DEAR VALUED CONTRIBUTORS -- FRIDAY RANT THREAD FOR February 23, 2018 CS Career Questions |
- DEAR VALUED CONTRIBUTORS -- FRIDAY RANT THREAD FOR February 23, 2018
- Daily Chat Thread - February 23, 2018
- What’s annoys you the most about this sub?
- PSA: Machine Learning and AI are more mathematical subjects rather than programming/software development ones.
- Existentialism and Burnout
- How do you handle internships where you did very little?
- If Software Engineering is more practical and relevant to the average CS professional (not research) than the theoretical CS degree, why is a Software Engineering major still not as popular or seen as a strong degree in most cases?
- Any idea about working in Pandora?
- Rant/Obvious advice: when partnering up to start a new business, sign some sort of contract before writing a single line of code
- Testing is an underrated skill, how do I get better at it?
- CS junior, no internship this summer Help?
- What have been the worst parts of your job search experiences?
- How to choose what to focus on in computer science
- What are some good jobs for a people person that has a degree in computer science but doesn't want to code all day?
- Has anyone done the bootcamp with Thinkful or Georgia Tech? In your opinion is it worth it for a career change or is there a better option available?
- How to regain motivation?
- Can an average coder become 10x through deliberate practice and a mindset shift?
- Best places to talk about software engineering, best practices, general people/tech questions that are no permitted on StackOverflow
- Career advice: I am developer with a with a systems engineer degree, I want to work in anything related to make movies. What should I need and what set of skills should be useful ?
- Making career switch to CS, when to feel confident enough to do it?
- Successfully landed first tech internship, how to prepare for it?
- Do full time SWEs ever get overwhelmed
- Cover letter for self-taught dev tips?
- Thoughts on Bridgewater Associates? Is the opportunity/compensation worth the culture?
- what happens to junior devs when a company gets acquired?
- Why do I keep coming back to this sub?
- Seeking advice on The Odin Project as a recent Math graduate
| DEAR VALUED CONTRIBUTORS -- FRIDAY RANT THREAD FOR February 23, 2018 Posted: 22 Feb 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 - February 23, 2018 Posted: 22 Feb 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]  |
| What’s annoys you the most about this sub? Posted: 23 Feb 2018 08:30 AM PST |
| Posted: 23 Feb 2018 10:36 AM PST I see an influx of people on this sub and places where students (primarily high school and undergrad) congregate saying that they're are "interested in", "passionate about" and "motivated towards" ML and AI. There's no problem in that, but the truth is, unless you're willing to put in the hours to be able to solve rudimentary problems like these or these, this field may not be the best for you. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 23 Feb 2018 01:36 PM PST I will finish my CS major in a year, I have to do about 5 easy classes and my thesis. I feel like on autopilot. I know, almost for a fact, that I will not feel any happiness after I graduate. I will be surrounded by my family and girlfriend, throwing hats in the sky, fucking dead inside. But maybe I see everything very negatively. That will be the product of suppressing my SELF heavily for past half a year, not doing what I want in life. Not living. Not living intensely. Feeling like a robot. My girlfriend told me yesterday that I have a cold heart. No shit, I know that, I was fine, alive and loving before this last semester, where I lost all motivation, but pushed myself anyway, grinded through that shit. Now I seriously feel like my heart is DEAD. My soul has not been fed. My Ego on the other hand - I am now very very egoistical. And I hate it. Then, I have a great job. Java EE, well paid, flexible hours, THEY even ALLOW me to make seminars, workshops and articles about crypto. Then one afternoon, I am in a room, listening to a seminar of a colleague. I look around. Every man I see - rounded shoulders, fat belly, illness-like white skin, weak hands, dead eyes, weird socially, that guy immersed into his phone, that guy watching his eWatch or whatever, shit coffee with milk.. I FEEL DISGUSTED. With the thought that I one day will become those guys. Or that I will spend my days between people like them. My last job (C++) was even worse. I was surrounded by full blown autists, and when I told my HR when quitting, that I am looking for a job where I will be happy she laughed and said "You should not be happy when doing a job, job is a job, job is not supposed to make you happy". I "laughed" (at her absurd, sad and close-minded view of the world), but later I realized that some men would punch her in her face for that sentence. I am pretty good at all things IT. But I did not see the signs, even 9 years ago at my IT high school.. that I did not enjoy IT all that much - just the idea of playing games and one time making games (that idealism is over, I despise gamedev - tried to be indie, but then I saw it all - studies on how to make the player most addicted to your game and the whole idea for targeting your product for 15 year olds.. bleh). But I just kept at it. Your free time activities define what you like doing the most. And I don't code or do games, not anymore anyway. I know that the IT is the most well paid job, in my country anyway, and that is probably why I am doing a major in it. I am in love with the idea of having a degree, and moving to Switzerland and making 15k USD a month for JavaEE position, to save some capital for my family, not having to care about money ever again, and spend it on experiences, travel and living my life to the fullest. But at the same time, I don't want to be an IT. Maybe a journalist. Writer. Visual designer. But it's all too late for a career switch. That jump into the uncertain.. Fear of being pinned down to a job that will suck me dry, because I HAVE TO provide for my family. I guess you need a certain character for a long-term IT job. Being okay with the rigid-ness... I don't know. What are your thoughts on all this? How do you see it? [link] [comments]  |
| How do you handle internships where you did very little? Posted: 23 Feb 2018 07:03 PM PST I have two internships relevant to what I want to do. Unfortunately, both were for startups that had no product yet. They wanted me to come in and build some prototypes for them. While they sound great on paper because I tackled a few different ideas, I was rather inexperienced, and had no resources to actually make a functioning product. It was almost like performing research in a lab with no equipment, and nearly no guidance. Other than those startups, I have a few serious course projects on my resume. I get interview calls, but when they ask me about my work experience, I start to flounder because I didn't do much. I fear that removing those startups from my resume will lead to no calls, but keeping them in seems to hurt my credibility. How do you handle such a situation early in your career? [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 22 Feb 2018 10:30 PM PST |
| Any idea about working in Pandora? Posted: 23 Feb 2018 01:10 PM PST I received an offer from Pandora today for Sr Software Engineer role. Anyone here worked here? or have any idea about working there? It will be helpful to decide if I want to take the offer or not. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 23 Feb 2018 07:05 PM PST So me and a couple dudes got together to start a business. We start writing code and a few months in, the business-guys-slash-domain-experts stumble upon a guy who is willing to invest some decent money in the business. Suddenly they decide the developers are no longer very important and that our shares should be dramatically reduced. We obviously don't have much leverage so we just kinda had to deal with it. [link] [comments]  |
| Testing is an underrated skill, how do I get better at it? Posted: 23 Feb 2018 08:15 AM PST I'm a Junior Java Developer that's been working in the field for less than a year since graduating. However I see a lot of people not submitting tests along with their new classes, and it irks me. However even myself the tests for a controller probably takes longer to develop than the controller itself. Mainly because I honestly don't understand how Mockito or PowerMock really works. And how the stubbing of functions should be properly done. I am just asking the community has resources or tips beyond me googling or stackoverflowing my PowerMock Questions. Thank you everyone :) [link] [comments]  |
| CS junior, no internship this summer Help? Posted: 23 Feb 2018 06:12 PM PST I'm CS major in SUNY Buffalo, and I'm a junior. I just realized I need to find an internship for this summer or else I'll have a hard time finding a job in the future. I followed this sub's advice of sounding excited for the interviewer, and it's just not working. I tell my interviewer that I love CS and gaming and I want to do it to become a game developer. Can anyone help me, I'm desperate for anything at this point. I usually spend my summer playing video games, but I just can do it anymore after this girl stopped playing with me. I wished she ditch me earlier, at least I can have to time to find internships, at this point it's too late. What should I do. [link] [comments]  |
| What have been the worst parts of your job search experiences? Posted: 23 Feb 2018 05:50 PM PST |
| How to choose what to focus on in computer science Posted: 23 Feb 2018 03:37 PM PST There's a lot of fields in computer science that catch my interest video games, mobile applications, web development etc.. I was wondering what I could do to decide what to focus on in my career [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 23 Feb 2018 05:46 PM PST Sorry if this is the wrong subreddit for this. I studied computer science in university, and I actually have two engineering internships under my belt. I ended up building a startup, but unfortunately we never got far enough to release our product. I really, really enjoyed being the product manager for the startup, because I am extremely passionate about coming up with new ideas and bringing them to life. However, I'm now looking for what to do next. Unfortunately, I don't want to become a software engineer and PM'ing is kind of hard to break into. I just graduated from college last year and I have some savings to figure out the next steps. So my question is, what kind of jobs could I excel in given that I am a people person with deep computer science knowledge? If it helps, I am an ENFP. I feel like this is funny situation - usually people that don't have CS degrees end up becoming software engineers, not the other way around :P [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 23 Feb 2018 01:58 PM PST I know I'm about to be met with a cacophony of 'you can teach yourself for free' but when it comes down to it, I've been trying to do that on and off for the past 4-5 years, and there's always a point where I get stuck and don't get how to do the next step, and tutors/class TA's/people on the internet I've talked to have told me to pick another career at that point because they're usually frustrated with me not getting it. I have a feeling if I have a mentor or professor talk me through what I'm not getting, I'll be able to understand it. I like the idea of bootcamps and college courses because in my experience once you've paid for something, the people doing the course have an obligation to help you get through it. I have a BA from about a decade ago in a combination of arts and technology, and I have a very basic understanding of HTML and CSS as I used to work on Myspace layouts. I've been in retail for the past five years and my skills have stagnated for the most part. I've read great reviews of both Thinkful and GA Tech, but I'm not sure either of these programs are a good investment. This summer/fall I've applied for a part time program through a local college where I'm taking the CS core (Programming I, Programming II, Computer Organization, Discrete Maths, Data Structures & Algorithms, and Computability and Complexity) and I'd like to take some kind of bootcamp on top of this because my goal is web development and I'd like to be able to get an entry level internship or job starting in late fall. What do you think in general? [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 23 Feb 2018 05:24 PM PST I've loved programming a ton for the past 5 years. I finished my Ms in CS and was ready to dive into this stuff. I had 5 internships and a bit of experience, loved it all. Be me a month into new job. Been depressed, can't get myself interested in the work, really just having a bad work ethic. Minimal guidance and really just filling my brain with negative thoughts. What should I do to regain motivation? The work is extremely complex, but also finding the product in this company not super interesting. [link] [comments]  |
| Can an average coder become 10x through deliberate practice and a mindset shift? Posted: 23 Feb 2018 03:11 AM PST In an interview https://programmersatwork.wordpress.com/bill-gates-1986/, Bill Gates discusses his belief that after 3-4 years, you can pretty much tell if you're a mediocre or great programmer: "GATES: No. I think after the first three or four years, it's pretty cast in concrete whether you're a good programmer or not. After a few years, you may know more about managing large projects and personalities, but after three or four years, it's clear what you're going to be. There's no one at Microsoft who was just kind of mediocre for a couple of years, and then just out of the blue started optimizing everything in sight. I can talk to somebody about a program that he's written and know right away whether he's really a good programmer. If he's really good, he'll have everything at the tip of his tongue. Its like people who play cress. When you're really into playing chess, it's easy to memorize every move in ten chess games, because you're involved in it. Other people look at that recall in chess players, or in programmers, and they think it's like some freak show. But it's completely natural. To this day, I can go to the blackboard and write out huge slabs of source code from the Microsoft BASIC that I wrote ten years ago." I know 10x is an extreme case :p and this might be a classic talent vs. raw skill situation, but just to spark a discussion - this seems like it might be an antithesis to arguments that argue that deliberate practice can greatly improve skills (like Cal Newport's). Just wondering about people's thougts on this? Perhaps some people might take a longer time to develop their skills and passion, or there may be some life circumstances that shift their approach to work. Do any of you guys feel you were "average" early into your careers, but improved drastically down the line? [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 23 Feb 2018 09:13 AM PST As the title says, where do you go to post questions like:
Maybe here on /r/cscareerquestions but not all questions are about career edit: format [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 23 Feb 2018 07:45 PM PST I am working as a web developer. I know Javascript, PHP, Mysql, Java, C# and I have good knowledge in good practices. I know is a very open question, but one of my dreams is to work in the movie industry but I like programing, so i would like to know what could I do to combine both passions. I read that C++ would be useful, but what else I could need for this career path. PD: If you have any advide to work with soccer or in a soccer team, also to work as a developer or doing some programming related job, it would be very appreciate. Thank you!! [link] [comments]  |
| Making career switch to CS, when to feel confident enough to do it? Posted: 23 Feb 2018 01:37 PM PST Hi everyone, Last fall, I started taking night classes at UM Dearborn as part of an eventual career switch into software development. I've worked for 7 or 8 years in a niche public sector field, and the requirement to constantly move to progress in my career (low density in any given area) is just too burdensome on my wife and I to continue. I got more and more interested in Computer Science through some limited programming in my current role, and after discussing it with some programmer friends, decided to start taking prerequisite classes. I asked a professor for some advice regarding how I might proceed, and his answer was suprising. He suggested I just take the classes I need to develop a base skill set, and not worry about actually finishing the masters. From his perspective (he's a lecturer, not faculty, he has a programming job elsewhere), he said he looks for 1) Any degree, 2) a good enough level of programming knowledge, 3) problem solving skills, and 4) likability. Complicating matters is that I need to find a position that can come close enough to match my current salary (mid 50's) when I make the switch, since we have a house and my wife is pregnant with our first child. So it'd be tough for me take a low paying internship. At what point should I start feeling confident enough in my skillset that I can try to get a job? Are there any benchmarks that you would suggest I cross? I think I'm a pretty good student, and believe I could make a good programmer, but its just hard to feel confident in when I cross the threshold to being good enough to put myself out there. I know my natural inclination is to believe I need a degree to demonstrate my qualifications, but I don't hold that standard over people when hiring at my current job. Any thoughts are appreciated! [link] [comments]  |
| Successfully landed first tech internship, how to prepare for it? Posted: 23 Feb 2018 07:15 PM PST Hey guys, I have landed my first internship this summer and was wondering how do you guys think I should prepare for it? The tech stack they use is completely new to me, (C# and .NET) and I have never touched those before. What kind of advice do you guys have to someone who just landed their first tech internship? [link] [comments]  |
| Do full time SWEs ever get overwhelmed Posted: 23 Feb 2018 03:13 PM PST Do you ever get overwhelmed when you're in a new environment and actually have no clue what's going on. Like you're adding a feature and trying to use built in methods and have no clue what anything does or why you're doing anything. Does this happen a lot? Do you get used to it? [link] [comments]  |
| Cover letter for self-taught dev tips? Posted: 23 Feb 2018 12:40 PM PST Most cover letters samples that I've seen are for current or graduating university students or for those with experience. I'm beginning the application process and was hoping to get some input for cover letters for those switching careers. Background: Graduated in 2012 with a degree in Finance, worked as a sys admin until the beginning of 2016, took a year long sabbatical living abroad and doing travel photography, returned to the same job, and began teaching myself CS through online classes, books, projects, etc. I've read multiple posts throughout this subreddit about how worthless cover letters are, but is this mostly for CS students or those already with dev experience? My thought is that for someone like me who is switching career paths, it might be useful to explain my story and elaborate on how and why I chose to pursue CS. Thoughts? Input on how I should structure the cover letter and what all I should include and talk about would be especially useful. Thanks! [link] [comments]  |
| Thoughts on Bridgewater Associates? Is the opportunity/compensation worth the culture? Posted: 23 Feb 2018 12:17 PM PST Have an new-grad on-site with Bridgewater coming up in a few weeks. I've searched in the subreddit about them, but found no one who actually worked there weighing in. I understand the culture is different than most companies and might be considered toxic, but as a new grad, I don't think it'd be wise to pass up the opportunity to work at the biggest hedge fund in the world if I get the chance. It might also look good to other companies if I choose to shift to Jane Street/Two Sigma/D.E. Shaw/Prop Trading Firms. However I'm not sure if there's some kind of "stigma" attached to having the Bridgewater name on my resume. Can anyone with more experience/knowledge about the firm weigh in here? They're pretty secretive about their information so even things like Glassdoor don't seem too helpful. Thanks! [link] [comments]  |
| what happens to junior devs when a company gets acquired? Posted: 23 Feb 2018 02:12 PM PST What happens to junior developers when a company gets acquired? There are some not so nice rumors floating around this company I'm joining soon in the summer. I'm not really worried about what will happen just curious if others have gone through the same thing, and what happened? Suppose the junior will be working on a team that isn't related to the core tech. [link] [comments]  |
| Why do I keep coming back to this sub? Posted: 23 Feb 2018 05:42 PM PST [posted from a throwaway as a reddit-holic] Don't get me wrong, this sub has been incredibly useful for me in the past and I am grateful:
Now, as a senior in my final semester, I have an entry-level job that is nowhere near the Big N and not in a tech hub, but that I am very happy with and will not be trying to leave ASAP. So why do I keep coming back to this sub, especially when I hardly participate in discussions anymore? I'm guessing that it's probably so that I can experience schadenfreude and feel better about myself as I am struggling with a combination of senioritis and perhaps a mild depression [ooh, I got that first job, now what?]. YES, I know that makes me a dick and that is why I'm trying to get off. Also, as a major introvert it kind of makes me feel like a part of a community. Considering that I'm not seeking career advice for the time being and not participating to help others, I need to get the heck off. This entire post has been pointless and you may make fun of it [fire away!], but I'm kind of just getting this off my chest so I stop wasting time here and actually do the work to graduate in this final semester. [link] [comments]  |
| Seeking advice on The Odin Project as a recent Math graduate Posted: 23 Feb 2018 11:41 AM PST New and glad to be here! I'll have my math degree this April and, shock, I'm not qualified for anything. I've looked at this idea of becoming a Full Stack Web Developer through a bootcamp and found The Odin Project. I've never learned a language before, but I'm kick-ass with logic because of my abstract math background (and I'm good at applied math too). So here are a few questions:
My current goal is to try and find a job starting now and to do ToP while trying to find a job. That way, if I don't get a job in 4-6 months, I'll have this under my belt (depending on how long it actually takes). This plan is flexible and I am open to any and all advice. Feel free to answer as many questions as you like and anything else you'd like to add. Thank you so much! [link] [comments]  |
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