I’m in my third year of university, currently in my internship year, and working as a software engineer at a B2B marketing firm that's been transitioning into the tech space. But this wasn’t an overnight leap.

Back in my first year, while studying full-time, I started working part-time from home as a campaign executive — mostly handling data entry and marketing ops between lectures. It wasn’t glamorous, but it was my first exposure to how businesses actually operate.

By the 2nd semester of my 2nd year, I got an opportunity to intern as a software engineer at the same company. A growing B2B marketing firm with a bold push into tech, that meant I didn’t have a strict role. I had to learn — a lot, and fast.

🎓 What University Taught Me

To be fair, uni wasn’t useless. I learned:

  • Basic programming in Python and Java
  • Object-oriented programming concepts
  • Some SQL and DBMS theory
  • Teamwork through group projects

But looking back, it’s like being handed a pencil and paper and being told, “Okay, go build a skyscraper.”

🧠 What the Job Actually Demanded

From the first week, I realized: writing code is the easy part. Everything else? That’s where the real learning began.

Here’s a breakdown of what I had to figure out on the fly:

🛠️ 1. Being a Full-Stack Problem Solver

There was no "backend team" or "frontend team" — just us. Some days I was helping build UI components or setting up dashboards, other days I was knee-deep in APIs, user session management, and authentication logic.

🔐 2. Becoming a Mini DevOps Engineer

I set up:

  • Our production server (on a Linux box I’d never seen before)
  • Nginx for reverse proxying and static asset delivery
  • Firewalls, DNS configurations, even domain delegation using Cloudflare and GoDaddy

None of this was covered in lectures.

The reason I’m sharing all this isn’t just to list cool things I did — it’s to show the huge gap between what university prepares you for and what working in the real world actually demands.

In uni, group projects are neatly divided. If you're good at frontend, you stick to frontend. Backend people stick to backend. Everyone completes their part and submits on time. It’s predictable. Controlled. Safe.

But in a startup? You don’t have the luxury of staying in your comfort zone. If something breaks, you fix it — even if you’ve never touched it before. There’s no "That’s not my role." You become the role. One day you're writing APIs, the next you're configuring DNS, and by the end of the week, you're explaining app logic to the marketing team like a product manager. It’s chaotic, intense, and overwhelming — especially when you realize that none of your lectures taught you how to actually survive this.

But here’s the thing: that chaos is where you grow. You stop thinking like a student and start thinking like a developer — not someone who just writes code, but someone who solves problems.

🌱 Growth Beyond the Classroom

Looking back, these months at the startup taught me more than two years of lectures. Uni gave me the foundation—logic, syntax, problem-solving—but the real world taught me adaptability. I went from feeling clueless to confidently managing servers and building features. The overwhelmingness faded, replaced by a quiet pride in how far I’d come.

Here’s what stood out:

  • Practical Skills Trump Theory: Knowing how to code is one thing; knowing how to deploy it is another. The startup forced me to learn the full stack, from ideation to production.
  • Soft Skills Matter: Talking to teammates, managing my time, figuring out what the business needed—these were as critical as my tech skills.
  • Failure Is Fuel: Every screw-up (and there were plenty) made me better. Breaking things taught me how to fix them.

🎯 Tips for Fellow Students

  • Don’t wait for your degree to “make you ready.” You get ready by doing.
  • Ask for Help: No one expects you to be an expert on day one. Lean on your team—they’ve been there.
  • Apply for roles even if you don’t feel 100% qualified.
  • Go Beyond Code: Learn the tools (like Redis or NGINX) and the business side. It’ll set you apart.

If you’ve made it this far, chances are something I said hit close to home — maybe it reminded you of your own panic Googling why your Nginx config broke everything, or that moment when your “small change” took down staging.

Whether you're still studying or just started working, trust me: you’re not behind — you’re just getting started. And every confusing error, unexpected bug, and awkward client demo is leveling you up, one day at a time.

If this post made you nod, laugh, or scream internally, drop a comment below — let’s swap stories, cry about prod bugs, or just connect.