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    Interview Discussion - April 05, 2018 CS Career Questions

    April 05, 2018

    Interview Discussion - April 05, 2018 CS Career Questions

    Interview Discussion - April 05, 2018

    Posted: 05 Apr 2018 12:07 AM PDT

    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 - April 05, 2018

    Posted: 05 Apr 2018 12:07 AM PDT

    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.

    submitted by /u/AutoModerator
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    Our company is on the verge of a software engineering mutiny. Does anyone have experience with collective bargaining?

    Posted: 05 Apr 2018 09:25 AM PDT

    I am a senior engineer for a small software company in the USA. Our CEO has been less than honest with us and there is a lot of discontent at the company. He wriggles out of paying bonuses, added disguised claw-back provisions to our stock options, and recently informed us that he would not be keeping his word on a major perk that was promised to us in writing when we accepted our jobs. He tried to isolate us by telling each of us privately that we would not receive the perk, and that we should not discuss it with the other engineers. This was the final straw. Yesterday the entire engineering team had a private meeting and it appears that every member of the team is prepared to quit over this.

    I know that many of you will say that we should just quit, but many of us feel that we have created a good product that makes a positive impact in many peoples lives. As a team we are very tight knit and believe in our product and want it to succeed. This weekend we are having another meeting to discuss our options. We would like to preserve the company if possible, but are unwilling to allow the CEO to cheat us any longer. Does anyone have any experience with this kind of situation? Any advice on how we can use our collective bargaining power to create a more equitable work situation? Any success or horror stories?

    Thanks!

    submitted by /u/KawaJawa
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    Just got out of a meeting with HR, could use your thoughts

    Posted: 05 Apr 2018 07:53 AM PDT

    So, yesterday, I made a comment on our slack channel to an intern who bought cleaning supplies for the kitchen, that it's not his responsibility to pay for cleaning supplies. Additional commentary involved me saying that going over and above can lead to higher expectations outside of your employment contract, like unpaid overtime.

    Anyways, while probably not the best thing to post about for the health of my employment, it seemed to really blow up and HR pulled me into a meeting today about it.

    In typical HR fashion, it was all fake smiles and "we just want you to be happy and not be negative" BS.

    Some blowback was expected, but the HR experience left a bad taste in my mouth even after accounting for the fact it was well deserved; just thought I'd get your thoughts. To see if I'm right to be concerned, or if I'm just being a twat.

    Anyways:

    • They made it out to be like I was being a dick to the intern, and trying to 'correct his actions.' Not sure how it devolved into that notion, as I get along great with the guy and had clarified to him what I meant; sincerely dout it was him producing this misrepresentation

    • When explaining my intent (that I wanted to point out employees are not responsible for buying office supplies), they countered with the fact that they don't have to provide things like free snacks. Which I get, but ffs it's like they don't know what employee incentives are.

    • Basically telling me that I have to drink the kool-aid and never criticise the company, because 'I don't have to be here if I don't want to be.' Never gave the impression I don't want to be, I like the work and the people. My only (unspoken) gripe is that the culture feels so forced...

    I dunno. Am I right to be concerned, or am I just being stupid and full of myself?

    submitted by /u/MrGruntsworthy
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    junior in college... dont have an internship for the summer, super bummed... what do i do?!?!

    Posted: 05 Apr 2018 02:54 AM PDT

    yea, so title but um, had a couple of really promising interviews and serious back and forth emails with some really good companies, and all of them just pulled out, so i'm officially f***ed... honestly, i've been looking since september of last year, and i've filled out more than 300 applications at this point...

    any tips??

    also critique my resume if u guys want https://i.imgur.com/5CaBKRp.jpg?1

    thx, Lopsided Water

    submitted by /u/LopsidedWater
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    Are there any companies desperate for new hires?

    Posted: 05 Apr 2018 02:25 PM PDT

    I don't care if they're awful to work for. I only care that they're in the US and offer pay and want recent grads.

    submitted by /u/deputy1389
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    How do Hollywood movies and media change Software Development/CS careers? What about coders themselves?

    Posted: 05 Apr 2018 07:29 AM PDT

    Hey all,

    We had an interesting conversation in the office a few weeks ago. A recent hire, a 22-year-old woman named Lucy, told us that she wanted to become a programmer after watching The Social Network. She said they'd depicted the job as being cool, creative, and fast-paced. I've noticed that Lucy works nonstop, often after hours, and often in a fervor.

    Another guy, the oldest dev on the team who'd been with the company for like 26 years, piped up that he's always had a theory. That movies like The Social Network inspired developers to be that laser-focused, extremely hard-working type. The type that eats, sleeps, and breathes code and has no time for anything else, and not much life outside of it. Rather than the opposite, which is those movies being based on how developers are irl.

    So it's very chicken-egg. Which came first: the developer who is totally obsessed with their work like that, or the depiction of that developer in film and media? Nowadays, are some people like that on their own, or because they see it in the media and just assume that's how developers should be?

    I myself am a recent grad. I remember in college that there were distinctly two types of people: those who were hardcore, and those who weren't. I now find myself wondering what makes the hardcore people, so hardcore? (I don't think I'm one of them).

    I'd love your opinions on this, especially those of you who have been in the industry a long time and have seen a lot of types of workers.

    Thanks! Let the discussion begin! tl;dr What are your thoughts on the depictions of programmers in media? How much do we influence those depictions, and how much do those depictions influence us?

    submitted by /u/NIRShow
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    Experienced engineer laid off and seeking advice

    Posted: 05 Apr 2018 09:54 AM PDT

    Cliff notes:

    • CS graduate with experience in the Bay Area

    • The Start-up I worked at laid off half the engineering team in december, including myself.

    • Had 31 interviews in the meantime (which indicate that my resume is fine).

    • Had 8 onsites (which indicates that my interviewing skills and coding challenges are okay).

    • Had 0 offers (feedback indicates I was a good fit but someone else was better, which is realistic considering the large amount of high-end talent available here).

    • Savings are fading.

    • Which cities should I apply to? I'm getting desperate and don't want to be homeless.

    Thank you for any advice!

    Detailed story:

    • Graduated CS in 2015 with 3 internships under my belt
    • I'm a backend engineer (Java stack) in the Bay Area
    • Worked at a startup for 2 years
    • Quit the job, joined a different startup
    • A few months after I joined, the company announced they were experiencing financial difficulties
    • The CTO, tech lead, and several engineers (including myself) were laid off during the December holidays
    • Have been interviewing for 3 full months now (jan/feb/mar)
    • I am keeping a spreadsheet with my results: I have submitted 90 applications throughout the Bay Area and received 31 interview requests.
    • Out of those 31, only 8 have resulted in an on-site.
    • The remainder didn't work out for a variety of reasons (I did poorly on the coding test, company wanted prior experience with a specific tech stack and failed to review my resume beforehand, or they deemed I wasn't a good culture fit, etc).

    Summary of the 8 on-sites:

    • 4 onsites: I aced them, leaving the interviewers smiling and happy and discussing what life is like at the company.

    • 2 onsites: Clearly not a good fit, the company had either misrepresented the listing as a Backend role or I was tested on PM skills (Where would you build a new gas station if planning a new city?)

    • 2 onsites: could have gone either way, a fair amount of guessing as well as definitive answers.

    None of the onsites have resulted in an offer.

    I was legitimately flustered at the 4 on-site rejections, especically the ones that I thought went really well.

    Today, I received an email that made it clear that I need to expand my job search.

    I asked HR if they could provide any feedback, to which I received:

    "Thank you for reaching out! We love to help our candidates gain insight into our decision process. All 5 engineers that you interviewed with gave a positive recommendation on your feedback form, and management made the decision to hire another candidate that had an additional 4 years of experience using our technology stack for this specific role".

    The other email:

    "While we think you are an excellent engineer, we only have one opening right now and had already extended an offer to another candidate by the time your interview date approached, and the candidate only accepted the offer today. You would have been an excellent fit and we wish you the best of luck moving forward".

    In summary, I realize now that I did nothing wrong in the on-site interviews. I prepared and did the best I could and my luck just isn't working out, and I am reaching a point where I am getting desperate (living in SF for 4 months while unemployed is not easy or cheap). My savings are running out and I am willing to relocate outside of California (I'm young and am not tied down, no mortgage, etc).

    My only restriction is that the city has a good climate and doesn't snow (Seattle is too rainy, Boston/New York are too cold). Working in states like Texas, Arizona, Florida, etc is fine for me.

    Keep in mind that all the companies I have applied to and interviewed with are NOT Big-N. The companies I have been interviewing with are significantly smaller, such as Postmates, Eventbrite, and Taskrabbit.

    My savings account will carry me for another 6-7 weeks, at which point I will have to apply for a line of credit, where the interest rates are NOT in my favor since I am unemployed. I am praying that it doesn't reach that stage.

    submitted by /u/throwaway5839275329
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    Entry level programmer doing the work of a Senior , what do I do??

    Posted: 05 Apr 2018 11:16 AM PDT

    I work at a startup. I have been working here for one year.

    Over this year I have been solely responsible for designs, architecture, full stack and full cycle development with no mentoring and work completely alone. I have built the new core engine, created 5 full applications used across the country, monitoring software, responsible for integration deals. On the first day they gave me the keys to the kingdom. I have no idea what I am really doing. Our small team does not have a development processes. We dont do code reviews. There is a cloud of pressure to perform. My health has declined, I have started taking heart medications and drugs for stress. Not to mention that I get paid a very entry salary.

    Please tell me that this is not normal. What should I do? I have been thinking of quitting for a while now, but am afraid I wont find a job. Am I just being soft? I am very grateful for the job and experience most people my age do not get.

    submitted by /u/darthSiderius
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    Is a CS degree more respected than a BIS degree even if it's from a liberal arts school?

    Posted: 05 Apr 2018 05:37 PM PDT

    I am currently a BIS major at a average large state school. Nothing is really special about the university, especially not the Business/ BIS department. I have the opportunity to transfer to a small liberal arts school that is a satellite/ branch of a larger state school and pursue CS.

    Should I transfer to the small liberal arts school to pursue the CS degree? It is a BS if that matters at all.

    submitted by /u/RedneckWilly
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    Should I take a Quality Assurance internship? Work experience vs side Projects?

    Posted: 05 Apr 2018 07:05 PM PDT

    So like a lot of CS freshmen (there was another post like this about IT), I don't a lot of projects and dev experience. I got a QA offer at a growing startup (200 employees). It's going to be a 4 month full-time summer dedication.

    It's nice to pocket some cash but would it be more beneficial if I just pursue side projects all summer long to boost my resume? My understanding is QA you write little code (some automated testing), user acceptance testing, etc. In the long run, I prob want to pursue Software Engineering or Product Management (PM).

    submitted by /u/turnmeintodust
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    GT OMSCS vs Univ of Illinois MSCS

    Posted: 05 Apr 2018 05:23 PM PDT

    Hello all,

    I am looking to complete my masters degree in computer science in order to specialize in machine learning or AI. I currently work as a data scientist and want to get a better foundation in computer science topics and more advanced instruction in topics like computer vision and robotics.

    My question is if any of you have considered either of these programs and have comments on either? GT looks to be more affordable at around ~$7k, but the Illinois one is not terribly expensive at $19k compared to a more traditional masters in computer science.

    I frequent the OMSCS subreddit here and the quality of courses seems to be quite good. I'm just wondering if there are any reasons why I should consider the Illinois program instead. Thanks!

    submitted by /u/datawhat
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    Cybersecurity career path advice?

    Posted: 05 Apr 2018 09:47 AM PDT

    Hey

    I am a finance graduate but considering my move to IT and cybersecurity in particular. I have a chance to earn my masters in cybersecurity to have some documented proof of knowledge and relevant skills before I try to apply for serious cybersecurity positions. My firm is currently growing a cybersecurity unit and I may get an opportunity to test some waters and maybe the first experience right there. But this is probably a year or two from now.

    So currently I am planning my self-development efforts to have a fairly good skillset by the time I would get an opportunity in my firms cybersecurity unit. AFAIK this field is very extensive and I do not know where to start exactly. I've taken some MOOC courses on general security of information and network systems and I plan to attempt some well-known certificates such as CompTIA. But I am unsure of what exactly do I need to know and how to implement this knowledge. I assume I need to feel confident working in Linux but do I need to know any other programming/scripting language? How far should I go with these languages and associated frameworks? I also assume I need to understand networks in more detail (routing, firewalls and all that jazz) but is there something else that I should learn about?

    I am also afraid that people who have worked in IT and software development before are going to have a significant advantage over me. If that's the case then where should I start my career in IT and how many years I might need to stay there before I could move to cybersec?

    submitted by /u/FrugalKrugman
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    What types of internships should I be looking for?

    Posted: 05 Apr 2018 06:04 AM PDT

    Hi everyone,

    I am just finishing my first year of university majoring in Computer Science. I am constantly looking for and applying to internships on Indeed, LinkedIn etc. And have noticed that I am very under qualified for the majority of these internship positions. My only real skill is Java, while I have dabbled with Python on the side with online courses when I can find time. Outside of school, I am in the reserves with the Canadian Armed Forces so I do have some work experience. Fortunately I do have other work options for the summer if I can't land an internship, but I am really set on trying to find one to get some hands on experience programming.

    I guess my question is: what kind of positions should I be looking for with only 1 year programming experience, and would it maybe be worth it to do other work during the summer where it might be easier for me to work on personal projects to improve my resume?

    Thanks

    submitted by /u/praventz
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    Does recruiters look at GitHub Accounts

    Posted: 05 Apr 2018 07:48 PM PDT

    if you build something popular on GitHub using Facebook's or Google's code, they will see it, and a recruiter will contact you. That's how the "GitHub recruiting pipeline" works. Is this true

    submitted by /u/mraza007
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    Resources for learning testing frameworks?

    Posted: 05 Apr 2018 07:47 PM PDT

    I've been having terrible luck trying to find a development position over the past year. Mostly due to lack of knowledge of enterprise technologies, no internships during college (I thought my tutoring role{1.5 years} would be sufficient), and do not believe I can get a security clearance(nor do I want one, frankly), so I'm starting to broaden my search to include testing roles in hopes of finding an entry level position.

    What resources would you recommend for learning a few different testing frameworks? (Jira, Arquillian, JUnit, Selenium, for example, but I'm not limiting myself to Java)

    I'm starting to think I wasted a lot of time and money on my degree, and don't want to be too far out of school for companies to consider hiring me, so I'd really like to find something involving development, rather than resorting to IT help desk positions.

    Thanks in advance.

    submitted by /u/PM_UR_FRUIT_GARNISH
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    Has my offer expired?

    Posted: 05 Apr 2018 07:45 PM PDT

    I received an offer with a signing bonus if I sign and complete Onboarding (doesn't specify what it is) no later than 4/6. I asked them if I could push the start date by a week on the morning of 4/5 but they didn't reply.

    Did they mean references by 4/6? They gave me a week to sign the offer, did I take too long to ask them about changing the offer?

    submitted by /u/reportminority
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    An engineering vs UX design career

    Posted: 05 Apr 2018 03:52 PM PDT

    What are the pros and cons of pursing a career in software engineering versus UX design? If you're good at both how did you choose?

    submitted by /u/juniusg
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    Accepting the Summer internship offer, or betting on yourself?

    Posted: 05 Apr 2018 01:33 PM PDT

    Hey everyone,

    I'm a Junior undergraduate, and I had a decent run in the month of March in terms getting offers. Out of ~150 applications, I got:

    • 15 phone interviews

    • 6 onsite interviews

    • 3 offers

    The offers were from small-to-mid sized companies, and one of them had a deadline that was last week. I was very happy with the company I ended up accepting the offer with ($30/hr, full-stack JavaScript, convenient location).

    Today I got an email from Amazon for their SDE Internship, and I was invited to take their initial coding assessment. I remember applying to Amazon months ago, and I honestly thought that they had ignored my resume. If I go through the interview process completely, I would take this internship in a heartbeat.

    This really led me to think about other companies that may have a late interview process. What if I had accepted an offer from a company in February, while I could have had a much better offer later on? Is it better to play it safe, or bet on yourself? Should I interview for Amazon anyway? Makes me think that big companies with late recruitment is a bit mean to all of us who grinded out March.

    submitted by /u/sgruggy
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    How fast should I be able to solve programming test questions?

    Posted: 05 Apr 2018 07:06 PM PDT

    I'm fairly new to programming, and so far most of my experience has been at my own pace. So I don't really know, relatively speaking, how fast or slow I am at problem-solving compared to average.

    I just took an online programming test for a full-stack position at a company I applied to. the test had a time limit of 3 hours to answer 4 separate questions. Three of them were programming and each one had multiple conditions that needed to be met for success. The last was a front-end HTML/CSS page mockup from a wireframe (from scratch).

    I wasn't able to complete all of the questions within the timeframe - Each one of the questions was a multistep function and it took me a while to troubleshoot the first to, so by the time I got to the third (frontend) question I didn't really have much time left, and I ran out of time before I even started on the last question.

    Does this sound like a test that's par the course of most interview processes? I don't really have a point of reference as to whether I'm just slow or if this test was unreasonably demanding for the time limit.

    submitted by /u/vmcreative
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    Should a data engineer get a Master's degree?

    Posted: 05 Apr 2018 06:58 PM PDT

    I was under the impression that unlike data scientists, data engineers generally don't need a graduate degree to advance career-wise. But then, I see job listings for experienced Data Engineer positions (not even senior-level, necessarily) and they demand either a Master's degree or 5 years exp. implying you gotta stay at the same company for 5 years after finishing undergrad before going somewhere else. And maybe it's possible that in the next few years, that "5 years exp." part will not even be an option and you probably will need to get a Master's degree anyways? Thanks!

    submitted by /u/oshkosh_b
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    Enterprise Engineer at the Book of Faces? Prestige? Compensation?

    Posted: 05 Apr 2018 06:57 PM PDT

    Sorry but I can't wait until the next big-4 thread and maybe others will find this helpful later if they search it.

    I have just over a year of experience and interviewed with Facebook recently. The feedback was that I was a solid E3 candidate but that the teams were looking for E4 and E5s. The recruiting team targeted me for an E4 role but since I didn't make the cut I was rejected.

    They reached out again a few days later and told me that the business application team (I think this is called "BizApps"?) wanted me for the role of "Enterprise Engineer".

    I searched this on TeamBlind and the results are a bit worrying.

    For my next role, I'm looking for high compensation, prestige and the opportunity to work on complex Facebook-scale systems in that order.

    How does the prestige of working as an enterprise engineer at facebook compare with SWE at Facebook or software engineer at some other random company.

    Is compensation the same as SWE? What kind of package would I be looking at with 1 year of experience?

    What do Enterprise engineers work on?

    submitted by /u/AnInversion
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    Recently graduated college, currently working as software engineer, also going to work on a small project for my old university as a "consultant" for a hybrid app; not sure how much to charge?

    Posted: 05 Apr 2018 06:55 PM PDT

    Hi all, I need some advice. I'm a recent grad (graduated back in December 2017) and got a job right out as a software engineer and digging it. During my final semester, I was working on a hybrid mobile/web app for my university as part of a research class. My professor/faculty liked it so much that they now want me to work on the app as a part-time consulting type of thing (they know I work full-time). I already got the OK from my job to work on it, and now am at the point where I have to figure out how much to charge. As a jr software engineer, I'm not sure I can charge anywhere near what usual consultants charge (I think they charge $70-$100 per hour and upwards?). Should I charge them what I make at my current job? (Or at least what the hourly breaks down to), or less? I'm really not sure, and would love some advice on this.

    submitted by /u/HeroicSpiritNick
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    Considering not finishing my CS Bachelor's degree

    Posted: 05 Apr 2018 06:52 PM PDT

    I am currently co-oping for a small tech firm in my city. I am scheduled to co-op through the summer semester, and then go back to taking classes during the fall and spring of 2019 (so 2 semesters), at which point I am set to graduate. I love the work I do and the amount of autonomy I get. Last week I sat down with my boss and discussed post graduation plans. He confirmed that they do want to hire me full time.

    My issue is that I enjoy working far more than I enjoy taking classes. Something about the college classroom environment does not mesh well with me. I am confident that my company would hire me full time sometime this summer if I asked. This would mean I would not go back to taking classes and would not get my degree.

    My thought process is that I can see myself working for this company for several more years, and they don't care about my not having a degree. In the event that I want to leave the company, I think that having several years of full time development experience would more than make up for my lack of degree. If that assumption is wrong, I can always take the time to finish my degree. I realize there are complications with getting accepted into a new program and transferring credits.

    I know for the most longterm career success, I should probably suck it up and stick out these last two semesters. But the thought of getting paid real developer money, as well as not having to go through two more semesters of school is too tantalizing not to entertain.

    submitted by /u/juggbot
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    Coding challange from a big company how to study

    Posted: 05 Apr 2018 06:34 PM PDT

    Hi,

    I accepted an offer back in Dec from a big helathcare company and fast forward to today i got a coding challenge from the AWS company for an SDE intern position. I am an average developer who doesnt believe is ready for such a thing. But I am confident that if I learn at my own pace I can grasp and become better engineer. In the upcoming summer my plan is to prep for full time by doing LC and reading CTCI and PIE.

    Is it worth a shot even if I am not ready? Lets say I bomb this will it hurt my chances in the future for a full time position?

    Last but not least what can I expect on the challange leetcode easy/medium?

    NOTE:

    ● I will have mutiple choice, coding problems and work simulation problems.

    submitted by /u/fjgjDrtk
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    What type of careers involve interprocess communication

    Posted: 05 Apr 2018 06:33 PM PDT

    Been working on an assignment with fork(), and pipes, and am struggling (probably gonna finesse a 0). Basically just want to know what career paths I should cross out.

    Thanks

    submitted by /u/Mooner99267
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    Need advice about finding a job in NYC

    Posted: 05 Apr 2018 06:28 PM PDT

    Hello! I am a middle-level data infra/backend engineer working at one of the unicorns in SF. Before that I spent some time at a fairly boring area in one of "Big4" companies in Seattle Area, about ~5 years experience total.

    For various reasons I will have to move to NYC soon. Since I have some time in my pocket (3-9 months) I wanted to approach job search / preparation more carefully. My goal is to find a company with a good compensation but only if it does not require sweatshop-style work like some banks have to offer. What should be my best course of action in that regard? I don't have any specialized knowledge like blockhain and neither am I a data scientist / ML kind of guy. Should I learn some of that? Could you guys provide some advice?

    submitted by /u/hfbjh
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