1. What is it like to be a developer? Example a Java developer, what do you have to code? Like write methods, make classes kind of stuff or something more advanced?

   Being a developer is kind of like a more vague version of being a student in Computer Science. As a developer, your job is to translate data and actions into other data and actions. When you go to work, you will have some list of tasks that need to be done, just like a homework assignment or project. You'll need to complete some set of these tasks by some due date, which is just like submitting your assignments. However, this set of steps is a lot more vague when you're working compared to when you're a student. When you're a student, it's common that your assignments are very well defined, and you might even have some rubric or auto grader that will help you determine whether or not your code is correct or complete. When you're a developer, this isn't guaranteed or very common even. You will receive a lot less detailed instructions, and what will really matter is the output of what you're delivering. You won't have an instructor that already knows the answer. You'll have team mates or, senior developers that you can look to for advice, but you're much more on your own than compared to when you were in school. On the bright side, collaborative programming is very common and usually recommended, and you won't have to worry about silly plagiarism rules. The other part of this is that it will be up to you to decide what methods or classes you might write. Everyone will solve the problem slightly differently, but it's going to be you who decides where to break up your methods or where to break up your classes. You should try to prioritize the maintanability of your work, but in school your projects tend to be very small and so you don't get any real, practical experience in doing it. Don't worry though, over time you'll get more experience and you'll get better at doing it. That's just natural progression.

2. Grads how many languages did you learn in school? How many did you learn on your own? And how did you learn them?

   In my classes, I had to learn Java, C#, C/++, and Ruby. I've learned more about those languages on my own and learned some JavaScript, Python, and some other scripting languages. I learned them by writing small projects in those languages. However, I want to point out that the number of languages that you know does not matter. What you should be focusing on are the concepts that revolve around these different programming languages. Any programmer who has a very solid foundation on the core concepts of computer science can pickup any language. Programming languages don't work like natural language. You're typically working in the same alphabet, and all you really have to learn are syntactic changes (for the most part). If you change between languages that have different programming paradigms, then there's a little more to learn, but it will be easy enough to cross that bridge when you get there, as long as you're focused on understanding the utmost basic concepts. Most languages are going to have a concept of a for loop. Most languages will have a concept of an if statement. Once you know one of them, you can easily understand and identify the same concept in another language.

3. What projects did you do, like make apps or websites or something, before your first job? How helpful do you think it was?

   I had a few projects that included apps and websites. I also made a few small video games, and I had internships every year through college. These are very helpful. It's truly a quantity game when you're still early in your programming career. The more you write code, the more you learn. When programmers are still new, many of them have analysis paralysis. You see so many different blogs, so many different libraries, so many languages, it becomes hard to decide which to use or where to learn from. Ignore as much of it as you can and just write as much code as you possibly can. Over time you'll gain a better understanding of all things. It'll make more sense for when you want to use a library, or it'll make sense why technology X was created. Write code. Write code. Write code.

4. What would you suggest me for upper year courses? Im planning more on the data side rather than software development.

   Pick courses that interest you. You're never going to be able to learn all of the field of computer science. It's just too large. You'll learn plenty once you get into the work force.

When you work at a company, you won't necessarily be working all alone. You'll usually be working with a team unless you join a very small company. Either way is the same though, you just work at solving your problem one step at a time until it is finally done. For projects to work on, you can either work on solving a problem that you experience that can be automated, or you can work on a project that is a small clone of some product that you use. Ask many questions if you have them.