u/Aggressive-City-2140

▲ 9 r/btech

How to build a tech career when your college name isn’t even in hackathon eligibility lists?

I honestly don’t know what to do anymore.

I joined this college because initially it had really good faculty — many professors were from IITs, the academics looked promising, and it genuinely felt like the college was trying to build something good.

But after the director left, things slowly started falling apart.

Most of the good faculty members left one by one. The focus of the university is mainly towards B.Des students, and CSE feels completely neglected now. Placements are extremely bad — the highest package this year was around 7 LPA, and only 17 students out of a batch of around 250 got placed.

What hurts even more is that during company hackathons or hiring contests, my college name often isn’t even present in the eligibility list. It feels terrible seeing everyone else apply while your college doesn’t even exist in their dropdown.

The only genuinely good thing my college offers is semester exchange opportunities. I spent my 4th semester at Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur, and currently I’m doing an internship at Indian Institute of Technology Ropar. Those experiences honestly changed my perspective a lot and made me realize how much environment matters.

I’m trying to focus on off-campus growth now — DSA, development, open source, internships, hackathons, networking — because relying on campus placements here doesn’t seem realistic.

But sometimes I still feel anxious that my college tag will always hold me back, especially when opportunities literally don’t include my college in eligibility lists.

Has anyone here come from a low-tier/unknown college and still managed to build a strong career?
How did you do it?
What should I prioritize over the next 1–2 years to maximize my chances for good internships and off-campus placements?

Would genuinely appreciate advice from people who’ve been through this.

reddit.com
u/Aggressive-City-2140 — 2 days ago

Seeking a MERN Study Partner (Apna College + TOP Roadmap) 💻

Hey everyone! I’m starting my Web Dev journey and I’m looking for one (or two) serious partners to sync up with.

The Plan: I’ll be starting from HTML/CSS foundations. I am using Apna College for video tutorials and The Odin Project for the assignment-based path to ensure I actually build things rather than just watching videos.

Looking for someone who:

  • Is just starting out or at the HTML stage.
  • Wants to follow a local development workflow (VS Code, Git, GitHub).
  • Can commit to a check-in every 2 days to discuss progress.

I'm currently a CS student and want to reach the React/Node stage within the next few months. If you're ready to put in the work, DM me and let's get started!

reddit.com
u/Aggressive-City-2140 — 3 days ago

hi, i am 20F ,Looking for a serious study buddy/group for DSA, LeetCode, Backend Dev, System Design, and AI/ML.

I’m currently doing DSA (in C++) seriously and have started topics like DP and Graphs. My goal is to get a good internship within 1 year and strong placements in around 2 years, so I’m looking for people with similar long-term goals who are ready to stay consistent and improve together.

Preferably looking for 3rd/4th year students who are already somewhere into DSA/preparation and not complete beginners, so we can learn at a similar pace and push each other consistently.

We don’t need to know everything already — we can figure things out together as we go. Mainly looking for people who are genuinely serious about learning, practicing regularly, building projects, solving problems daily, and helping each other stay disciplined.

Things we’ll definitely be doing:

• Daily LeetCode + DSA (C++)
• Striver A2Z / SDE Sheet
• Sigma Batch (Apna College)
• Backend Development & Projects
• System Design Basics
• AI/ML Learning
• Contest Practice sometimes
• Accountability & Consistency
• Resume + Internship Prep together

Time Zone: IST

If you’re serious about improving and staying consistent for the long run.

reddit.com
u/Aggressive-City-2140 — 8 days ago