Interview Discussion - November 30, 2017 CS Career Questions |
- Interview Discussion - November 30, 2017
- Daily Chat Thread - November 30, 2017
- What is the best CS career advice that you've been given?
- People who worked at Big N and hated it, can you share your experience?
- Professionals who started their CS careers in their late 20s/30s/or above. How did you end up in CS, how are you doing now, and how do you compare yourself to your peers?
- Cutting the cord on a stagnant/niche position after 10 years. How do I not screw myself?
- Advice for breaking into quant trading.
- Decided to go back to school for a degree in CS, a semester in and I have a question
- I feel like the only way to be a software engineer is to study coding all day. Am I right or wrong ?
- Feeling overwhelmed and hopeless
- Negotiating with an offer that's lower, but higher after cost of living adjustment?
- Could I get into a top ML program?
- Uber vs IMC Trading (HFT in Chicago)
- What do I add to my skill set to get hired as a junior front end dev?
- Should I renege my internship offer for another at a similar company?
- quora vs airbnb vs uber internship
- I'm stuck in a job I just started and I'm not sure what to do
- Any free networking simulators that I can use to show of my skills to an employer?
- be in relationships with colleagues?
- What are my options after being out of college for 2 years?
- Java or C++
- Attending State School in Illinois, but I want to work in Atlanta.
- Not having any success applying for internships
- LPT/Commonsense: Respect other people's cultures. Your expertise and value to a company mean nothing when the question of the company's integrity and reputation is involved.
- Job Title when applying for new Roles
- Is there a discord community for algorithm related discussion?
- Software Engineer in Test internship vs. Regular SWE Internship
| Interview Discussion - November 30, 2017 Posted: 29 Nov 2017 11:07 PM PST Please use this thread to have discussions about interviews, interviewing, and interview prep. Posts focusing solely on interviews created outside of this thread will probably be removed. Abide by the rules, don't be a jerk. This thread is posted each Monday and Thursday at midnight PST. Previous Interview Discussion threads can be found here. [link] [comments]  |
| Daily Chat Thread - November 30, 2017 Posted: 29 Nov 2017 11:07 PM PST Please use this thread to chat, have casual discussions, and ask casual questions. Moderation will be light, but don't be a jerk. This thread is posted every day at midnight PST. Previous Daily Chat Threads can be found here. [link] [comments]  |
| What is the best CS career advice that you've been given? Posted: 30 Nov 2017 04:28 AM PST |
| People who worked at Big N and hated it, can you share your experience? Posted: 30 Nov 2017 04:24 PM PST As we know, a lot of this sub is tunnel visioned on working at a Big N. I was curious to hear the flip side of things -- what are some downsides to working at a Big N? A couple things I've read is that your happiness heavily depends on your team. I've read horror stories of people getting worked like slaves at Amazon (less recently though). But as far as Google, Facebook, Microsoft... I haven't heard much bad about working at these companies. Are these truly the top places to work, in general? [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 30 Nov 2017 02:42 PM PST I'm currently 25 years old and will be starting college for the first time in Spring. I'll be 29/30 by the time I graduate and I wanted to hear from others who were in my shoe. Prior to this I was a mechanic for most of my adult life. [link] [comments]  |
| Cutting the cord on a stagnant/niche position after 10 years. How do I not screw myself? Posted: 30 Nov 2017 05:27 PM PST I'm coming up on 10 years at my first and only job (programmer @ a defense contractor) and I've completely lost steam. While the company has taken great care of me and I've gotten some amazing experiences out of it, it's become apparent (through a couple of recent interviews) that I've allowed myself to stagnate and fall into a niche - both in terms of technology and interview prowess. I've been given the opportunity to move cities (SO moved and so intend to follow), however there's a bit of a timeline on that. I've got 2 months to prep myself prior to moving and enough savings to not necessarily have to worry about working for at least 6 months (ideally it'll be less than that). Since I'm currently in a crunch period, this month is a bit shot in terms of free time and next month will be straightening out stuff for moving. Not to say I won't have any time, but it will be tight. My passions currently fall in hobbies outside of work and so work-life balance is incredibly important to me. Aside from that I haven't given much thought or had much exposure in terms of figuring out exactly what I want to do (project, technology or industry wise). I was wondering if anyone had any advice/resources for prepping myself in such a situation. My current plan:
I'd love some insight/advice from anyone. [link] [comments]  |
| Advice for breaking into quant trading. Posted: 30 Nov 2017 03:31 PM PST I posted a few days ago about an opportunity I have, but some of the responses, I think, show some confusion about what the reality of trading is. I see a lot of posts asking "How to I break into quantitative trading?" or "How do I get a job at Renaissance or DE Shaw?" I suspect that if you are asking those questions in this forum that you are probably not the type of candidate they hire -- that's doubly true for Renaissance. I interviewed candidates for stat-arb for over a decade. Saw plenty of resumes from Shaw, Citadel, etc... Never -- not one -- from Renaissance. Next, if you think that you are going to go to Two Sigma, or Shaw and learn all the secrets of trading, you are wrong. Most of the well known places keep their trade secrets under lock and key and will sue the bejesus out of you if they suspect you are taking their secrets elsewhere. But quant trading used to be a bit different before every john and his brother was trying to work in the industry. There were and still are some number of traders who operate strategies in a silo and like the independence of this type of situation. A lot of these guys work at places like Millennium and Schoenfeld and there are fewer and fewer. The fact is: if you want to break into trading you need a mentor and the well known places are not into mentoring people who will leave and compete with them. You need a mentor because not matter how smart you are, you are going to be a crappy trader repeating all the well-known dead ends of the past 20 years if you do it from scratch. That's why the Quantopian experiment is failing. If you want a mentor you find a guy who has a strategy and you convince that person to show you a bit. Why would this person share such valuable IP with you? Because it is exhausting running a strategy by yourself sometimes. Smaller traders can make good money, but they do not have the resources of a Citadel to run a full fledged recruiting program. So... if you want to learn how to actually make money trading, find an independent trader to show you the ropes. Go work at Citadel if you want a salary that will go up a bit each year. Learn how to trade if you want an upside that is bounded only by your cleverness. [link] [comments]  |
| Decided to go back to school for a degree in CS, a semester in and I have a question Posted: 30 Nov 2017 05:57 PM PST I'm coming from a science background (biology degree) and doing a second bachelors in CS. My original thought was to get a masters in CS, but without any relevant courses I was not able to get into any of those type of programs. A lot of the classes I need to take in order to earn the degree are Engineering physics (calculus-derived) 1&2 with labs, Linear Algebra, Differential Equations, Discrete math, and Calculus 1-3 (which I already had to take for my biology degree). A lot of theoretical math type courses, which I do not enjoy. My question is, how relevant are these type of courses in the real world? Someone who wants to get into software development/engineering, or just any relevant CS-related jobs? I ask because I see all these bootcamps that apparently teach you all you need to know in less than a quarter of the time it takes you to earn a degree, but I doubt you can condense all that math and programming into a 6-month bootcamp, unless of course you cut out the bullshit math and physics, then maybe. I also do not enjoy all these mathematical theories and physics concepts. Physics is great, and I applaud those who learn it to teach and do research, but its not for me. Can I still become a programmer if I don't enjoy taking all these math courses? [link] [comments]  |
| I feel like the only way to be a software engineer is to study coding all day. Am I right or wrong ? Posted: 30 Nov 2017 05:56 PM PST I just don't get how I can study coding / work on projects all day. Between doing school work and working part time, it feels like it'll take me 10 years to get into software engineering. Theres just so much to learn , and being a senior next year , it seems like I won't find a job after graduation. Am I seeing this the wrong way? Or is it the harsh reality? It honestly seems better to drop out and use that time to improve my programming/ algo skills . [link] [comments]  |
| Feeling overwhelmed and hopeless Posted: 30 Nov 2017 01:39 PM PST I am a complete idiot who did not do any internships in college. I just graduated with a degree in Computer Science, but having major trouble getting interviews. I do a lot of practice on leetcode and hackerrank, but the problem is getting the interviews themselves. I mostly focus on Java, but seeing all the positions and different language and experience requirements for each one, I sometimes get overwhelmed and panic inside. Any advice moving forward? [link] [comments]  |
| Negotiating with an offer that's lower, but higher after cost of living adjustment? Posted: 30 Nov 2017 08:55 AM PST Have any of you guys done this? Pretend you get $75-80k in Cleveland, OH against $110k from San Francisco. [link] [comments]  |
| Could I get into a top ML program? Posted: 30 Nov 2017 06:21 PM PST Me: I go to UW-Madison which is ranked 11 for CS grad schools. I note this particular ranking because I think my research preparation and graduate courses matter much more than normal undergraduate stuff. I study CS and math and am graduating (perhaps to my own doom) in 3 years. I unfortunately only have 2 research experiences, and could do another if I stay another year, but would prefer not to. Grades: 4.0/4.0. Took multiple graduate classes in ML. Research: 2 years with one professor in NLP, 1 year with another doing undergraduate thesis in reinforcement learning. No publications though............ yeah. My thesis and the paper for the group I've been with for 2 years will be both published at the end of the year (if all goes to plan). GRE: 169/157/4.5 for Q/V/W. Recommendations: 1 strong, 2 medium, 1 strong from industry internship manager Summers: Internship at big 4 tech company (no research). Statement of purpose: Pretty strong, with help from others. Fellowships: Didn't apply in time for NSF (are there other good ones to apply for that it's not too late for?). Do I even have a shot at top 4 (or more specifically, CMU)? How do I look for other programs (top 5-15)? Is there anything else I can do? Thanks everyone. [link] [comments]  |
| Uber vs IMC Trading (HFT in Chicago) Posted: 30 Nov 2017 08:29 AM PST Hi all, I'm currently a junior deciding between the above 2 internships for next summer. Uber is offering 44/hour with a 1k/month housing stipend in San Fran (pretty low considering rent in SF). IMC is offering 8500/month (~53/hour) with amazing corporate housing in Chicago. I'm not sure which one to take since Uber would look great on my resume to all recruiters whereas IMC would look great to top tier recruiters but others might not have heard of it as it's a small proprietary trading firm. Uber is in SF which is where I want to end up but IMC is paying so much more. Which choice would be better for my career overall if I want to eventually end up back in tech in San Fran? Thanks [link] [comments]  |
| What do I add to my skill set to get hired as a junior front end dev? Posted: 30 Nov 2017 05:50 PM PST I'm a recent college grad having trouble looking for their first job. I only had one internship in school. I've had a ton of phone interviews, about 3 in person interviews but no offers. Right now I have listed "HTML5, CSS3, JavaScript, jQuery, Node.js, React, Bootstrap 4, npm, SASS, LESS, PHP, Python, C++, Java, GSAP, SQL, UX/UI, Git, Photoshop/InDesign, Babel, Responsive Design, Agile/Scrum, Windows, Linux" I've been mainly looking in Boston but after no offer I'm starting to look in San Fransisco but a ton of job listings specify you need to be local. Is there anything glaring I'm missing from my skill set? Or could someone suggest a project idea to learn a few new frameworks/languages? Thanks in advance. [link] [comments]  |
| Should I renege my internship offer for another at a similar company? Posted: 30 Nov 2017 03:49 PM PST A few weeks ago, I got an internship offer from a top investment bank while I was still interviewing with other companies. To be honest, the entire process was kind of a mess. I received the offer without doing an interview (only a recruiting event), and the hiring bar for the company just seemed very low. When I got my verbal offer, I was told that I had two weeks from the verbal offer to accept and that I would receive the offer in writing in a few days. I never got the offer letter until a week and a half later, and after receiving my offer letter I sent a few phone calls and emails to confirm that my response due date was still the same. Two weeks from when I received the verbal offer, I had received no response from my calls and one email that completely dodged my question so I had to sign the offer out of fear that I'd lose the offer. Today, I just received another offer at another top investment bank with a substantially larger pay and what I felt like was a more complete and thorough hiring process. Should I renege my accepted offer for what I feel like would be a better position? Should I mention the bad communication with my recruiter as part of the reason? [link] [comments]  |
| quora vs airbnb vs uber internship Posted: 30 Nov 2017 03:27 PM PST I really really really like these 3 companies, love quora for their mission and smart people, airbnb for their mission and culture, and uber for their research opportunities and etc, which one should I choose? In my mind, I'm picking between quora and airbnb. I don't care much about the compensation, I just want to learn from the smartest, but everyone in these companies are so smart. I listed uber because I'd like to hear others' opinions. [link] [comments]  |
| I'm stuck in a job I just started and I'm not sure what to do Posted: 30 Nov 2017 06:20 PM PST Long story short, graduated school 2 years ago, dicked around for 2 years and didn't really apply for any dev jobs because of insecurities and depression. Got a job in application support a month ago. The majority of the job is operations but 30% of the job is staring at and sometimes writing .NET code. Problem is that this job frustrates me to all hell. I just want to write code but because we're technically operations, most of the code I'm going to get to write won't ship because my team's focus is app management rather than development. I've made it clear to them that I want to code and my manager promises I will get to, but I look around and everyone on my team doesn't really code, and when they do, the shit they do is simple bullshit (these people have been working here for over a decade). So I've continued applying to jobs because fuck it, and I got a call back for an interview and some gov department also wants to interview me (dev jobs). Problem is that I've only been working here for a month. I think it would look really bad if I quit my job or mentioned that I just started there during the interview. I'm going to lack decent references as well because I worked retail before and my current job sure as hell aint gonna back me up. My instinct tells me to decline the interviews and stick it out in this job for at least half a year or so, and that there will be other opportunities. But on the other hand, what if these interviews are my chance at a job I actually want to do? Some advice would be greatly appreciated.. [link] [comments]  |
| Any free networking simulators that I can use to show of my skills to an employer? Posted: 30 Nov 2017 09:18 AM PST I was talking someone about projects I can use to show off my skills. He suggested to use multiple raspberry pi and make network. He said that it cost $200 and so I want do it virtually to save money and fix problems that might come up when doing it physically. I do know how to use putty so something that can link to that would be helpful. [link] [comments]  |
| be in relationships with colleagues? Posted: 30 Nov 2017 12:58 PM PST Is that acceptable in sillicon valley companies? (especially for new grad software engineers/interns) what if I did have a crush on someone? [link] [comments]  |
| What are my options after being out of college for 2 years? Posted: 30 Nov 2017 03:18 PM PST Little background history, I graduated in the summer of 2016 (CS bachelor's) had a bunch of shitty retail jobs because no one would hire me. Eventually in 2017 I got a shitty job replacing screens on phones for about 2 months which I was able to turn into an IT job at some corporation with crap pay. I've been at this crap paying job about 7 months now just to have something to put on my resume. Coding wise I haven't done much, I built a calculator for my phone and some random fan page for a rapper I like. I picked up a bit of JavaScript at this job during my free time but really it just feels like I'm translating everything I learned in C++. Actually any language I've picked up has felt like I'm translating stuff I already know unless a certain language makes coding something easier. For example Python was a lot easier to use for a vigenere encryption program than C was. I've been applying to jobs but get no responses probably because I've only been here for about 7 months so I'm raising red flags. I guess I have to stick out this IT job for a year which means I would've been out of a school for 2 years. What are my options? I'm thinking going for a master's so I can apply for internships. I still write code sometimes but nothing crazy that would catch someones attention. I'm guessing I really have to be a master at development now before I can get an interview? I'm in NY if it makes a difference. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 30 Nov 2017 01:24 PM PST SO I HAVE BEEN STUCK IN THIS DILEMMA FOR A FEW WEEKS. I am applying to grad school in a year for master's programs around Technology and Information Management (TIM). So as a Business Mgmt Econ major/TIM minor, I need to obtain more of a CS background. I plan to take accelerated programming and then data structures. But should I do it in C++ or Java, and why? My CS background is minimal, I'm somewhat comfortable with R. It seems that I'll mostly use Python in grad school so I was thinking of first getting the proper fundamentals in Programming/Data Structures type of courses and then picking up Python later. [link] [comments]  |
| Attending State School in Illinois, but I want to work in Atlanta. Posted: 30 Nov 2017 08:06 PM PST I'm currently a Sophomore at NIU, which is a small state school in Illinois. What should I be doing to better my chances at getting a job in a completely different state after college? I have read on this subreddit that it can be difficult to snag a job when you are applying with an address that is too far away, but I just want to know what you guys think is the best way to better my chances. [link] [comments]  |
| Not having any success applying for internships Posted: 30 Nov 2017 04:16 PM PST I am a second year student applying for summer 2018 internships. I've applied for several positions, including some prestigious companies like Google, but I'm not having any success. I am in Canada, and I'm applying to Canada and the US. I go to a well known Canadian university and I have a high GPA around 3.9. I think I have decent projects as well. Can anyone give me some advice on what I should improve? Here is my resume. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 30 Nov 2017 08:01 PM PST Hi CSCQ, just got an email stating I am terminated effective immediately and that I have strictly between 8:00 AM and 8:30 AM tomorrow to clear out from the office. Why? A very, very, extremely, absolutely terrible/stupid, petulant mistake that I think is going to haunt me for the rest of my life. A little background: Senior level engineer at medium-sized firm specializing in components for HVAC systems based in the Midwest. Was making $185k + all the bells and whistles to match. Was only 1/3 people in entire company with specialization in a particular technology that was very crucial to their success in one of their latest platforms. There for 6 years. Fast-forward to 9:00 AM today. Meeting with representatives from major testing services vendor. In my mind, nothing unusual. Happens almost every 3-4 months, we like to keep tabs with them, they update us on stuff, we catch up on how they're doing, crack jokes, poke and tease, etc. We've worked with them for about 7 years, very friendly, casual, laid back environment. I get my coffee from the breakroom, and wander in like usual, take out my laptop and get ready. I see the usual faces, my boss, team director, a BA, head QA guy and then Pete, Steve, Sherry from the vendor. I cozy up a little in my seat, Pete, their lead, says there's a new guy that should be coming in 5-10 minutes with another regular, Rob. Cool. Start chatting, getting powerpoint ready, etc. Well, about 10 minutes pass, Rob comes in with the new guy. "Hi, sorry we're a tad late, everyone meet our liaison from Hyderabad, Hardik." And I don't know if it was the coffee or what but I fucking just lost it. A very little crackle brewed inside of me and rapidly made its way up through my mouth and I burst out laughing in front of like 10 people. Everyone turned directly towards me and I saw my director's eyes expand wide open. "I'm so sorry, there was this funny joke I remembered from last night. Please forgive me." (What a fucking lame excuse) My boss, then interrupted, "ANYWAYS... go on Robert" I could see her face was hot red. And everyone awkwardly continued but my team's faces looked so sunk for the whole meeting. The testing company guys were so avoiding me and trying to make it look like nothing happened. Hardik was doing his absolute best to be professional and not make any deal out of it but I knew he knew exactly why I laughed. I kind of shunned myself away into the corner. After the meeting, I profusely apologized, and offered to buy everyone lunch, but Pete declined, we did the cheesy handshakes and "take care until next time" thing, and we all went back to work. I went to my boss' room after an hour and she said she was busy. So I didn't push anything. Nothing else happened the rest of the day, I went home, knew I was going to yelled at for it sometime tomorrow or next week -- being fired didn't even cross my mind. Arrive at the house, play with the dogs and kids, not mention anything to my wife, and 40 minutes later get a notification for new mail, and there it is :( Now I'm like 100% royally fucked. TLDR: Laughed at guy's name for about 30 seconds, lost golden job, possibly fucked up career. Repenting really hard right now, hoping I can make things right. [link] [comments]  |
| Job Title when applying for new Roles Posted: 30 Nov 2017 04:11 PM PST My official title on my sign-on document is "Consultant" (though on the original job board post it includes Software developer after that). I am currently working as a full time engineer in the consulting division of my company. All I do is code and develop software solutions and internal tools that our onsite consultants can then take onto the field to integrate with our core product. I work in a team that emphasizes agile development, code review, and all other good software development practices. When applying for new jobs can I just tell employers that I was a software engineer and not a consultant even though the official title does not include that? Or will this be a red flag. I believe the work I do is the same as many companies that list their entry level engineering positions as "Technology associate" or "Technology Analyst", etc... So is the title okay if the work I do is that of an engineer? [link] [comments]  |
| Is there a discord community for algorithm related discussion? Posted: 30 Nov 2017 09:58 AM PST Is there a discord community for algorithm related discussion? [link] [comments]  |
| Software Engineer in Test internship vs. Regular SWE Internship Posted: 30 Nov 2017 07:31 PM PST While my internship search for the summer did not go quite as planned, I did manage to get an offer from a very well known social media company in the bay area(Not conventionally considered "Big N"). However, the title of the internship is Software Engineer in Test. I would be doing mostly Automation Testing, and developing tools to be used internally by product facing developers. I am a junior, and am concerned this position will pigeonhole me in that sort of QA engineer role for next year, where as I want my first full time position to be product facing SWE. It seems like the automation team gets their fair share of input when it comes to product architecture meetings with their corresponding external facing dev team, but I am still concerned I will not be taken seriously by Big N / Unicorns next year when it comes time for the FT job search(I made it to the final round for a few and got interviews from many of them, just didn't do enough interview prep this time around). Am I right to be concerned about this or should take whatever I can get? I have a few offers from very small firms where I go to university, for regular SWE internships, but this is the only offer from a very well known company that I was able to receive. Any advice would be greatly appreciated, thanks! [link] [comments]  |
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