Want to know how to succeed as a student? Ask a successful student!

Udacity alumni share strategies for successful lifelong learning.

All students are part of a global community. It doesn’t matter if you’re at a prestigious university, or a community college; online, or in a brick-and-mortar classroom. It doesn’t matter if you’re working solo, or collaborating in a group; learning how to program, or learning how to cook. If you’re engaged in mastering new skills, you’re part of a worldwide family of learners, and as such, you share a global bond, and you go through a shared set of experiences. You know what it’s like to feel overwhelmed, and to succeed; to feel frustrated, and to finally “get it.” You know doubt, and you know pride. You are a student. A learner. An achiever.

As a student, you are someone who both asks and answers questions. Tomorrow, you may be the one giving the great advice. But today, you get to be on the receiving end. Here are some wonderful students, with some amazing advice to share!

Udacity alum Dominic Monn is now working as a Deep Learning engineer, and he credits a commitment to project-based learning for helping him convince employers of his value, through having demonstrable real-world skills and experience:

“With each project, I was building an awesome portfolio of projects which I could show to companies. It also gave me confidence in my skills.”

Your takeaway? Build what you can show, and show what you can build!

Like Dominic above, Jeff Fletcher also studied Self-Driving Car technology with Udacity. When we interviewed him about his experiences in the program, he offered some great advice for how to stay focused over the long term:

“Focus on the task directly in front of you; it’s easy to get lost when looking at the long term. Plan out your week to get to key milestones, and break it down into daily goals.”

As Jeff makes clear, having a plan and sticking to it is critical when it comes to achieving your goals. And while Jennifer Tsou would certainly agree, she also points out that there’s more to success than just a tactical plan:

“Udacity made me realize how important it is to actually like your job, and to wake up excited to go to work.”

Your takeaway? Work at what you love, and you’ll always love your work!

Kaisa Martiskainen loves her work, and her studies, but she also knows that success requires a willingness to take risks, and go beyond what’s easy and feels good:

“My Nanodegree program experience forced me out of my comfort zone, and that’s when some really exciting things started happening.”

Kiyoko knows all about getting out of her comfort zone. She executed a full-blown career change, and overcame quite a few obstacles in the process. Her advice? Take care of yourself:

“I learned that when I start to feel down about myself, it is important to take a little break and recharge. For example, I interviewed for my current job early on and didn’t hear back from them for an entire two months. Self-care helped me be patient with the process. For me, self-care means reading a novel, or simply taking a break from machine learning. But, you can recharge in a lot of different ways — being with friends, going out of town, or simply doing something that brings you joy.”

If there’s a common thread running through all these quotes, it’s this: passion and hard work go hand-in-hand. Plus, each informs the other. When you love something, you find the motivation to work hard at it. And when you work hard, your confidence grows, and your passion builds.

The most wonderful moments of all, are when everything falls into place — when passion and hard work go hand-in-hand. Udacity alum Arati Vaze described just such a moment when we spoke to her about her Nanodegree program, and the new career she launched:

“My Nanodegree program was what gave me the confidence to even face the interview. It gave me so much to talk about. It meant I was able to show I was current in the workforce. I could talk about how I was actively pursuing new knowledge and adding to my skills. In the interview-setting, this felt just as important as being able to point to the specific programming and data knowledge I’d built.”

Ask a successful student what it takes to succeed, and this is what they’ll talk about. Confidence and skills. Passion and hard work.

Thank you to all these lifelong learners for their fantastic insights!

Do YOU have some advice for your fellow students? Tell us about what you’ve achieved, and how you did it!

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This post was written by Christopher Watkins, Senior Writer and Chief Words Officer, Udacity