A collection of things I wish I’d known when I started my career. Mostly a list of books to read or activities to do.

Learn time management & delayed gratification. This is the number one predictor of success in my experience. Yes going out with your friends is more interesting than working on your assignment; but finishing your assignments in a timely fashion so they aren’t all due at once, and then going out with your friends is better. I recommend using Google Calendar or similar alternatives to keep track of your timetable both classes and other activities.

Read Never Eat Alone by Keith Ferrazzi. Your network is important to your success. If you’re technically minded try setting up Monica to track everyone. When you’re struggling with an assignment on Binary Decision Trees wouldn’t it be awesome if you knew someone who had done it already to ask for advice? If you can’t run Monica or afford to pay for it use Excel. Just don’t rely on your brain, it’s full of other things. If your uni offers a mentoring program join it. (I have several mentees through UTS’s program). Mentoring is an ongoing process and requires regular attention. The mentor you start with may be with you for decades, or may only be relevant for a year, you may also have several mentors (and sneakily, some people have mentors who don’t even know they are a mentor).

It’s not all about study, join a few societies and/or look at Meetup for groups in your area that you are interested in.

Search for textbooks on Booko & make full use of the available resources through your uni. For example UTS offers Lynda.com, Safari Books Online & more at no cost to students.

The skills that work at High School don’t cut it at uni. Here are the books I’ve read that moved me from a below average student to an HD average student. Many are available through the university library.

No you don’t need to read them all, but try to get through as many as you can.

Lastly, if you’re not sure about something ask! Ask your lecturer, tutor or peers.