Hear me out: at the time I'm writing this, at university I have classes with C, C++, C#, Java, Python, and Go - all within one semester which is ~5 months. First of all, is it even possible to get to a decent level in any of these in that time?
Even ignoring the fact that these languages are just tools and the main focus is on things like Operating Systems, AI, DevOps, Web Apps, etc. - It's probably not possible, but I guess it's not the point here.
The only reasonable explanation - speaking purely from a career perspective and ignoring the social side like making friends, university events, etc. - is that we're trying everything so we can decide later what we want to go truly deep into.
But that creates another problem. The "normal" flow for people at most universities (not top-tier ones) is: finish high school -> go to university -> graduate -> land a decent job.
And that is exactly why university is not enough anymore.
How can we go from this everything at once approach to a specific project, technology, or specialization? The truth is, we probably can’t.
One of my former professors from when I studied audio engineering said that universities a long time ago were ahead of most of the companies, so it was natural that a person who graduated was exceptional for most of them (easy hire, good level) - and that makes sense.
He also said that most of us will drop out to become software engineers. And I did exactly that three months later.
Both universities and companies are going forward, but companies are much faster. Let's say it looks something like this.
A while back, if you had a degree, you were in the winning position. I guess that's why I heard get your degree and you'll be set for life so many times - that was the truth, but not anymore.
If we do nothing more than the university program, we basically cannot perform any decent level work even on entry-level positions. I've been working for a year and a half right now while being a 3rd year Computer Science student and with knowledge only from university I couldn't land even an internship - not even talking about junior positions.
And that's the huge shift. We MUST put in additional work if we want to land a decent job. I'm talking about software engineering here, but I guess this is applicable to other fields as well. In the AI era the bar is even higher - it of course helps us do things and learn, but on the other hand, you need to know much more at the entry level.
It's not that "juniors are cooked" or there's no point in a Computer Science degree, it's more about accepting that the shift is truly happening, and it's happening pretty fast. The fundamentals are still extremely valuable, the understanding of systems, structures, design principles will be more necessary than ever. Whether you like it or not, we need to accept this shift and embrace it - if we don't, things are going to get harder.