Interview Discussion - October 25, 2018 CS Career Questions |
- Interview Discussion - October 25, 2018
- Daily Chat Thread - October 25, 2018
- Is anyone else just tired of the "Silicon Valley Experience"?
- [Success Story] Are you in a career change into software development with no CS degree? Here is what I did...
- I have 5+ yrs experience as an iOS dev. How can I present myself as a junior (and get hired) in the world of compilers?
- [anecdote] Got a phonecall 2-years after applying.
- How do you all feel about this company's approach for an alternative to whiteboarding?
- How do you deal with coworker language barriers?
- Recent grad, little experience/projects, low GPA; What's my best course of action?
- Reputation of Yext in NYC?
- Writing cover letters, yay or nay?
- Graduated and struggling with 3/85 responses, getting rejected faster recently. Severely need and appreciate advice + how to not bomb the meagre chances I have!
- Anyone else done a "Game Based Assessment"? What's your opinion on them?
- I'm getting no responses or views on Angellist. Is this typical? Anyone else with experience on Angellist who can give some insight?
- need some advice on whether to pursue this
- Was just let go for the first time
- Pros and Cons to work at the same company for a decade
- Today I accepted an offer, could you guys tell me if this is a fairy good offer?
- Reputation of Etsy
- When to stop optimizing for growth?
- Is NYC possible?
- Behavioral Final Round
- I'm currently trying to be self taught
- What's the shortest period you can stay at a company?
- Asked for a raise, now no longer being considered
- Internship Referral : The Social Network
| Interview Discussion - October 25, 2018 Posted: 25 Oct 2018 12:07 AM PDT Please use this thread to have discussions about interviews, interviewing, and interview prep. Posts focusing solely on interviews created outside of this thread will probably be removed. Abide by the rules, don't be a jerk. This thread is posted each Monday and Thursday at midnight PST. Previous Interview Discussion threads can be found here. [link] [comments]  |
| Daily Chat Thread - October 25, 2018 Posted: 25 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 anyone else just tired of the "Silicon Valley Experience"? Posted: 25 Oct 2018 03:42 PM PDT I'm about to graduate from a top 5 CS school with a degree in CS in May 2019. I'm on track to get a solid six figure salary with good stock options and bonus as a 22 year old. All my friends will be living in the same area as me after graduation and we'll probably live together. In the grand scheme of things, there is nothing wrong with my life and it's a position that a lot of the younger people on this thread really are shooting for. I'm not happy though. I feel like Silicon Valley is so cold and unfeeling. Everyone here is looking at the bottom line for themselves. There is no real community outreach or integration into the area people live. There's widespread entitlement and a tendency to throw money at problems until they disappear. There's liberalism in name only here but very few people are willing to put their money where their mouth is. There's obvious classism and racism out here. I'm fairly progressive when it comes to politics but I find the people out here tiresome when it comes to disagreements especially since the extent that they engage in controversial topics is just lip service. I used to talk about how LA is superficial and cold but I don't think The Bay is that different from that anymore. It's all about where you work, who you know, and how much you make. Not that there's anything bad about that, but it really just feels like a bunch of people living in an ivory tower surrounded by a large, well protected gate while there are starving masses outside that are really just trying to survive. I grew up upper middle class but was best friends with a lot of people who were just above the poverty line (east coast). Most my friends were latino or black growing up (I'm Indian-American) and it really bothers me that such a large portion of this Asian/Indian/White dominated area looks at those demographics so poorly. There are so many social issues here that we, as members of the tech community, are contributing to but refuse to acknowledge past the point of talk. I'm sick and tired of it. Everyone is out here asking questions like "how do I get past interviews at companies like FAANG?" and "how much is the starting salary for someone with {my skillset}?" But in the end aren't most of these people just looking for run of the mill backend or frontend jobs? Won't we all just be building CRUD applications for the Ubers, Lyfts, Googles, and Amazons of the world while enjoying the toys that we're given with these nice compensation packages but in the grand scheme of things, we're really not doing anything fulfilling with our lives? We're all just in the pursuit of more money. Idk, maybe I'm just ranting right now (I absolutely am). I'm just becoming more and more disenchanted from this life as I get closer and closer to graduation. I'm not super keen on the idea of watching the world burn while we build cool (and often useful things) that will stay confined to the wealthy for most of the foreseeable future and cost of living for all of us shoots up dramatically. Thoughts? [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 25 Oct 2018 06:47 AM PDT I was in a social career the last four years, and decided to change careers in January of 2018. I started studying while working, and in June I quit my job to code full time. By July, I had applied to about 30 companies. Two of those applications, I had references to, and received a phone interview as a result. I didn't pass either of those phone interviews. In hindsight, I wish I had saved those references until I was more ready. One of the applications, I got an online C++ coding challenge that I took with little to no sleep due to my child having hand foot and mouth disease that weekend. I failed the challenge by 8%. I took a break from applying and took up a friend's web app idea and worked on it for 3 weeks. I deployed it on AWS and learned a lot in that process, particularly since I had little to no experience in the web development world. I thought I didn't like web dev but I really enjoyed the process from start to finish. My friend paid be $200, and that was nice of him since I wasn't expecting anything, I was just doing it to learn. I provided him with an amateur website but it had all the functionalities he asked for. Once I was done with this project, I updated my resume and started applying again. A week ago, I got a cold email from a recruiter (I keep getting these). It was for an interesting project using tesseract optical character recognition (OCR). I was actually pretty put off by the recruiter on the phone, but decided to pursue it anyways since I was unemployed. I got a phone interview, mostly because I had another personal project in which I used tesseract. It really wasn't much of anything, and the tesseract part was probably like 3 lines long, just calling The phone interview went great, asking about projects I had done and giving clarification on a particular project they are trying to solve with this new hire. The next business day, I was told I got an in person interview to my surprise. I had a week to prepare, and I spent a lot of time preparing for the interview. I had a sense that it wasn't going to be a coding question, but rather more questions about the problem they are trying to solve. I drew up a workflow diagram of how I would tackle the problem. At the interview, I felt relaxed because I felt I had understood their problem quite fully. At the right moment, I presented my workflow and they really liked it. I got the offer the next business day and negotiated for a little more pay and accepted. I have NO CS degree (I have a masters in a social science), no internship experience. If you are in my boat, hope this is of some encouragement! EDIT: Here is a breakdown of the process of my career change, if you are interested in what/how I studied. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 25 Oct 2018 04:12 PM PDT Just earned the senior title at my current job, but I have my eyes elsewhere. I primarily want to work deeper in the stack. I would love to work on Swift or even LLVM, but uncertain how to get there without first having a job. I know the Big Corps hire people out of university for either internships or junior positions, but how do I say I'm eager to learn with a resume filled with somewhat unrelated but adjacent professional experience? I understand contributing to, say, the Swift repo would be a good step in the right direction, but is there any correlation between contributing and getting an interview/hired? [link] [comments]  |
| [anecdote] Got a phonecall 2-years after applying. Posted: 25 Oct 2018 11:07 AM PDT People were asking if companies ever called them back after a rejection or for future considerations. Well, I applied to a company 2-years ago. I assumed they rejected me back then. Today I had the phone call with them lol! The lady said they got a new contract and was going down people who applied in the past. [link] [comments]  |
| How do you all feel about this company's approach for an alternative to whiteboarding? Posted: 25 Oct 2018 02:04 PM PDT I came across this during company research: https://content.pivotal.io/blog/how-we-interview-at-pivotal It's a software company in Raleigh.
Would you guys rather do this or a whiteboard style interview process? [link] [comments]  |
| How do you deal with coworker language barriers? Posted: 25 Oct 2018 11:33 AM PDT Hey guys, how do you manage working with people who can't speak or write English correctly/well, or have heavy accents and are also soft spoken or speak way too fast? Whether it's offshore or my direct coworkers, sometimes I'm in a position where I'm asking people to repeat themselves 5+ times. Especially during phone calls/Skype meetings, this is insanely frustrating. I need some advice. [link] [comments]  |
| Recent grad, little experience/projects, low GPA; What's my best course of action? Posted: 25 Oct 2018 02:10 PM PDT I want to preface this post by saying I am fairly confident in my skills as a developer, at least when compared to my classmates who I've worked with on school projects. I am also confident in my non-technical interviewing skills. But I also understand that I am by no means a good student. I took 7 years for my B.S. in CS with a 2.87 GPA. I do not have any internships; I don't have relevant work experience, and the only projects I can show others are from my classes. So far I've had 1 interview out of the dozens applications I've submitted, and I was rejected in the end because of my GPA. Should I go for a paid internship instead or keep applying for entry level? Any other suggestions? [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 25 Oct 2018 03:44 PM PDT I'm curious if anyone knows anything about Yext in NYC and what their reputation is. I hadn't really heard of them before applying but I liked what I saw during the interview process, but not being super experienced I don't really know how to evaluate them as a company compared to somewhere like Microsoft or Bloomberg who I also have an opportunity with. I'd say out of the 3 I got the best "vibe" from Yext, and the worst from Bloomberg. [link] [comments]  |
| Writing cover letters, yay or nay? Posted: 25 Oct 2018 05:12 PM PDT I am in the process of sending applications again after finishing a new project. I am currently spamming out applications and I am wondering what people's opinions are of cover letters and customizing resumes and all that stuff? I remember once I did everything like that, cover letters and custom resumes and all that but I got like no replies. Once I spammed out applications with no cover letter and I got more interviews than with custom cover letters and resumes. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 25 Oct 2018 03:53 PM PDT I have posted my resume a couple times for review, here it is: https://i.imgur.com/Z0PSiPv.png First off thank you if you're taking the time to read this, if you have any advice I really do appreciate it! My biggest problem is getting past the resume screen. I'm feeling pretty down and getting discouraged. First edit: Edited imgur Second Edit: I cut out the specific questions if its too much, I'm getting rejected instantly almost everywhere & I could really use some help or advice? I know not to expect a high callback rate but mine is getting more abysmal each day (auto-rejects the next day), just looking to see where I can improve especially with projects. The school is a top Canadian one. GPA is left off because its borderline due to some bad grades early on. I just did terrible in math first year and stupidly took several of them which didn't help. I redacted some names/links to avoid being identified. Details:
[link] [comments]  |
| Anyone else done a "Game Based Assessment"? What's your opinion on them? Posted: 25 Oct 2018 12:34 PM PDT I've recently been applying to various larger companies (mostly tech companies, but a few finance ones too) for new grad tech/machine learning roles. Although most of these companies gave fairly "standard" (and at least reasonably relevant stuff) like phone screens, hackerrank, hireview programming challenge etc, a few have instead gotten me to do a "Game Based Assessment". For those of you who don't know: this involves downloading an app, and then "playing" lots of random minigames that are supposed to assess your personality/ability. Here are a few examples of these minigames:
I'm just generally really skeptical of this assessment method. For a start, with tech roles there are far more relevant methods for testing people (I know people complain about data structures and algorithms, but it's gotta be better than this). But it seems like a poor choice even for roles where the company is just looking for generic graduates. The whole thing seems like borderline psuedoscience and is at best probably much worse than even something like the SAT for assessing skills. The games aren't even that well designed for whatever they're supposed to test e.g. With 1. A fair number of people will just play the nash equilibrium, and with 2. why can't they at least use photos of actors rather than cartoons? (although even that isn't great since you'll end up picking people who are good at being deceived when others fake their emotions). It seems like a company that relies on them is gonna end up culling most of their applicants - including good ones - at random; I get that they sometimes have too many applicants, but then they might as well just save themselves some money and generate some random numbers to do the culling. If anything you're gonna end up putting off good applicants since they have enough options that they don't have to do your "Game Based Assessment". Am I being overly skeptical here? [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 25 Oct 2018 03:10 PM PDT I've been applying for the past few days. It's super easy to send off an application to a bunch of companies with a few clicks. I've been filling out the little box for the mini-cover letter thing. What seems weird is that over the past 4 days, I've applied to over 150 positions, but not a single reply, or even a single profile view. Does anyone have experience with Angellist? Is this typical? Is the percentage of applications to responses always low? Does it usually take more than a few days to get a view/response? I appreciate any input. Also if you know of any similar sites where I can easily browse jobs and apply. I like that it caters more to smaller companies, which is my style, not looking for Oracle/FB/Google type stuff. [link] [comments]  |
| need some advice on whether to pursue this Posted: 25 Oct 2018 06:46 PM PDT I'm an actor, just beginning. My first plan was to become a developer and act as a hobby, after work hours, but then I realized I wanted more. So my next plan was to work my way to a senior position and find a flexible job. Then pursue acting seriously. The thing is, I'm 27 and I don't want to wait to pursue acting until I'm 37. CS would give me solid skills and a solid career but I can't get a flexible job as a new grad. I've been looking into creative careers, but they are not steady. The best thing to do is to give up acting completely. But I recently had an existential crisis that's made me obsessed with following my dreams. I just don't know what to do. I really need some perspective. [link] [comments]  |
| Was just let go for the first time Posted: 25 Oct 2018 12:34 PM PDT A bit about my CS past; I'm a fairly experienced software engineer, age 23M, have held several positions at different companies, totaling roughly 4 years of professional experience, have strong references, and am 2 classes shy of a degree in CS (placed on hold because I moved out of state.) So from there I'm looking for advice on how best to pickup the pieces, vent a bit and take advice. I was let go from a software company after having worked there for 2 months. The first month of work was solid. I had experience that was relevant to the position allowing me to hit the ground running and I was finishing deadlines early. However a month ago I had a number of things that were hard to deal with in my personal life. The largest being that my girlfriend at the time that I had moved across the country with broke up with me. I have handled other things in my personal life that are difficult without allowing them to affect my work, however this incident broke me up. There were some other minor things that happened as well. During this time I was not able to correctly separate my personal and professional life. I was finding it impossible to write elegant code. During the week that I split with my girlfriend I had a dialogue during a 1on1 with my boss explaining what was happening in my personal life. He was sympathetic. However this came up again as my productivity was still not able to be boosted back to proper levels. My boss talked to me again and I agreed on some things that I could do to fix the issue. However today I was let go from the position. Right now I'm not fiscally hurting, and have saved enough that I can live frugally for about a year and a half off of savings I have. I'm looking at my options here at the moment. Study for interviews at larger companies, start my own thing, etc. I do feel I need to take some time off, maybe a month, to be able to process things that have happened and learn from the mistake of not being able to separate my professional/personal life. TLDR; Moved to new state, no friends in area, shit happened that fucked me up, lost first job. Have a decent amount of savings (greater than 1 year if I lived frugally) and have ambitions to Study for a big 4 or start my own thing. If you have any advice, sympathy, hard love to share I'd appreciate it. [link] [comments]  |
| Pros and Cons to work at the same company for a decade Posted: 25 Oct 2018 12:24 PM PDT What do you think working at a same company for 20-30 years??? I found one of the VP and Senior Director of my company have stayed here for 20 years. Do I get more chance to promote if I stay at one company for a long time? [link] [comments]  |
| Today I accepted an offer, could you guys tell me if this is a fairy good offer? Posted: 25 Oct 2018 09:14 AM PDT So I will be graduating from University next year spring, and today I accepted an offer from one of the big name defense contractor. The offer was 82k, no signing bonus and TS/SCI clearance. Although the location is Virginia, it is not really close from DC, so the COL will be not that high. Do you guys think this is a fairy good place to start my career? My only internship experience was from another defense contractor company. I am planning on living in DMV area since my parents live here and I was grown up here. Also, is it true that some of the BIG4 companies are looking for software engineer candidate who has active TS clearance? Because I eventually want to work at one of the BIG4 companies, although some people say starting a career at defense contractor company is the worst place to start :/ Thank you in advance. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 25 Oct 2018 10:46 AM PDT I'm interviewing for an internship position at Etsy soon and I was wondering how its reputation holds up in the tech world. They have a cool product but I never really hear about it being talked about in the tech world. [link] [comments]  |
| When to stop optimizing for growth? Posted: 25 Oct 2018 02:27 PM PDT Something I hear talked about a lot is to optimize for growth earlier on in a career, which makes sense. It doesn't make sense to go to a job that pays $5k but with boring work, no mentorship, etc. What I was wondering is when does stop? It doesn't make a whole lot of sense for someone with 15 years of experience to optimize for growth, but what about 5? A few years at a Big N? A few internships at a Big N? [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 25 Oct 2018 08:12 PM PDT Okay, so I'm in high school and I would say I'm about average in terms of back-end ability (compared to my peers), and plan to attend UCSB. I've stayed in NYC mostly on my own during two summers and am incredibly in love with the city (however financial restrictions prevent me from getting an education there). Could I move to NYC for a job in CS? Is the market strict their? (Is it competitive, with minimal entry level jobs*) Is it possible to make enough to support a couple hobbies, and save a bit of cash/pay off college debt (not that much around $22k after interest) assuming I have average skills and multiple projects. I've heard pretty nasty stuff about NYC, and don't want to make a mistake of not being able to support myself following university. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 25 Oct 2018 08:11 PM PDT So I had my technical round last Friday and the recruiter just reached out to me to let me know that they want to continue the process. Apparently, it's between me and one other person, so they want to do one final call with me which'll be behavioral, to determine who to hire. What should I expect for this? Has anyone been in a situation like this? What if they ask me why they should pick me over the other guy? I'm not sure what I would say. [link] [comments]  |
| I'm currently trying to be self taught Posted: 25 Oct 2018 08:11 PM PDT I taught myself how to cook and was able to get a cooking job for 4 years. Now I want out and I'm trying to teach myself python(at the moment) my end goal is to work with AI because it's just so gosh darn cool! And I have never felt stupider in my entire life, I am currently using udemy and iv already started over once (bombed the test) and I pretty much just bombed a another test and debating on starting over again... is this the way to go? Or am I just making it harder then it need to be. If so any tips? Tldr: I think I'm making it harder then it needs to be, any tips? [link] [comments]  |
| What's the shortest period you can stay at a company? Posted: 25 Oct 2018 07:44 PM PDT Hi there, I am looking to leave my company. However I've only spent 6 months in it. Is this going to be a problem in the future? Also please note, this is my first job. [link] [comments]  |
| Asked for a raise, now no longer being considered Posted: 25 Oct 2018 10:58 AM PDT For some backstory, I've been working as a web developer for a company responsible for putting on meetings and incentive events (among other things) since February for $10/h. Given that this was an intern position, and the area was fairly low income, I was obliged to take what I was offered. Back in August, I had to leave since I was transferring to a university, but they let me know that offsite work would be an option if I was interested. I waited until a couple weeks ago to tell them I was in fact interested (was getting used to college between that time), and through a series of events I eventually called my boss to let her know I'd like a raise to $17/hr while working offsite based on my previous work for the company and what I plan to contribute in the future. Granted, I knew this was fucking HIGH, so I hoped they would at least meet me somewhere in the middle. As of two days ago, my boss let me know they're only looking to pay $10, thus they are now looking for other intern candidates. So, do I think I deserve $17? Yes. Do I really need to job to pay my student loans? Also yes. With that said, I'd be willing to take $10, but I'm not sure if I've fucked myself over in this situation. I've sent my boss an email saying that while I believe I'm worth $17, I'd be willing to continue with $10 given the type of work they've planned for me to do (maintenance, general jobs); needless to say, I haven't gotten a response back. I'm not really sure what to do in this situation, since I would like to preserve the possibility of working there next summer; your experience and guidance would be appreciated. Edit: To add insult to injury, my project manager (on the digital team) was CC'd into an email sent from my boss saying that the raise request of $17 would not be fulfilled, and that they are considering other candidates now...I know asking for a raise is never an easy and comfortable thing to do, but god damn. [link] [comments]  |
| Internship Referral : The Social Network Posted: 25 Oct 2018 07:33 PM PDT Got three referrals for an Internship position at the Social Network Company but haven't heard back yet. What should my next steps be? [link] [comments]  |
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