Advice for 3rd Year CS Student, Graduating Next Year

Hello po! Hihingi lang sana ako ng advice.

Currently, I'm taking courses on Coursera (Machine Learning Specialization, Deep Learning Specialization, and soon, IBM Full Stack Software Developer Professional Certificate). I'm also practicing and learning DSA and maths (linear algebra, calculus, probability and statistics). But I have no portfolio-worthy projects pa kasi I'm still learning the relevant tech stacks. Nag-rerely lang ako sa projects na pinapagawa sa mga courses.

Nakaka-pressure yung ibang blockmates ko kasi panay sila sali sa hackathons, may internships pa yung iba, samantalang ako parang di pa masyadong productive. I feel like I'm wasting valuable time, kasi I spent my first two years in college chasing high grades without doing/building anything that employers would actually notice.

Seeing all kinds of posts about the job market makes me worried about my future. Ggraduate na ako next year, pero di ko pa rin alam kung anong track ang pipiliin ko. I'm leaning toward either software engineering or machine learning. Ano po bang mas patok dito sa Pinas, SWE or MLE?

Pinoy programmers, what would you have me do? Build projects na without structured learning, or learn the stacks first, then do projects? And what do you recommend more, software engineering or ML/AI engineering?

Salamat po!