I personally struggled alot in college with the academic stuff. It got so bad that I was kicked out of the engineering department and ended up signing up for a

I personally struggled alot in college with the academic stuff. It got so bad that I was kicked out of the engineering department and ended up signing up for a degree in economics. After having gone through 2 years of engineering courses, the econ curriculum seemed like a piece of cake. However, I had a feeling that that would not be enough to land a job post-college (my GPA was also very poor). Instead, I dove head first into trying to work with other people to build products that people would use. While none of those products ended up going anywhere in terms of financial success, the experience itself really helped me in articulating what sort of value I could provide to a prospective employer. In fact, I would give all credit in getting my first job to the fact that I was able to talk about the challenges I experienced with an on-campus recruiter who signed me up for an interview on the spot. I really think the learning you gain by doing, building, etc really helps you grok the underlying academic principle. For me, I found that I have to do first and then go back and read up to learn what I've experienced.