DEAR VALUED CONTRIBUTORS -- FRIDAY RANT THREAD FOR January 12, 2018 CS Career Questions |
- DEAR VALUED CONTRIBUTORS -- FRIDAY RANT THREAD FOR January 12, 2018
- Daily Chat Thread - January 12, 2018
- I am Hindu and a US Citizen. Should I somehow convey to companies that I don't need a sponsorship?
- Is one long internship better than multiple short ones?
- Engineers who's employers main product isn't software: what have you learned about your industry?
- Should software engineers know web dev?
- How do you interview candidates more experienced than you?
- Interning for a company that wants to keep me full time, but I'm worried they will drug test me
- Realistic chances of a community college student earning M.S/Ph.D. or am I being delusional? Is a research internship a good idea to apply to?
- Should I negotiate an offer with no other offers on the table?
- Software scene in florida?
- How to evaluate an offer as a new grad?
- Got my first job as an embedded software engineer. Am I missing out?
- Searching for a job for 7 months now, 300+ applications later, nothing!
- Technical Program Manager Internship?
- I asked a coworker to stop teasing me and remain professional and now hr contacted me. What should I do?
- As a Canadian, how would I convey to companies that I don't need sponsorship?
- Is it manageable holding a full time job while being heavily invested in a start-up?
- State Farm vs Bank of America
- Struggling very hard in internship
- Should I be worried about not having an internship even though I have some side projects?
- Have you had such experience that clients do not allow to write unit tests because it will cost more for them?
- What's popular now for jobs?
- How much breadth/depth of knowledge in system/app design is expected for an engineer with 2-3 years of experience?
- Nonprofit Industry Career Help Needed - Next Steps?
- Wage discrepancy between management and engineers
- Maximum number of projects?
| DEAR VALUED CONTRIBUTORS -- FRIDAY RANT THREAD FOR January 12, 2018 Posted: 11 Jan 2018 11:08 PM PST AND NOW FOR SOMETHING ENTIRELY DIFFERENT. CAN'T STOP WON'T STOP DON'T STOP CODING! THIS IS THE RANT THREAD. IT IS FOR RANTS. CAPS LOCK ON, DOWNVOTES OFF, FEEL FREE TO BREAK RULE 2 IF SOMEONE LIKES SOMETHING THAT YOU DON'T BUT IF YOU POST SOME RACIST/HOMOPHOBIC/SEXIST BULLSHIT IT'LL BE GONE FASTER THAN A SPEEDING TRACER. (RANTING BEGINS AT MIDNIGHT EVERY FRIDAY, BEST COAST TIME. PREVIOUS FRIDAY RANT THREADS CAN BE FOUND HERE.) [link] [comments]  |
| Daily Chat Thread - January 12, 2018 Posted: 11 Jan 2018 11:08 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]  |
| I am Hindu and a US Citizen. Should I somehow convey to companies that I don't need a sponsorship? Posted: 12 Jan 2018 10:01 AM PST So I'm not sure what the climate looks like right now in terms of people in India trying to work in America(I just started my job search). And I feel like due to biases made at first glance, a recruiter might think I might need a sponsorship. Is it advisable to somehow convey that I don't in maybe my resume or cover letter? Some friends of mine say don't do it at all, but I feel like it could help. If so, is there an optimal way or doing so? I'm thinking of just writing US Citizen at the top of my resume where my contact info is. Thanks. Edit: New question: Should I add "U.S. Citizen" in my LinkedIn headline? So it would be "Software Engineer | U.S. Citizen" Edit: On another side note, is anyone willing to review my resume? I'm just starting my job search and would love any help! [link] [comments]  |
| Is one long internship better than multiple short ones? Posted: 12 Jan 2018 06:18 AM PST I have the option to renew my contract at a well known software company, should I take it or find another internship for more diverse experience? [link] [comments]  |
| Engineers who's employers main product isn't software: what have you learned about your industry? Posted: 12 Jan 2018 01:46 PM PST For example ive interned for insurance and CMMS companies. And have learned about certain compliances? What about you guys? Anything fun / applicable to life you've picked up along the way? [link] [comments]  |
| Should software engineers know web dev? Posted: 12 Jan 2018 12:51 PM PST I'm a backend engineer at a pretty decent tech company in SF and now that I think about it, I don't really know how to make a dynamic website from start to finish (I only do API development in java on the backend). Part of the thing is that I don't use HTML/CSS/JS and have never needed to. Is this something all software engineers should know how to do? [link] [comments]  |
| How do you interview candidates more experienced than you? Posted: 12 Jan 2018 03:11 PM PST I'm a software engineer who just started the second year of my career. I've been assisting my team with interviewing potential candidates for my team, and now my manager asked me to assist him with the interviewing effort for the larger business unit. Most of my interviewees so far have been around my level of experience, so interviewing them hasn't been terribly difficult. I have a go to system design + coding question that is fairly simple but needs giving some thought, and is fairly representative of the day to day. The problem I have is with candidates with more experience. While my question still works well in the sense that it weeds out bad candidates, but it doesn't really tell me how he would be as a leader or mentor. Since there's a good chance that some of these people will guide me in the future, it's in my best interest as well to test candidates thoroughly. Any advice or tips for me? [link] [comments]  |
| Interning for a company that wants to keep me full time, but I'm worried they will drug test me Posted: 12 Jan 2018 09:33 AM PST I really like this company and they really like me. I'm interviewing for a full time position next week and it's looking good even now. When I got the internship they did not drug test me, but I learned recently that they do drug test new hires. I don't know if they will drug test me and when I found out last weekend I stopped immediately, but if I get drug tested before like mid February I'm fucked. How do you think I should play this? I personally think it's bullshit that *someone can be fucked up on coke or something everyday until 2 days before my drug test and pass, but god forbid I smoke a little weed every once in a while after months of working for this company and I'm screwed... It's going to be super fucking embarrassing that after all this they let me go because of something like this. I do not look like a stoner or anything at all, this will blindside them.... EDIT: I don't do coke...bad choice of words lol [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 12 Jan 2018 06:57 PM PST Hello all, the title applies but I'll expand further of my problem. I'm a CompSci sophomore (30 credits) student (20 years old) at community college in the state of University of Illinois (U.S., lucky me that CS is top here) and I wasn't doing so great before (a lot of existential crisis and mental illness problems, OCD, that were not addressed finally being addressed this semester, ego is a powerful buffer). Even being at community the computer science classes here are nowhere near UIUC's curriculum so I self-study now after getting extremely upset over this (felt I wasted financial aid and time). After some thinking, I decided to get serious, get my shit together, and figure this out. I felt my 3.0 GPA is going to bar me from going all the way til I started reading The PhD Grind, So long, thanks for the Ph.D.! and HOWTO: Get into grad school for science, engineering, math, and computer science it seems that Guo, Azuma, and Might all have one thing in common, perseverance and refusal to give the hell up. I still have those concerns and almost feel I should give up my dream of pushing CS further than products, wondering if I am over thinking this. I know I need to work on my discipline and mindset, I am self-aware enough where I am working on my weaknesses and utilizing my strengths. One day at a time but I am better and smarter than I was three years ago with more of a focus. I decided to take half-time so I could figure out if this is something I want to dedicate my life to because riches and family do not appeal to me (and therapy, no sense in taking a full load when some personal work needs done). I love machines and knowledge so this seems like the right path. As a result, I emailed ALL of my faculty with Ph.D.s and staff relevant to my major whom I've networked/worked with before to really assess my goals and find out their story, interview them essentially. I tried the industry but I know that a research lab oriented position seems right for me since I am really good at research (now looking for research internships) According to my profs that is, I blew them away with research for even the simplest papers unrelated to CS. So this is wherein lies my concerns. I really really tried to pull myself together to make a project to get an industry internship but this is such a depressing and miserable process for me. I already feel like an impostor as it is but this process really can exacerbate the feeling. I also understand feelings can be irrational but I know if I tried for three weeks to do a personal project and couldn't finish one then something was wrong. Now here I am learning ML with Andrew Ng and reading Algorithms 4th Ed. with Sedgewick (taking the upcoming course too on Coursera) and that's immediately had me come up with crazy ideas already for research projects. (very open to Python again, hated being a script kiddie with it because I never knew the low-level reason of its functionality) The most energy and excitement I've had since grade school when it came to technology in general, hell maybe even life in general. Next step is to start reading through papers to find a original idea. I know with a Ph.D. comes a lot of organization which I am working on but am I being a bit delusional with these thoughts (a pipe dream) or am I really just truly passionate about furthering Computer Science even a little? I haven't stopped thinking about this for the past three days. My parents just want me to figure out why I'm staying with them for college and I loathe being unable to provide them with a conrete plan/answer. I really want to figure out a path and not feel like I'm using them up. TL;DR Should I acquiesce my feelings of being scared of the Ph.D. road or should I really try finding an industry job with a Masters and quit my complaining (if it is complaining). Passionate CS Student with a love for algorithms and theory wondering what to do next before I make anymore big moves. Industry or Research or Academia. [link] [comments]  |
| Should I negotiate an offer with no other offers on the table? Posted: 12 Jan 2018 03:10 PM PST Is this a bad idea? It is a good offer that I would probably take even if they didn't budge, but people seem to say you should negotiate regardless. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 12 Jan 2018 11:05 AM PST What is the software scene in florida like? I was primarily looking at west coast (SF, Seattle, Portland, and then Colorado) but then I realized Florida has some pretty affordable locations with good weather. [link] [comments]  |
| How to evaluate an offer as a new grad? Posted: 12 Jan 2018 04:41 PM PST I just graduated December 2017 without being active in the hiring process for any companies aside from one who reached out from a job fair I went to when I was still in school. The company is medium sized and located in a small southern California city. They're preparing an offer with a salary between 55K and 65K, 3 personal days for sick or vacation a year, medical benefits, a $1500 stipend for vision or dental, and 401K opportunities. The role is a full stack software engineer doing C++ and low-level development on hardware devices, with some focus in building their test automation. My experience includes an internship and personal projects, none of which pertain to this kind of development. The only experience I have relevant to the role is experience in test automation from my former internship. My concerns include: being underpaid for the role, overworked (time off yearly), and career choice of learning technologies I'm not interested in However I acknowledge experience in C++ is sought after, this is my first job, and I don't have any other options presently. I'd appreciate any thoughts on how fair the offer is and how the impact it might have for my career. Thanks! [link] [comments]  |
| Got my first job as an embedded software engineer. Am I missing out? Posted: 12 Jan 2018 08:14 PM PST Am I missing out if I don't learn web and mobile development? It seems like those are the hot topics in software development right now. Will I be able to transition to a web/mobile position after working as an embedded software engineer? [link] [comments]  |
| Searching for a job for 7 months now, 300+ applications later, nothing! Posted: 12 Jan 2018 11:42 AM PST I recently graduated with a CS bachelor and math minor (in June). I have had a handful of interviews, and have been rejected by every one. I have applied to 317 jobs in the span of a year and I have yet to receive any offer. I received an offer from two companies that were offering 2 year contracts, but I rejected them due to the fact that pay was not guaranteed, if I break the contract I would need to forfeit $20,000+, and the interviews were blatantly easy. I just got rejected by Bloomberg's entry-level position and am completely lost with what to do now. If needed, I can post my resume and experience. I just want to work and move out already! EDIT: Here is my resume -> https://i.imgur.com/nCIcB5v.png EDIT2: I've been posting on LinkedIn Jobs, Indeed, Glassdoor, Builtinnyc, dice, and Monster. [link] [comments]  |
| Technical Program Manager Internship? Posted: 12 Jan 2018 08:37 AM PST I recently got an interview from NVIDIA for a TPM role. What should I expect from the interview? Should I prepare as I would for a product manager role? Thanks!! [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 12 Jan 2018 09:06 AM PST I repeatedly told a coworker on more than three separate occasions that I didn't like something and asked him to stop doing it. He said he was just teasing. I asked him to stop teasing and remain professional. I sent him a written email about this and now hr wants to talk to me. Is there anything I need to do to prepare for our talk? [link] [comments]  |
| As a Canadian, how would I convey to companies that I don't need sponsorship? Posted: 12 Jan 2018 12:19 PM PST |
| Is it manageable holding a full time job while being heavily invested in a start-up? Posted: 12 Jan 2018 09:59 AM PST I've a few friends who graduated that didn't go straight into the corporate workforce because they wanted to work on their start up. I do want to work at a start up, but I would also like to make consistent income after graduation. Is it possible having a full time job while really committing to a start up also? I'm only in my 2nd year, and I'll likely be in school 4.5 years, so should I start trying to get into a start up now while I don't have a full-time job? My hesitation is my inexperience and I feel I'm not a strong enough programmer yet. Any advice? Has anyone experience in what would be a good way to go about this? A few reasons I have attraction to a start up is possible opportunity for a piece of equity in what could be a successful company, the chance to really have an expanded role, and the more intimate work environment. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 12 Jan 2018 10:30 AM PST I currently work at BofA for 1 year but have an offer with State Farm. TL,DR: Bank of America has much better benefits. But culture is shit and I'm unhappy. State Farm may have a better culture but benefits aren't good. Total compensation is similar but BofA would be slightly more Bank of America Pros:
Cons:
State Farm Pros:
Cons:
[link] [comments]  |
| Struggling very hard in internship Posted: 12 Jan 2018 08:33 PM PST Hi, first, my apologies if this sounds disorganized and incomprehensible, but I am feeling very burned out and lost. I am a below average student(struggled moderately in school but eventually made through most of CS courses to graduate) that just started an intern position 2 weeks ago and I am having very difficult time and need some advice. First, I have been reading documents for almost 2 weeks to just install software, tools and getting to know things like git and linux system. I had very difficult time and to consistently ask for help because due to being overwhelmed/confused and searching info for doc/google did not work and was stuck on things for long time. I try to search up online/documents but sometimes I just get stuck on things. Also, I understand that it's not a good idea to ask same questions again but even when I write down as much as I can, I just get confused by it and sometimes I end up asking for more clarifications/confirmations. I am still very shaky of linux and version control, which I just think I need more review... Also, there are times when I would spend a lot of time on tiny things that breaks, such as getting connections, configurations etc. I feel like I am very disrupting to coworkers by asking too many questions and I am trying to tone it down and trying to resolve things on my own... After all this struggle, I was just able to start on a ticket recently. I have hard time understand the code and I was unsure/not competent of some programming concepts and it was brought up today that they have concerns about my competency in programming and I was suggested some resources to study after work. They said the things I were confused about were pretty standard in the industry and I was expected to be very familiar with it already. While I had exposure to things, I just simply forgot or not having competency (my fault). Also, a lot of things in the code just seems like new concept to me that I have not encountered and the size of it is just overwhelming... I felt very grateful that they show concerns for me and guiding me to improve, so I will DEFINITELY dedicate rest of my time on studying. However, I just can't get rid of the feeling of how unqualified I am, and every day, the pressure is building up. There are a lot of talented people at my school, including some other experienced interns at work, and a lot of people seem to have great success with internship experience. I have been spending more time than my regular hours just to desperately understand what's going on to a minimum level and making no contribution. I am worried that I will be let go pretty soon. I will, however, try my best to improve but I am beginning to wonder if this is a sign that I am not fit for this kind of job… Again, very sorry for lengthy and unorganized post, any feedback is appreciated. [link] [comments]  |
| Should I be worried about not having an internship even though I have some side projects? Posted: 12 Jan 2018 09:54 AM PST Currently, I'm a senior in computer science. I won't graduate until the fall of 2018. I want to get an internship this summer. I'm worried that not having an internship will kill my possibility of finding a web dev job. I do, however, have side projects that I work on during my free time. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 12 Jan 2018 12:51 PM PST I was in the job interview, and I asked about unit tests. He said they do them depending on client, some want some do not. And I asked - how many are those who do not want. He said - most of them do not want, because it will cost more money. I will probably not get an offer here, because I honestly answered t o "what company do I want" - it would be good to find one which writes unit tests. But isnt this sick? I would be ok if for some parts unit tests are not written when code is too simple or not so relevant even if there will be a bug. But some times you have to work on such complex code that without tests it is even more complex and you cannot have a bugs. You fix one bug, but by fixing you introduce another bug. When fixing another bug, you introduce first bug which you have fixed before, but when you do not have automatic tests, you do not notice that bug, because you recently fixed it, so you are not testing manually again. I remember when I did not know how to write unit tests, my dream was to learn them, because I hated to not be confident when I need to change the code or solve complex problem. But now when I know how to write them - somebody might not allow me. Damn. That is sick. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 12 Jan 2018 08:07 PM PST There doesn't seem to be much of any junior/entry level JavaScript jobs left. (I am in NYC, looking at aggregators like indeed.com). What's popular now for jobs? [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 11 Jan 2018 08:35 PM PST I recently interviewed at a BigN company and felt like I did really well (finished all the questions with optimal solutions, got bonus questions, solved those in time too, and thought I connected with the interviewers personally too). The feedback was that I did great on the 3 coding interviews but didn't show as much domain experience as needed in the system design. In fact they said it was very borderline and they think I could do very well at their company in the future, so please try again next year. For context, I have 3 years of domain experience and this was for a mobile engineering role. I don't feel like I did poorly in the design interview (discussed use cases, tradeoffs of different design decisions, etc), is the standard really so high that a slightly subpar performance is a no hire? Does anyone know what kind of experience is expected from a mobile engineer with 2-3 years of experience? I feel like I do a lot at my current job and have been pretty successful as an engineer, so I guess I'm trying to figure out if I'm really somehow lacking in domain knowledge and just didn't know until now, or if the interviewer just didn't like me for some reason. Day to day, my company has an established product so I rarely have to build low level things from scratch. Many of the nitty gritty components are abstracted away (i.e. for data storage we use SQLite on Android but we have a data manager that handles read/write of data types. So I only have to create a new data type if I want to store something, don't have to do any setup of the DB myself). My day to day work is mostly creating new UI features, figuring out how to architect that code cleanly, etc. I occasionally have to write new modules, but a lot of things can be done using the existing pattern and components in our app. I'm a mid level engineer at a small company, so I also do some mentoring of engineers and people will come to me with questions fairly often. For those of you who've been in the industry awhile, I'm just wondering if you would expect someone with 2-3yrs of experience to have depth of knowledge in all the different components of a mobile app? I feel like it is something you wouldn't really be exposed to at an established company (unless you've worked at several companies across different products and areas of the app), so if I am really expected to know all these things, seems like I will need to do some app building on my own time as well (and switch jobs/teams more frequently). Also, maybe I'm approaching the design interview wrong? I view it as a discussion, where I talk about different parts of the system and discuss some different ways we might want to build it based on use cases, etc. Then the interviewer will ask me some questions about what are the pros and cons of each way. I'll talk about that, we make a decision on which way to go, then we move on to a different part of the system and repeat. Does it sound like I'm being too passive and waiting for them talk things through with me? Should I be coming up with the complete design first before talking through it? I view design as a collaborative process at work with some back and forth involved, but in the interviews are they really just looking for more of a presentation of the finalized design? [link] [comments]  |
| Nonprofit Industry Career Help Needed - Next Steps? Posted: 12 Jan 2018 07:36 PM PST I currently work in the nonprofit industry doing client database management. This involves setting up a web-based SaaS database that is built and managed by a separate company. We buy the software and I configure and manage the database forms, fields, users, and security settings to fit our organization's needs. It is also paired with SAP BusinessObjects WebI and I build queries and reports daily. I have an MBA with an emphasis in Information Systems Management but NO computer science, programming, or coding education/experience. I want to do more in my career, it's kind of plateaued and I'm not sure if learning a coding language will help me or what coding language I want to learn. I am not committed to working in nonprofit my whole career, but right now my skill-set doesn't really let me expand beyond that. I am considered highly tech-savvy at most low-tech nonprofits, but not at most other private corporations or startups. I'm mostly trying to get at what are good paths for me to take to advance further in my career and what skills do I need to start working on to get there? Not sure if I should look for online systems admin/network classes or coding or what... [link] [comments]  |
| Wage discrepancy between management and engineers Posted: 12 Jan 2018 12:01 PM PST What are your thoughts on declining a significant pay raise with the hopes of having that money being distributed to my teammates? Have I lost my mind? Can someone here in management show me why I'm an idiot? Some background: I work for a smallish company whose focus is building software. We have about 50 employees, roughly 10 engineers, and we usually clear about $1.5MM EBIT each year. We're based in a medium-COL location, and the average engineer makes less than $60k after being with the company for 3 years. I'm an engineer right now as well with similar tenure, but I make $90k, and I feel I'm compensated fairly. Most new grads in the area start at $65k in similar-sized companies. There's been discussion about promoting me into management, and along with that comes a pay increase. I don't have the specifics yet, but i've caught wind of my pay being adjusted to something in the $105k-$115k range. This makes me uncomfortable. The new responsibilities aren't much different from my current responsibilities, and I'd only be managing my two other teammates (I'm currently their "team lead"). Throughout my career i've resented the huge wage gap between engineers and managers, and I felt good about fighting for an engineering salary that closed the gap between other engineers and managers. I feel conflicted about accepting the pay increase with the title change because I see myself becoming the problem i've been so against my whole career. I feel that the budget for my raise would be better spent if distributed to my teammates to bring them closer to the market salary for our area. I've talked to the management team in the past about how our standard engineering salaries are falling behind the rest of the area, but they don't seem interested in looking into pay increases for the other engineers. My engineering teammates are highly talented, but loyal to a fault, so they don't seriously pursue other offers and just grit their teeth when they get their standard 2-3% raise each year. Edit: To be clear, I intend to accept the promotion regardless. I'm trying to decided if declining the accompanying raise and asking for that to be allocated to my teammates is a bonehead move on my part. Edit 2: Yup, declining the salary bump would be a dumb move. Thanks for setting me straight. TL;DR: Hate wage gap between management and engineers. Now i'm getting a promotion and a raise and am feeling guilty about becoming what I hate. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 12 Jan 2018 07:26 PM PST I have 5 relevant internships/part time work (no big 4 yet as that's what i'm hoping for next year, but i have airbnb and uber) and about 20 personal/hackathon/school projects. I can put up to 9 projects on my resume with a 1 sentence summary, but I was wondering if you guys think there is an ideal number of projects to have on the resume (3?) and how in detail should i go into my personal projects? (2-3 sentences each?) [link] [comments]  |
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