Ask HN: How do I find my niche and hone my skills as a software engineer?
I&#x27;m a third year Engineering student, and by the end of the third year, there&#x27;s going to be a lot of activity surrounding internships, placements, etc. While I was confident enough in my interest and programming skills when I first started, that sentiment has slowly eroded over the years what with the rise of ChatGPT, and AI which functions as a full-fledged software engineer. Part of the reason for this erosion is also my curriculum, which I feel is more oriented towards just rote learning and marks, whereas I&#x27;d expected a more hands-on, application-oriented approach. 
In short, I feel university is not preparing me for the next step.<p>So, to my question: how do I find my niche in the broad field of Computer Science, and hone my skills, so that I become invaluable? For one, I&#x27;m really interested in operating systems, the Linux Kernel, the concept of Embedded Systems, C programming language as a whole, etc.<p>How do I get started if I want to revamp my learning? How do I become a proper software developer?<p>Thanks.