Ask HN: I'm 18 in Sydney. Part time work at unicorn, or go to uni/college?
Going to uni is a good chance to interact with some very smart people in an environment where people are largely motivated to learn. It will give you a chance to learn quite a lot of fundamentals at a quick pace, and if you spend your time well, you&#x27;ll get quite a lot out of it. It won&#x27;t turn you into a good dev, but it will give you lots of pieces that you&#x27;ll start to connect later in your career.<p>You can also pick up lots of good stuff from working, but you need to be very careful about what habits and practices you keep. You&#x27;re going to be in an environment where people are motivated to just get things done. Some people will focus on improving, others will not. You will have your own project deadlines to meet. You might get mentored by smart people, but it&#x27;s not guaranteed, and politics can play a large role here. Nobody is obligated to make you great.<p>Working will inevitably be the thing that crystallizes your developer abilities, and I don&#x27;t think anyone gets good without it, but going to a university helps you learn things that people will often just take for granted in the workplace (unless they don&#x27;t know them- those unknown unknowns can be tricky)