u/Background-Brain8590

I'm a 2nd year cs student, and I'm applying to well-known companies like Spotify, TikTok (not big tech), and I lack experience and skills. I don't have work experience, never attended a hackathon, and I only have personal projects, one of them being on the App Store and having users, and a couple of non-tech high school experiences. I didn't do much in university due to struggling with first-year weed-out courses

Should I message alumni in my school on LinkedIn for a coffee chat to learn more about the company and potentially get a referral when I apply?

Is it even worth it, and would the alumni think badly of me for lacking experience but trying to land a position in this company?

I see advice on the internet about using AI and knowing how to use AI in the workflow to accelerate the process of building projects.

Should I stop learning the fundamentals or watching 5-hour tutorials? For instance, I don't know React, but should I just use AI to make projects that require React? I won't know what it's doing and won't understand the React code. Even if I ask AI to explain it, it's difficult since I'll know it conceptually, and I won't be able to do the same thing by myself from scratch + easy to forget or is this mindset of "needing to understand code and be able to explain it line by line" outdated now? Is it more like understanding conceptually (higher order) and building things even if you don't know any single gritty detail of it?

I'm always getting different answers from people, and I feel lost. Some tell me to watch tutorials and build small things by myself (using AI only for asking questions) and then jump into larger-scale projects (which would take some time). Some tell me to just jump straight into projects with AI and then break it down into chunks and learn the necessary content for each part.

But I also see people building high-quality projects in a short time period, and I ask myself how they do it. Do they learn the fundamentals for the entire tech stack, or do they just learn the front end to make it look good and have AI handle the backend?

I have a lot of project ideas, but I'm lost on how to start.

One project requires me to learn React, PostgreSQL, Next.js, Figma design, etc. I don't know React or Next.js, and I know only PostgreSQL at a beginner level. Should I start by going into Odin Project and learning the fundamentals like HTML, CSS, JS, React and then start the project?

Please help me out with this. I feel lost

People say high agency, to build using AI and to know how to use AI in the workflow to accelerate the process of building projects.

People say bootcamps and things like "100 days of coding challenge" are gone and that school education doesn't teach anything (somewhat true), but the question I have is, how do I do it then?

Should I stop learning the fundamentals or watching 5-hour tutorials? For instance, I don't know React, but should I just use AI to make projects that require React? I won't know what it's doing and won't understand the React code. Even if I ask AI to explain it, it's difficult since I'll know it conceptually, and I won't be able to do the same thing by myself from scratch + easy to forget or is this mindset of "needing to understand code and be able to explain it line by line" outdated now? Is it more like understanding conceptually (higher order) and building things even if you don't know any single gritty detail of it?

I'm always getting different answers from people, and I feel lost. Some tell me to watch tutorials and build small things by myself (using AI only for asking questions) and then jump into larger-scale projects (which would take some time). Some tell me to just jump straight into projects with AI and then break it down into chunks and learn the necessary content for each part.

But I also see people building high-quality projects in a short time period, and I ask myself how they do it. Do they learn the fundamentals for the entire tech stack, or do they just learn the front end to make it look good and have AI handle the backend?

I have a lot of project ideas, but I'm lost on how to start.

One project requires me to learn React, PostgreSQL, Next.js, Figma design, etc. I don't know React or Next.js, and I know only PostgreSQL at a beginner level. Should I start by going into Odin Project and learning the fundamentals like HTML, CSS, JS, React and then start the project?

What do you guys think?