I no longer remember my first project. I think I was in my freshman year and I attempted to compute e^10,000 using taylor series expansion.

Anyway, I can not tell you which lessons I learned from my first project and what lessons came later. So here's a mix of everything I have that may/may not help you.

• Use linux. Learning to code under windows is like attempting to build a rocket-ship with silly putty.

• Get a throw-away computer and abuse it. Look in a junk yard or someone's attic or search ebay for a $20 computer. Your expensive gaming laptop/macbook pro has too many valuable documents to mess with. You need to know what will happen when you do something like this:

    #include <stdint.h>
    fuckEverything( intptr_t startHere)
    {
        uint64_t i;
        for(i = 0; i < UINT64_MAX; i++)
         *((void *)(startHere+i)) = 0;
   }
   int main()
   {
      fuckEverything((intptr_t) &fuckEverything);
      return 0;
   }

• Learn to use a debugger. Step through code, peek into memory, use breakpoints. This is the most important skill you'll ever learn

• Write stupid dumb things just for the fun of it. All code doesn't have to serve a purpose. Replace all instances of "wand" with "wang" in Harry_Potter_and_the_prisoner_of_azkhaban.txt and see what happens. Go have fun

• Install FreeBSD. See what non-consumer software really looks like.

• Get a Pic Microcontroller and build a fancy digital alarm with it. You'll learn more about coding while reading a microcontroller's datasheet than anything on coursera or youtube can teach you.

• Learn a difficult language first. Javascript and Python are cheap skills that are easily picked up. Master pointers.

• Read coding styles. Learn about the yoda-syntax and why people write code like that.

• Read every blog post on news.ycombinator.com

• Go have fun

• Read every line of your compiler output. every single line. Google for what you don't understand. figure out what flags make your compiler more verbose.

• Buy a legit textbook on computer science. Internet posts and articles can only take you this far.

I don't know if any of the above apply to you. I still wish you happy hacking! :)

"Cracking the coding interview" is the industry standard for preparing for an interview. I have used it and I can not recommend it enough.

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/mobile/w/cracking-the-coding-interview-gayle-laakmann-mcdowell/1122334602?ean=9780984782857&st=PLA&sid=BNB_DRS_Core+Shopping+Books_00000000&2sid=Google_&sourceId=PLGoP305&k_clickid=3x305

An example would be nice