‫إﻟﻰ طﻼﺑﻨﺎ ﻓﻰ‬

‫ﺣﺎﺳﺒﺎت وﻣﻌﻠﻮﻣﺎت‬

‫ﻧﺼﺎﺋﺢ ﻟﻤﺴﺘﻘﺒﻞ أﻓﻀﻞ‬

Mostafa Saad Ibrahim

Teaching Assistant @ Faculty of Computers & Information - CU
PhD Student @ Simon Fraser University
‫ ﻣﻦ أﺟﻞ ﺣﯿﺎة طﯿﺒﺔ‬- ‫إﻟﻰ طﻼﺑﻨﺎ‬

◼ Video
◼ Falling into Dunning kruger effect
◼ Specialization: Asking - Listening - Speaking
◼ Reading, Knowledge and Thinking Skills
◼ Healthy food / sports / ..
◼ More religious concerns
Minimize ‘learning the hard way’

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Facing a challenge?

Strive
Facing a challenge?

◼ Assignment, Question, Programming problem

◼ Strive … don’t run away
◼ Avoid negative feelings: I am stupid, I can’t do it
◼ Passed the challenge?
◼ How to do better / faster / .. next time?
◼ Failed?
◼ Understand the answer, and analyze failure reasons
◼ Why couldn’t do it by myself? Missing knowledge? skill?
◼ How to be ready in the next time?
◼ etc
Success Formula

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Success Formula

Src (also read)

Desires: Discover Yourself

◼ Try new activities (social / technical)

◼ Explore different paths (departments / careers)
◼ Don’t run away early from activity/career path
◼ A fatal repetitive mistake:
◼ 1) Start in something...typically easy start
◼ 2) Once challenges appears, claim you don’t like it
◼ 3) Leave it and explore something else
◼ 4) Go to 2
◼ Then cry that nothing is interesting!
Passion: Good, but overrated

◼ FACTS: Whatever path and career

◼ Whatever exciting in the begin, will not be so forever
◼ Fun moments/tasks … boring moments/tasks
◼ Success = Much hard work, even with passion!
◼ TIPs:
◼ Have strong reasons/justifications for why this path
◼ Determine your goals! Long/short term goals
◼ Have small milestones to feel with achievements
◼ Stressed? Relax / vacation / Do other things / in groups
◼ Please Read / Read
Compete against yourself!

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Confidence: So high vs So low

Src (also read) / watch

Impostor Syndrome

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 Networking

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Networking

◼ Figure out who matters most

◼ Some people are not good/effective now, but sure in future
◼ Find ways to keep actively interacting with them
◼ Drs and TAs
◼ Get good grades / discuss with them further
◼ Remarkable guys in Faculty ClasseS
◼ Attend Job Fairs, Events (e.g. ICPC), Talks
◼ Prepare Questions, Talk with people, Ask for tips
◼ Attend meet ups / Volunteer. Read
 Hard Vs Smart Work

◼ Hard work
◼ Smart work
◼ Smart Hard Work
◼ Hard work beats talent
when talent fails to
work hard
◼ For everything you do
◼ Think / Google how to do
better/faster
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Identify Tools/Software to Learn
Self-Learning / Self-reliance

◼ Faculty draws learning roadmap only

◼ Go deeper / Understand, not memorize
◼ Learn how to learn/study
◼ You may have to learn what you don’t like!
◼ Industry
◼ Most of new tasks have some new challenge/problem/bug
◼ New languages/frameworks/technology to learn
◼ Team leader expects you to find your way most of time
◼ Unless really the assigned task > your capabilities
◼ Good English Skills
FREE materials are enough

◼ Nowadays, there are many many free

materials on web
◼ Everytime you think I must pay for this course
or campus, you could really save your money
◼ Depending n yourself will learn you MORE
◼ Again, don’t WASTE your money
Google is your friend

◼ You will face many challenges

◼ Many of them already solved, some partially
◼ Don’t ask others directly for help
◼ First try seriously to find out by yourself, then seek help
◼ Learn Search Tricks
◼ quick sort filetype:cpp
◼ “mostafa saad ibrahim”
Knowledge …. Skills

Knowledge Skills
 Zone of proximal development

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Stage by stage...Carefully!

◼ Remember the stages from childhood to

adulthood
◼ What happens if u jumped a stage?
◼ Undergrad issue
◼ It is common nowadays for to desire jumping from basics
and core subjects study to market to earn money
◼ Graduate issue
◼ Some people like to do fast move from job title to higher!
◼ Be mature in a stage before moving to next!
Participate in Activities & Events

◼ Competition
◼ ACM ICPC
◼ Imagine Cup
◼ Hackathons
◼ Security, Robotics...etc
◼ Google Summer of Code
◼ Social & Volunteer activities
◼ ...
Work toward a strong CV

◼ Plan carefully for every vacation/project

◼ For a Software Engineer
◼ 2+ programming languages
◼ 3-4 good-size projects / front-backend technologies
◼ Upload code on github
◼ Learn Coding Style, Code Documentation
◼ Unit Testing for requirements
◼ Strong README page expresses the effrts
◼ Activities such as ACM ICPC, Google Summer of Code
◼ Internship(s) / Abroad / International
◼ Fresh CV should <= 2 pages: Short, Consistent, Strong
Linkedin Account

◼ Your gateway for connections and

headhunters
◼ Contact recruiters and ask for opportunities
◼ Networks of people, groups & companies
◼ Know where people work
Soft Skills

◼ It is not just about technical skills!

◼ From Day 1, keep improving your soft skills
◼ Communication Skills
◼ Most of Emails I receive from students are improper
(Incorrect English, No subjects, Wrong fonts….etc)
◼ Collaboration, Problem-solving, Time
management, Leadership, More
◼ Google and Put in mind
Time Management Skills

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Time Management Skills

◼ Great skills to get more valuable work

completed in less time
◼ Critical to learn and takes time to master
◼ Please google for books / articles
◼ The 80/20 rule (pareto principle)
◼ Articles: link - link - link - Pomodoro Technique
◼ Books
◼ Youtube
◼ ‫اﻟﻌﺎدات اﻟﺴﺒﻊ ﻟﻠﻨﺎس اﻷﻛﺜﺮ ﻓﻌﺎﻟﯿﺔ ﺳﺘﯿﻔﻦ ﻛﻮﻓﻲ‬
Managing a single day

◼ Plan the next day

◼ BEFORE sleeping, think about your tomorrow tasks
◼ Consider your priorities
◼ Divide tasks to units, each 25 minutes only
◼ WRITE down your final tasks in order - when to do
◼ Be rational. We eat / rest / socialize with others
◼ The actual day
◼ Follow the schedule...strive strongly.
◼ Stopwatch with the 25 minutes (never do anything else)
◼ Log what you are actually doing
◼ End of day: Analyze your time log / learn from mistakes
Use Management tools (trello)
 Distractions!

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Avoid Distractions!

◼ A critical skill to manage your time

◼ Google on preventing/avoiding distractions
◼ 10 Critical Tips to Prevent Distraction
◼ 5 Ways to Control Distractions
◼ Read and Take actions
◼ Or time goes without progress!
Misc

◼ Don't procrastinate
◼ Useful Sites for regular check:
◼ TED, Quora, WikiHow, Hacker News, Reddit
◼ Don’t set with friends who
◼ waste your time / spread negative spirits
◼ have no dreams / future planning
◼ Read / People to follow/ask
◼ Video: Habits of successful people?
◼ Have rest...Have fun...Work life balance
 ‫ﺗﻢ ﺑﺤﻤﺪ ﷲ‬

‫ﻋﻠﻤﻜﻢ ﷲ ﻣﺎ ﯾﻨﻔﻌﻜﻢ‬

‫وﻧﻔﻌﻜﻢ ﺑﻤﺎ ﺗﻌﻠﻤﺘﻢ‬

‫وزادﻛﻢ ﻋﻠﻤﺎ ً‬