Tech Journey: How I spent my First Year ? 🤔

Introduction

Hello everyone, I’m Ritochit Ghosh, currently in the second year of my four-year BTech CS journey. In this blog, I’ll reflect on how I spent my first year in college. This reflection will not only serve as a way for me to look back years from now, but it will also provide valuable insights for those looking to make the most of their first year.

Why should you listen to me? I believe I’ve utilized my first year well, managing to acquire valuable skills while maintaining a solid SGPA of over 9.5. So, let's dive into my journey!

For simplicity and better understanding, I’ve divided this journey into four quarters.

The Fresh Start

My BTech journey began unexpectedly. I was initially a dedicated NEET aspirant, aiming to secure a spot in a prestigious government medical college. However, due to an off day during the NEET exam, things didn’t go as planned, and I found myself enrolled in this course through WBJEE. With little knowledge of the tech world, I started learning C language based on recommendations from relatives and online resources.

This was followed by a basic introduction to data structures and algorithms in C. I wouldn't say I mastered DSA at this point, but I gained a general understanding of how real-life problems can be solved more effectively.

During this phase, I was fortunate to receive guidance and support from Swapnoneel Saha and Arindam Majumder, who conducted regular online sessions to make our learning journey smoother. They not only introduced me to the tech world but also provided valuable insights into various aspects of it. Although they were only in their second year, they were the best mentors for us, having faced the exact challenges we were now encountering just a year earlier.

Under their supervision, I began learning web development, starting with HTML, which I had only touched upon in school. During this time, I also participated in the Google Cloud Skill Boost program organized by the former Google Developer Student Community. To be honest, aside from the Google swag, the program didn’t add much value. For a more detailed overview, you can refer to this blog, which I wrote back then.

The Process

After getting accustomed to the college academics and understanding that it is very different from regular school-level studies, I started focusing on skill development, except when internals were near 🙂 (referred to as CAs in our university). Within a few months, I gained a solid understanding of HTML, CSS, Tailwind CSS, and JS, and made a few front-end contributions to an open-source project maintained by our mentors. I was also actively practicing DSA with Java on LeetCode, where I had solved 100+ problems by this time.

At this point, I truly grasped the essence of the tech world, realizing how dynamic and interesting it is. I started sharing regular posts on platforms like LinkedIn and Twitter, along with writing some technical blogs on Hashnode. As the first semester exams approached, I had to prepare, and my hostel peers and I found an interesting study technique that I’m sharing here, as many of you might find it useful.

We would gather, select a particular subject, divide the topics among ourselves, and spend 2-3 hours studying the assigned sections. Afterward, we would share our learnings with each other, teaching the topics we had mastered. This active learning method helped us cover a significant amount of syllabus in a short time, and afterward, we would solve previous year questions and additional problems.

The Slow Burn

It is the most crucial phase of my one-year long journey. This is the phase where many of us tend to lose off track. As the initial motivation fades away by this time, the only driving force to keep us actively working on ourselves is our inner desire and dedication. This phase is not a fast-paced sprint it requires us to do the hardwork consistently.

Why many fails at this stage? Most of the ones, in their fresh year starting the journey will face this phase at some point of time where you don't feel like putting efforts for skill development or studying. This problem is quite often for the ones living in hostel as they have no one to supervise them. This happens due to ‘The plateau of Latent potential’, wondering what it is? The Plateau of Latent Potential is the time lag between efforts and achieving the results we want. Our efforts don't make a visible change unless they cross a critical threshold.

During this period, progress was a bit slow, I learned ReactJS, got introduced to backend using nodeJS, did some collaborative projects, built two npm packages and practised leetcode regularly. Although progress was slow, I remained consistent, making small improvements every day.

The Pay-off

At that time, I didn't have a personal portfolio website, so with the knowledge I had, I decided to build one. I had solved 300+ LeetCode problems, written a few blogs, and built several presentable projects. With these ingredients, I built my website. The process of building, deploying, and seeing it fully functional gave me immense joy. At this point, I thought about leveraging my skills to earn something. Out of nowhere, at that very time, my friend Sagar Singh presented me with a freelance opportunity where I had to prepare a Next.js project outline, implementing RBAC policy using Permit.io. It had a time limit of 12 days. However, my knowledge was limited to React.js, and I had no idea about Next.js.

Seeing this as an opportunity and having the support of Sagar Singh, I learned Next.js and completed the outline within 10 days, building 3 Next.js projects alongside learning. That's how I got my first breakthrough, and it paid off. I decided to utilize my first income to further upgrade myself, which is why I spent a portion of it on purchasing Striver's DSA course to solidify my concepts and have a rock-solid grip on DSA.

Soon after, the second-semester examinations approached, and I switched back to "student mode," implementing the same proven strategy that worked in the first semester. It worked again (I hope, as I'm waiting for the results 🙂).

Conclusion

That's how my year as a fresher in the tech world ended. It was a joyous experience with a lot of technical exposure, thanks to the constant guidance of Swapnoneel Saha, Arindam Majumder , Debajyati Dey, and Arnab Pal . Their support made the journey smoother and faster. I hope to have the same support in the coming years too.

Now, I have the added responsibility of providing the same supportive environment to the new freshers, who were exactly where I was a year ago. I will also continue on my journey, with a little more pace and determination to keep growing.

Lastly, I took a well-deserved two-week break and enjoyed a wonderful trip to Rajasthan, recharging myself for the exciting challenges ahead. With renewed energy and motivation, I'm looking forward to what the next year holds, ready to explore every opportunity and help others along the way.

With this, this blog comes to an end. Thank you for dedicating your precious time to reading this post. I hope this seems valuable or adds some new insight to the readers. Stay safe until next time. Again, Thank you. 😊