[akg]

If you want a job in software development - do software development. There is no substitute for coding. I interviewed with Google a little while ago and the first thing they asked me was "How many hours do you code a day?". That set the tone for the rest of the interview. CLRS has some very useful information and by all means, every developer should know it, but using that theory in practice is what makes the knowledge stick. You find out more idiosyncrasies and sticking points when you actually build something. If you don't know where to start, fork a project from github and contribute to it.

[raganwald]

Amen. If you want a job playing basketball, you ought to watch a lot of video of great players. You ought to read a lot of books about training, techniques, and strategy. You ought to hang out with other basketball players and exchange tips. You ought to cross-train by lifting weights and running.

But all of that is secondary to playing a lot of basketball.