Interview Discussion - February 22, 2018 CS Career Questions |
- Interview Discussion - February 22, 2018
- Daily Chat Thread - February 22, 2018
- How to pronounce "char" ?
- The biggest factor of your success in CS and Software Engineering? Mindset.
- Probably getting fired Friday or Monday
- Advice for a beginner
- Sick and tired of garbage work/life balance and work culture in the SF Bay Area. What can I do about this?
- Students, how do you do it? I'm so overwhelmed with the things that need to be done to be a strong candidate - what's your day to day schedule like?
- Rejection letter question
- Georgia Tech (OMS CS Specialization in Machine Learning) vs. Stanford (Artificial Intelligence Graduate Certificate)
- Older engineers who made a career switch: Do you find that people expect more from you because you're older, even though you're still a junior?
- How can I transition from software engineering to cyber security?
- iOS software engineer's career
- Which internship should I accept? PM vs Backend
- Maths undergrad, mental health messed up my grades and now I don't know what to do about internships or how to explain my grades.
- Whats your elevator pitch like?
- Is 'cyber security' simply just a buzzword?
- Is it detrimental to be in a job that is incredibly behind?
- How would you compare the company culture of different companies you've worked at?
- As an intern during the school year, when do I tell my boss I won’t be returning for the summer?
- MBA required for Product Management?
- Becoming Self-Taught?
- 1099 contractors, what are things you can expense to lower your taxes?
- Position to apply for?
- Is there a high chance that as a freshman that I will be able to get an internship?
- Where to go from here
| Interview Discussion - February 22, 2018 Posted: 21 Feb 2018 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 - February 22, 2018 Posted: 21 Feb 2018 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]  |
| Posted: 22 Feb 2018 07:15 AM PST Friend asked how to pronounce char, and only gave two options; i.e is it "car" or "char" I told him it was "care" because it's a character He gave me bert stare. Pretty sure I'm right though [link] [comments]  |
| The biggest factor of your success in CS and Software Engineering? Mindset. Posted: 22 Feb 2018 01:45 PM PST I've been subscribed to /r/cscareerquestions for a few years now. It's helped me greatly through the entirety of my undergrad at a mid ranked public university in the northeast US, and I'm hoping I can contribute to the community by sharing my experiences.
When I started my undergrad, I was fairly interested in CS - I dabbled in building sites as a kid, and some light scripting. But truth be told, I was way more interested in partying rather than learning djikstra's. In spite of slacking off, I managed to land an internship that freshman year working for a multinational telecomm company in Beirut. I got it entirely from networking; I joined the innovation society at my school, and made my interests in CS known to a peer. His dad ended up being the hiring manager at the company, and that summer turned out be an incredible exposure to professional software engineering as well as the beautiful country of Lebanon.
The next summer, I ended up working for a tiny marketing company as a network admin. I spent my "internship" working for free, wiring network cabling through asbestos ceiling tiles, helping coworkers operate their e-mail, and other menial tasks. The experience was very humbling, and this is the first instance in my CS career where I had to use my secret weapon: mindset.
Despite the relative success of my first year, I was completely unsuccessful in getting even past a phone screen with over 100 applications, and so I took the job I could because I knew that I needed to make the most of the circumstances I was in. I asked my manager for permission to create a web-based internal ticketing system for the employees to use, and he approved. I came away from that summer with an additional few months of software engineering experience solely because of my constant effort to keep a positive mindset. I can't stress enough to you how easy it would've been to become frustrated with that situation, but ultimately I managed to salvage it by reframing what I wanted to get out of the experience: a bitter summer of regret or furthering my career.
Summer of junior year was even worse: I had spent the year studying abroad, and it really hindered my job search. I worked for a fledgling startup, bootstrapped by one of the founders' day job. I was paid terribly, didn't have any engineers to learn from or work with, and I felt really unsure about my prospects for after graduation (especially because I kept reading this subreddit!).
I spent that year grinding leetcode obsessively, studying system design, networking, applying constantly, practicing interviews. After 8 months of job searching, 4 final round failures, hundreds of applications, I was graduating without a job. I felt depleted, especially considering my classmates were heading to Youtube, TripAdvisor, etc. On the day of graduation, I got my first job offer. It was in NYC for 65k as a Software Engineer for a web dev consulting company (with a stipulation that I'd get a 5k raise after 6 months). It's not the job I wanted, but I could foresee a future where I would make the most of this, just like my prior internship experiences.
I was put on a project I didn't enjoy at all, working with healthcare tech and doing a bunch of data related engineering. It wasn't what I had envisioned for my time as an Engineer - I thought I'd have cool perks, work in a modern framework, and get paid handsomely. I forced myself to consider the ultimatum: a bitter tenure of regret or furthering my career. I chose the latter, and took my job seriously despite not enjoying the work at first. With my mentality allowing me to persevere, I found a deeper appreciation for working with big data, creating analytics, and being a domain knowledge expert. My 6 months flew by, and it was time to get the raise that was promised to me when I first signed on - except my CTO pulls me aside and says it isn't the best time, the company needs to land new projects and I should wait until annual review time in a few months. This left me feeling extremely bitter, that my company couldn't even spare 5k that they had already contractually agreed to, especially considering a wage of 65k in NYC as a Software Engineer. I ended the year feeling depleted yet again, unsure of whether the mindset was going to save me this time.
I gave it a shot and started sprucing up my resume, reaching out to recruiters, and studying the job market in my area. My annual review comes and goes, the raise is never even mentioned. It didn't bother me, because I had just received an offer to be a Data Engineer at a fintech startup making twice what I was at my current job. The work that I'll be doing is practically the same that I was doing at my first job for 65k. My mentality during my tenure allowed me to engross myself in the work, and make the most of it. And that mentality has now gotten me close to everything I wanted from my CS career. I get to work on a product I'm really interested in, with a bunch of perks, and a great check.
TL;DR: I've had a lot of failures, roadblocks, and bad decisions throughout my undergrad and CS career. None of that mattered in the long run, and the only way I was able to stick it out for that long was because I forced myself to consider the positive outlook on any situation. If there's anything to take away from my experience, it's to make the most of your circumstances. Don't take any opportunity you get for granted, and keep persevering to get what you deserve. [link] [comments]  |
| Probably getting fired Friday or Monday Posted: 22 Feb 2018 03:44 AM PST I was hired at my first job a couple months ago, and now I'm pretty sure I'm getting fired. This isn't an overreaction either: my boss told me I was a good employee but not a good developer and suggested I apply for a different role in the company or find a developer job elsewhere. Between my bad interviewing in general and the fact that someone else has applied and gotten a job in that department since I interviewed, I'm pretty sure I didn't get that job either. At this point I don't know what to do besides do my best at work, apply for other jobs when I get home, and hope he forgot about our conversation. Update: I've been removed from the project development mailing list. It's pretty much whenever he gets around to it at this point, which I'm betting will be today or tomorrow. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 22 Feb 2018 04:11 PM PST Hello! I am looking into getting my BS in software development. I am a stay at home mom and thinking of doing the program through Western Governor online so I can do it while staying at home and on my own time. I have my associates degree, but I have no experience with anything related to the IT world. I am bright and am capable of learning, but my concern is that i won't get the attention I may need to get certain questions answered through an online course. The pros are that it is cheaper than other programs offered in my state and offer scholarships for women, and it doesn't require a math class (my downfall). Does anyone have advice or experience with online courses versus traditional school? I want to be proficient and able to get a job after graduating knowing what I am doing. Thanks for reading and responding! [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 22 Feb 2018 10:46 AM PST I graduated from college in 2014 and I have been working in the SF Bay Area ever since. I went to a top 10 CS school in the east coast and am originally from the DFW area in TX. My had no internships in college but my work history since I graduated has been as follows:
I've been working in the SF bay area for the last 4 years and I am honestly so incredibly burnt out and tired of companies not giving a shit about employee work/life balance. At the Big N I was at, we typically worked at least 10 hour days. Factoring in the commute time, going to the gym to stay healthy, and getting enough sleep, I literally had 0 hours of free time during the week. By the weekend I was so exhausted that I just rested most of the time. At the large telecom company I was at, there was such an insane amount of company politics and exploitation of team members that I was borderline about to become a whistleblower. We were expected to work on weekends more often than I would have liked (this shouldn't happen almost ever unless there is a serious emergency IMO) and employee morale was extremely low as people feared being fired for the smallest reasons. At my current company, we have spaced out meetings so we basically need to work 12 hour days. At least we get free breakfast, lunch, and dinner. However, I seriously dislike that you need to essentially be a "member" of the company culture here, or else you will not fit in and it will not look very good. You are basically expected to interact with your coworkers outside of the office on weekends, otherwise there is a lot of hostility created in the office and I have seen it impact employee performance and ultimately lead to not-so-great things. But again, I don't want to work 12 hour days. I have things I want to do outside of the office. Personally, I do not want to be in the office any more than 7-8 hours per day, but in my experience as well as the experience of several of my good friends in the SF Bay Area it seems that it is very difficult to find a job that values work/life balance. Across all 3 of my companies, work/life balance has been absolute trash. In fact, I am quitting my current job in a few weeks after I finish this project. I am going to take several months to travel and visit my family. What can I do about this situation? Are there places in the US that value work/life balance that I could look into moving to? Or are young developers just exploited here in general? Should I perhaps look into moving to a country with better worker's rights? I'd love to hear some input. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 22 Feb 2018 07:34 AM PST I'm a Sophomore, working towards hopefully landing a summer internship during the coming Fall semester. I've been reading online and it feels like there so much I need to do. I need to do well in school, I need to practice tons of leetcode/CTCI, I need to create a personal project, and I need to network. I'm not a very bright student so I don't breeze through all my classes and therefore that consumes the most time. How do you guys manage your time between studying, practicing for interview, working on personal project, and socializing? Worst of all, with no structure and being overwhelmed, I tend to procrastinate too much. I know everyone works differently but maybe I can get some inspiration from some fellow students. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 22 Feb 2018 04:57 PM PST So I applied to around 80 companies for summer internships in the last week and I've gotten 5 rejection emails so far. Of the 5, 3 of them said something along the lines of "although your resume is impressive, we've decided to not move forward with the interview process. Do they really think my resume is impressive or is it just an automated message. I know it's pretty late to be looking for a summer internships now, but I was just wondering why they wouldn't even give me a phone screen if they were impressed. Also, sorry if this is a really dumb question. I'm pretty new to this. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 22 Feb 2018 06:43 PM PST Which program would you recommend for quality and value? The Georgia Tech's masters is a degree awarding program, whereas Stanford is not (but there's a chance to switch it to masters if admission accepted and units earned transferred). [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 22 Feb 2018 01:13 PM PST I'm in my first job after making a career switch and I have large gaps in knowledge (e.g., bash scripting, git) that I'm trying to fill in desperately. I'm pretty sure my manager thinks I ought to know more than I should, but I'm not sure if it's because I'm older (34) or some other reason. So, if you are "older" and made a career pivot, did you find others expected you to know more than other juniors? [link] [comments]  |
| How can I transition from software engineering to cyber security? Posted: 22 Feb 2018 11:59 AM PST I have been working full time as a software engineer for a small medical software company for about 2 years now. While I enjoy programming I am finding myself getting pulled towards cyber security as the field is incredibly fascinating to me and actually makes me excited when reading articles and what not. I am realizing my passion is more towards the security side of things. So here's my question: I have a bachelors degree in computer science with a minor in mathematics and a GPA of 3.5. How can I transition from software engineering to cyber security? Should I just study and get a couple security certifications and then try to land an actual cyber security job? My absolute dream is to work for the FBI or CIA as a cyber security agent/officer. What do I need to do to prepare myself for a career in the security field and create opportunities? Thank you for taking the time to read my post. [link] [comments]  |
| iOS software engineer's career Posted: 22 Feb 2018 10:10 AM PST I really want to create some iOS apps, but don't know where to start ? I know learning Swift 4 will make my life easier since it's so popular. Does anyone know any tutorials (up-to-date) that I can follow to make an iOS app ? [link] [comments]  |
| Which internship should I accept? PM vs Backend Posted: 22 Feb 2018 02:31 PM PST I already have internship plans for this summer, but I just got another great offer that I really wasn't expecting and now I'm having trouble on deciding what is best for my career, since I can see myself really enjoying both jobs. I've never really posted in this subreddit before, so I apologize if I'm breaking any rules or posting too much info! Background about me:
Company A (already accepted two months ago):
Company B:
My current thoughts:
What do I do?? [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 22 Feb 2018 11:34 AM PST So I was depressed and basically didn't leave my bedroom for over a year during my 3rd year of university (out of 4). I repeated that year but during the second year I still wasn't recovered. So essentially I sat no exams in my first attempt of third year. During my second attempt, I didn't sit the first semester. During the second semester (2017), I had to take all the classes, 3 exams in April and 3 in August, as well as I took a research internship (high-end cutting-edge position) at a research firm for 3 months. I essentially have a 2.8 GPA right now due to failing 1 exam and nearly failing another out of 6. Due to failing 1 of the exams in August, I had to take this year out to resit it, I got a 4.0 in it but sadly they only use the first grade, so I am stuck with the average of 2.8 for the 3rd year. Thankfully the 4th year is weighted 3 times as much, so I need to get an average of 76% to get a 4.0 or a 63% to get a 3.3 GPA. If I work hard I should be able to get close to a 4.0, maybe a 3.8 or something of the sort. My issue is that I've now been at uni from 2013 - 2019, how do I explain 6 years of university to employers? and how do I explain my grades going from a 2.8 to a 3.8 in 1 year? I can't even get internships right now due to my 2.8, so I will only have about 6 months of work experience, none of which is in a CS field. My goal is to get a PhD in Data science. [link] [comments]  |
| Whats your elevator pitch like? Posted: 22 Feb 2018 12:45 PM PST Looking to improve my elevator pitch. Hoping to get some good feedback and hear what works for others. Heres mine, In December 2018, I will be graduating from SCHOOL NAME with honours in Computer Science, and Psychology. Recently I had the fantastic opportunity to go on exchange in COUNTRY/CITY where I was able to meet people from all around the world, as well as take some very interesting courses. While studying abroad I worked closely with a group of professors who are studying the spread of communicable diseases. I devised a machine learning algorithm that performs sentiment analyses using data from twitter Currently I am looking for a summer 2018 internship where I can further develop my programming skills. My interests include, but are not limited to, Web/Mobile development, Backend, Machine learning, and Fintech. Edit: Guess I should also ask, do you particularly utilise an elevator pitch when going to large events with networking, or do you prefer to just converse casually? id prefer the latter, however, most of the advice I have seen seems to suggest having an elevator pitch given the amount of candidates, and time each recruiter has to to talk. [link] [comments]  |
| Is 'cyber security' simply just a buzzword? Posted: 22 Feb 2018 08:15 PM PST To add context to my question, is current cyber security just a term being used to describe people who are "sysadmins" that focus on safeguarding local networks(etc)? I often see on Hacker News on the comments about anything relating to cyber security jobs to be complete "bullshit" because it isn't what the "mass" believe it to be; job wise. So to summarize my question, is the cyber security job market currently bullshit or is my perspective wrong? [link] [comments]  |
| Is it detrimental to be in a job that is incredibly behind? Posted: 22 Feb 2018 08:11 PM PST I made a career switch and took the first job I could being a developer. Pay is incredible, coworkers and boss are great, and I'm highly valued. However, the stack is archaic, there are no standards regarding ANYTHING. We don't do testing, no documentation, no code standards, etc. While I 'should' be a junior, they brought me in mid-level and are now relying on me to implement a lot of these things. I am actually comfortable leading the charge because I used to freelance with a team, but with this being my first real gig, I have no clue what industry standards are. I was wondering if this is detrimental to me if I someday get another job, come in, and don't know anything about how to work in a modern company with modern industry standards. Or could this be a great learning/growth opportunity (my hope)? I have about 3/4 a year under my belt. [link] [comments]  |
| How would you compare the company culture of different companies you've worked at? Posted: 22 Feb 2018 04:20 PM PST I suppose at one point I assumed companies just wanted competent coders who worked well on a team and that's it, but it seems to be more wholistic. I'm trying to understand the more elusive concept of company culture and how that matches up with an individual's "cultural fit" for that company. Could anyone speak on different types of companies they worked for, and how your personal characteristics fit the culture of the company better than others? What parts of you as a person made you a better fit for the culture of company A vs company B, and so on? Thanks! If there are any hiring managers out there who could give examples of people they hired, that would be very helpful too. [link] [comments]  |
| As an intern during the school year, when do I tell my boss I won’t be returning for the summer? Posted: 22 Feb 2018 07:41 PM PST A lil background, I'm an intern at startup that's close to campus (around 14 full time employees) and work roughly 5-10 hours a week depending on school. I recently got a CoOp(summer-fall semester) offer from a big tech company thats closer to home (so I wouldn't have to stay on campus during the summer). I decided to take the offer because the pay was substantially better, again it was closer to home, and I believe I'll get better business and development experience, but mainly it was the fact that it was close to home and I wouldn't have to stay on campus during the summer. I have a good relationship with my supervisors currently, I haven't contributed much to the grand scheme of things it's much more of a mentorship to be honest. But I've learned a lot and enjoy the work. I truly like working there and was considering if seeing if I could go full time during the summer if I didn't get any offers closer to home. But now since I did I'm considering when to tell my boss that I have an offer and I won't be working here during the summer. I really don't want to quit, I would bargain to work remotely (the company has multiple remote engineers) but this CoOp would be my first full time experience as a SWE so I don't want to over extend and make promises I can't keep. I was considering asking if I could come back spring semester and start back where I left off but I'm sure there are HR hoops, especially for startups, for employees on leave for extended periods of time. I'm afraid if I bring it up early, my supervisors will feel like I'm not worth the time (also it doesn't cost the company much to employee me, my state pays a majority of my wage), and just let me go. I've been working there for roughly 4 months so I'm just starting to pick things up and make contributions and actually help the company. But at the same time I don't want to bring it up to late and they don't have time to hire another intern, they're currently looking for another on site full time engineer who's a graduate, which would probably replace me anyway if I left or not. I think I'm gonna do it when I get everything official for my Coop. I still have to turn in the offer letter and do the drug test. But feedback would be nice P.S I didn't sign anything that requires me to work there for a certain time limit. [link] [comments]  |
| MBA required for Product Management? Posted: 22 Feb 2018 07:23 PM PST I graduated with a degree in Computer Engineering and work for a tech company for 2+ as a engineer/developer in software. I want to become a product manager and was wondering is an MBA required for such a transition? I want to go to a different company because the path for promotion in my current company is a very slow process. And if its not required can I become a product management with no experience? What keywords should I look for when applying? [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 22 Feb 2018 11:44 AM PST Currently I am 16 years old and I am trying to become a self-taught web developer. My question is can I get an entry level job in 2 years come high school graduation. Is this far fetched? I fear that college is not the answer mainly because school is just not my thing. I have As, Bs, and Cs, but I am constantly miserable. I can't really imagine taking another 4 years of it. I understand college is much different, you aren't competing with other students (class rank, getting better grades than peers for the best college), but you are competing with yourself (putting in the time and effort to be independent), also I would be learning something I am passionate about. I still think it will be very difficult for me. I think that teaching myself web development is the best route if I learn from the right resources. I just want to hear some of peoples thoughts and advice. TL;DR: I am 16, learning web development (JavaScript, HTML, CSS), don't think college is going to be right for me. Can I get a web development job after I graduate high school? Edit: Grammar Mistake My Answer?: After reading a lot of the advice (thank you by the way), I think that I should really think hard about going to college, I think it might be best to pull through high school and give college a try. Still very unsure. [link] [comments]  |
| 1099 contractors, what are things you can expense to lower your taxes? Posted: 22 Feb 2018 07:15 PM PST Tax time for me this year was a disappointment because I was 1099 for a while and my accountant kept asking me what things I could claim for deductions. I couldn't think of much. Does anyone have tips for things I can claim for a standard software engineer at some generic MegaCorp? I'm OK with pushing the envelope a little but not outright fraud. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 22 Feb 2018 07:12 PM PST Should a new grad with internships apply for a junior or middle level software engineering position? [link] [comments]  |
| Is there a high chance that as a freshman that I will be able to get an internship? Posted: 22 Feb 2018 06:50 PM PST |
| Posted: 22 Feb 2018 06:48 PM PST I am a junior studying Cs at a pretty good state school and am feeling overwhelmed. I just recently changed majors to cs my sophomore year and had zero coding experience. I am interested in cyber security and know that knowing how to code is a very valuable skill in this day and age. I am a good student and have worked hard to get where I am. My problem is that I feel very behind, it takes me a long time to learn the theories behind the languages that we are learning (python, then java) I am not supposed to graduate for another year and a half so I have time, but i don't know how to make myself stand out when I am just now starting. (I am pursing a ba in cs with a double minor in history and criminal justice btw. ) I am not super interested in getting some big tech job that pays a lot but I'm also not a stereotypical programmer. I am very interested in cs but I don't know what kind of other jobs are out there so I don't know if this is the major I need to keep pursuing. I just want your feedback because I feel like I know nothing. [link] [comments]  |
| You are subscribed to email updates from CS Career Questions. To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now. | Email delivery powered by Google |
| Google, 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, CA 94043, United States | |
No comments:
Post a Comment