Advice on fundamental analysis/studying a company or industry

I’ve been analyzing companies to prepare for “a company you follow” interview questions and to build a genuine understanding of them for making informed investment decisions. I only have $10k as a college student so it's nothing significant, but I’ve put my own money into these companies to motivate myself to study them and improve my knowledge as a future finance professional.

One challenge I face is truly understanding a company's business model and products, especially if it’s not something I interact with daily, like Chipotle or Coca-Cola. This is particularly difficult with tech companies, which I focus on because I want to pursue tech IB and because the sector has many high-growth opportunities. When I open a company’s 10-K, there’s a lot of jargon to look up, and even after researching it, I often still don’t feel like I fully grasp the company or its market. For example, while studying cybersecurity companies, I researched terms like cloud security, endpoint security, and network security, but still struggled to differentiate between these sectors. I can sound informed after my research, but I don’t feel confident enough to form solid opinions or make investment decisions based on that knowledge. Understanding why customers choose one cybersecurity company over another is also tough, as 10-Ks often present their products as superior without providing enough to critically evaluate these claims. The competition is equally hard to grasp, since in tech, companies can simultaneously be each other’s customers, suppliers, and competitors, adding complexity that’s harder to untangle than in simpler industries like restaurants.

Cybersecurity is just one example. I’m casting a wide net across industries, but this challenge persists no matter what I study. Buffett’s advice is to invest in companies you understand, but I often feel like the only companies I truly know are consumer brands like Apple. Reading stock analyses or pitches from professionals doesn’t help much either, as they often feel vague or surface-level, listing obvious pros and cons without deep insights. I’m aware no one has perfect confidence in their investments, and sometimes I wonder if I’m too critical in not trusting analyses written by more knowledgeable and experienced professionals. I struggle to differentiate between well-reasoned investment theses with justified uncertainty, and those that just stack buzzwords to create an impressive but hollow analysis. Having done student stock pitches myself, I know how little I actually understand about the company, and how unconfident I am about every single statement in my pitch, although my presentation might sound like I know what I am talking about.

I’ve also read investing books, but they often assume I know more than I do. They simplify the situation and tell us to find things like moats, barriers to entry, or customer stickiness, but it’s hard to apply their frameworks without a deep understanding of the business itself. Similarly, they might tell me to find companies gaining market share, but often I’m not sure how to define the market or the competition in the first place.

My question is: how can I genuinely understand a company and develop investment ideas that I feel confident about? I realize working in banking for a few years would put me in a much better position to make informed decisions, but is there anything I can do now as a college student to improve?