I'm a CS student at a no-name Indian college going deep into low-level C++ while everyone around me learns react(web dev). Am I making a mistake ?

Posted by Param-Matharoo@reddit | learnprogramming | View on Reddit | 3 comments

Not a rant. Genuine question for working engineers.

My situation:

4th sem B.Tech, tier-3 college in Punjab, India. Placement cell = web dev pipeline. I opted out.
Writing DSA in C++ from scratch (no STL until I understand what it replaces). Arch Linux, i3wm, NvChad, fully keyboard-driven setup.
Goal: remote USD-paying work, eventually relocate. No college placement building through GitHub, GSoC, Linux Kernel contributions.
INFP but think analytically. Respond well to slow, compounding, measurable progress.

Path I'm weighting are any of these actually future-safe?

Systems / Low-Level C++
Embedded / Firmware
Linux Kernel / OS Dev
Security / Reverse Engineering

What I want to know from people actually in the field:

which of these is genuinely future-safe meaning, not easily automated or offshored in the next 10 years ?
Is embedded firmware a real bridge into deeper systems work, or does it trap you ?
Is there a path in CS I'm completely missing that fits a "think deep, not wide" profile and has strong long-term upside?
For anyone who took the kernel/systems route from a non-IIT background - what actually moved the needle for you ?

Honest answers only. I know web dev pays now. I'm asking about 5-10 yesrs.

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Express-Level4352@reddit

I'm a student myself, so take my opinion with a grain of salt.

Your post comes across as a bit of an LinkedIn post. Don't get me wrong, you are allowed to present yourself like this, but things like your Myers-Briggs type, explaining your setup and things like "think deep, not wide" are mentalities that suggest you "care too much".

Just learn to make stuff you like making and want a carreer in and don't care too much about all of theses buzzwords.

No one can predict the future, but I suppose jobs with more routine that require less knowledge and have less moving parts are more likely to get automated than complex jobs that require losts of technical knowledge. Either way I think that the world (and you) will adapt either way and that you shouldn't worry too much about it.

Tricky-Isopod2742@reddit

I guess in the future like you said 5-10 years we are going to build the frameworks for some ai agents which will do the dirty stuff. So I hope you are doing right

Yes they are more than react or pure crud backends, what you are doing is learning the bones istead of a bubble that will burst