Interview Discussion - July 30, 2018 CS Career Questions |
- Interview Discussion - July 30, 2018
- Daily Chat Thread - July 30, 2018
- Tired of programming....what other jobs can One get with 5 years of SWE experience?
- FYI: Forward all spam recruitment emails to spam@uce.gov
- Should I mention another offer to someone who has made me an offer?
- How do you move toward your dream company after some time already in the industry?
- Feeling incompetent over petty things
- Should I switch teams if I love everything about my job but want to try something new?
- Moving into a Team Lead role at my dream company. Need some advice on managing high functioning developers.
- How I somehow bamboozled my way into the job
- Security Internship
- About to begin first (software) job, advice requested
- How and when to ask my manager about return offer
- When will I finally get a real software position?
- Is it a big deal if the work I'm doing for my internship isn't related to what I want to pursue?
- I'm a new grad getting only offers from companies which have you go through weeks of training and boot camps; is this training period/boot camp thing a red flag in general? Are there a lot of predatory agencies out there?
- Applied for JR SWE role at a start-up and got a "coding challenge" that's very time-consuming
- Software developers who went freelance or started their own consultancies - how do you find clients?
- Working on my communication skills
- Seniors graduating in 2019, can we start applying?
- Got Moved to ETL Position - Not What I Thought It Would Be. How Long Should I Stay?
- At a crossroads in my career and don't know what to do? (Rising Junior in Uni)
- I'm graduating on the East Coast, and want to work at a company on the West Coast. How much do companies care that I'm located across the country?
- Career in CG Animation/VFX/Graphics Industry
- Help, stuck between a rock and a hard place. I don't have a job, should I take my brother's offer for a freelance gig?
- How much did you make on exit?
- Are there any UX/UI Designers here? How do you like your job?
| Interview Discussion - July 30, 2018 Posted: 30 Jul 2018 12:08 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. [link] [comments]  |
| Daily Chat Thread - July 30, 2018 Posted: 30 Jul 2018 12:08 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]  |
| Tired of programming....what other jobs can One get with 5 years of SWE experience? Posted: 30 Jul 2018 05:47 PM PDT Real talk, one is super bored figuring out how to implement stuff. Doing it, and then picking something else to implement. I'm done. What else can One do? What kinds of jobs should One apply? [link] [comments]  |
| FYI: Forward all spam recruitment emails to spam@uce.gov Posted: 30 Jul 2018 01:52 AM PDT Ever get one of those spam emails from an offshore recruiter? If so, please forward it to spam@uce.gov. This is the reporting email for the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and has gotten several offshoring firms to close in the US. They do their best to act on the information, so please forward it and help us cut out the noise. [link] [comments]  |
| Should I mention another offer to someone who has made me an offer? Posted: 30 Jul 2018 03:20 PM PDT I'm fielding two offers, and just for the record for anyone who might be stressed out to see that this is someone's biggest problem: Both offers are pretty low and they took me forever to get lol, so, I'm not that cool. The timing is just very strangely coincidental. Anyway, just wondering, if I'm trying to see if either of them will make the deal more appealing to me, should I mention to them the fact that I have another offer, or is that in bad taste or something? I don't know anything lol. People are always just like "ask for more" and that feels awkward and stressful but also money is cool so... Yeah. You get the picture. [link] [comments]  |
| How do you move toward your dream company after some time already in the industry? Posted: 30 Jul 2018 05:47 PM PDT This sub has lots of stories about people reaching their dream job right out of college. I'm a junior dev at an okay company that I don't plan to be at for more than a couple of years. What steps do I need to take at this current job to prepare myself for a move toward one of the typical "dream" companies that so many devs aspire toward? I feel that because I didn't join one of these super well-known companies right after college, that I will just be passed on in any future attempt Edit: it's really several companies that do a kind of work that I want to do [link] [comments]  |
| Feeling incompetent over petty things Posted: 30 Jul 2018 05:06 PM PDT I don't know what to do. I have had this job for over a year as an intern and now I am turning full time. I feel like i annoy my coworker. I ask questions, and I feel like he gets tired of repeating himself. My two biggest weaknesses is, I know i have bad listening skills and sometimes I don't think everything through because I'm a bit slow, and since I'm aware I try my best to listen and put things together and think. It's hard though because I can't let my coworkers just have me think in conversation and I'm told to ask questions. But when I get the impression they get annoyed because they said something I don't know what to do. I really try, I take notes, I try to digest as much as I can, but I sense aggregation. Sometimes I just don't know, and sometimes I just want to make a point and even that is turned in aggregation. I get sometimes I do genuinely say stupid stuff because I genuinely don't know or maybe I wasn't clear e no if. And I guess that's my other weakness, I am terrible with wording and again I try my best to explain but I don't want to add too much detail like their dumb, but it's the only way I know how, because when I don't sometimes my coworker gets annoyed I wasn't clear enough, but when I add too much detail, it's also received by annoyance. My coworker is a genuinely nice and helpful guy but I feel like i bothered him enough where he gets annoyed. I don't know what to do. I am at the point where i go into work everyday thinking I hope they are in a good mood and I don't annoy them. I go into work every day hoping they would just smile when we talk and I even try to smile first in hopes they will smile in response. Usually it's a no though. I don't want to be on my coworkers bad side because he taught me and helped me so much. I do my best to reserve my questions for meeting unless I'm genuinely stuck or I know it's good to bring up. And then meetings is where I find some aggregation because I feel like it's too awkward for me to think of the answer to my question because they would much rather me just ask so yeah I never know what to do sometimes... Its just a hard balance and I guess I'm just lucky I'm with someone so kind... But it's been making me feel so incompetent and I don't know what to do... I just don't think I'm as intelligent as I guess they wish I was but I try my best to improve and do better.. Just looking for some thoughts... [link] [comments]  |
| Should I switch teams if I love everything about my job but want to try something new? Posted: 30 Jul 2018 07:44 PM PDT I'm 24, graduated college last year and have worked on my current team for a year. I love my job, everything about it. My manager and I are friends (we play pickup basketball a few times even!), the guys on my team are cool, the tech stack is fun and interesting. But I just want something new. I don't know how to explain it. I love my job but I'm getting bored. I want to experience a different team, a different location (some of the other teams are in NYC), a different life. I don't want my life to be the routine it is now. I want new adventures and learning experiences. Sure I would be happy doing this job for another 2-3 years but I'll be 26/7 by then and I just get this sense of feeling that time is running out. I want to take risks right now in my mid 20s and experience different things and not have my life be a routine the way it is now where I know what to expect and everything is too comfortable. I brought up to my manager that I'm looking at teams in New York City for a change of pace and he freaked out on me. He doesn't understand (and I don't either) why I would want to change teams if I'm happy with everything right now. I get that me leaving makes him look bad but he also knows it's not about him. He's kinda guilt tripping me and I feel bad because he's a great guy and has been a great manager. Idk, am I right to feel this way? Or am I being stupid and should suck it up and accept that routine is part of life and life is supposed to be mundane and I'm idealizing "new adventures"? [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 30 Jul 2018 08:31 AM PDT Imagine your dream company with your dream culture. That's where I am. There's no politics or drama, everyone is focused on the work and is incredibly intelligent and motivated. A lot of management resources I've found focus on dealing with this kind of stuff (employee disengagement, etc) but I won't have to. Does anyone have any advice on management when my direct reports are already highly developed and engaged employees? Additionally, several of my direct reports have a decade or more experience in the field than I do. How can I effectively manage across that kind of experience gap? [link] [comments]  |
| How I somehow bamboozled my way into the job Posted: 30 Jul 2018 07:34 PM PDT So about 1 year ago I left the military, where I did a lot of sysadmin work. I had just finished a bachelors in IT and was applying for jobs. I noticed engineering roles paid significantly more so I thought "fuck it I'll change my title to Systems Engineer". I'm decent in basic IT shit but nothing cutting edge and I'm no engineer. I ended up applying for a platform engineer position. I had no idea what that meant but again "fuck it ". The job title talked about Java programming, DevOps, Kubernetes, Docker, etc. I didn't even know what those were so I had to Google them. Anyways I do the interview over the phone and he asks me like 6 questions about linux administration and one about PKI. He tells me I'm the perfect candidate and I got an offer a couple hours later. So I move for the job and get through basic orientation. Everyone here is smart as shit. The job is for a project building a platform as a service on Openshift, Kubernetes, Docker, and AWS. I didn't know wtf those things were. Fast forward to now and I still know nothing about the technologies and not really sure how our platform works. Nobody has said anything. I dont even do much. And I asked around and everyone makes way less money. The real world is fucking weird and I dont understand it. The end. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 30 Jul 2018 01:43 PM PDT Hi! I'm a CS major (going to be a junior this fall) who wants to apply for Security Engineering Internships this fall. I haven't done much work in Security, but I have decent experience with embedded and systems programming (writing drivers, protocols and the like). I've become really interested in security since the start of this year, but have at best, an informal knowledge of things and no experience in the field. I'll be taking security and cryptography classes this fall, but most recruiting for summer positions seems to happen around Sept-Oct, by which time I will still have very little experience of the field. I was wondering what kind of questions get asked for such interviews (I've only ever had to answer algorithm leetcode type things for interviews). Is it worth brushing up more on algorithm-y questions or should I be focussing on other things? Any other pointers for getting an internship with no experience in the field? [link] [comments]  |
| About to begin first (software) job, advice requested Posted: 30 Jul 2018 05:43 PM PDT I start my first job as a software engineer in a week. I'm really nervous, since I've been out of school a little over a year now, and don't feel like I knew what I was doing even then. I didn't have a great GPA, 2.7, and am worried that my (lack of) skill/ability/knowledge/etc. will become apparent and cost me the job. I'm just asking for some advice for myself or anyone in a similar situation. I know I'm not the only one on this sub whose been in this position, but I couldn't find a thread like this while searching. [link] [comments]  |
| How and when to ask my manager about return offer Posted: 30 Jul 2018 07:12 PM PDT |
| When will I finally get a real software position? Posted: 30 Jul 2018 06:23 PM PDT I have been just stuck in the intern life for a while, over 6 months now, and have been applying everywhere, going to tech meetups, and just trying to code as much as possible in my spare time. Rarely do I get responses to anything, and I am just like sitting here in the minimum wage life. My internship is just me doing a lot of testing for them, among some engineering sprints. I am almost fed up with software at this point. I love doing software, and hardware stuff, but like I don't get offers or anything right now. It makes highly considering quitting at this point. Living on very low pay just makes me question how much longer I can go like this [link] [comments]  |
| Is it a big deal if the work I'm doing for my internship isn't related to what I want to pursue? Posted: 30 Jul 2018 03:14 PM PDT I am currently interning at a fairly large company as a software engineer. I want to eventually land a job as a backend developer, but the work I'm currently doing has nothing to do with backend. Is this something I should be worried about? If it is a problem, how should I proceed? Maybe more personal projects? Open to anything really. FYI this is my last summer in college, so I won't have another chance to intern. This was pretty much my only internship in software engineering. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 30 Jul 2018 02:44 PM PDT I've looked quite a bit into Revature, and have read about it here, and if it's not an outright scam then it's at least a really bad deal. I'm getting like 5 calls from them a day, despite never having applied with them. I'm also getting calls from places I did apply which turn out to have similar structures. One for example is Syntel, they're offering to place me in somewhere, low salary, after 4 to 6 weeks of boot camp. What are the chances there's fine print in the agreement that says you'll have to pay that back if you quit after a year or two? Any advice on this type of company in general? [link] [comments]  |
| Applied for JR SWE role at a start-up and got a "coding challenge" that's very time-consuming Posted: 30 Jul 2018 03:20 PM PDT So I got off the phone with the technical recruiter of this start-up in Santa Monica after gauging general fit and talking about my interest in the junior SWE role and she gave me a Google Doc with many questions and parts to do. These were her last words: "This is an untimed challenge, and just email me when you're finished!" Besides the two really simple industry-standard "coding questions," it's filled with questions on how to scale a SQL database to serve 100k registrations, how to schedule/design batch processes for a system of VMs to scrape prices off online stores, writing bash commands to calculate free disk space on all its VM instances, etc. I was also told to implement test suites for all my code for coding portions. I've been studying interview questions and reviewing DS/A, but this is all stuff that I haven't come across since I've never worked as a SWE before. What is your take on this "coding challenge"? Is this knowledge typically expected of a junior SWE? [link] [comments]  |
| Software developers who went freelance or started their own consultancies - how do you find clients? Posted: 30 Jul 2018 04:28 AM PDT I'm wondering how you guys find business, especially when you're up against the large consulting bodyshops and the rock bottom outsourcers? What marketing and sales tricks have worked for you? [link] [comments]  |
| Working on my communication skills Posted: 30 Jul 2018 11:32 AM PDT I have been noticing over the past two months of my new job, that when I try to explain a fairly complex problem or solution that I have been working on to my lead developer, I continually trip up. He will sometimes even say "You are not making sense." And then Ill have to start the explanation over again, and try to simplify the issue. I've come to realize that this is one of my weakest points right now, and I really need to start working on it. But the questions is How? How do I describe a complex issue without getting into too much detail that may be unnecessary and with enough detail that it properly conveys the point/problem etc.? [link] [comments]  |
| Seniors graduating in 2019, can we start applying? Posted: 30 Jul 2018 08:36 AM PDT Is now a good time to begin applying for Entry Level positions if we are a senior going into school? [link] [comments]  |
| Got Moved to ETL Position - Not What I Thought It Would Be. How Long Should I Stay? Posted: 30 Jul 2018 06:18 PM PDT This post is like 85% rant, but I thought it was important to include a lot of background so that anyone with advice can understand where I came from, where I am at right now, and how this pertains to where I want to be in the future. My main interests in software development are web development (I'd like to do full stack eventually) and data science (something I would be interested in doing further down the road if I get more education). I didn't graduate with a CS degree, but I have a related degree and took many CS courses. I pretty much took the first job I could get out of school because I had no experience at all. This job has been positive and negative for me in many respects. What I wanted from my first job was a junior development position where I could learn from senior developers. The place that hired me as a programmer is more of a retail company so their focus isn't on tech. The result is that most of the programmers there are just maintaining legacy code written in COBOL and they have this antiquated web framework written in Java that they use to host their web apps for the business. I thought I would be working with experienced developers but a lot of the people I work under kind of learned to program on the job and aren't a good resource to learn from as they have no concept of clean code, good software architecture and especially no knowledge of CS concepts like data structures and algorithms. This was sort of frustrating, but on a positive note I had a lot of freedom to approach my projects in my own way and have been given a lot of time to learn on my own. I wrote a SPA and my own framework as my first project. I was just learning JS so I only knew jQuery and no frameworks like Angular or React. I would have liked to use a proper framework but they weren't familiar with them and would only let me use jQuery as a resource. Worst of all we were developing for WebSphere. I ended up just reading a book called the definitive guide to JavaScript to learn vanilla JS and wrote them a framework with routing, rendering, and included template syntax after I learned about Vue.js (I wanted to implement this myself). I'm really proud about this so that's why I write about it extensively. That project took me a few months and for the rest of my time there I wrote another web application using Vue.js, I've been teaching myself React.js, Node, es6+, CS concepts like data structures and algorithms, Python, best practices such as writing good clean code, etc. I feel like I put a lot of time in to learn a lot on my own within my first year of work with no guidance and I'm happy with this. I really love software development and I have an interest in statistics so I started to consider going back to school so I could pursue a data science job. I've been using Python, Flask, and D3.js to produce some reports with out data for fun. So since I talked about these interests some higher ups, I was approached by a manager with an offer to work as an ETL developer - something I'm not familiar with. He said I'd be a great fit for the position, I would get exposed to data science, and it fits what I want to do very well. I accepted thinking I would get to be doing ETL work in Python because they said they want to utilize my programming skills, but now they're having me learn IBM DataStage and eventually want me to be a DataStage administrator. I could write a whole post about how much I hate this software, but I really just want to know if I should try and stick it out for a bit or just immediately start searching for a new job. I know I have to leave this place eventually because I'm not going to grow as a developer and I will not be able to use the tech I want to. I really want to work for a company that is tech focused and solving interesting problems.To be honest I'm kind of scared of trying to find a new job because it took me almost a year to find this one and I don't have that CS degree. At the same time I know I learned a lot, I owned two of my own projects, and I put them into production - I think this is all good for my first year with no experience. Is there anything I can really gain from this position at all? I'm frustrated that I'm not coding on the job anymore, especially after I put so much work into trying to expand my skillset. [link] [comments]  |
| At a crossroads in my career and don't know what to do? (Rising Junior in Uni) Posted: 30 Jul 2018 06:04 PM PDT Hey everyone, so I'm a rising junior studying CS and I am so on the fence between two options right now, and I just feel like I don't know enough about a career in cs to be able to make the right decision. I am really afraid of looking back 10 years from now and regretting what I decide now, so I was hoping this sub could push me in one direction or the other. Background on me: I am transferring into a very good CS university (top 10), and I am beyond thankful for this amazing opportunity to grow my career. One of the main reasons I am transferring to this university is for the research opportunities, as my old school did not have many and I felt like I hit a ceiling in career growth there. I switched majors to computer science a little over a year ago, and that was really the time I started to learn programming, I have had two software dev/engineering internships since then at pretty good companies and I am currently interning as a software engineer in a bank. I absolutely love programming and software engineering, and as long as I am doing backend work I know I will love basically anything I do (I'm more of the math-y logical reasoning and problem solving type, don't really like frontend). My favorite class so far has been data structures because I loved the problem solving that went into it, I haven't taken algorithms yet. My main goal is to work for a good tech company, preferably one of FAMG. How I get there doesn't matter much to me because again I know I will love anything I do in software engineering. I am set on getting a masters right after undergrad then going to industry. I am looking at part time research opportunities at my university over the semesters, and although I have not been accepted to any and I'm only meeting with professors, I am stuck between two opportunities. One is a machine learning type of data scienc-y role dealing with large amounts of unstructured data and data mining it with algorithms etc. The other is a bioinformatics role where I would be developing algorithms to basically try to figure out what causes a very common disease, and it sounds really cool. But there is no machine learning involved (I'm pretty sure). I feel like if I went the machine learning route, after I get my masters I would have a leg up on the competition for FAMG because I would have a masters and machine learning experience, which is tough to come by. Since I switched majors about a year ago, I also don't think my programming skills are up to par for FAMG (I feel like those people are the ones that have been programming since like middle school), so I feel like if I tried to go into something more specialized that most people don't learn until they hit college, I could better compete with them and possibly work in FAMG. I also heard machine learning had a lot of math, which I love. I don't know what the job outlook is like for machine learning, or what you really do (I'm hoping you're mostly developing new algorithms and stuff but I read that ML isn't a lot of coding really), so I'm really nervous if I do the machine learning role the job outlook ends up being bad or it turns out I am not competitive enough for FAMG (maybe you need a phd), and therefore I slowed my progression down as a software engineer. For the bioinformatics route, the problem that the professor is trying to solve looks really cool to me. I feel like since this is more algorithms focused, it could help me grow as a software engineer and could give me something really cool to talk about in my future interviews. Furthermore, I would feel as though I'm actually making a difference in the world, because the problem he is trying to solve unfortunately affects so many people. I am worried that if I do the research with him, though, that I would not be getting any machine learning experience and then end up competing against people that have 10+ years of experience in programming for jobs at FAMG. Furthermore, I don't know if the market is moving towards everyone doing machine learning, and I'm scared in the end every engineer will but I won't have the experience because I chose this route. I hope I don't sound arrogant or materialistic, I want to work at these companies because I believe in their missions and I truly feel they are making the world a better place. Please let me know what you guys think, I do not have enough knowledge of the industry to make a decision and I'm really terrified of making the wrong one. Thanks in advance for any help you can provide. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 30 Jul 2018 05:44 PM PDT I want to move to the west coast, it would just make sense to secure a job there first. Any advice on how to do this is appreciated. I really don't want to move there while I'm applying, without a job and hardly any money. [link] [comments]  |
| Career in CG Animation/VFX/Graphics Industry Posted: 30 Jul 2018 10:38 AM PDT I'm a recent college grad (about 1 year ago) with a degree in computer science and recently started to explore working at an animation studio. It got me thinking about careers in this particular field of VFX and animation studios, particularly on the software side (not the art side). What's it like in relation to other tracks within CS? Thanks all for your help. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 30 Jul 2018 12:00 PM PDT Hello, I've worked as a software engineer before, but I just have been going under a dry spell of no work and no offers/leads. My younger brother knows about this (he's 25, I'm 31) and is entertaining an offer for me to build his website. This website is to promote his music business. Here's the thing- he makes no money as far as I know from music. He has no real track record in the music business. His day job is working at a store for near minimum wage and plans to use music to launch into a career as a professional touring musician. That's pretty tough but he's pretty relentless in chasing it having lost thousands of dollars into it (literally, he's had a lot of music equipment stolen from him at one time). I brought up my concerns to him and told him that I am still seeking a full time job. To which he replies, "and how is that working out for you?" which was used sarcastically, already knowing that my job search is not going according to plan. So that's the thing that bothers me. As a potential client he looks unpredictable. I don't know when he'd be able to pay up or how he's even gonna come up with the money unless it's a short fixed rate job. He is also family and I have never worked directly for family so I don't want relations to turn bad because of a business disagreement. The only alternative is to keep going without a job as I continue to look for a full-time job. This gig would just be to tide me over for a short time, but again he's hazy on the details. Have you ever been offered a contract gig to build a website for one of your family members? And WWYD in my situation, entertain the offer or pass? [link] [comments]  |
| How much did you make on exit? Posted: 30 Jul 2018 07:54 PM PDT Were you part of a successful startup? What ballpark equity did you start out with? What was the general exit size? Just looking for some cool, motivating stories. [link] [comments]  |
| Are there any UX/UI Designers here? How do you like your job? Posted: 30 Jul 2018 07:47 PM PDT What would you say are the pros and cons of your job? Would you recommend it to someone else? Thank you [link] [comments]  |
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