Many of us have heard this quote before:
Real Learning Starts After Graduation
For me it started just a little bit before that...
I didn’t leave c...
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This really resonated with me, especially the part about learning becoming intentional after graduation.
One thing formal education didn’t teach me was unpressured self-discipline. In school, discipline was enforced through attendance rules, time blocks, and external pressure. You showed up because you had to , not necessarily because you wanted to learn it.
After graduating last year, that structure disappeared almost overnight. Once the initial post-graduation buzz faded, I realized how much of my “discipline” had been borrowed from the system rather than built internally.
What changed things for me was creating my own structure. Joining dev.to helped a lot . For me, it became a public, low-pressure way to stay accountable to others and to myself. I started learning with intention: studying, documenting what I understand, and applying it, even when motivation isn’t there. I even lapsed last week but picked myself up by the weekend, but that's still me learning.
This post captures that transition really well: graduation isn’t the end of learning, it’s where responsibility for learning finally becomes yours. Thanks for putting words to something a lot of us experience but struggle to articulate.
"I realized how much of my “discipline” had been borrowed from the system rather than built internally."
I couldn't have said this any better myself... Thank you for reading it through!
Same
What’s needed in college and at work is quite different. Welcome to the working world! I hope you get used to your job soon.😀
Honestly, it's taking some time to adjust to my new job. What I've realized is that I don't see myself doing this for much longer. The work is pretty routine and unchallenging (which is challenging to deal with in it's own way(╯°□°）╯︵ ┻━┻), and there aren't many chances to utilize my development skills. I'm still looking for better opportunities.
Companies usually start new employees with simple tasks and make things harder step by step. If you’re doing well, you’ll get more opportunities. Hope you can work on more challenging tasks soon.😀
Thank you!
Aryan, thanks for sharing this. so true. best wishes in your new job! 💯❤✨
Hey thanks Aaron, for the wishes and reading the blog!
Yes, after I graduated, I joined a startup company. Even when I was given a high degree of autonomy, I still felt lost. That’s because schools didn’t prioritize the cultivation of my innovative abilities, which made me realize that academic institutions are disconnected from the professional world.T-T
Yeah like every industry it prioritizes it's own profits, with a few exceptions of course.
I disagree. I think the majority of developers now who are using bootcamps and AI to scam their way into roles are coming into the industry without the fundamentals in place. A university degree teaches these fundamentals and how to apply them. Once you have those fundamentals you can apply them to any language or project. But if you lack them, then you end up with the current tik tok generation of coders who can literally only code projects they have done before and rely heavily on consistently incorrect AI. You lean a lot after you graduate but that's more about how businesses work and how development varies slightly from industry to industry but the bulk of the learning and understanding you need to be a good software engineer is taught at university.
I agree with you on one important point: strong fundamentals absolutely matter, and a good university education can provide a solid base that transfers across languages and stacks. I’m not arguing against fundamentals at all.
Where my experience differed, and what I was trying to get at in the post, is less about what is taught and more about how and under what incentives. For many students, the environment trains survival and grade optimization more than curiosity, ownership, or ambition. You learn to pass, not necessarily to deeply internalize or apply.
That’s why for me, the real shift happened after graduation, not because fundamentals suddenly became important, but because learning became intentional. I had to connect theory to real systems, real users, and real consequences. That context made the fundamentals finally click in a way they hadn’t before.
I also agree that relying blindly on AI or copying patterns without understanding is dangerous. Tools can amplify bad foundations just as easily as good ones. My point isn’t that university is useless, it’s that for many people, it doesn’t fully bridge the gap between theory and real-world ownership. That bridge often has to be built deliberately afterward.
So I see it less as “fundamentals vs post-grad learning,” and more as: fundamentals are necessary, but not sufficient. The mindset and system-level thinking usually get forged later.
Children nowadays are like that. Its part of being a modern developer: Use AI to write code
Spot on Aryan. There’s a common misconception that graduation is the finish line, when in reality, it’s just the qualifying lap. The most successful developers I’ve seen are the ones who treat their first few years on the job like a second, more intense degree. Continuous learning isn't just a habit in this field; it's a requirement.
Definitely, treating first job like a second more intense degree is a really thought-provoking perspective.
Your personal experience with a challenging interview experience, as discussed in one of your previous blog posts, had a lasting impact on me, and that's what inspired me to write this.
Thank you for creating content that resonates with readers like myself.
I’m really glad it did!😊
I graduated in 2024 with 9+ CGPA (never really cared about it except in my 1st yr) -- in the end, college holds us back and my life genuinely improved when I was free from it.
I even joke with my relatives that once you have basic education, you might not need a degree -- as long as you get a bit of guidance (and you are self-aware and disciplined)
the only problem is, it takes so long to realize this. and yes, I did 100+ courses, assignments, exams and ... I don't even remember the name of all subjects in my btech course lol
that's education!
Thanks so much for sharing your story, Anmol. It really put a smile on my face. I'm still trying to recall all the subjects I studied just last year lol §(￣▽￣)§ - it's amazing how quickly you forget.
I'd love to have the opportunity to connect with you and chat sometime; it was great to see your work as a technical writer.
This resonates with me a lot. In university, we learn the 'what' and 'why', but the workplace teaches us the 'how'. Your point about continuous learning being a mindset rather than a phase is spot on. It’s definitely a marathon, not a sprint!
Thank you Fedya!
Really glad my blog resonated with you!
But I'll have to disagree at a minor point because my university did not teach me the "why" either, it was mostly just "what", and most of the times not even that... But hey that's just me (￣y▽,￣)╭ .
What matters is we all became better and grew into this amazing "student forever" mindset.
This really resonates. Especially the part about thinking in systems before touching tools.
Formal education gave many of us structure, but not ownership. The real learning started when we had to build something end-to-end, live with the consequences, and explain our decisions.
I also like how you framed AI as an accelerator, not a substitute for understanding. Speed without intent is just noise.
That said, this path can feel overwhelming at times. continuously working, learning, staying updated, and balancing family alongside it all. It’s a lot, and it’s rarely talked about.
Graduation really isn’t the end of education; it’s when learning becomes intentional, and also when the responsibility fully lands on us.
Indeed... I couldn't agree more, I too get overwhelmed at times, for instance I haven't touched my laptop in 2 days now lol - though now I will have to get back to it, sometimes resting and doing things slowly is faster than trying to do it fast and all together. <(￣︶￣)>
Thank you reading this peace and sharing your own thoughts Naved, I really appreciate it. I wish you the best on your journey. Live long and Prosper 🖖.
That’s very kind of you. thank you 🙏
And honestly, I relate a lot. Stepping away for a bit isn’t quitting, it’s letting things settle. I’ve learned the hard way that forcing speed usually creates more friction later. Slow, intentional progress really does compound.
Wishing you the same on your journey steady growth, good health, and curiosity intact.
Yeah, that's how college works; there is this kind of pressure where if you want to get creative and learn something you eventually fail because all they care about is the end result not the process that will shape you to perform and provide real results so you turn on the survival mode to avoid those retakes 😁😁😁
That is true, results matter just as much as learning the process of development, the approach to solving problems starts mattering more and more as the size of the code base increases.
This article was so helpful and so important that I hope many many more people find it here.
I have worked in IT for 8 years now and went back to school 6 months ago.
We get tested every week.
The amount of work isn’t the problem but the time constraints are.
Your mind goes into what you call ‚survival Mode‘ and that is true for Uni too.
My curriculum goes back to the basics I have learned by doing it in the real world long before I came to be where o am now.
Your advantage compared to me , is that you have the degree already in the bag. You now are free of the pressure and school / university projects.
I am so glad you found your passion in learning after school because most people that I know just stop learning when they start working.
I hope you are in a good place now mentally and physically.
I hope you know that reading your words this morning was an education in itself for me.
I am happy I came across your post. Live long and prosper at your own pace, with your own projects and with passion.
I'm completely overwhelmed with gratitude for your kind words of appreciation and good wishes. It's truly meant a lot to me.
In terms of an advantage, I believe we all have valuable assets to offer, just like your big eight years of IT experience. That's a wealth of knowledge that can be just as valuable as any degree, if not more. When you complete school, you'll be a valuable team member ready to contribute to any team.
I'm a big believer in finding the silver lining in every situation. Once we discover it, it can have a profound impact on our outlook, and the silver line only grows after that.
Thanks again for your kind words good sir! This is what keeps me going!
I’ve spent so much of my life in the 'competitive exam' pressure cooker where a mistake felt like a death sentence and 'worth' was just a rank. Like you, I had to unlearn that 'exam mindset' to realize that the real world doesn't have a syllabus. It’s scary but also liberating to realize that ownership and building things end-to-end matters more than just surviving the system. Thanks for writing this—it’s a huge reminder that we’re allowed to stop waiting for permission
Hey, first of all thank you very much for reading Shambhavi, and second I really appreciate you sharing this — that “exam mindset” pressure is something a lot of us carry longer than we realize. I went through JEE too, and for a long time it made me equate my value with a rank instead of with how I actually think, build, or learn.
What frustrated me over time is realizing how much knowledge and opportunity gets gated behind a single high-pressure filter. It’s not that rigor or fundamentals don’t matter — they absolutely do — but the system assumes everyone should prove themselves in the same narrow way. That ignores how different people learn, think, and develop strengths.
The part that was freeing for me was stepping out of that framework and realizing that in the real world, ownership, curiosity, and building things end-to-end matter far more than how you performed in one artificial race.
It’s scary to let go of that old scoreboard, but it’s also empowering. You stop waiting for permission and start defining your own path — and that’s where real growth actually happens.
Thank you, Aryan - it’s a genuinely insightful piece. My own experience was quite different, though. Most of what I’ve learned about technology has been self-taught or picked up outside of higher education altogether.
In fact, reading this brought back memories of being asked why I never took Computer Studies at school. The reality was fairly simple: we had one BBC Model B shared between more than thirty pupils. Access, rather than interest, was the real limiting factor.
Thanks so much for sharing your own experience, Richard. I really appreciate it. What you've shared resonates with me because I've also learned a lot from my experiences outside of formal education - those have often proven to be the most beneficial for my projects.
It's unfortunate that limited access to resources can mean missed opportunities, and that's a loss for everyone. Despite that, I think we often find that our paths and experiences can be just as valuable, if not more so.
Completely agree, Aryan. Homegrown experience - as it were - can be the most valuable of all.
Cheers to that 🍻
This resonated a lot — especially the idea that confidence didn’t come from knowing more, but from building something end to end and understanding why it exists.
The point about AI and speed vs understanding is important too. Tools amplify clarity, but they also amplify confusion if the system isn’t thought through first.
I also like how you framed learning as intentional only after graduation. Once the external structure disappears, you’re forced to take ownership — and that’s where real growth starts.
Great reflection. Thanks for putting this into words.
Really grateful and honored that my blogs are resonating with this many readers... Glad you liked it, wishing you good luck in your own pursuits!
And yes, true, taking ownership/responsibility for one's growth is what makes it fun and worthwhile.
Thank you for reading Amir!
I found this to be interesting that learning takes place after formal education.
It is rare for people to learn the things you did during education. I believe most of us are use to of the habit of doing the minimum in order to get good grades. I have done this myself.
It only clicked when it was the middle of my college years that I decided to go above and beyond the classroom expectations. It taught me the skills of self-learning and building confidence/discipline to learn by myself instead of waiting for others approval because I know really well that this is the only way I can truly learn my potential.
This allowed me to take the time to enjoy the process of learning without having to worry about getting high grades and deadlines. It resulted in less pressure for myself and accepting that it is okay to make mistakes, which often education doesn't really show you in a clear way.
After getting my CS degree, I decided to start going on Dev.to recently in order to blog my journey as a developer. I believe that writing it out will help me solidify my skills and being able to recall concepts much more efficiently.
This post did a well job on hitting the points that I believe it should be out there to everyone, not only just developers. Well done!
Thank you very much Francis!
It's true that a lot of us do the bare minimum, or "live for survival" as some might put it. But once you taste the fun of learning new things, and how to learn things, its hard to go back to just "survival", in fact you stop caring about it most of the times. I believe a lot of readers here have had a similar experience of growing into that mindset.
Your story of going above and beyond in the middle of your college years is something I wish I would have done, lol I did it but I wish I had started sooner, you know what I mean?
And yes I came on Dev.to for the same reason as you and it's such a positive community that I just fell in love with and developed a hobby of writing on here.
I look forward to reading your posts too... (giving you a follow (≧︶≦))(￣▽￣ )ゞ)
Thanks again for reading! Hope you stay tuned for more to come!
I must say this, I rewound my life when I read this article. Well done Aryan!
Thank you very much Hazel! Really glad that it resonated with you so well.
I totally agree with this article.
Thank you for reading!
Couldn't agree more!
Thank you for reading!
Thank you for sharing.
Thank you for reading Eugenia!