Big 4 Discussion - October 21, 2018 CS Career Questions |
- Big 4 Discussion - October 21, 2018
- Daily Chat Thread - October 21, 2018
- Excellent offer from Palantir -- Are the ethical concerns over the company warranted enough to stay away?
- In response to the guy lying about applying 3 as different races, have some actual data on hiring
- [Success Story] Job search postmortem, how I prepped
- I didn't realize that the you only have 25 minutes to solve a problem.
- Met a freshman on the DC metro today who saw me reading cscareerquestions...
- How to deal with a job where you aren't learning
- What are some non-technical books that you felt made a difference in your career?
- Socially conscious jobs?
- Experience working at DRW?
- Breaking in for a broke new grad
- Unsure about my CS major.
- Is SQA looked down on at all companies?
- I'm eyeing Montana for software jobs in the next year or two. Anyone have experience with the state?
- I hate working in an office, I want to work part-time remote. Should I jump ship now or later?
- California university to NYC
- Sharing details about other offers when negotiating
- GS Superday Dress Code
- Not sure about switching majors...
- Is this an alright cover letter for a front end web developer position? I'd like to use it as a template for all of my cover letters.
- really confused by what should i go after
- Mid-Level European Software Developer. My chances to be hired in the US or Canada?
- Industrial Eng student from BR seeking advice on if he should switch to CS.
- How do I relocate to USA/CA and get company to sponsor working visa
- Summer Co-Ops in toronto
| Big 4 Discussion - October 21, 2018 Posted: 21 Oct 2018 12:06 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 - October 21, 2018 Posted: 21 Oct 2018 12:06 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]  |
| Posted: 21 Oct 2018 11:14 AM PDT Job searcher here (1.5 years of experience). The best offer I have on the table is from Palantir. Despite reports that their comp is low, it blew the other offers out of the water. I was unable to get interviews at companies with similar pay brackets, or did poorly on the interviews. My alternative is a recently acquired startup with competitive pay but an iffy product and unclear future. The pros of Palantir are that they offer a significantly higher total comp, cachet (nebulous as it may be), pre-IPO stock that could potentially be worth a solid chunk in the next 2 years, more interesting problem spaces, excellent health benefits (I have health conditions that mean that Palantir' coverage would significantly affect my financial situation), and career capital to move to other companies. The downside is the moral thorniness of the company. I staunchly oppose their extensive work building tools for ICE, the lack of oversight regarding the use of their tools for criminal profiling by the NOPD and LAPD, their contracts with the Israeli government, and their 2011 plot to harass and profile left-wing activists. I find this appalling. Despite this, I think there is a place for a company LIKE Palantir in this world, that offers software focused on precision rather than mass surveillance. I believe that many, if not most, of their software applications have a net positive (e.g. Counter narcotics, human trafficking prevention, fraud detection, drug discovery). I believe that the company will not force me to work on projects I am not comfortable with. But even if I'm working on humanitarian relief, or even the company's ethics auditing team, how can I rest easy knowing that the value I create is also used to violate civil liberties or end human lives? I've been deeply conflicted over this. I actually admire that the company doesn't shy away (at least in interviews and internally) for fierce discussions of ethics and civil liberty. Some have even argued that ethical activists OUGHT to be in the company or else cede control of the business to amoral forces. What do you think about Palantir? Ethical black hole, or the best place for a politically-minded, ethically conscious person to wield influence? Edit: Should clarify; I do have more interviews in the pipeline, but I have exploding offers from P and a couple other startups, which is why I'm trying to cut my job search off soon so I can make rent. I generally don't do poorly on interviews, but flubbed a couple big ones like Google that I would've likely taken. The Palantir offer wasn't a fluke, so the point that I could probably get competitive offers from more ethical companies either now or during my next job switch is valid and makes sense to me. [link] [comments]  |
| In response to the guy lying about applying 3 as different races, have some actual data on hiring Posted: 21 Oct 2018 02:16 PM PDT Study from the US National Academy of Sciences: http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2017/09/11/1706255114.full
Forbes citing multiple studies:
[link] [comments]  |
| [Success Story] Job search postmortem, how I prepped Posted: 21 Oct 2018 03:55 PM PDT TL;DR - Got offers from 4/7 onsites, 3 from Big N type companies. Figure out what your weaknesses are and grind them into strengths. Keep a journal of successes/pain points, create a cheatsheet that you can read through in 2 minutes to refresh yourself Hi all! Been posting in the past few months as I prepped for interviews. I've sporadically posted my results in daily threads and have gotten a couple repeated questions, so I thought I'd share my success story, post a brief postmortem on the process, and some general thoughts on how I prepared! I've found these types of posts helpful in the past, so let me know if you have thoughts/questions! Background Worked for around 5 years total, worked for two different companies in a low cost of living non-techhub area. The last 2.5 years were in a specific domain. Have a BS in Computer Science from a state university. Nothing fancy here! Job search Sent 10 applications out, looking for general software engineering positions, or specific to my domain. Among the companies were: Facebook, Google, Netflix, Airbnb, Amazon, Apple, & 4 startups. Ended up getting calls from 7/10. Also used Hired.com (no matches found for companies so my profile got shelved) and Triplebyte (who did not treat me with any kind of priority at all, which is disappointing). For transparency's sake, got an internal referral from Google, and was recruited by Facebook, Amazon, Apple via LinkedIn. Looked through the "Who's Hiring?" monthly threads over on Hacker News as well as StackOverflow to find the startups that I thought were interesting, stable, and well run. Interview Prep Powered through Cracking the Coding Interview by Gayle Laakmann McDowell. Pretty good primer on what types of questions to expect from these interviews. The chapters on how to approach these problems and how to optimize were great! Also would recommend looking into the recommended STAR method of answering behavioral questions. Did 34 Leetcode questions, mostly targeted in areas which I felt weak. A big general problem I found myself running into was figuring out what type of problem I was looking at, specifically Dynamic Programming and Greedy problems... so I ran through a lot of those tagged questions on Leetcode until I felt more comfortable and could identify patterns. It's a bit of a crutch doing things by category, since you know in advance what kind of problem you're working on, but it definitely helped me recognize patterns and types of problems Came up with two ways to keep myself on track: a journal of successes and failures (Motivational "Things I did today!") as well as a cheatsheet that I could refer back to prior to a study session as well as prior to interviews (my "Two Minute Drill"). Two Minute Drill As I studied over 3 weeks, I compiled my approaches to problems and general thought process when it came to certain types of problems in a bullet point document. Really helped to drill some things into my brain, as well as serving as a quick reference for refreshing myself before interviews. It really boils down to a bunch of bullet points that went along the lines of: For substring problems, consider a "sliding window" technique of evaluation using two pointers - keeping track of current characters, and adding/comparing the next character I found it to be really helpful to do this for all topics! Happy to share this with y'all but I would definitely recommend people make their own for study purposes. Motivational journal Other than looking at levels.fyi, I kept a journal for motivation, keeping track of the things I had accomplished on certain days. Really fun to see my progression from week to week, able to track myself improve in certain areas, like recursive problems. End results Got offers from Google, Facebook, & 2 startups. Got shot down by Amazon, Apple, Airbnb, and a startup after onsites. Wasn't even contacted by the other 3 for a phone screen! Ended up signing an offer with Google. Super pumped. Big thanks to all the helpful posters and mods here - really helped to know there were tons of people who had my back! [link] [comments]  |
| I didn't realize that the you only have 25 minutes to solve a problem. Posted: 21 Oct 2018 03:02 PM PDT When people say each session is 45 minutes, I thought I had 45 minutes to solve the problem. That isn't the case. We spent 15 minutes talking about my experience, then 5 minutes for questions at the end. Then you only have 25 minutes left for the leetcode question which is usually leetcode medium or hard. And during this leetcode question you have to spent time explaining thoughts, coming up with examples and test cases, and clarifying assumptions. All in all, it seems like you have to be able to do leetcode mediums in 15 minutes in order to solve them in 25 minutes during a session. I knew I could solve problems on leetcode in 45 minutes easily, and that I'd have a lot of time leftover, but boy was I wrong. Here is what I should have done differently.
Didn't get the job (Even though I could solve all the questions due to speed and not clarifying assumptions properly.) Some questions I have for you guys: Is this the same for all companies/top companies? Is it okay to pause for a few minutes, think, and then discuss what I was thinking? I think this will speed up my thought process. [link] [comments]  |
| Met a freshman on the DC metro today who saw me reading cscareerquestions... Posted: 21 Oct 2018 02:20 PM PDT Since when do they start so early? Anyway, to whoever you are (and to the rest of the freshmen on this subreddit), also explore other interests when you're in college! I regret not doing more of that and having a bit of a myopic view during undergrad; it's a lot harder to explore other interests or other career options once you have a full time job. [link] [comments]  |
| How to deal with a job where you aren't learning Posted: 21 Oct 2018 06:41 PM PDT The job I'm currently at uses ancient technology (by tech standards) and proprietary software when possible. Everyday I go into work I think about how useless the job is to my career development. This is my first job out of school, will it put me at a disadvantage for my next job? New grad positions didn't mind a lack of experience, but I'm worried the lack of growth in this position will hurt me when I begin looking for jobs again. The only thing I can really boast that this job is giving me is more Java experience, but it feels like the only thing I'm really learning is how to debug someone else's 10 year old code. [link] [comments]  |
| What are some non-technical books that you felt made a difference in your career? Posted: 21 Oct 2018 05:45 PM PDT |
| Posted: 21 Oct 2018 06:31 PM PDT Hey, wondering if there are any recommendations for small to medium size companies that are involved in doing good for the people and have a need for web devs? Any good past experiences working for such companies? [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 21 Oct 2018 02:36 PM PDT I'm a former Google engineer who moved to Chicago for lower cost of living, working at a startup with moderate pay (username no longer relevant) but pretty good work/life balance. However I'm noting certain structural changes at the startup that has me questioning my future there, and at the same time, DRW gave me a shout and I took a look. Note that I haven't clinched the job yet, but I've generally been pretty good at interviews and I found the phone screen trivial and the takehome felt pretty solid. Before I take a day off to look at the company, I was hoping to get input from anyone who has ever worked there before, good or bad. Glassdoor reviews are surprisingly solid, and the pay the recruiter has been talking about is very high. I got some red flags in the interview about it being a feature grind. Anyone have actual work experience there, particularly at the senior level? [link] [comments]  |
| Breaking in for a broke new grad Posted: 21 Oct 2018 09:10 AM PDT Hello, all. I just graduated with my Bachelor's in CS a few months ago. I have debt that I would like to start paying back as soon as possible. Problem is, I currently have $300 bucks to my name and bills to pay. I'm also currently staying in my car. I took on a seasonal retail position just to survive. I've been applying to CS jobs in my state (New Jersey), but there aren't a huge amount of options. I would love to apply to jobs out in NY, but the cost of going out there without the guarantee of results is a little too expensive for me right now. I also spend so much time on applications that I really don't even have time to leetcode or brush up on my interview skills. Part of me feels that I should I just find work at a Walmart or something and just steady my situation. But I also can't get the idea out of my head that I'm silly for working +70 hours a week slaving away to make ends meet, when I have the skills to work a single job and make 70k+ doing what I love. I'm actually at the point where I'm considering something like Revature or a boot camp that derfers tuition, anything with some sort of job placement so I know I'm learning and not just going nowhere. Any advice is appreciated, even if it's just a swift kick to the head. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 21 Oct 2018 07:35 PM PDT Hi y'all!! I go to UofSC (not to be confused with USC) for computer science and I am a freshman in my first semester. All throughout middle/high school up until I started college I felt like I absolutely knew what I wanted, and that was to study computer science and become a software developer. However, obviously, the classes are incredibly difficult. I'm taking precal (not even calculus!! precal) right now and I'm struggling really bad even with all the extra help I'm getting, which makes me wonder if I'll even be able to do things like linear algebra and discrete math. I'm also in an algorithmic design class writing basic Java stuff and it's the same story there. I enjoy writing programs but I also hate the classes I'm in— it makes me cry all the time from stress and anxiety. I just met with my advisor and decided to go undeclared because I'm very unsure, hence the title of this post. I feel like I could go back to computer science, but the classes will kill me as they get harder and harder, especially since I'm already struggling with the fundamental/easy stuff. I have a bunch of other interests— foreign language, sports management, international business, criminal justice, -animation, a million other things— that have NOTHING to do with computers and make way less money. However, if money/career prospects was not an issue I would immediately jump ship to one of these majors, or at least I think I would. I just don't know what to do anymore. The act of trying to choose a major is making me even more stressed on top of things and I have trouble sleeping at night now. I'm stuck between a rock and a hard place. [link] [comments]  |
| Is SQA looked down on at all companies? Posted: 21 Oct 2018 03:10 PM PDT I've been working in SQA for 8 years. I've only worked for three companies, but at every company I've worked at SQA as a whole is just treated as second class citizens in the SDLC. We are rarely kept in the loop with design changes or even initial design discussions. Everything is just dumped in our laps at the end of a sprint/ release and we are expected to just fly through testing something that we haven't been a part of all along. Then when it doesn't get finished SQA is the hold up, never mind that this change was deployed at 4:30 on a Friday. Anyone else working in SQA feel the same way? Or do I just need to find a better place to work? [link] [comments]  |
| I'm eyeing Montana for software jobs in the next year or two. Anyone have experience with the state? Posted: 21 Oct 2018 10:07 AM PDT I'm currently working as a software engineer in a major east coast city. I've traveled the US a bit and lived in a few places for a couple of months at a time, but I tend to bounce around a lot (I was freelancing before I start working a full-time "normal" job). I love the city life, but I don't want to settle down in one of these places. I'm pretty much settled on wanting to move to Montana long-term, but of course, I am concerned about the prospects there for tech jobs. For reference, I mainly work with Java, Spring, Angular, and regularly work with some of the more common DevOps technologies as well. I've worked with Python, React, etc., a good bit in the past. I am not sure what the most common technologies used in the area are. I'm not expecting to find some huge tech companies with massive salaries in MT, but I'd like to hear this sub's experience with being a developer in MT. The Missoula area is especially appealing to me, but I am fairly open to other options. [link] [comments]  |
| I hate working in an office, I want to work part-time remote. Should I jump ship now or later? Posted: 21 Oct 2018 08:02 PM PDT New grad, 5 months into my first job at a startup. Pros
Cons
I've tried tactfully bringing this up with my manager, e.g. "Could I take a 2-3 hour break in the middle of the day" was met with no. He is very strict and wants to "shape" me to fit his working style. He wants people in the office for better communication. Which is fine but that's not my style. I want to be able to smoke weed and code or be able to code at like 2am while I'm in bed, I hate having to be at this place for 8 hours a day. I've been doing this since 13 so I know that this is how I am most productive but I guess my manager doesn't believe me or something? Anyway I'm thinking about jumping ship to another company, it seems like this weird office politic shit that I can't navigate myself around since the company is so small. But at the same time I think to myself, I can just tough this out for a year, get that month of remote that the founder promised, THEN jump ship. That way if I hate my next job I have 1 year + 1 month remote professional experience on my resume and could likely get a much better gig than if I only worked onsite for 5 months and jumped ship early. It's only 8 or 9 more months to go. Any advice appreciated. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 21 Oct 2018 07:57 PM PDT So hypothetically if I graduated UCI with a computer science degree would it be possible to find a back end job (with average skills) in NYC and move following graduation? How would hiring work? Would it be possible without drowning in housing debt or living in a 50 sq ft co op? Is it even possible? (I've lived in NYC for a year with my aunt who has sadly passed away and it is my ideal place to live/work) I would prefer to get educated in NYC but out of state tuition in most colleges is not ideal. You guys have any decent universities with good comp six programs in the nyc area? [link] [comments]  |
| Sharing details about other offers when negotiating Posted: 21 Oct 2018 03:39 PM PDT Hi cscareerquestions, I currently have an offer from company A and will be hopefully receiving another on Tuesday from company B. Company B knows that I have an offer on the table, but they don't know the details. They will probably ask about it on our call on Tuesday (assuming they make the offer during this call). My approach normally is to reveal as little as possible about my offers to other companies. I was planning basically saying "I normally don't share info from my other offers" and just asking for a number that is fair and above my offer from company A. So my question is, how much do you reveal to other companies about your other offers? Is it okay to not say much other "Yup, I have another offer"? For background, this is not for Big N companies. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 21 Oct 2018 07:21 AM PDT Hi everyone, would really appreciate your help on this. I have a GS superday coming up, not really sure what to wear. The recruiter said business casual, and I know they relaxed the dress code for tech. As a female does that just mean a nice shirt and dress pants/skirt? Or is a blazer necessary? [link] [comments]  |
| Not sure about switching majors... Posted: 21 Oct 2018 07:16 PM PDT Backstory: I got most of my basics out of the way while dealing with an undiagnosed mental illness. I ended up taking several classes twice by accident, and that ate up a lot of hours. When I finally dropped out due to my mental illness and stress I took a year off. After finally being diagnosed in 2015 at age 21 with a lot of drama accompying it, I took a year to recover from it. At this time I moved to a different state. Over a year later and a stint at working at a major retail chain, I decided to go back to school. I wanted to major in computer science. Current Situation: To be frank I can't handle the math. I'm part way through Calculus 1 and failing. I also have a lot of math classes left. I would like to switch to information systems but that is being phased out at my current school. I'm in my second year of computer science. I'm also currently 24 years old and running out of financial aid. So my question is what is the right call to graduate with a degree? Try to go to another school and get a degree in information systems? But then I might lose progress towards my degree. Suck it up and try again to do more of the math? I'm afraid of how long it would take to pass and feel like I'm running out of time finacially. I'm also afraid I might not be able to do the math. There is also a possibliity of a software dev course being offered at my current school, but that is more than a year out before being offered. Not to mention I have no idea baout about the degree requirements. I've been thinking of taking a year off to make more money and save up then resume school. Open to suggestions/ideas. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 21 Oct 2018 12:56 PM PDT Hello! My name is { name }. I've spent the last 6 months learning web development in addition to what I've been learning in college as a Computer Science major. I'm interested in your Front End Web Developer position because I have many of the relevant skills that you are requesting, including: Languages: Whatever they listed in job posting that I know, Frameworks: Whatever they listed in job posting that I know, Version Control: Whatever they listed in job posting that I know. Some other skills I have that were not mentioned in the job posting, but may be useful, are: Whatever they didn't list in job posting that I know. I also have about 2 years of experience working in professional agency work environments with cross-discipline teams. I worked at { financialInstitution }'s headquarters for a year and a half and at {academicTechCompany } for 4 months under a contract. At {academicTechCompany } I worked directly with a dev team to identify and fix bugs. Each ticket in Jira had a deadline that it needed to be tested by and I managed to complete each ticket by it's deadline while also identifying and documenting significantly more bugs than any of the contractors that were hired alongside of me. At { financialInstitution } I worked with several different departments to resolve any issue that our member's called in about and was promoted within a year due to my performance. I would love the opportunity to work for { companyName } because I believe that this would be an excellent opportunity to continue to learn and I believe it would be a great start for my career as a front end web developer. I hope you will consider me for the position! If you would like to see my portfolio, you can view it at my portfolio website, { portfolioSiteURL }! [link] [comments]  |
| really confused by what should i go after Posted: 21 Oct 2018 03:04 PM PDT hi guys! this is a junior majoring in computer engineering. its time for me to really think of my career and im so lost. i originally love security (which i still do) and would def go after the "security guy" position. however, when i got a chance to work as the security helper, life seems much more boring than i thought. there's no coding part for me at all and i absolutely love coding. i dont know if thats the real security guy work, but i started to rethink my path. it turns out web dev and mobile dev have a huge need for people and they sound interesting too. should i transit my interest and subfiled of studying to high level? if so, what would be your suggestion for a starter? I'm still in love with security and would love to continue subfiled in security. if you are currently working as the security guy and what i described above is not your daily routine at all, please share a word.... thanks guys! [link] [comments]  |
| Mid-Level European Software Developer. My chances to be hired in the US or Canada? Posted: 21 Oct 2018 12:47 PM PDT I am mid level software developer working for a big company in a field that is doing pretty well. I don't want to stay in Europe and I would like to work in the US or Canada, planning to become a permanent resident there. Immigrations laws are stricter in those countries (I'm not complaining about that) and I would like to know if sending my CV to relevant position in those countries would make sense and if I would have the chance to get a decent visa and not one that would allow the company to exploit my immigrant situation. Thanks! [link] [comments]  |
| Industrial Eng student from BR seeking advice on if he should switch to CS. Posted: 21 Oct 2018 06:35 PM PDT Hello, guys My name is Renan and i am an IE undergrad student from UFRJ (a government university located on Rio de Janeiro) and i am 24 years old. Here most of the renowned universities are the public ones and we don't pay tuition. I had some disciplines related to programming on my IE program (mostly on python) and now i work as a part-time research assistant at uni using R for data wrangling and statistical modeling. I've been doing this for a few months. By the end of this semester i'll be with something around of 58% of my IE course completed. The thing is that i am really enjoying my experience with coding, but have been missing some of the stuff i would probably learn on a CS program, like algorithms, design patterns, data structures and software engineering. Also, i noticed that i'm really curious on how things work behind the scenes and would probably enjoy working as a software developper. One other thing is that, at least in my opinion, our IE program at UFRJ is too focused on management and manufacturing and i don't really enjoy those areas. If i finish the course, i plan to work as a quant analyst (which sucks, because i feel like guys from CS and Applied math would eat me for breakfast everyday). To make things worst, i've been looking around for some internship programs on IE and most of the positions in Rio are not really related to technology, like operations management and sales, which i find pretty boring. That said, i have 2 questions: 1 - Is it worth to switch majors at this point of life? (I could probably do it by taking a exam that is not really hard and finish the CS course in 2 ~ 2 and a half years). Maybe should i pursue a MS on CS when i am finished on IE? (In brazil, our undergraduate programs on engineering last 5 years and MS is more 2 years, so to achieve both degrees it would take me probably more 4 ~ 5 years of study). I also have a third option that is double majoring on IE and Stats with 1 extra year of study as an undergrad (which would take something around 3 years) so i don't feel like a "jack of all trades, master of none". 2 - How hard is to land a job as a dev or as a data scientist in other countries as a south american? I ask that because one thing that grabs my attention about a career in software development is to be able to seek oportunities abroad (both remote or being phisically present on the country). Sorry if i am not being totally clear. English is not my 1st language. Thank you guys! [link] [comments]  |
| How do I relocate to USA/CA and get company to sponsor working visa Posted: 21 Oct 2018 03:26 AM PDT Hi Reddit, I'm a European Citizen with 5 years of professional development experience. Within Europe, it's quite easy to open up your profile on LinkedIn by the end of a day, be approached by countless of recruiters. On top of that, there's both honeypot.io and talent.io where companies send you requests directly. However, when I started looking into roles within USA, I notice that most of the companies are unwilling to sponsor visas. Me and my wife have both dreamt about relocating to Chicago. We were also considering Canada for free health care. Does any of you know of any recruitment agencies who specialise with overseas IT recruitment which provide assistance with obtaining H1B visa? I'd be forever grateful for any help in pointing me in the right direction! [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 21 Oct 2018 12:25 PM PDT Has anyone started applying to jobs in toronto this summer/seen their company post about jobs. I'm worried I'm behind but I've only heard of companies starting to look for applicants in January [link] [comments]  |
| You are subscribed to email updates from CS Career Questions. To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now. | Email delivery powered by Google |
| Google, 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, CA 94043, United States | |
No comments:
Post a Comment