Big 4 Discussion - July 25, 2018 CS Career Questions |
- Big 4 Discussion - July 25, 2018
- Daily Chat Thread - July 25, 2018
- Cheated through four years of college and I regret it
- [FOLLOW UP] I was offered and accepted my first software job.
- I feel slow compared to my coworkers at my new firm. How do I become a better programmer after 2 years of work experience?
- As a student should I care about the quality of what’s on my GitHub?
- Leaving the videogame industry for "normal" software development, best way to do it?
- Do any of y’all have problems listening to people talk? How do I listen better?
- Offer Rescinded after Negotiation Attempt
- Has anyone lived on both HCOL and LCOL? Which is better for max saving?
- My company, small startup with around 25 people has lost 9 people on five months. Is it a sinking ship
- What has your experience been with self study and adding to your tech skills?
- Is there a growing trend towards "remote positions"?
- Can I apply for both full-time and Internship positions at the same company for the same hiring cycle?
- how do I ask for future references?
- Shitcanned.
- "Senior" developer is a bum, manager doesn't seem to have the authority to fire him.
- How big should your side-projects be? And how many should you have?
- How can I use my degree to make a positive difference in the world?
- What is a cybersecurity job really like?
- Which is the best minor for a major is CS/SE?
- Is my situation normal? Or have I found myself in crazytown?
- Recent grad from Vancouver who wants to unscrew things up
- Should I tell HR about how the background check is hindering me?
- What Comp Sci jobs would you say are the most and least stressful / have the best work-life balance?
- How do I negotiate my job offer?
- Short-term, part-time jobs with a CS degree
| Big 4 Discussion - July 25, 2018 Posted: 25 Jul 2018 12:07 AM PDT Please use this thread to have discussions about the Big 4 and questions related to the Big 4, such as which one offers the best doggy benefits, or how many companies are in the Big 4 really? Posts focusing solely on Big 4 created outside of this thread will probably be removed. Abide by the rules, don't be a jerk. This thread is posted each Sunday and Wednesday at midnight PST. Previous Big 4 Discussion threads can be found here. [link] [comments]  |
| Daily Chat Thread - July 25, 2018 Posted: 25 Jul 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. [link] [comments]  |
| Cheated through four years of college and I regret it Posted: 25 Jul 2018 10:13 AM PDT I graduated as a CS major two months ago from one of the top 10 CS schools with a 3.3 GPA. The problem is that I cheated through the system for most of my major courses by tweaking previous code base on Github posted by another student, and when they were not available, I put in minimum effort to understand the material. I never got caught doing so by changing the whole structure of previously written code without understanding how it worked. I was able to land an internship opportunity from a somewhat well known tech company that's not as prestige, but haven't really produced anything at all except for minor debugging that any non cs majors could do. My resume doesn't look as bad since I participated in a couple of hackathons and did research work in school. But if I had to talk about my embellished projects in depth, I probably would stumble a bit. Recently, I started studying the core materials with CTCI and EPI to get a full time job, but I am suffering a lot from depression and anxiety that I probably deserve. Luckily, I don't have financial problems and have as much time as I want but I keep questioning myself since I know I didn't earn this degree. I am a very superficial person who strive for superficial greatness, and took a wrong path doing so. Throughout those four years, I learned that I am lazy, and that I really lack in sense of ethics. I don't have much passion in programming but I want to pursue a career as a software engineer for the money. The question is, could I become a successful software engineer with this background? And what should I do to become one? I apologize in advance to anyone who are offended by this post, but I really need some guidance on my life. [link] [comments]  |
| [FOLLOW UP] I was offered and accepted my first software job. Posted: 24 Jul 2018 11:00 PM PDT Yes, I'm following up a two year old thread. I still get a message every few months from someone wondering what ever became of me. So, I got tired of working in retail and fast food after two years and decided to call it quits in April. Decided to reevaluate how I was living, buckle down and really invest time in doing what I love. Started building things again, put together a nice resume, figured out how to write cover letters, cleaned up my Github, etc. Said fuck it and started applying for jobs even if I didn't satisfy the entire skill set they were looking for. Got an email back from a startup downtown inquiring as to whether or not I was interested in learning Javascript and how I felt about learning on the job. I said I'd love to learn web on the job. Fast forward a week, they bring me in for an interview to see how I vibe with the team. Goes well and receive an email the same day asking if I can do a technical interview the following week. I said sure. We use Node and Express, so I decided to spend that week building a little web app to expose myself to the technologies. Start to get up to speed on core Javascript, learn how the DOM works, etc. Night before the interview I ask if it would be okay to bring in my Node app and give a little demonstration. My interviewer says of course and that he's excited to see what I made. (I'm sure this doesn't happen often at larger companies but I figured it's a smaller startup and it was worth asking) So day of technical interview, he's impressed what I was able to learn and put together in a week. The interview itself went.. decent. I didn't do bad but I didn't do as well as I would have liked. Same day I get a call with an offer. They told me that while I didn't have everything they were looking for, they really think I'd make a good team fit and want to make a junior position for me. So, I'm a Junior Software Developer. Doing web. No degree. (Also dropped out of high school, but I do have my GED) My first month went great, got several pulls merged into production, built a tool that we use daily. I think the best advice I can give to anyone who is in a similar position that I was is to not wait around. Don't be afraid to apply to jobs. Build lots of things that mean something to you. I regret not putting myself out there sooner but there's no point in looking back. I feel like I'm where I should be at 23. I really appreciate everyone here who told me to do what I like to do and just go for it. If anyone has any questions, fire away. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 25 Jul 2018 05:47 PM PDT I was previously at a slow company where I wasn't really learning and I didn't really do that well in school. I got comfortable and now decided to switch jobs. After months of studying I got a job at a really top firm but I just feel so slow compared to everyone. The speed is much faster and I am trying my best to keep up. Getting a little sad because i feel quite dumb at times considering my only strength is interview material. Has anyone ever been in this type of situation and how did it pan out? [link] [comments]  |
| As a student should I care about the quality of what’s on my GitHub? Posted: 25 Jul 2018 10:49 AM PDT I've just been committing all my personal projects regardless of completion or optimal quality, if it does anything correctly I upload it to my github for people to see. Could this hurt me in the future when people review my GitHub or are they mainly just looking for projects in general for students? [link] [comments]  |
| Leaving the videogame industry for "normal" software development, best way to do it? Posted: 25 Jul 2018 09:54 AM PDT Hello! Throwaway account just to be safe. I've been working now for a bit more than three years in the videogame industry, first in a small and then in a AAA company and I don't see myself working in these conditions till retirement, unpaid overtime (a.lot.), very limited number of holidays and a terrible retirement plan\salary were ok right after school, but now that I'm starting a family they're definitely not. I know that there are exceptions, but to be honest I'm tired of this industry as a whole and I would like to switch to a more "traditional" field. Couple of infos about me, I've a master's degree (with honour) in computer science, hired as a game developer right after graduation and in these years I've mainly worked on designing and implementing (C++/C#) game mechanics\systems (imagine stuff like inventories, in game chats, characters\ambient interaction etc.) What I'm trying to find out is what would be the best\easiest to transition field I should aim for, and what are the basics (and not) that I should dust off. Any advice and suggestions will be greatly appreciated! [link] [comments]  |
| Do any of y’all have problems listening to people talk? How do I listen better? Posted: 25 Jul 2018 01:44 PM PDT I usually tend to go through meetings and at the end of them, I have no idea what has even happened because I don't listen or I just can't remember. When I'm given an email or through text, I can actually digest the information but when it's a verbal conversation, I don't retain anything. This goes for lectures, conversations, meetings, anything. How do y'all focus in verbal environments? Do I need to start carrying around a notebook everywhere? [link] [comments]  |
| Offer Rescinded after Negotiation Attempt Posted: 25 Jul 2018 02:15 PM PDT I'm a new grad looking for my first real job. Clearly, I'm very inexperienced, curious if I did anything wrong here. I interviewed for a Lead Software Engineer role at a very early stage startup that promised a high salary rivaling that of a Big N company. They were looking for their first technical hire outside of the co-founders, and it seemed like a great opportunity to get in close to the ground floor at an early stage startup with a role that could grow into management over the years. The interview process went well and I got an offer. Strangely the offer was 25% less than the lowest end of the salary range listed on their angellist. I was surprised to see a salary so much lower than the lowest salary they had listed on angellist. It was not too bad of a salary by any means but I was confused and wanted to ask for more since this role would require a lot of hours among other things. I called them and inquired about the growth of the role to see if maybe I would be able to get a promotion of some sort to account for the lower salary early on. The co-founder I was talking to seemed a bit confused about me asking this. I then said I was expecting a salary in the range that was listed on their angellist. He said he wasn't sure if they could give me a salary in that range but he'd circle back to me with the best salary they could afford. I was expecting him to come back with a salary of maybe 10% less than the lowest end of their listed salary range which I very well may have accepted. Today, he sent me an email essentially saying that based on my desired salary and career goals, they think I am no longer a good fit. Did I mess up here? I thought it would be perfectly reasonable to ask for a salary in the range they had posted (and was even willing to take a bit less than that) especially considering that this job would likely require 60+ hour work weeks. I suspect that A) they were looking for someone with more experience when they had that salary listed and/or B) they're not doing so hot financially and can't afford to pay the salary they have listed. Any thoughts on this matter and/or advice would be greatly appreciated, I'm a bit confused at the moment [link] [comments]  |
| Has anyone lived on both HCOL and LCOL? Which is better for max saving? Posted: 25 Jul 2018 09:30 AM PDT Currently making $70k in Kansas City area. Rent for a 1 room appartment is $700 here. Im thinking about moving to sillicon valley for more pay but rent is crazy there. My goal is to live frugally and save as much money as possible so I can retire early. Would I be able to save more each month in KC or SF area? I will relocate to LCOL when I retire. If anyone has experience moving from LCOL to HCOL or vice versa? Please tell me about your experience! [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 25 Jul 2018 05:48 PM PDT In addition, last year's team is entirely different than this year's team. 5 of the 9 people were the sole people in a branch in a different state and now that office is empty. Should I be worried? [link] [comments]  |
| What has your experience been with self study and adding to your tech skills? Posted: 25 Jul 2018 04:09 PM PDT For example, you're a seasoned java developer who wants to get into python but your company doesn't offer that opportunity. You study python on your own time and interview where python is a requirement to fulfill a need to use python. Is self study a good way to gain additional skills to use on another job or is there a better route to take? [link] [comments]  |
| Is there a growing trend towards "remote positions"? Posted: 25 Jul 2018 10:06 AM PDT I'm a software engineer at a large tech company in a low CoL area with not many other tech opportunities. Over the past year I've noticed that more and more companies that reach out to me offer the possibility of remote work, including most recently a company that in the past didn't have this option. Has anyone else noticed a similar change? If so, is there something fundamental that is making companies consider remote hiring? FWIW, in my past I have missed on a couple of life-changing opportunities by not being able to move out to the bay area. So, I'm glad to see that there is more openness to utilizing low-CoL talent without requiring a move. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 25 Jul 2018 12:42 PM PDT I am for certain applying for grad school this fall. I want to also apply for full-time positions just in case I don't get into my dream school. I also want to apply for internships just in case I do get into my dream school and don't want to have to sit around in my parents house all summer... Can I apply for both positions at every company that I want to work at? [link] [comments]  |
| how do I ask for future references? Posted: 25 Jul 2018 12:28 PM PDT So the person who is formally my boss has spoken to me maybe 7 times in the past two months. He cancels pretty much every weekly check in meeting. But the guy who works under him but above me - sorta like the team lead - has hour long skype meetings with me almost everyday and we private message throughout the day about my work. I want my references in the future to come from this team lead rather than my boss if anything because at least he will know what I have done. Am I allowed to just request the team lead provide references rather than my boss? Should I just ask him for his contact info for when I apply for jobs in the future? [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 25 Jul 2018 03:14 PM PDT Hey everyone, Like the title suggests I lost my internship. I was working there for a while, like two years. In-house I was on the sysadmin team running three servers, but my boss got frustrated with the fact that I still have a ways to my degree so passed me off to another team. The other team wasn't really that related to what I wanted to do but because I know VBA and C# they put me on some data migration tasks. This was nothing new for me because I had finished a couple projects before, but halfway through I got sick and missed a deadline. There's no workplace protections or sick time for interns, but I was out for about a week and a half. I had been talked to about working more[during summer I can work 40 hours but pulled for 20], but I already work around 30 hours a week at my other job and had to dial it back a bit [this is the job I rely on to pay my bills]. I figured they wouldn't care because for the most part I was pretty productive- I wrote a couple scripts that use a key to transfer some bulk files to an excel document- and another to clean it up. They threw me on a data sanitization thing and I finished it but it was two weeks late because I got sick and when I got back I was kind of lost- they didn't allow me to work from home because I am an intern. My boss didn't text me and instead decided to do it through the intern program. I got a call from a woman I've never met to tell me not to come in. This was a new team and I worked there for about a month and a half. I'm still on good terms with my last team [they referenced me to this new job] and I've completed probably 15 different projects that range from small stored procedures, automated tables, data migration tasks, websites that display personal info, price aggregation, Account's receivable stuff- I did a lot of coding here. I'm a little frustrated because I don't want to outsource my reference to the internship program because they don't know what I did and will only give a "green light" and I'm worried my last boss will be disappointed because he referenced me to this department to fail. I really hope the last two years of my life hasn't been for squat. I don't want to write a reference just to have them call my boss and get a "yeah he got canned because he called in all the time." I have no idea how to spin this on my resume and I want to find another job soon because 30 hours a week at $16/hr isn't great and I'm not using any of the skills I've developed over the years. I have worked at another place in the past and built them an inventory system, website and customer database but quit because my boss wasn't paying me. I know if I can't get any good references it's kind of my problem for getting a burned bridge, but I couldn't work there anymore and refused to do work without pay and now it's happened again. [link] [comments]  |
| "Senior" developer is a bum, manager doesn't seem to have the authority to fire him. Posted: 25 Jul 2018 08:00 PM PDT Some backstory: my team was compromised of 7 developers, this guy being the 6th or 7th added to the team around 2 years ago. He has been at the company for over 15 years and appears to have been coasting along. He didn't know the legacy stuff he was brought on the team to know. Other team members constantly complained about him to our manager, but she said her hands were tied and she needed a record of incompetence and wanted to see if he could improve. He has completed maybe 10 stories by himself in the last 2 years. He will start one, get stuck, have someone else "pair program" and do the work for him while he chills on his phone. He is like a 40 year old father of 3 under 10 years old. 2 years later, they switch up the teams, our other senior developer becomes our architect, I become "team lead" with only 2.5 years of real development, others are shuffled off the team and we get 3 people from other teams and an new Scrummaster. Our new Scrummaster loves sending reports to management, you can tell she sees this as a stepping stone to management and wants to prove she improved something. She is also over another team. Today I come into work and the scrummaster ushers me into the break room to tell me she's going to write down everyone's status at standup and scrutinize the task board to send to management. I told her I'm not a fan of that, but I am not her boss, I don't think micromanaging the entire team is good. She also talks about including Git activity in the daily report, which I really think is a bad idea because we do a ton of paired programming and some people like to drive more than others. She claimed her motivation for this is to track the lazy developer. She isn't doing it to the other team. I don't like that we are all being closely tracked when I'm used to management being very hands off. My manager asked me about the lazy developer in our last one on one and she made a comment along the lines of "you don't need an secretary do you", but he's still here. Now my scrummaster is under our old manager and the lazy developer and I have a new manager. Do I protest the micromanagment now, or in a few months when the guy is still on the team. Tl;dr: I vent. Have a developer on the team that management can't fire without documentation. Scrummaster wants to document everyone on my team(but not her other team without this issue) but I feel like it could be used against entire team negatively. [link] [comments]  |
| How big should your side-projects be? And how many should you have? Posted: 25 Jul 2018 12:25 PM PDT Recent grad, didn't do an internship unfortunately, and looking for a software development job now. I have the following projects uploaded to GitHub:
I feel like I should work on at least 1-2 more projects. The only problem is I also want to practice interview questions, algorithms, programming challenges, etc. So at what point do you think I have enough projects to show employers "Okay, this guy isn't a total moron"? I'd like to use my time as efficiently as possible. Thank you! [link] [comments]  |
| How can I use my degree to make a positive difference in the world? Posted: 25 Jul 2018 07:52 PM PDT I am a recent grad in Applied CS with a minor in Physics searching for my first job. So far, I've had a few hits but nothing has stuck so far. But a questions I've asked in all my interviews, and that none have given me a good answer for, is what does this company do to better the world? Instead of just market analytics, data mining, etc, what about using CS to solve real problems like medicine, climate change, biological conservation, poverty, etc? Is this industry for me if I want to leave a positive legacy? I've been thinking recently to go back to school for a PHD in computational biology in order to study climate and ocean current models, which I think would be a perfect combination of my CS credentials and my desire to do good. But hanyone taken this path, or have any tips for a programmer that desires to do good? [link] [comments]  |
| What is a cybersecurity job really like? Posted: 25 Jul 2018 06:36 AM PDT I'm a student experienced with software design and embedded operating system design. But the cybersecurity realm has always interested me and seems like a good application. What are cybersec positions really like? +Follow up question. From what I've heard, one would need a huge amount of experience with maintaining networks and pen testing. While those are fun, I love programming. Are there cybersec jobs that are fit for developers? [link] [comments]  |
| Which is the best minor for a major is CS/SE? Posted: 25 Jul 2018 07:35 PM PDT Hey guys! i'm an incoming freshman at the University of Texas at Dallas (UTD) and I'm going to major in Software Engineering. (The CS and SE degree plans at UTD overlap a LOT except for literally 3 classes). Anyways, i'm interested in adding a minor in the near future. I'm interested in, really, any of these minors below (that are offered at my university). But which of these minors would stand out/be more useful (to employers, in the field, etc.) with my major in SE?
(Btw I know many people minor in Math, but i'm really not interested in that.. haha) Any guidance or advice is appreciated because those of you already in the workforce would have a good idea as to what is or is not useful. **Oh also, since I'm new to everything, I was casually wondering, if I major in SE, could I also be qualified for positions like tech consulting or IT jobs? I just wanted to know the grand scope of things. Thanks! [link] [comments]  |
| Is my situation normal? Or have I found myself in crazytown? Posted: 25 Jul 2018 07:24 PM PDT I work for a large software company (15k employees). I make an average salary for a junior dev (70k USD) and have pretty good benefits (2 weeks vacation, insurance, get to leave at 5pm everyday). The thing is, I'm not happy. Personally, I think pretty much everyone around me is completely insane. So here's a list of things that irk me. Are they just par for the course, or am I right in thinking that this place is crazy?
Am I crazy? Is this normal? It doesn't feel normal. It's definitely not fun. I feel like I can't learn anything here and that kind of hurts. Can I get away from this level of insanity without working myself to death at a startup? [link] [comments]  |
| Recent grad from Vancouver who wants to unscrew things up Posted: 25 Jul 2018 07:19 PM PDT I graduated almost 7 months ago. Is that even considered recent anymore? Unfortunately I could not land any internships or work placements during my time there; however, I did work on practicum projects for real clients with a team of 3-4 students. They weren't great projects as in the nicest way I can put it is that there's a base there for someone else to work on. So yeah I have not had the experience for working a 9-5 Mon-Fri shift programming job, walking in the company and getting my own little cubicle to do work and get paid, that sort of thing. Right after graduation I applied to as many jobs as I possibly could and have had over seven interviews. This is probably on the low end of how many interviews I should have gotten after 7 months. I have been mostly applying to jobs that offered junior positions (no luck here) or "regular" jobs that asked for a couple years of experience for that off chance something happens out of it. I have done this apply -> interview cycle for 7 months now with little new programming in between. What I mean is I primarily only went over popular coding interview questions and no side projects or learning anything new except learn how to handle rejection well. I know it's taken 7 months now and dumb me should have realized this a lot sooner but I'm looking to change. Please help. I have no money left and doing more school isn't an option. Right now I'm looking to find minimum wage work to try and keep this roof over my head. I have some old Coursera stuff I bought a while ago which are mostly about frameworks I haven't used like Angular or libraries that I haven't gone through but will soon. If anyone in BC has any leads for getting a junior position (because I'm a grad with no worthwhile experience and I'm really keen on just getting my foot in the door), please give me a heads up. What else should I be doing to improve my chances of landing a programming job? [link] [comments]  |
| Should I tell HR about how the background check is hindering me? Posted: 25 Jul 2018 03:26 PM PDT It's been over 2 weeks since my background check and drug test were submitted along with a "conditional" offer sheet. I've only worked 3 jobs at 3 large orgs in the past few years. I went to a well known university and high school in a big city. I have no delinquent payments. Only have 2 parking tickets for "criminal history". I've turned down 3 job opportunities during that span for integrity reasons since I sent in the signed offer sheet. At this point I feel like I don't owe a company loyalty for stringing me along like this, without even having a start date declared for me. It's a small company that I already feel sketchy about. This isn't helping me with trust. [link] [comments]  |
| What Comp Sci jobs would you say are the most and least stressful / have the best work-life balance? Posted: 25 Jul 2018 03:22 PM PDT I'd imagine Software Developer jobs are the toughest since you probably always thinking about work coding problems even at home, like trying to fall asleep at night and a solution comes to mind and you gotta get up and test it real quick before you forget. What would you say is the most chill Comp Sci job from your experience or seeing people you work with? Like a job closest to a typical 9-5, low stress, can go home and turn off my brain and have a normal life sorta job. [link] [comments]  |
| How do I negotiate my job offer? Posted: 25 Jul 2018 07:01 PM PDT I was already told of the salary expectations at the first interview and was reminded of it during the second interview and when they called that I got the job. I went along with it and said I was okay with it but now I'm rethinking it because it's way too low for any job or internship. How do I approach this? [link] [comments]  |
| Short-term, part-time jobs with a CS degree Posted: 25 Jul 2018 09:15 AM PDT Hello all, Apologies if this question has come up before, but I couldn't find anything via search. I'm a recent CS grad. I realized a bit late that I want to pursue my PhD, so I'm applying this Fall for programs starting in Fall 2019. This leaves me a year of time off, which I want to use to relax some, travel, and learn some things for grad school. However, I'm broke, so I also need a job. I have a job now but it's boring and doesn't utilize my degree. Thus, my question is: What kind of part time CS jobs are out there? I would prefer short term, but this job probably won't be going on my resume anyway, so it's not a necessity. I initally began my search looking for research-oriented jobs but they all tend to be for current students. I can program so dev jobs aren't out of the question, but they tend to be full time, career positions. Freelancing seems atrocious because of undercutting from overseas. Teaching jobs mostly require a master's degree. I feel like I'm in a limbo state with a vanishingly small job market. Any advice? [link] [comments]  |
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