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    Interview Discussion - February 05, 2018 CS Career Questions

    February 05, 2018

    Interview Discussion - February 05, 2018 CS Career Questions

    Interview Discussion - February 05, 2018

    Posted: 04 Feb 2018 11:09 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.

    submitted by /u/AutoModerator
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    Daily Chat Thread - February 05, 2018

    Posted: 04 Feb 2018 11:09 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.

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    Anyone here have a CS undergrad and MBA?

    Posted: 05 Feb 2018 08:33 AM PST

    Why did you get MBA when you could have just gone for lucrative programming career? Is it worth it ? How's the salary?

    Thanks!

    submitted by /u/darthSiderius
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    Experienced Software Engineer Having a Hard Time Landing a New Job

    Posted: 05 Feb 2018 01:41 PM PST

    I have been a C++/Python software engineer for the past 6 years. I got bored with my job and there's no room for advancement. I just finished my Masters degree in computer engineering while working full-time, have references and performance awards. I consider myself a good programmer and a hard worker. None of that seems to matter when I go for an interview.

    My first interview really beat me up because I wasn't expecting to still be grilled on how well I could memorize certain things with this much experience. I went through leetcode and a few courses like Udacity's practice for the coding interview and refresh all my core concepts. I'm not the best at recalling information from the top of my head but I've never been in a position where I don't have the Internet to help me remember a use case or definition from a function in a library. I pass the initial screening whether it be a timed one where they watch your screen or one where they send it to you and give you time to work on a problem. Then in person, I feel like things go well with the meet and greet and decently on the next wave of coding questions they ask me. This is my fifth time being turned down now and none have given me feedback despite my requests for it. It gets exhausting.

    Does anyone have suggestions how to proceed? I've skimmed through the FAQs but it seems like most are directed towards new college grads. I really hate the atmosphere where your resume means nothing unless you can prove you can do a problem in front of people while they watch you. My degrees, experience and awards don't seem to influence them at all. My friends who are engineers in different fields don't get tested when they want to move jobs. They just talk with them about their experience and then decide based on how their conversation went. #rant

    submitted by /u/Takachsin
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    My story: from 0 to 210

    Posted: 05 Feb 2018 07:03 PM PST

    minor details in this story have been changed in order to maintain my anonymity

    I got into CS for the money. One of my friends who had finished a masters in CS had received 200k+ options from a unicorn. I thought to myself damn if he can do it let me at least give it a try.

    I started taking the introductory classes. I was getting A's and B's in the CS classes but because I was overloading my overall GPA dropped. CS department would not let me transfer in. I was determined to take the upper level classes as well so I reached out to professors to help me get in. I managed to take most of the classes that I was interested in.

    During my Junior-Senior summer I would spend my free time, in between a (non CS) internship, practicing on LeetCode (I have solved 300+ problems). You do not need to do that much, solve the top 100 liked/interview question and you should be fine. But really understand those questions, don't just memorize them. Most of the time I would work the problem out on paper, come up with some sort of brute force approach and then code it up. It is a hard come-up, the first 50 problems were painfully difficult. After a point, you get better and solving/learning the solutions becomes fun.

    I started applying to jobs and internships. Most of the time I would not get the interview. I got the Microsoft phone interview, I solved their problem and even impressed the interviewer. But I did not get the offer, I think probably because I applied both to full-time and internship positions at Microsoft. This rejection got to me for like a good two weeks.

    I just want to note here that here there were a lot of nights where I lost sleep over feeling like a failure. Where it felt like all the overtime I had put in into DS was turning its back on me. In between the summer, my Microsoft, Apple, and Google interview I was applying to as many places as I could. Practicing for the coding interview, hitting up connections for referrals. I will not talk about every single rejection I got or every single time I had to burry my face in my hands, but they happened all too frequently.

    I used refdash and interviewingIO as practice and if you do well you can apply to jobs using their platform. I got nothing through refdash, not even interviews. With inteviewingIO I would get interviews, make it to onsights but then would promptly get rejected because of a lack of experience (the feedback I received from the recruiters).

    They are both really good for what they are not—a mechanism to practice real interviewing. If you already have the experience you will get the interview through classic means of applying to jobs, if you do not have the experience but are good at coding then you will get the interview but will get rejected for a lack of experience. If you want to get better at interviews, first go through cracking the coding interview then do some leetcode/hackerrank and then try those resources out as you have a limited number of interviews.

    I got onsights for Uber. I had four interviews, I killed all of them :) All the practicing was paying off—it felt really good. One thing I learned from the onsight interviews is that big companies like to hire people that will challenge the status quo.

    Here is what I mean: I had questioned the role and responsibilities (in a respectful way) of one of the more senior interviewers—almost as if I was interviewing him for a position. I was worried that I had left a bad taste in his mouth, yet when the recruiter called me two weeks later to give me an offer she mentioned how he had enjoyed his talk with me. So back to my story.

    I got onsights at Google. They seemed to be the more chill kind of coders. I have done a lot of LeetCode problems but of the four coding interviews I had that day only one of them was a problem I had seen before.

    I told the interviewer that I had seen this problem and that if he wanted to he could give me another problem, he thanked me for being honest but still let me solve the same problem (but he did throw a couple curve balls along the way).

    I got the feel that they were looking for people who are enthusiastic about coding (on top of being good at algorithms and DS). There was one or two spots where I was kind of stuck but the interviewer gave me tips that allowed me to solve the problem—it is important to note that I had already solved the problem and was thinking of a way in which to optimize it but I could not think of a normalizer and the interviewer suggested a way in which we could do that (in the relative scheme of things it was a small push to help me get going).

    I had a phone screening with a financial company in Chicago. It went well, I had a couple phone interviews and then onsights with them. The onsights were nothing like Uber's or Google's. The people were nice but you could they were result oriented.

    The interviews consisted of both coding and behavioral interviews. For the coding interviews, they were interested in seeing a quick and simple solution followed by an analysis of runtime and what we could do to improve the runtime and some unit testing (we compiled and ran the code so it was kind of stressful). I felt like the behavioral interviews were more to see if I was a good listener—they knew by then that I was a good/fast coder and now they were looking to see if I could listen and communicate with them to make their lives easier.

    I will be starting in a couple months and my total first year compensation is around 210k. I am the son of two immigrants, my parents were proud. A couple months ago I was still this good but with no offers. I got lucky. But luck tends to find those that are persistent. For those of you out there that know they are good but have not yet found a job keep working and one day the pieces will land together.

    Notes: I struggled through the job search because of my lack of experience, but on the other hand I had friends who got internships without putting in a tenth of the time I put in.

    I got the Microsoft, Google, and financial company interviews through referrals. I got Uber after meeting with them at a career fair where they sent out a mass coding challenge and I solved it pretty quickly.

    Tips and reflections from my job search experience: Recruiters are not your friends, maintain the same level of professionalism with them as you did during the interview. Master around 100-150 LeetCode problems Hit up personal connections for referrals, professors tend to have a lot of people that could help you out

    It is okay to say you do not know something.
    EX: What is the difference between a process and a thread? I do not know but I think it was related to access of the main function EX: How could you improve this solution? I think I would use a heap.
    Okay can you implement that? Sorry I do not know off the top of my head how to use a heap but the general idea is that the maximum value would be at the top of the heap and insert would be log(n). This would improve our solution in the case when we want to find the maximum value more times than we call insert. We would have O(1) runtime to find the maximum value.

    submitted by /u/ThrowAwayCS123_
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    Not getting any bites for any jobs at all. QA, SWE, SDET, nothing. Am I screwed in tech?

    Posted: 05 Feb 2018 04:29 PM PST

    Computer science graduate. 2.5 GPA. No internships. No network. Been out of school for 2 years, and in those two years I've been working in tech, but in sales.

    I've put in 200+ applications over the last few months. I do have personal projects, but apparently not interesting enough for any companies at all.

    I want to gain experience, but I can't get internships because I'm out of school. I'm starting to even apply for unpaid development work but I haven't heard back yet.

    I'm starting to feel completely unemployable. I hear about how some people get interviews and literally can't code, but that's not me. What the hell is wrong with me?

    submitted by /u/csthrowaway716391
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    Best way to escalate - unresponsive developers

    Posted: 05 Feb 2018 05:33 PM PST

    Hi all,

    An external team's developer don't respond to my emails. I need him to respond to me for getting work done. I pinged him, and asked for update in the tracking issue. It said "read" on the message so I know he read my message but he still ignore me. Is it best to cc their manager on email asking for update? Should I cc my manager as well?

    submitted by /u/jysamaa
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    Interested in a career in biotech. General advice requested, plus specific questions inside

    Posted: 05 Feb 2018 10:45 AM PST

    So after not really knowing what I wanted to do with my CS degree for the first 2ish years of my undergrad, I realized it would be super fulfilling to get a job in biotech in some regard. I would love to help research cures for cancer or diseases, improve treatment methods, or work with medical devices. This potential career path brings a ton of different questions, though, so I thought I'd see if anyone could help answer some of them. I'll have a bunch of questions here, but any advice on even just one would be much appreciated.

    General questions- I have no experience whatsoever with the biotech field, so while it sounds like something that'd be great, I really don't know a ton about it. Could anyone provide some insight with what it's like, generally? Things you do, what you use, what sort of environment to expect (I know this might vary from place to place), where jobs come from (research centers, universities, private companies?), pay grade, and anything else that might be helpful to know to someone new to the sector. Also would be interested in the same information and basic introduction to bioinformatics, plus how biotech and bioinformatics relates and differs

    My background information- I'm currently in my last semester of my undergrad. Will graduate in May with a BA in CS. No internships, but 2 solid personal projects. I'd consider myself a solid, not fantastic programmer, perhaps with more breadth than depth (have worked with a decently wide range of languages/tools but only would really consider myself really well versed in 2-3 of those). My college didn't offer any CS courses related to biotech, and I don't have any sort of a background in the medical/physical science field either. Questions:

    • From what I've seen, pretty much everything in biotech requires a Masters or PhD to get into. Is that generally accurate?

    • Would I want to have a background in more of the medical/physical sciences if I want to do biotech?

    • I'm not opposed to pursuing a Masters/PhD, but wouldn't start it right after graduating this spring (for a wide range of seasons). Instead, I'm planning to get a full time job immediately or soon after I graduate (yes I've started looking/applying already), even if it's not in biotech, to get some money and experience, then start with the M/PhD a few years down the road. Does that sound like a logical plan? Any tips for what sort of jobs I should be looking for to help get relevant experience to biotech, or doesn't it matter that much? I've been looking in healthcare technology for now, both because of personal interest, and because it seems more relevant than other areas

    • I was born and raised in the midwest and would really prefer to stay there to raise a family. However, in my limited experience, it seems like biotech companies are very heavily concentrated on either coast, with not much in between. I'd love to be able to stay in MN, and could deal with a move to the surrounding states, but moving way out to a cost would be pretty difficult to me and I'm not sure if that's something I'd want to do. Without getting too much into it, I have a GF of several years I'm pretty serious with (also from MN), have a lot of family in the midwest, and never have lived anywhere else (I'm also not someone that can just get up and move to wherever, just not who I am). I've been to Washington state before and did really enjoy the area, but moving there full time is a hugely different situation. How difficult would it be to find something in biotech in the midwest/what are some of the companies that do biotech in the midwest?

    Thanks in advance for the tips and advice. Biotech is something that sounds really awesome to me, and I'd love to do something meaningful like that with my career, but I'm entirely unfamiliar with it all, and right now it feels fairly daunting. Trying to get a better grasp of it all and see if it still sounds like something good for me. Thanks again!

    submitted by /u/WollyTwins
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    Will teaching code to kids help my chances at landing a dev job?

    Posted: 05 Feb 2018 12:06 PM PST

    I've been asked to interview for a position to teach an after school coding class for k-12 graders.

    It'll be a part time gig on my days off. I'm not sure if this would actually help my chances.

    submitted by /u/ChicoMalo69
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    Unemployed and waiting on grad school apps - What jobs should I look for to fill the time gap?

    Posted: 05 Feb 2018 06:56 PM PST

    I worked as a software developer at Epic Systems in Madison, WI for one year after undergrad. I started to get overwhelmed there and realized my interests and personality were likely more suited to academia, so I resigned last July and took the rest of the summer and fall to think about my interests and then apply to grad schools. (In hindsight, it was probably stupid to quit without another job lined up, but at least I had a decent amount of savings lined up, and no student debt.)

    Now, I'm waiting to hear back from the schools I applied to and trying to figure out the best way to fill the spring and summer. My lease expires at the end of June, so unless I get accepted into UW Madison and decide to enroll there, I'll be moving out of state in about 4 months. Am I likely to find a short-term software-related job this spring, or am I better off taking any job I can find (retail, service, etc.)?

    submitted by /u/proofbycontradancing
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    I am a US citizen, have 3.5 years of embedded software dev skills (C/C++) in a Big Chip company, and I can't even get a call with a non B4 for the last few weeks!

    Posted: 05 Feb 2018 04:04 PM PST

    I have been applying on both Linkedin and resp. company websites for the last 3 weeks. Some of the companies I applied are AirBnb, Uber, Twitter, Linkedin, 2sigma, snapchat etc

    Is it a killzone out there or is it just my R.s.ume?

    a few caveats though,

    1. I have a hindu name (mentioned us citizen in resume)
    2. Applying to NYC positions mostly, and a few in Bay Area(currently in Southern CA)
    3. Don't have a linkedin picture
    4. did my undergrad in an Indian university but masters at virginia tech (electrical and computer, not a target school)

    I can get B4 intvs. via few referrals and recruiters, but don't have access to any other companies. Interestingly, my colleagues are getting intvs. with ease.

    Have been working hard (LC, Sys Design, RTOS) for the last 3 months, it is sickening to not even be able to interview. I'd rather interview and fail, than not interview at all after all this hardwork.

    submitted by /u/throw_3223
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    Canadian software developers who moved to the United States: What struggles did you face when you try to get your American job and what difficulties did you face when you move and adjust to life in the United States?

    Posted: 05 Feb 2018 06:11 PM PST

    Few questions I have:

    1. How did you get your job offer and what difficulties did you face during your job search? (I am more interested in large companies that are not Big N / Unicorns)

    2. How did you adjust to living in the United States? (stuff like finding a place to rent, getting your driver's license, moving your car and other possessions, etc.)

    3. Was it worth to go through the hurdle to work in the United States? Would you ever move back to Canada?

    submitted by /u/CommentFizz
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    Anyone have a STEM degree but works in software?

    Posted: 05 Feb 2018 03:48 PM PST

    Im curious primarily for engineers. Since I am a bootcamp-grad to be, does having a STEM (engineering specifically) degree help when applying for jobs.

    submitted by /u/SiliconValleygoHome
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    Is .Net and C# really worth taking time to study?

    Posted: 05 Feb 2018 05:54 PM PST

    Most of the jobs in my area want experience in .NET and C# but I feel like a lot of companies are veering off and beginning to implement Javascript frameworks in their stack. So, I'm trying to figure out is it worth me learning .NET/C# or just looking into getting more experience in Javascript frameworks for the long term benefit.

    submitted by /u/b_gonads
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    Self found Internships vs Internships through University

    Posted: 05 Feb 2018 05:42 PM PST

    Do people know if there's a difference in hiring rate of university students through an official university co-op / intern program vs. finding an internship yourself by either applying online or through connections? I'm more so asking about medium and larger sized companies.

    submitted by /u/howyoudodis
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    Is it a good time to join Uber now?

    Posted: 05 Feb 2018 10:41 AM PST

    I was wondering only based in the scandal and the fact that they at not ipo

    submitted by /u/LapTing2351
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    I am making a lateral move in my company, is this an opportunity to ask for more money?

    Posted: 05 Feb 2018 08:42 AM PST

    I was offered a position at another team in my company. The team in question is very cutting edge, so they have a problem keeping people because the company is cheap, so they leave to make more money.

    I won't be getting promoted or anything, just a switch to a new team, albeit a more challenging team. Is this an opportunity to negotiate for better pay? Ultimately I am joining this team no matter what to gain the skills, but I'm not good with these kind of negotiations. How would I even approach that conversation?

    submitted by /u/BasicDesignAdvice
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    Professional organizations are they worth it or is there any people would join

    Posted: 05 Feb 2018 10:24 AM PST

    Title says most of it, but is any one a member of any professional organization like IEEE, ACM, etc does it help with their benefits, network, etc or is it not worth it. Is there any of organizations that you would otherwise join that may not be considered a professional org.

    Edit: This is for young professionals or someone who is already in the workforce, rather than just college. Some background for me is that I do Android development with some experience in the VR/AR industry.

    submitted by /u/Coynepam
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    What are some stable career options that are not mainstream?

    Posted: 05 Feb 2018 05:03 PM PST

    Hi r/cscareerquestions . I'm looking for career paths that are not mainstream and relatively less crowded. I'm unable to decide.Can anyone help me out?

    Thanks.

    submitted by /u/user35347
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    demand for C# or C++

    Posted: 05 Feb 2018 02:16 PM PST

    I am curious between C# or C++ which has the most business demand. and where do both of these languages excel at?

    submitted by /u/Rkworkman
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    I'm a high school senior trying to decide on an undergrad program. What factors should I consider, career-wise?

    Posted: 05 Feb 2018 07:41 PM PST

    Currently, I'm considering between three options:

    1. No name school with solid co-op program: I've lurked enough on this SubReddit to understand prestige isn't everything. I'm considering schools like Carleton University (relatively unknown Canadian school) that offer co-op terms, alternating between academic and work terms. Subsidized pay by the government and work terms during winter and spring instead of summer (less competition) will make internships a lot easier to come by. This will allow me to graduate with nearly two years of work experience.

    2. Somewhat prestigious school, CS major: A school like UBC or UCSD (I'm out of state for UCSD so tuition will be pricey). There is a co-op program for UBC, but it's not guaranteed and there aren't many work terms.

    3. Prestigious school, not CS major: I'm fairly confident I can get into CMU and Waterloo—except not as a CS major. At CMU, I have a good shot at getting into statistics, and at Waterloo, I can get into the math program (with co-op).

    There are still other qualities I feel like I should consider, such as proximity to a tech hub.

    submitted by /u/1100H19
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    What should I do if an application form has a "weird" question?

    Posted: 05 Feb 2018 09:06 AM PST

    Applying for placements, and one of the applications has a question regarding "What IT challenges is our company currently facing" [paraphrasing] "What are the IT challenges facing [their company] currently?", and a follow-up of how I personally would approach/resolve those.

    I searched their website and tried to find anything about them on news sites etc but I couldn't find any challenges (they wouldn't exactly go around advertising their company's downfalls).

    submitted by /u/GioVoi
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    Considering leaving software engineering

    Posted: 05 Feb 2018 07:38 PM PST

    I'm new to the software industry, so I wanted to reach out and get some more seasoned thoughts on my situation. I graduated from a top-3 CS university with a solid GPA, spent the summer studying for programming interviews, and managed to land a SWE job at a startup in the Silicon Valley. The compensation is great, I'm getting good benefits (health insurance, 401k, commuting), and I have incredible co-workers who're emotionally intelligent and bright technical thinkers. My manager is compassionate and challenges me to do well at my job, which has been so helpful during my time here. I don't work insane hours, much unlike the reputation among tech startups here.

    But it's only been five months, and I've been thinking deeply about whether a career in software engineering is right for me. I already feel burnt out, constantly dreading the idea of sitting for hours a day in front of a computer. Every single day when I come home from work I think of other potential jobs I can go into. I cherish the weekends so much because it means I don't have to go to work. And the fact that I have such a great working environment makes me think that somehow my thoughts may be valid.

    To give additional context, I grew up in a poor family. Objectively speaking, my family falls under the federal poverty line of less than $28,780 for a family of 5. My family's incredibly proud of me, and they've never financially pressured me to give them more than I want to. But with this background, there's a sense that I'd be making an unwise decision if I were to let this job go. Thankfully, I don't have any debt to my name. I managed to get through college working jobs, receiving financial aid, and getting scholarships, which I think is another important factor to know when making these sorts of decisions.

    I know that many of us can be prone to "the grass is greener" mentality. I've put lot of thought into whether or not I'm subscribed to this mindset, and concluded that the fact that I don't want to be doing this long-term is good reason enough not to delve deep into it. From your perspective, do you think my desire to leave software is a sensible one?

    submitted by /u/onewaytothrow
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    Is it bad to hack stuff all the time

    Posted: 05 Feb 2018 12:47 AM PST

    So I'm an undergrad majoring in CS. I'm curious if my method of coding is bad and detrimental to my career.

    I work as a research assistant for writing code for projects. But I never actually write code. I write a few lines of code at maximum. I end up pulling GitHub repositories, mixing them up, changing a few lines, and getting the stuff done for research. Even if the thing I want doesn't exist, I end up finding the components online, and combining them to make the product. Not much coding.

    I do read the entire code to know where and what to edit for my purpose. But I don't remember the last time I wrote a script on my own. I've programmed this way in several areas like backend, microcontroller low level code, signal processing, etc etc.

    My professor is happy because I do stuff in all areas, but I know I can't call any area my thing. I just know a little bit of every area to hack stuff in it and put stuff together. I'm not sure if this would be good or bad for my career.

    I sort of get done really really fast in my lab. My lab was happy I got a 3 month job done in a few weeks, but deep down I know I didn't write any of that code on my own. I just browsed GitHub, checked licenses, and pulled some stuff and combined. I don't know if this is how it works in the real world, and whether this is making me a bad programmer.

    submitted by /u/eden_hazard_99
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    Pros of MBA vs MCS

    Posted: 05 Feb 2018 01:21 PM PST

    As my time being an undergrad is almost over, I have been considering grad school for quite some time. I've been hoping to get into some sort of big data / machine learning work in the future, but not do a PhD. I was thinking of doing a thesis-based masters, but lately I have been considering to instead take some time off and work instead, and also consider an MBA.

    I have only done 1 co-op term, and it was research. It was an extremely chill job, and I feel as if it were not really comparable to industry jobs, so I don't really know what they would be like.

    My dream would be to own my own company, most likely doing something related to my big data crush. I believe there are benefits to both master programs here:

    Computer science:

    More knowledge about specific area (also could be obtained from books instead?)

    Better researching skills

    Can pair up with a business person?

    MBA:

    Networking

    Business skills (which I have none of, but again could read about?)

    Taking into account that me doing a start up could not be a thing, I would like to maximize my pay and job satisfaction. I don't really know what type of things a technical manager gets into, and I don't know if I would get burned out of being a programmer.

    What are your thoughts on this?

    submitted by /u/TensorBros
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    What jobs to apply for (in the meantime) if I cannot get a dev job right away?

    Posted: 05 Feb 2018 07:03 PM PST

    On the off chance that I am unable to secure a software developer job before graduating this June, what kinds of full time jobs (maybe non tech related) does CSCQ recommend someone get while continuing their job search?

    I have to move out of my current place by graduation and need to start paying bills / tuition. Also, I will be living in the Seattle area after graduation for reference if that helps.

    Thanks!

    submitted by /u/this_next
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