Thanks! Do you have any recommendations for types or scope of personal projects? I see the advice to build stuff a lot but never what or how much. I’m specifically interested in security and systems, NOT front end web dev which is what most guides and stuff are geared towards.
> Do you have any recommendations for types or scope of personal projects?
you're in a really great place to teach yourself because colleges will generally have hands-on, free help. Beyond that I would say get projects that people or business need - you'll be way more incentivized to learn. An internship with a small startup where you work for cheap would be a really great starting place. It's a tradeoff - cheap labor for them if they're willing to help teach you.
For security & systems, look for backendy, devops, or rel-eng. opportunities. You'll quickly learn a lot.