A Wake Up Call for Computer Science Students

You're 13 minutes away from changing what your CS degree actually turns into.

Not your GPA, not your intelligence, your trajectory. So, let me talk to you

your trajectory. So, let me talk to you like a big brother for a minute. I want

to tell you a story I don't usually tell. And by the end of it, I want you

tell. And by the end of it, I want you to answer one question honestly. Am I

hireable today as a junior developer?

Two years ago, I was sitting in a glass meeting room in Kangnam. You know those rooms? Everything is transparent except

rooms? Everything is transparent except the pressure. Floor to ceiling windows,

the pressure. Floor to ceiling windows, city skyline, a table that costs more than my entire yearly salary back when I was teaching English. And I caught my

reflection in the glass and thought, "How did a guy who wasted his 20s end up here?" Because not that long before

here?" Because not that long before that, I was 30, broke, lost, carrying the kind of quiet regret you don't post

on Instagram. Then coding saved my life.

on Instagram. Then coding saved my life.

Co hit. We built a mental health journaling app. I led a team. And now an

journaling app. I led a team. And now an 8 figureure company was telling me, "Build your own team." 10 months, e-commerce platform, social network,

250,000 users waiting, real traffic, real money, real consequences. And I knew one thing.

real consequences. And I knew one thing.

If I hire wrong, this collapses. So I

started interviewing. Thousands of

résumés on paper, all identical. CS

degree, same stack, same projects, same bullet points. Then I asked one

bullet points. Then I asked one question. Tell me about a time your code

question. Tell me about a time your code failed in production. He froze, smiled, looked at the ceiling like the answer was written there. Our project didn't

fail. We tested locally. It worked

fail. We tested locally. It worked

perfectly and the room went silent. Not

normal silence. The kind where you hear the air conditioner. Because in that moment, we all knew he had never shipped anything real. Not a dumb person, a

anything real. Not a dumb person, a smart person trained to survive exams in a job that requires surviving reality

because real engineering is 2:07 a.m.

Phone vibrating off the nightstand.

Slack exploding, payment API timeout, users can't check out, money burning every minute, and no one lets you say, "Wait, let me review my lecture notes."

You either understand the system or you don't. That's when I realized a degree

don't. That's when I realized a degree is not signal. Proof is. Now, fast

forward. I run a mentorship. And this is where Julian comes in. Julian was the student doing everything right. Good

university, good grades, responsible, but every time we talked, he had the same plan. I'll start building after

same plan. I'll start building after this semester. I want to finish this

this semester. I want to finish this course first. I'm preparing. Preparing

course first. I'm preparing. Preparing

for what? For a future that only rewards people who ship. And I could see the same thing I saw in that interview room.

Potential zero signal. Therefore,

despite him doing everything he had been told to do, he was already on his third year postgraduation looking for a developer role with only a CS degree to show for it. So when he came into the

mentorship, I asked him the question, if you had to get hired in 90 days, what would you build? Because for the first time, we weren't talking about classes.

We were talking about value. That was

his turning point. Not dramatic, quiet.

He stopped trying to be a good student and started trying to be a useful engineer. First real project, not

engineer. First real project, not perfect. It broke constantly. Deployment

perfect. It broke constantly. Deployment

failed. O didn't work. Database wiped

once, but something changed. His

messages changed from I finished another course to users can now reset their passwords. Prod bug fixing it. Need to

passwords. Prod bug fixing it. Need to

redesign this flow. That's when you know because the language of a builder is different from the language of a student. Time started disappearing for

student. Time started disappearing for him. Not because he was forced because

him. Not because he was forced because the work mattered. And within months the same person who was preparing had a deployed system, real features, real

problems, real thinking, signal. And

once you have signal, you stop begging for opportunities. You start choosing

for opportunities. You start choosing them. Around month four, we started

them. Around month four, we started getting some real heat because by then he had proof. Three fullscale apps with users from our community and multiple

drafts of resume specifically tailored each time they were sent out to different types of companies. The result

was five interviews for every 40 applications. That's the part no one

applications. That's the part no one tells you. Hireability is not about

tells you. Hireability is not about finishing your degree. It's about

becoming valuable before it ends.

Because when I was hiring, I never said, "Oh, here's a guy or girl with 4.0 GPA.

Give them production." No, that didn't mean [ __ ] I said, "This person has users. This person has broken things and

users. This person has broken things and fix them. This person understands

fix them. This person understands reality." AI made this even more brutal.

reality." AI made this even more brutal.

If your identity is, I write code line by line, you are competing with a tool.

But if you're the person who can look at a vague idea and say, "If we build this first, we reduce risk." You become the person the tool serves, that's

engineering, thinking in systems. And Julian learned that early. Not because

he was the smartest, because he became the most useful. So, let me tell you the uncomfortable truth. Most CS students

uncomfortable truth. Most CS students are not behind. They are under signaled.

They're busy. Perfect notes. another

certification, another tutorial. All the

things that feel productive and produce nothing the market can see. Your degree

is a tool. Your portfolio is an asset.

Your thinking is the currency.

Frameworks expire. Prove compound. And

here's the part I need you to hear. You

have the biggest advantage in the world right now. Time. Early time. every

right now. Time. Early time. every

semester without a real system pushes your job one year away. Julian

understood that. And once he did, everything accelerated. Not because he

everything accelerated. Not because he learned more, because he started building in public, shipping, getting feedback, working like someone was already depending on his code. That's

when a student becomes an engineer.

Responsibility, ownership, reality. In

the month of February, I received a message from Julian. He did it, man. He

got the six-f figureure job at the government contracting company as a full-time software engineer in his home state. And I couldn't be more proud. So,

state. And I couldn't be more proud. So,

this video is not me calling you out.

It's me calling you forward. You don't

need another course. You need one real system, one that proves someone can trust you. So, here's what I want you to

trust you. So, here's what I want you to do. Close the 10th tutorial. Open your

do. Close the 10th tutorial. Open your

laptop and ask what can I build that makes me hireable? Ship it, break it, fix it, let users touch it, feel that weight. Because the moment you feel that

weight. Because the moment you feel that responsibility, you stop being a CS student with a degree and you start becoming the engineer companies trust with the future. Julian did it. You can

too. And if you stick with me, we're going to get you there. So comment

below. I'm starting today. Tell me where you are. Tell me what you're stuck on.

you are. Tell me what you're stuck on.

I'll answer every single one. And

remember, if I can do it, you can do it, too. Coding saves lives.

too. Coding saves lives.

>> Yeah. So, I was like a computer science graduate, >> you know, >> couldn't find any, you know, couldn't like land any interviews or anything.

Struggling a bit, >> right?

>> Um, did get one interview, but I like failed it miserably, of course. Um, so I was doing like small freelance work, but obviously, you know, you want the after doing that for a bit, you want the full-time like developer thing, >> right?

>> And then >> yeah, I guess I came across you guys. I

saw like the YouTube channels before you guys were at like 10K or something.

>> Mhm.

>> And I just liked your guys' energy.

>> And then I learned about the like program that you guys do to like help people out like me.

>> Are there people with like degrees that are struggling or people currently in school or people looking to just start out?

>> And yeah, I just applied and >> accepted to your guys' program. Yeah.

So, I guess I like started applying like a couple months ago. I had only said I was only trying to like apply for jobs that I was like highly qualified for.

So, I said only about like only 30 or 30 or 40.

>> But, I was able to essentially like get a bunch of like interviews. I got like interviews with five different companies and then eventually the first one they gave me an offer, I just jumped at it.

So, yeah. It's like a It's like a government contractor. So, the interview

government contractor. So, the interview process was like the first was like a phone screening.

>> It's like over Google team or Microsoft Teams or Google Meets, one of those two.

>> Yeah.

>> Um, so then that went well and then I was invited to the like on-site which was it consisted of like a technical round and then like an HR round. So I

the technical round was just like talking about my projects. Um

and then also you know the live coding question >> ask one of those like a lead code style like ask question. Um and then yeah so

then after that they essentially it was the like the HR round and I was just ask like the simple you know like HR questions everyone is used to hearing about.

>> Yeah. Right. Right. And then yeah, and then like few days later, I got the got the offer email.

>> That was nice.

>> Yeah, that's the faster than uh we expected, which is really awesome to hear, man. And

hear, man. And >> that's just a testament to all the work that you put in here. Like um

>> Thank you.

>> Yeah. Like you put in a lot of work that you created like what how many projects?

Two or three. They're all really polished.

>> Yeah, like three or four.

>> Yeah, three or four. Yeah. And uh not many people can do that within just a couple of months, but uh you really wanted it and that's what it shows you know in the quality of um you know the

job that you were able to get and also like how many of those 40 applications that you sent out how many of them you know you were able to get interviews for which is the ratio is quite amazing

actually.

>> Yeah it's good.

>> Yeah. So my main thing is I just didn't know what to learn, right?

>> Like >> you look at the jobs like the the jobs all over the place. There's so many different jobs, right? Like they all ask for cuz you know the the whole meme of like the tech jobs, you know, they ask

for like 15 different things.

>> Yeah.

>> I just didn't know what like core like tech stack that I should like learn >> or whatever.

>> And I also wanted like guidance on like you know the structure on the structure of like how like the project should look. I guess.

look. I guess.

>> Yeah.

>> Um I knew I needed to build projects.

Like I said, I just didn't know like the tech stack or like the structure. And of

course, I wanted like some help. Is that

help with that as well with someone like Phil?

>> Yeah.

>> Um was like of course like experienced for years with with this type of stuff, >> right? For sure. For sure.

>> right? For sure. For sure.

>> You know, Julian, you know, he was like one of the only one-on- ones I accepted over the my trip to Hawaii.

>> I remember getting to my Airbnb.

>> Yeah. And I was like, I got I got to talk to him for a second. And uh you know, he was he he built a bunch of stuff. He built some like interview

stuff. He built some like interview helper. He built um you know, a bunch of

helper. He built um you know, a bunch of stuff. He helped me with a couple stuff

stuff. He helped me with a couple stuff things. And uh now he has a job,

things. And uh now he has a job, full-time job.