempting. you get In The Zone and think you can finish all your homework for the entire semester. but go the fuck to bed. And on top of that, make your sleep space as comfy as possible. Have like 6 blankets in your room for when you inevitably want to burrito inside them. Have several pillows. Have something that makes some kind of white noise. Sleep is not just about quantity but about quality; you can sleep for 8 hours but if that sleep is shitty you will STILL feel like garbage.

4. stay hydrated.

I know it’s become an “UwU tumblr” cliche, but not being hydrated enough can wreak havoc on your energy levels, especially if you’re like me and drink almost exclusively coffee. Keep a water bottle around and drain it at least once a day, and more if you can. On top of that, nothing will refresh you at 3pm in the middle of a class day like ice-cold water.

5. carve out ‘zen’ time.

you can’t be doing something all the time. carve out points in your day to rest and recharge. If possible, turn off your phone and laptop during that time and do something else. Use that time to drink a cup of tea, or read a book, or take a walk, and let yourself get not just your physical but your emotional energy back.

hopefully this is helpful to all of you! adhering to these as much as possible has really helped me be less burnt out at the end of a day and be more productive in the middle. :)

#tips

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study less study smart

I decided to share my notes taken from this amazing 1 hour Youtube lecture by Marty Lobdell. i really liked him and his tips, i think they are super effective and cover a lot of situations! i highly recommend it!!!!! wow

but here are the tips and examples Marty mentions, so if you don’t have the time to go through the full hour, you can just scroll down. hope this helps somebody!

Break your study time in chunks with breaks

most students lose focus at 25 minutes

it’s a mistake to keep going once you do, since you won’t actually learn anything and you’ll hate every minute of it

so when you start losing focus take a 5 minute break

do something nice like talking to someone or listening to music

it’s something you practice so with time you’ll be able to work for more time without losing focus

in the end of the study session have a big reward you look forward to

Create a study area

environment highly affects the way you act. Bedrooms are for sleeping, kitchens for eating: you’ll feel sleepy in your bedroom and hungry in the kitchen. So if you have a study area, it’ll be easier to start studying and staying focused.

study in a specific room like an office or school library if you can

if you have to study in your bedroom use a specific object you only use for studying: a lamp/desk. Make it a no-distraction, away from your bed, blank walls area.

The more active the learning, the better

80% active learning 20% passive

ask yourself: is it a concept or a fact?

learning a concept: understand/grasp/know it

put it into your own words

really think about the meaning of it

relate it with something you already know

teach somebody else. Recapitulate what you’ve learned. Talk out loud even if you don’t have anyone to teach - talk alone. Or at anyone that listens.

learning a fact: memorize it

use mnemonics

Acronyms (e.g. colours of the rainbow RoyGBiv – red orange yellow green blue indigo violet)

Coined sayings - anything popular or sayings you’ve heard since you were a child.

Interacting images – work even better if they’re weird. Creative associations make you never forget specific details. (e.g. 1 gram of fat has 9 calories: picture a fat cat – each cat has 9 lives)

any time 2 things are highly similar but not the same you will get maximal interference!! USE mnemonics!! (e.g. afferent vs efferent neurons: SAME - Sensory Afferent Motor Efferent)

Be a part of study groups

others can help you in ways you never thought before

Recognizing VS remembering

never confuse the two

while reviewing a chapter you may recognize concepts but not actually know them

and when you get to the test you won’t be able to remember any of it

so quiz yourself without looking at it

or stop in a page of your notes/textbook and ask yourself what is the concept immediately after and before it

Get your REM Sleep

get ~8 hours so you don’t undo your studying

this is how your brain stores permanent memories

without it you’re ability to remember seriously decreases

most people don’t even begin to take the advice but it’s simple: sleep better. Do better.

There’s 162 hours in a week. There is time.

reflect on what you are doing with your time and what activities you have to prioritize to succed as a student

Taking notes is vital.

right after the class take 5 minutes to expand everything you’ve jotted down, give it depth.

NOT hours later. You won’t remember half the things you wrote down.

Ask your questions to class mates and teachers.

teachers want you to succeed and it’s more than ok to ask your question in the teacher’s office or in the next class

How to use a textbook: SQ3R technique

Survey Question Read Recite Review

Survey: skim through the entire chapter in a couple of minutes.

Raise questions: e.g. what is osmosis? What is this graphic about? What is a prototype?

it causes you to look for answers and you’ll find the information better once you actually study it after. If you intend to find something you learn it better.

Start studying for tests early.

don’t undo yourself. You should only be reviewing the days before the test. don’t leave it till the last minute!

(don’t just scroll through this!!!! really think about these methods and how you can actually implement them so you can benefit from them!!! these actually work but only if you put them into practice boo good luck!)

#tips

wearewcc

Researchers find software repository GitHub approved code written by women at a higher rate than code written by men, but only if the gender was not disclosed

thebaconsandwichofregret

and in a stunning turn of events that surprised absolutely no one….

figsandtea

Quick reminder that coding was originally a women-centric job and it was only once it started to look seriously lucrative and “IMPORTANT” that women started getting pushed out.

#cs

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8 Things Successful Students Do

Hey everyone! A lovely man named Mike Strangstalien, MA, MFT, LPC, NCC decided to compile a list of 8 things successful people do. He has been working on this list since 1994 and continues to update this list as he does more research. I decided to share some of his amazing work here with you all by summarizing his main points. Enjoy and good luck!

1. They raise their hand in class.

Now, this may seem trivial and sometimes you’re left with the question, “How can I speak up in class if I don’t even know what I don’t know?”. However, its been proven that people who raise their hand and ask questions tend to do better. If you are unsure of a question to ask, a good technique is to go home and review the material and the next day at the beginning of class, ask your question. This not only gets you to actively participate in class, but you begin to think about the information you learned and are able to commit it to long term memory.

2. They establish routine and structure.

During the day you should try to complete your homework so that at night you can spend your time studying, reviewing and consolidating. Its been proven that studying something before bed can commit it to long term memory. Doing work at night when you’re tired can lead to poor performance and may not commit things to memory if its the first time you’re seeing the information.

Also, try to go to bed BEFORE 1:30 am! Why is this important? Your serotonin is used up during the day (about 90%) and is reassembled if you get to bed by 1:30. If you go to bed past 1:30 twice in a row, you miss your key opportunity to replace it and you’re left with only 10%! Do this again and you’re down to only 1%. This affects your concentration, focus, attention, motivation and memory.

3. They go to office hours.

Those who go to office hours at least 8 times during the semester yield, on average, 0.5-1.2 grade points HIGHER than their non-attending counter parts. The main reason people don’t go to office hours is a fear of looking “dumb”. However, if you just admit to your professor or TA that you’re completely lost, they can help re-teach. Remember to be honest about your confusion because otherwise they may start their explanation off the assumption that you already know something and you’ll have wasted your time and your professor’s. This can be the difference between a C and an A!

4. They prepare for each lecture.

Preparation for each lecture is essential. Begin by reviewing any information from the last lecture within 24 hours of first receiving this information, otherwise you lose valuable time to commit it to long term memory. Additionally, quick read assigned readings so that the lecture can consolidate what you read. After the lecture, spend about 5 minutes summarizing the major points and look up any vocabulary you didn’t recognize. This all compiles into the three-read principle. 1. Read the textbook (or other materials) beforehand. 2. Reread after the lecture and try to find the main points in the reading. 3. Reread a third time and write notes as though you plan to teach the information. This means simplifying and not writing down unnecessary information.

5. They remain actively involved when learning, attending lecture, and while studying.

I have a post about active studying techniques which you can find here. Active learning requires not only that you consciously try to pay attention, but also that you maintain your motivation to learn the material, the willingness to complete the tasks at hand needed to learn it, and saying to yourself, “I am excited to learn something new and I am thankful that I have the opportunity to do it”. Remember, there are kids in other countries literally dying for the right to an education. Your education is luxury, not a right. Additionally, every 15 minutes, stop and ask yourself, “how does this fit into the main idea,” and “what is it that I just read and how can I form study questions from it?”.

6. They take responsibility for their learning.

Although your professor is there to provide you with the information, it is not their job to make sure you learn it. Often times students fail because they expect the professor to try hard to help them. This is a harmful way of thinking and it can lead to failed exams. Those who take responsibility will make sure they seek help when they need it and they will make sure they search for resources outside of what is provided. If you’re really struggling with a concept, try Kahn Academy, YouTube or asking a TA. Its up to you to earn the A, not your professor. Also, keep track of your own grades and assignments that you turn in. This way if you need to see someone for help, you’re not disadvantaged because you waited until the grades were updated online after you threw away graded papers.

7. They understand the work load and are prepared to study 7 days a week.

Not everyone can study for hours on end every day. For this reason, those who are successful make sure they break down their studying into 25 minute intervals. Additionally, make sure you touch on this information every single day to keep your brain ready for the class when it comes time and you can avoid procrastination. You also need to be prepared for repeated exposure. This means reviewing the same material 3-7 times. This highly increases your likelihood to not only learn the information for exam, but not become guilty of the “pump-and-dump”. This is especially helpful for anyone pursuing medical school or graduate school.

8. They have no use for negative self-talk and they are honest with themselves.

You cant commit things to memory if you feel down or you are angry with yourself! Those who are successful maintain the mentality of, “I know that hard work and commitment will lead to success,” and, “I am capable, intelligent, and worthy of excellent grades”. They also understand that any grade they receive is earned and not given. Additionally, they understand that even at the end of the day, if they get bad grades they know for a fact that they tried their hardest. Self-criticism can be more harmful than good. Never scold yourself for missing homework, doing bad on an exam, or being confused. Instead, search for ways to actually CHANGE your behavior. A change in you mentality may sound silly, but it may be the difference between having the motivation to study a little harder and laying in bed feeling bad about yourself. BE HONEST. If you are really struggling and going to office hours and studying isn't helping, drop your pride and try to find a tutor. If a tutor isn’t in the books for you due to financial situations, explain this to your professor and see if you can schedule more one-on-one time.

#college