Resume Advice Thread - February 03, 2018 CS Career Questions |
- Resume Advice Thread - February 03, 2018
- Daily Chat Thread - February 03, 2018
- Guys, it happened.
- Weekly Success Thread Request
- Am I the only one who is absolutely struggling?
- Is there any reason for me to be loyal to my company?
- Keep thinking I will get fired or laid off
- I've been invited to a Goldman Sachs Engineering Assessment Day. How do I best prepare?
- VR/AR as career options.
- How many folks can get most medium to even hard level LC questions without ANY preparation?
- How to become knowledgeable enough to write complex systems?
- I feel dead in the water in my cs career and lack college education. Need advice on how to progress from here.
- I cant go on anymore
- Has anyone ever left their job and then returned at a later date? How was your experience?
- Did any of you withdraw from a course in college?
- Feeling lost
- Software developer working on a project that's doomed to fail. What do?
- What should I say when giving notice?
- Are Software Developer in Test Jobs in Demand?
- How to transition from help desk to machine learning or software engineering?
- Worth it to transfer schools? (NEU vs UT Dallas) freshman CS
- Quid Internship Process
- Programmer who is looking to change careers
- Didn't get a return offer for my internship
- Burned out in UG, confused what to do next.
- Co-Op Intern here - new manager came in and cancelled / reassigned all my intern projects. She's pretending we're all fine. How would you handle this?
- How to negotiate part-time salary after internship?
| Resume Advice Thread - February 03, 2018 Posted: 02 Feb 2018 11:07 PM PST Please use this thread to ask for resume advice and critiques. You should read our Resume FAQ and implement any changes from that before you ask for more advice. Abide by the rules, don't be a jerk. This thread is posted each Tuesday and Saturday at midnight PST. Previous Resume Advice Threads can be found here. [link] [comments]  |
| Daily Chat Thread - February 03, 2018 Posted: 02 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: 03 Feb 2018 09:18 AM PST Non-target school. Non-CS. Studied every day since May 2017. 200+ Leetcode questions solved. 2 failed Big 4 first rounds. 1 failed Big 4 on site. 3 failed top tech company on sites. And after my last scheduled interview, got a Big 4 offer for full time last night. Couldn't have done it without this sub. Thank you. Hard work works everyone, don't give up. Edit: My general plan went as follows:
There were two things I personally believe put me over the hump: 1) put my phone away and refuse myself the ability to get distracted for the ~2 hours I was doing the research and problems 2) Stay fresh on Java and programming related concepts such as threads, locks, design patterns and memory. There were several instances where my answers to a DS&A problem branched into a knowledge based question that I was unable to answer. It is absolutely crucial that you stay comfortable during technical discussion. I think if you sound shaky and are reaching here the interviewer will subconsciously and permanently lose respect. Don't let that give you anxiety though, try to channel nervousness into excitement. You've been studying, you want to show off what you can do! If you don't do well, there's always going to be another interview. On another note, I was really in the dumps around mid-Fall. I had been studying for 5 months and was still failing interviews, all while reading threads on this sub about people landing offers. STOP READING THIS SUB IF IT GIVES YOU ANXIETY/CREATES PRESSURE. I stopped in late October (for the most part, still occasionally contributed if I happened to see a question I could answer) and this is my first time back. Take the schedule I've laid out above (99% of others will give a very similar schedule), go through it and see where your failures are coming from. Then modify the schedule to accommodate. Additionally, around this time I read Grit by Angela Duckworth which really boosted my morale. I am extremely weak naturally at DS&A questions and also have no formal education on them. The book really helped me look at this whole thing as a basic proportion with 100% equaling getting your dream job. If you have less natural ability, you simply have to work harder, however the 100% is always achievable. Edit 2 (Getting Interviews): I applied to all companies via their standard online application. The only exception was Bloomberg where I had a referral and was rejected after the on-site. The biggest key to my resume so far was getting an internship at a small local energy company the summer after my freshman year. That allowed me to get an internship offer at AT&T the next summer and finally Bank of America last summer. I think interning at a company with better engineering reputation than the last each year was huge. Additionally, I have two side projects which each included full stack development. If you have any further questions please let me know! [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 03 Feb 2018 06:43 PM PST Mods, can we get a "weekly success" thread, or something along those lines? I think it would be very useful for people to get a feel for what's working for people and what's not. A list of some questions I'd like to see answered:
Would love other people's opinions as well. [link] [comments]  |
| Am I the only one who is absolutely struggling? Posted: 03 Feb 2018 08:54 AM PST I graduated from a state school in spring of 2017 and I've been looking for any kind of job or internship, even a really shitty one for dirt pay, and I can't get anyone to respond to me. I've been searching for a year and a half with no results and no clear direction for improvement of my situation. I've changed my resume a few times, I've applied to places all over the country, I've tried to get help from friends of friends. Radio silence. I've lost all motivation for side projects as of late because nothing seems worthwhile anymore. I still apply to jobs constantly, but at this point I don't even send out apps to big name companies, even though I've had an on-site at Google and a few other big companies before. I can never get any actionable feedback and I'm almost always completely ignored. I just want to know that at least one other person out there is in the same boat and that I'm not a total freak failure. [link] [comments]  |
| Is there any reason for me to be loyal to my company? Posted: 03 Feb 2018 06:01 AM PST Reposted from r/careerquestions because there is so little viewership on that sub: I'm working as a mechanical engineer for a manufacturing company that payed for most of my masters degree in computer science (at a very expensive university) over the last three years. I've just finished the program, and am waiting for my diploma. My company, after it realized I'd completed my masters, gave me a little raise without even being asked, but still nowhere near what I could make on the open market. I didn't want to start looking for jobs right away because I feel some loyalty to the company after it payed for my masters. I feel like I would be cheating them out of a lot of money if I left right away. However, a couple of big name companies have started trying to recruit me. These are household names in the tech industry and I'd be a fool to ignore them. They're basically dream jobs and I am pretty unsatisfied by the work I'm doing now. So my question: Is there any reason for me to feel loyal to a company that technically underpays me, but that just invested a lot of money into my education? [link] [comments]  |
| Keep thinking I will get fired or laid off Posted: 03 Feb 2018 03:45 PM PST Guys, I am a new grad and have signed on. I join June. For some reason I keep feeling like I will get fired or laid off. I have intered with them before in summer. I mean the senior dev was impressed with me and said I did well in my internship. I am the youngest, least experienced engineer in the team but I cant get over the fact I will either let them down, slow them down or lose my job. EDIT : A lot of people have told me that I am good and I underestimate myself but seeing all these Big N engineers scares me whether I can/will be competitive enough. [link] [comments]  |
| I've been invited to a Goldman Sachs Engineering Assessment Day. How do I best prepare? Posted: 03 Feb 2018 05:53 AM PST Just for some context, they came to my school to hire. I did the hackerrank test and I passed. My school is not in the US. I'm not sure if this is the equivalent of a GS Superday. The email says:
It also says this :
It runs from 8am-3pm. Is this what the superday is like?? How do I best prepare?? I'm hoping to get a full time analyst position as I'm in my senior year. Any advice? [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 03 Feb 2018 07:59 AM PST What do you guys think about VR/AR as career options? Have you ever been involved in this field, and if so, what are your impressions? [link] [comments]  |
| How many folks can get most medium to even hard level LC questions without ANY preparation? Posted: 03 Feb 2018 07:11 PM PST ie, purely based on his inherent skill and knowledge based on his experience or coursework, he's never done a single targeted practice question. Basically just walk into a Big4 onsite and breezes past. Do these people exist? [link] [comments]  |
| How to become knowledgeable enough to write complex systems? Posted: 03 Feb 2018 12:42 PM PST I've written many projects. Lots in github, and previous work places. I can generally write reasonable code to make a system work. But, when I'm writing something complex (say an application server - something that can scale, has many features, allows people to write plugins, etc.), I'm lost as to how to do this so that's it's clean, maintainable and extensible. I write and re-write projects, I'm able to make them work, but they are a hacked, unmaintainable mess. So, the experience I gain is how to NOT write a complex system, not how to actually write one. How did you become a dev that's good with software design and architecture with the ability to engineer complex systems? [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 03 Feb 2018 09:48 AM PST I landed a job about 1.5 years ago at a communications company programming for their system in mostly PHP and some VB. Prior to this all I had worked were retail jobs. I was quickly promoted to a senior position in 6 months which expanded my skillset to some SQL, and came with a large pay boost. I have pre-existing experience in Python, JS, JQuery, HTML and CSS as well. The thing is my job title does not contain anything like "software developer" or "engineer" although my entire job is based around programming. Because of this and because I lack a college education I am worried that I cannot find similar or more advance work in the CS field if I were to leave this company. I also feel wildly under qualified when I browse job boards for CS work after reading the lists of things they are seeking. How do I make sure I am marketable for software positions outside of my current company? Should I be learning more languages? Should I just stay where I am now and gain experience even though I am not learning new things anymore? Thank you for any help/advice. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 03 Feb 2018 12:31 PM PST My grades are fine, my career prospects are fine, I have projects and all that jazz. But I feel really sad. I am completely alone. I go to class, do some small talk with people, and then go home and study 24/7. No friends, no girlfriend, just school and CS. I try to go out of my way to talk to new ppl, but it never leads anywhere. I feel like I'm bothering ppl so I just keep to myself. I have an internship lined up with Blizzard but I want to just cancel it and move away from everything. Would this be stupid? Every day that goes by, I continue to develop a greater hatred of people, and I feel like I'm falling in a bottomless abyss with no way out. So what if I get a good career or make good money? Yesterday I hit my head against my apartment wall multiple times purposefully, just because I was feeling like so unloved and useless. Is this what a life in CS entails? Abject loneliness? What am I doing wrong? Do I have to force people to not have small talk and become good friends? Am I just autistic and incapable of existing in this society? Not really sure what I'm doing wrong. [link] [comments]  |
| Has anyone ever left their job and then returned at a later date? How was your experience? Posted: 03 Feb 2018 12:08 PM PST I'm considering re-joining the ranks of a large company that I left a few years back. I'm curious if anyone else has done the same thing, and if so what your experience was like.
[link] [comments]  |
| Did any of you withdraw from a course in college? Posted: 03 Feb 2018 05:40 PM PST I'm currently in a C++ course that I feel completely overwhelmed in. People in my life keep telling me to stick it out, but in all honestly I do not see myself passing this class. How do W's look on transcripts? Will it effect my ability to get an internship? I'm worried I could be ruining my future, but the stress of this class is really getting to me, and it's so far over my head. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 03 Feb 2018 03:22 PM PST Hi everyone. Right now I'm in my second year as a computer science major and the biggest projects I have done have all been part of courses. These courses laid the foundation for us and we just had to fill in the function, etc. I loved coding and I liked how it made so much sense. But now, I feel suffocated by all the stuff going on around me. Everyone says you need good personal projects and so I went and tried to make some, but I only managed to make very simple android apps because the only language I properly learned is java. I tried searching tutorials online and while I can follow tutorials I want to be able to do a project on my own, but whenever I think of an idea, it turns out that so much other stuff gets involved, like multiple languages, frameworks (which I'm not quite sure what they are yet), stuff like firebase. I then get stuck on configuring my machine to all these things and I'm stumped before I have even begun to code. So, to combat this I joined a club and was put into a team who is working on an android app, but they have been working on it for several months and I don't want to hold them back by forcing them to get me up to speed. I have so many stupid and newbie questions too and I feel like they think I'm enormously stupid for asking such questions because their responses are always structured assuming prior knowledge (that I usually don't have). I want to be able to work in a team but right now I'm stuck on getting my environment set up and anytime I try to get my environments set up, something always goes wrong. I feel so helpless and afraid because I don't want to feel like a useless team member later on in a real work environment. I want to learn but there is just so much out there and people my age seem to know much more about what they are doing. I just don't know what to do. I feel like I could never make such elaborate and complicated things on my own. [link] [comments]  |
| Software developer working on a project that's doomed to fail. What do? Posted: 03 Feb 2018 12:23 PM PST TL;DR Product & project management are not doing their job, what can I, as a sofware developer, do to avoid failure of the project? I had been a software developer at my current company for about 3 months, ramping-up, learning about my teams projects and technologies, etc., when I started getting a bad gut feeling about our most important project, let's call it project X. That feeling came when I was asked to implement a feature that required ACID transactions on top of a datastore that did not support it natively. I began to wonder why that technology was chosen. Digging deeper, I looked for the project's goals, operational readiness reviews, and the SLAs, and could only find a short elevator-pitch-like description. Even that description did not align at all with what we were implementing, since it above all promised data integrity and consistency (in more buzzwordy copy, but that's how I interpreted it at least), while the technology choices where more oriented towards write scalability. This was a project that targeted internal clients (other software teams at the company), and I began to realize that if I was a developer in one of those teams, I would never choose project X for the purpose that it was been sold, that there was no customer value in what we were implementing. So I called a meeting with my manager, a project lead and a product manager, to raise a red flag and express my concerns. They repeated the elevator pitch, and they told me I did not have to concern myself with the product aspects of it, since its use was going to be mandated as a standard to other teams. And that it is beeing tested with internal client Alpha, and it works for them. Only a month or two more pass and the VP hears from client Alpha that they are working with project X. He goes furious, since in his mind project X was supposed to be primarly applied to client Beta instead, and starts questioning why we are working to solve another client's requirements instead. He threatens heads will roll if project X fails to meet his expectations, so as a team we are forced to pivot abrubtly and in only 3 weeks hack together a system that (kinda) works for client Beta. Time passes and now we are working on a completely different thing. However, this same situation as arisen again. This time we are supposed to reanimate project Y, which was hibernated for about a year. I look at it and see all the wrong technology and architectural choices, given the stated goals of the project. Again, there are no SLAs or an operational readiness plan. Again, I think we are flying blindly towards one goal, when probably we should be going elsewhere. There is the added issue that the creators of the original project are very invested in it, and would fight against any criticism. So, as just a software developer, and still a relatively new one at this company, is there anything I can do differently this time? How can I speak up louder, or what courses of action can I propose to raise awarness about the situation and hopefully not gain too many enemies in the process? [link] [comments]  |
| What should I say when giving notice? Posted: 03 Feb 2018 02:56 PM PST So, I'm not really sure what's the best way to explain why I'm leaving to my boss since I'm assuming he will ask. I'm basically leaving because I'm tired of living in this area and I don't feel like I'm all that interested in staying in the industry/domain this company works in. I also feel like parts of the team are too tight knit for me and I don't really mesh well into that culture. Given that I'm paid fairly well and my team is in general very friendly and nice, I do feel guilty for leaving. To make things worse, I haven't been working here for all that long and I'm not even completely done with the main project that I've been assigned for a while now. Any tips on how to best give notice to my boss without making me feel like a terrible person? [link] [comments]  |
| Are Software Developer in Test Jobs in Demand? Posted: 03 Feb 2018 07:24 AM PST I was wondering if being a software developer who does automated testing can earn you as much as say a general backend dev? Are these jobs in demand and hired by large companies? [link] [comments]  |
| How to transition from help desk to machine learning or software engineering? Posted: 03 Feb 2018 04:42 AM PST I just got hired at a help desk job, however I go to school for CS and hope to move on from help desk to work as some kind of programmer, preferably in machine learning (it's a hospital). I want to try to move quickly from the help desk and to not get 'stuck', but how do I go on about it? I've never had a job like this, so what's acceptable? Can I code something like a script if it helps me? Or ask if programmers need help or if I can shadow them? [link] [comments]  |
| Worth it to transfer schools? (NEU vs UT Dallas) freshman CS Posted: 03 Feb 2018 11:15 AM PST I am currently a freshman CS major at Northeastern University. The cs program is very well-reputed and I like the academics, but I don't really feel the 54,000$ price tag is worth the education, even though my family is well off and money fortunately isn't an issue. A school I recently heard of is UT Dallas, which I heard in a source is equally reputable as NEU in CS, and would be significantly cheaper. If I receive a scholarship, it'll total to around 22,000$ a year, twice as cheap as Northeastern. I guess I'm just looking for opinions. The transfer would make things more complicated, but will the price difference be worth it? How do reputations compare? Ignore other factors, I'm focusing only on money and academics. Thank you! [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 03 Feb 2018 07:07 PM PST Hey! I was wondering if anyone here is familiar with Quid's interviewing process for software engineering internships. I applied about a month ago and just heard back saying they want me to complete a Hackerrank challenge that has to do with string manipulation. I couldn't find much information online or through Glassdoor, so just wanted to see if anyone here could provide some more details or advice. Thanks in advance. [link] [comments]  |
| Programmer who is looking to change careers Posted: 03 Feb 2018 01:53 AM PST Hello all. Recently I was laid off from my company and took some time off and did some soul searching and realized I am not really cut out to be a programmer/interested in it. Some background...... I'm 35. Before that I was the SQL database manager of a small office for a year and did another year of tech support and QA. So I haven't slept well the last couple of days because I am not sure what to do. What do people who decide they aren't cut out to be developers or are just sick of it do? Where do they make the jump? One thing I noticed is I like working with people and people liked working with me so I don't know how I can leverage that into a new position. Also I don't want to sell myself short, I did have decent technical knowledge and worked on various technologies but the whole software development thing never clicked with me. I guess this all dawned on me when I started doing test interview questions online and just felt extremely overwhelmed. Messing up a lot of the basic data structure and algorithm parts I honestly can't tell if it's nerves or just something I am not cut out for. I don't think I am cut out for designing big systems and complex algorithms but if a person asks me "our program is computing this field wrong fix it" or "we need a drop down that can do this can you add it" I am pretty competent at things like that. I don't know if that's weird or what? So if someone else went through this or knows someone who did and can give some advice I would really appreciate it. I still think I have great technical skills to give to a company, I just feel it's not working with programming or maybe I just son't believe in my skills and they aren't as bad as I think. [link] [comments]  |
| Didn't get a return offer for my internship Posted: 03 Feb 2018 12:27 PM PST Hey everyone, long time lurker here. Last year I landed my dream internship at a top company in the bay area. I didn't end up getting a return offer for this summer (my manager said that I was good, but needed to polish up my skills and didn't quite reach the bar). I've already beaten myself up over this, and have already seen some improvement in my work. I've also secured an internship for this summer. However, I'd like to return to the company as a full time employee next year in 2019. Has anyone gone through something similar? How long do I have to wait before I apply, and does anyone have any tips? [link] [comments]  |
| Burned out in UG, confused what to do next. Posted: 03 Feb 2018 05:10 AM PST I am a final year UG CSE student from India, and I am burned out. Note that I am an Introvert who likes to be left to himself, this might be useful. In short, in the last 3.5 years of my UG, I had to attend lectures where the lecturer is literally reciting ppt's, like a priest in the church. Project guide is an asshole and makes me hate my life. Project team members are not interested in CS, and contribute nothing towards project, hence project is destined to fail. Lecturers hardly know anything, they are probably the ones whom no company gave a job. I have begun to hate the college. I left the associations I was part of, and have started attending lectures very rarely. All my 16 years of education, I have learnt most of the stuff myself. I never liked traditional education system. All this has made me believe that Masters isn't for me. That I should join a job and end this suffering once and forever(of course after somehow completing the last 3-4 months that are left). Only if this was so simple. I have made few mistakes in the past, like concentrating more on competitive programming than making projects. So my resume looks like a list of skills I have, with no proof to prove it. I need work experience badly. But Startups don't want to hire me, they only want IITians and NITians. I could join TCS and be a part of the body shops, but that's not what I want to do. I could join a small scale company that would suck my blood by making me work 12hrs/day on a meagre pay, only prolonging my pain. So what should I do? Join Masters(in India or in the US), knowing very well that it doesn't suit me, burning myself more, just so that I get hired by a startup? Or join a small scale company and burn myself out, even more, to get the experience I need? I'm completely clueless as which way is right, which way would lessen my suffering. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 03 Feb 2018 02:22 PM PST I'm in a DevOps co-op with a major telecom company in a tech city. Specifically, I've been with the infrastructure automation team (my ideal career, at least I think so) for around 3 months now, working as an automation engineer. I have a year of experience in this field prior so I know about CI/CD practices, although it varies greatly from place-to-place. When I began, the manager I was assigned to was promoted and moved to a different team, and a new manager was brought in from outside. She is very, VERY competent and has excellent social skills, which I admire. I kept an open mind and watcher her run her course as I was adjusting to the position. We started having a bit of friction when she began bringing in external resources / system specs from her old workplace and incorporating those ideas for our pipelines (which operate at 3-4x the scale of her prev. company). I had issues w/ my onboarding as I was unable to SSH into any servers - and she began rejecting all my Active Directory group access requests, requiring documentation as to why and giving pushback even after my colleagues backed me up. Then she started requiring us all to use a Jira Kanban board for all of our projects, and we had to use a stopwatch to track the time we spent on each project (not seen in the industry, but VERY abnormal for a laid back company). Finally, she cut all the projects I had that interfaced with other teams (stuff I was working on for Server Build, which is inseparable from our team). And on top of that, some of the meatier projects I had (CI/CD for puppet modules) were taken and reassigned to other people when I was halfway through them. After that, I arranged an internal transfer to another team and told her at the next one-on-one. Two weeks have passed and I've had absolutely NOTHING to do. My messages to the team are being ignored on Slack. Our next and final one-on-one before the official transfer is this week, and I'm concerned about how my performance on this team will be logged, considering I've been set up for failure. There's also the ethical concern about this being really quite messed up (unless I'm lacking some perspective here) and I don't want any other engineers going through this. Per the words of one of my colleagues, it was "painful to hear her talk to me" because of everything that's been going on. In person she's been acting like we're all cool and I've been keeping up a straight face up until now (it's getting hard). So, I understand that being a part-time intern poses a ton of logistical issues, and being new to a big company is not easy. If you guys were in my shoes - what would you do? Should I ghost out next week and decline the 1:1? Or arrange a meeting with her step supervisor? Document this somehow? Thoughts are appreciated. EDIT: I forgot an additional detail - as soon as she came on board I asked about what it would take for me to be kept on board as a summer intern. Mentioned that I had a few offers and needed a solid decision after a month. She put it off and then said she needed to "wait and see if they could afford it", but I just found out that my hours are charged to an intern budget outside of the entire org, so I have a strong suspicion that this was dishonest. Because of all this BS, I accepted an offer with a nice company, but I haven't told anyone yet. [link] [comments]  |
| How to negotiate part-time salary after internship? Posted: 03 Feb 2018 06:05 PM PST I'm interning for an early stage startup and I picked up things very quickly and am now almost on par with the other developers here. They see a lot of value in me and want me to come back as a full-time engineer but I still have 2 years of school left. I was thinking about working part time and they said they were open to it. How would I negotiate my salary? I'm currently making 54K, and I think their upper limit on full time is somewhere around 100K. What would be the best way to go about negotiating this? How much should I ask for to begin with? This is my first time being put in a position to negotiate. [link] [comments]  |
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