DEAR PROFESSIONAL COMPUTER TOUCHERS -- FRIDAY RANT THREAD FOR October 12, 2018 CS Career Questions |
- DEAR PROFESSIONAL COMPUTER TOUCHERS -- FRIDAY RANT THREAD FOR October 12, 2018
- Daily Chat Thread - October 12, 2018
- Is it effective to find recruiters on LinkedIn and send them direct messages/email them?
- How to improve underdeveloped Software Engineering skills due to too much focus on algorithmic coding/leetcode
- Manager thinks messy code written by co-worker is mine
- Allowed 90 minutes for coding challenge. Finished in 12 minutes and passed all test cases. Rejected. What happened?
- Is being a Software Developer in Testing really all that bad?
- Salary Negotiation Advice
- How can I learn best practices, refactoring, and code maintenance when I'm the only programmer in my firm?
- Should I, and how to do a proper follow up email
- Need Advice Getting Out Of Dead-End Job.
- Struggling with algorithms and mathematical problems, what sort of path should I take?
- Leaving art college to take a coding bootcamp. Bad idea?
- Career Fair
- What are the highest paying companies in and around NYC?
- Is it okay to delay graduation if you don't feel confident about finding a job?
- Is it possible for a company to not give you an offer because they think you won't take it / aren't interested?
- Applying for Data Science + Software Development roles
- Are coding tests used more often in decisions or screening?
- Has anyone worked at a WeWork?
- "If you're not passionate about tech, then this is the wrong industry for you." - my manager
- Misconceptions about Algorithm Questions
- Reputation of Quantcast
- Can I talk about my mistakes in my thank you email?
- Anyone have experience with Launch Code apprenticeships? I'm a senior in an unrelated major and am looking to get my foot in the door.
- Hello, pros. I have potentially 2 companies I'm looking at for a 1st job. Which do you think would be more ideal for me?
- Is functional programming worth studying to get a job?
| DEAR PROFESSIONAL COMPUTER TOUCHERS -- FRIDAY RANT THREAD FOR October 12, 2018 Posted: 12 Oct 2018 12:07 AM PDT AND NOW FOR SOMETHING ENTIRELY DIFFERENT. THE BUILDS I LOVE, THE SCRIPTS I DROP, TO BE PART OF, THE APP, CAN'T STOP THIS IS THE RANT THREAD. IT IS FOR RANTS. CAPS LOCK ON, DOWNVOTES OFF, FEEL FREE TO BREAK RULE 2 IF SOMEONE LIKES SOMETHING THAT YOU DON'T BUT IF YOU POST SOME RACIST/HOMOPHOBIC/SEXIST BULLSHIT IT'LL BE GONE FASTER THAN A NEW MESSAGING APP AT GOOGLE. (RANTING BEGINS AT MIDNIGHT EVERY FRIDAY, BEST COAST TIME. PREVIOUS FRIDAY RANT THREADS CAN BE FOUND HERE.) [link] [comments]  |
| Daily Chat Thread - October 12, 2018 Posted: 12 Oct 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]  |
| Is it effective to find recruiters on LinkedIn and send them direct messages/email them? Posted: 12 Oct 2018 02:38 PM PDT I've heard people say it's easier to get responses this way rather than apply through the official online portal. Wouldn't the recruiters get annoyed? [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 12 Oct 2018 12:10 AM PDT I recently got a new job at a startup where I'll probably need to hit the ground running. I had about 1.5 years of experience before quitting my job and taking time off to study A&DS, practice leetcode problems, and interview. As a result, I'm now good at reasoning about 5-40 line solutions to contrived brainteaser problems, but my actual software engineering skills has deteriorated. I realize how ridiculous this is, but now I need a way to sharpen up before I begin my new job. Does anyone have any suggestions on how I can go about this. I was thinking I could check out some open source projects, but I'm not familiar with the scene (any suggestions would be highly welcome). I'm going from heavy enterprise software using enterprise-y tech to microservices with Python and more trendy stuff. I could build something myself, but I feel I might not have the best practices at the moment and I don't have any particularly inspiring ideas. I am open to suggestions (pls no todo apps). I apologize if my predicament offends anyones' sensibilities. [link] [comments]  |
| Manager thinks messy code written by co-worker is mine Posted: 12 Oct 2018 06:28 AM PDT Setup: About 9 months ago, a co-worker, who we'll call P, wrote a huge chuck of one of our projects. P is intelligent and is known to pump out code extremely fast. The thing is, it's often extremely messy and incoherent. Since he is a contractor, he does not have access to our production data so the task came to me to make the application work and at least display the correct data. My team-lead told me to make sure it was at least in someway functional and not to worry about prettying it up. The whole thing was a mess of spaghetti code but I did as I was told and made it work and display data. (When I got it, some of the screens weren't even reachable) Then I got pulled back to work on another project. Problem: Fast forward to a few weeks ago when my manager wants to push this app to production and he finds out that it's ugly and full of bugs. He pulled a few more of my co-workers off what they were working on and we spent a week on improvements and making it work with some new requirements my manager came in with. Every time he mentions some bug in the app he says "we dropped the ball" and stares directly at me. I've always considered myself a team player and never want to point fingers but it feels really bad being blamed for something I didn't originally do. However, I suppose I am somewhat responsible as I was "told to make it work", I just didn't know to what degree and my work was never verified. Anyway, my co-workers, some of whom literally cursed their way through the code, know I did not write it as they're competent and know how to use git blame. What I think: I don't think it's productive to blame P for what went wrong at this point. We're all in it together and trying to get the task done. However, if this affects me directly in my performance review, I feel I have no choice but to reveal what truly happened. Since this is r/cscareerQUESTIONS, I'd better stop venting and present a question: Do you think I'm doing the right thing remaining quiet and accepting responsibility for P's code monstrosity? TLDR: My manager seems disappointed in me for something I didn't do. Contemplating violating my personal rule of no finger-pointing to save face. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 12 Oct 2018 04:58 AM PDT Company contacted me for a coding challenge for internship. I finished both questions the day I got them in 12 minutes, even though I was given 90 minutes. I passed all test cases (there were about 12 per Q), so I was feeling pretty confident. About a week later I get a rejection and am struggling to figure out why. I've heard that this company sometimes rejects people for not being a junior, but I am a junior. [link] [comments]  |
| Is being a Software Developer in Testing really all that bad? Posted: 12 Oct 2018 06:50 AM PDT Just curious, from what I've seen from this sub QA is supposedly hell. I was burned out in college, so I took a QA Automation job after taking 6 months off after graduation. I've been in my role for almost a year now. I know it varies from company to company, but it hasn't been the hell hole this sub makes it out to be. I get to automate a lot of things using C#, and I'm not usually pulling out my hair like I was in all my software internships. I dont work with workaholic teammates, Pace is calm, stress is low, and I still get to problem solve which is my true passion. Plus, I am learning a lot about a bunch of different software and technologies. So tell me, is being an Software developer in testing really all that bad, or did I get extremely lucky with my company? [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 12 Oct 2018 03:33 PM PDT Hey guys, Sorta new here and this may be a previous big post, but I have two offers and possibly a third offer coming and they have significantly noticable salary difference. They are all in Atlanta. Two are at large tech companies and the third that I am hoping to get is a big four consulting company that is hiring me for engineering. Offer 1: previous internship, $83,000 with $3,000 signing. I like the company, but it is significantly larger than offer 2 and might be harder for vertical movement within the company. Offer 2: my dream company since I started applying, $75,000 with an unknown signing yet. They said they're flexible with payment so I might be able to get more. Offer 3: $80,000 with $12,500 signing. Consulting company. I like the work that they told me I could be doing and the idea of the travel. I am mostly looking for advice on how to negotiate my second offer up to around by first offer. I love the second company but $11,000 the first year and $8,000 ever other year assuming no bonus is something I can't turn down easily. Anyone have advice on salary negotiation or how they ended up deciding between different offers? [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 12 Oct 2018 10:43 AM PDT Context: I've always been fond of programming and have done so for at least 5 years on and off. My background, however, is in economics and finance. I work in a specialized hedge fund, where I do economic and financial analysis with the purpose of investing in companies. While here, I have taught myself basic machine learning and numeric computation which I use in my analysis. Additionally, I'm starting to build web apps with built in models to assist with future research, web scrapers and data cleaning tools, etc. What I am now realizing is that my code base is becoming quite large and I'm referencing previously written code more and more. Suddenly things are becoming quite entangled, and I think I need to start implementing some ways of structuring all this code, reviewing it, etc. to avoid this becoming a complete mess. Since I'm the only programmer in my firm, however, I have no one to help with code reviews, code maintenance, and other best practices. Are there any good sources for learning this? Furthermore, my boss is becoming quite fond of my software, and is talking about hiring more programmers to assist me. If this is to be possible, my code will need to be usable by others. How can I hire people when I can't help them become better programmers (since they are probably better that I am)? Thanks in advance. I've tried to search myself, but haven't found anything particularly useful yet - please feel free to direct me to other potentially similar posts. Edit: grammar [link] [comments]  |
| Should I, and how to do a proper follow up email Posted: 12 Oct 2018 01:55 PM PDT I have applied to a government jr programmer analyst job around four months ago, a job that I have done the programming test for and I have received confirmation for that I have indeed passed the test and that the hiring manager would like to schedule an interview in the coming weeks. this email about scheduling an interview in the coming weeks was sent to me around 4-5 weeks ago and I have since received no follow up to this email or interview My question is, should I email the hiring manager regarding the interview or for follow up, should I continue waiting. and if I should send a follow up email what is the best way to go about it without it having any negatives against my self. Thank you very much in advance. [link] [comments]  |
| Need Advice Getting Out Of Dead-End Job. Posted: 12 Oct 2018 11:03 AM PDT I got hired right out of college as a Front-End Dev. I was hired based on my experience with React and client-side JS frameworks but the role is turning into basic html changes and QA for word press. I cant outright quit due to no savings, so any advice on how to apply to jobs and go to interviews while still working at one? [link] [comments]  |
| Struggling with algorithms and mathematical problems, what sort of path should I take? Posted: 12 Oct 2018 12:52 PM PDT I'm a year 2 Comp Sci student at a decent university. I know that programming is "for me" but the problems we've been given to solve are getting very complex for me. I'm not sure which path I'd like to go down into, but preferably something that does require problem solving, just not largely algorithmic / mathematical based ones. I'm perhaps also looking for a bit of reassurance that future jobs in programming won't be like what I'm dealing with at university. Apologies if this is a frequent topic. [link] [comments]  |
| Leaving art college to take a coding bootcamp. Bad idea? Posted: 12 Oct 2018 01:48 PM PDT I'm 25, just returned to college for graphic design and I have about two years left until I get a degree. I originally went to college for fine art but decided I wanted something more marketable so I went with graphic design. I'm sick of taking out loans, being the oldest person in class and finding that the design feild is really competitive. I'm considering leaving college and taking a tech course to learn coding skills and get a job like that. I live in Detroit and right now there's a high demand for tech jobs but not a lot of tech talent. I honestly just want to stop working part time jobs and start a career for myself, I just don't have any training. I'm interested in front end coding program that would be full time for 12 weeks. The reviews of the program sound promising. Any thoughts? https://www.grandcircus.co/bootcamp/front-end-coding-bootcamp/ [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 12 Oct 2018 03:05 PM PDT I attended my first career fair and the representative told me to apply on their career portal. However, when I checked their website, it said that co-op positions are posted at my school career board. I checked both the company and school career portal and saw nothing about an internship/co-op position. Should I be worry or this is nothing to worry about and wait for the job postings. I was an idiot and forgot to ask him for his contact information after he said he didn't have business cards with him. EDIT: I emailed the company and my school [link] [comments]  |
| What are the highest paying companies in and around NYC? Posted: 12 Oct 2018 04:10 PM PDT Including close parts of NJ like Jersey City and Hoboken... and excluding the obvious Big N. Based off Glassdoor estimates I noticed:
Any more you guys can add to the list...? [link] [comments]  |
| Is it okay to delay graduation if you don't feel confident about finding a job? Posted: 12 Oct 2018 04:44 PM PDT I am eligible to graduate this quarter. However, I am not feeling that confident about finding a job. Is it okay for me to delay graduation by a quarter? Next quarter, there are 2 CS elective classes that are being offered that I have not taken yet. I am okay with taking one of those classes while I also look for work. If I am able to find a job, I could just drop the class since I don't need it. The added benefit is that I will have a later graduation date, so I won't have as many months of being unemployed post graduation. Thanks. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 12 Oct 2018 10:21 AM PDT I have had two situations where I have gone through the whole interview process for jobs I am a bit technically overqualified for. One was for a sales 'engineering' position that I was specifically recommended for. This was actually the 2nd time I was scouted for sales engineering so apparently I have that skillset. The other one was a manual testing job where knowing a programming language "was a huge plus but not required". These were both for pretty small companies. I am a new grad so these are entry positions. For both of these situations, I made the mistake of being up front about my salary expectations when I was asked in the initial call. It was 10k-15k over what they said they "could possibly do". I said that I understand it can't be as high as if I was going to a SWE role so I am ok with it. For both situations I easily got through all the rounds. Some technical questions but nothing I couldn't answer, and nothing even close to a leet code easy. I tried my very best to sound interested but I was up front in saying that i was applying and interviewing for other SWE positions as well. But emphasized that I would be really interested in trying something new and had a great experience with the team blah blah. I unfortunately did ask questions about if there was any programming involved and how much of it there was. I think it could been a mistake to ask about this before there was an offer. Why is no one EVER upfront about this when it comes these types of positions? Rejected from both essentially saying I was too technical (how is that a negative if I can do the job?) and should try SWE After all of this, my boyfriend said it sounds like they knew they could get away with paying someone way less and they knew that I wasn't likely to take the offer. Is he wrong? In my head, I can't understand why a company wouldn't extend an offer even if they knew someone probably won't take it. What is the downside of that? Do they know I would probably be bored and want to move on to something else? Or am I just shit at interviewing? I was looking at these jobs bc the competitiveness of SWE has really gotten me down and I wanted to see what other paths there are for me. I am horrible at not being open and honest so I think it comes off that I really do love programming. But I need a job lol. How do I make it seem like I am actually interested and not just settling out of desperation? (which is the truth) I would have totally taken these offers which is the thing that bums me out. [link] [comments]  |
| Applying for Data Science + Software Development roles Posted: 12 Oct 2018 01:27 PM PDT So I'm a second year Masters student at NYU. I have internship experience in Data Science and Software Development. In my last internship, I kind of combined the two by first working on a data science project and then visualizing the results through a web application I developed from scratch. I have experience with the entire Data Science and Software Development pipeline. The problem is that this experience in both Data Science and Software Development doesn't help me. I feel like I'm always caught up in between. I don't find any roles online where both these skills are used together. When I go for career fairs and give my pitch, I get dejections because the recruiter is specifically looking for one of these roles and considers me to be an outcast. They think that I'm more of a "jack of all trades" kind of a person but a "master of none". I've worked very hard to get the skills that I have today. So naturally, I feel bad when something like this happens. Can people here make any suggestions on what my pitch should be like? Basically how can I market myself so that the recruiters see that having software development experience with data science can be very beneficial for any team I might work with? [link] [comments]  |
| Are coding tests used more often in decisions or screening? Posted: 12 Oct 2018 05:28 PM PDT Do companies that send out coding tests before interviews consider your results when they are deciding on an offer? Or are they used primarily to screen applicants? Or both? I thought I did awful on a coding test, but I still managed to get invited to do 2 on campus interviews. Now I'm curious. [link] [comments]  |
| Has anyone worked at a WeWork? Posted: 12 Oct 2018 12:13 PM PDT As in being hired by a company whose office is at a WeWork. I was wondering how it felt from your perspective. [link] [comments]  |
| "If you're not passionate about tech, then this is the wrong industry for you." - my manager Posted: 12 Oct 2018 11:51 AM PDT I'm on a team of what you would call rockstars, 4 of them. I am what you would call a mediocre developer, I'm not sure how I can even attain their level. I've been at this company for 2 years (second company) and my manager pulled me aside and told me that I am not doing as well as the others on the team. He said I work for one of the more prestigious tech companies out there, I am on a team that is doing groundbreaking work, and that I am getting paid very well. He said I take this for granted given how I am not on the same level as the rest of the devs. He feels like I am not passionate enough, he said that the other devs code outside of work because they love it. He also says that I'm quiet in meetings. I'll talk in meetings but I'll be met with a blank stare anytime I voice my thoughts and then everyone in the room will change the subject as if I said nothing. The other devs are nice on the surface but come off as condescending whenever I ask for help. My manager pretty much said he needs to see an improvement otherwise he will be putting me on a PIP. He told me that I need to look at myself in the mirror and ask myself if this is something I'm passionate out, otherwise consider a different career, because it is a disservice to everyone around me who is in this game for the long run. I feel very down and I'm not even sure what career I would switch to. I have a BS in CS and an MS in CS, I worked so hard to get educated and build my career, so to have to switch to something else feels overwhelming. I'm passionate about music, but that doesn't pay the bills and I am no where near at the skill I should be to even stand a chance. [link] [comments]  |
| Misconceptions about Algorithm Questions Posted: 12 Oct 2018 07:43 AM PDT Hello job seekers! I am writing this post since I've started seeing more and more frustration with algorithm interviews. I see a lot of unfounded statements about them which might hurt a lot of peoples careers, so I decided to help clear it up! Terms: BigN will be used to denote all companies which does relatively hard algorithm interviews, so it includes companies like JaneStree and not just very big companies.
Not true at all, I work at a BigN and I have seen statistics. we see strong correlation between Job performance and the average score of multiple algorithm interviews. What has been shown to not matter are "talk about your projects/experience interviews", non-algorithm brain teasers, grades etc, but algorithm interviews are very useful. If you are on the edge of getting hired you will likely be a mediocre performer, while if you get strong results you will likely be a good performer. We of course lack data for those who totally bomb the interviews, but there is no reason to believe that the correlation stops at our cutoff point.
It is true that you must know something to do well at algorithm interviews (mostly covered in your first algorithms course), but most of BigN tries to ask questions which are not know publicly. The skills being tested are mostly your ability to read English, transform that into a problem you can write code for and then code the solution in a clean way. The coding part is mostly about structuring your code, if you structure it well it is easy to avoid errors while bad structure will almost always result in bugs. So if you have a hard time coding up bug free solutions it is probably due to you being bad at code architecture and not due to lack of practicing writing contrived solutions. Getting good at code architecture is invaluable for every coder, so practicing it is not wasted time even if you didn't need it for interviews!
You are right, of course, but there is a caveat here: In my experience BigN pays around twice as much as other companies in the same location, so avoiding these companies will likely cost you millions of dollars in lifetime earnings. Alternatively if you don't care about having lots of money you still probably care about free time, so just take every other year off and travel around the world or something.
Yes, this happens a lot. The problem is that BigN doesn't value experience at non BigN very highly, so you will get slotted at 1-2 levels below the level you would have gotten if you worked at BigN companies your entire career.
No, in my experience BigN pays around twice as much no matter where you live. It is true that most BigN offices are in high col areas which is a problem, but you will enjoy almost the same salary if you get hired at BigN in low col cities since col adjustment within the USA is not that big. Getting into BigN in low col places is a lot harder though. Afterwords Hope this helped clear some things up! You might still decide that they aren't worth it for you, but in my opinion increasing your lifetime earnings by millions of dollars for a few months of work is worth it every time! Also stop trying to demotivate people, if you manage to make someone not apply to BigN who would have gotten in you just made him lose millions of dollars... Also some people might be happier at non-BigN companies since they want to be the smartest person in the room, work closer with business people or something like that. If that makes you happy then go for it, nobody will stop you! So there is no reason for you to come here and be angry about the way we interview, BigN are happy the way they are and you are happy the way you are so we can just agree to disagree and live separate lives. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 12 Oct 2018 07:55 PM PDT I am currently interviewing for the internship position at Quantcast. I don't hear much about Quantcast in this subreddit. Is its engineering well-known enough within the industry that having experience working at Quantcast would significantly help with regards to applying in the future? If anyone who has any experience working at Quantcast, I would also love to know the engineering culture. Thanks! [link] [comments]  |
| Can I talk about my mistakes in my thank you email? Posted: 12 Oct 2018 07:51 PM PDT I had two technical phone interviews today and would like to send a thank you email. I'm planning on sending it to the two engineers I interviewed with.
Thanks! [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 12 Oct 2018 07:50 PM PDT Hi all. At the end of the school year, I will be graduating with a BS in Chemical Engineering. Unfortunately, I decided a little late into my education that CS would be a better fit for me. For financial reasons, I couldn't change majors, so I did the next best thing and added a minor. My relevant CS coursework includes: -Programming 101 (python) -An introductory data structures and algorithms course (java) -Discrete mathematics -A more rigorous data structures and algorithms course (python) While I'm clearly not starting from "zero", I'm obviously at a big disadvantage compared to my CS peers with regard to the job search. I don't have quite the breadth of knowledge or the practical skills that they acquired during their coursework and internships. For this reason, I've taken an interest in companies like Launch Code, Revature, Aston Technologies, etc. The barriers to entry seem lower than typical entry level positions and they seem like great opportunities to gain some practical skills and experience and bridge the gap between myself and my peers. Based off my own research, Revature and Aston seem like something I should save as a last resort. I've heard good things about Launch Code, however. Does anyone here have experience with them? From my understanding of their application process, you basically do a number of technical/non-technical interviews, a hackerrank test, and then showcase a personal project. From that, they determine if you're skilled enough to work as an apprentice...which could lead to a full time offer. To those with experience: 1) How difficult was the technical interview? I'm pretty comfortable with the ds&a's that I learned in school (linked lists, stacks, queues, heaps, trees, dynamic programming, etc...). I'm also reinforcing this knowledge with some udemy courses and have started solving leetcode problems. Would this be adequate preparation? 2) How involved/advanced were your projects when you applied? I'm seeing on glassdoor someone's Unity game was deemed "not good enough" for an apprenticeship. I obviously don't know the scope/scale of the game, but this at least shows that they look at these projects with a good deal of scrutiny. Anyway, thanks in advance for tanking the time to read my post. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 12 Oct 2018 03:30 PM PDT Please see this simple chart I've made. https://i.imgur.com/JUVS7WY.jpg I basically want to know if I should wait for company B to maybe make an offer. I don't know if I want to keep company A waiting. Please ignore the "Personal Risk" area, as I forgot to delete it. I also forgot to add that Company B offers 401k, dental, life and medical. [link] [comments]  |
| Is functional programming worth studying to get a job? Posted: 12 Oct 2018 06:11 AM PDT I'll be graduating CS this year and am stuck choosing between functional programming or databases as an option. I've already had one course on DBs so I know the basics. I don't particularly enjoy DBs but idk how much about them I need to know for my career goals. On the other hand, I'm not sure how useful functional programming is. I see myself hopefully working in machine learning somewhere small (thankfully lots of ML jobs in my area) and then going for postgrad studies in AI/ML so I can go somewhere good. So if it doesn't make a difference, I think functional programming would be my choice. Any help is greatly appreciated. Thanks!! [link] [comments]  |
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