Resume Advice Thread - November 24, 2018 CS Career Questions |
- Resume Advice Thread - November 24, 2018
- Daily Chat Thread - November 24, 2018
- Two years after asking for help, I finally got my first coding job
- Are there any big companies that have yet to begin (or recently started) recruiting new grads?
- Has anyone here experienced someone at work that was an awful developer that turned it around and became a "rockstar"?
- How do you operate with a culture clash at work
- How much of data structures and algorithms do you actually use in your job?
- Change of plans... sorta... help me out please
- Switching from data science to another field?
- Livable new grad salary in NY
- New grad Job Hunting in 2001 and 2008?
- Do companies care about GPA once you have a few years experience?
- Recruiters: what is the best way to connect with you?
- Nordstrom Internship
- CS Careers and Climate Change
- Verbal offer Vs. Written offers
- Considering MS or Bootcamp. Suggestions given my status?
- How To Find Volunteer Opportunities?
- Windows developer looking to branch out in web/mobile development
- How much does a freshman internship matter?
- Annual Review Uncertainty
- How long after completing the Goldman hackerrank did you hear back?
- Big company little desire to work
- Salary Information
- Citadel vs Pinterest vs Databricks
- Internship After Graduation
- Where can I find all the Leetcode solutions explained?
| Resume Advice Thread - November 24, 2018 Posted: 23 Nov 2018 11:06 PM PST Please use this thread to ask for resume advice and critiques. You should read our Resume FAQ and implement any changes from that before you ask for more advice. Abide by the rules, don't be a jerk. This thread is posted each Tuesday and Saturday at midnight PST. Previous Resume Advice Threads can be found here. [link] [comments]  |
| Daily Chat Thread - November 24, 2018 Posted: 23 Nov 2018 11:06 PM PST 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]  |
| Two years after asking for help, I finally got my first coding job Posted: 24 Nov 2018 05:10 AM PST Hello all, On Nov 16 two years ago, I created this post (" Almost 30, zero experience and I feel VERY inadequate") asking for help. Yesterday, I accepted an offer to officially become a developer. It has been a very interesting journey from which I have learned a lot and I would like to share some my story (mostly me thinking out loud) and insights while keeping a full time job. I was only planning on posting this on my blog but felt I needed to share it on Reddit. Immediately after reading the post responses Two things encouraged me the most:
So, what did I focus on? Honestly, I was unable to focus on only one thing/stack. I had to dip my feet into a couple of technologies before I was able to focus on one. I first tried with C#. I started gathering online resources and even purchased a Kindle book someone recommended online (I can't remember which one). However, I did not even create a 'Hello world' app with C#. I found I do not engage with books that much, so maybe that's why C# did not happen... Throughout the resources I gathered, someone recommended The Odin Project. This clicked a little bit more with me and I was committed to learn Ruby and RoR. I went through all HTML, CSS and JS sections. And right before getting into the backend, I found NodeJS. Turns out, people were saying Node was getting super popular. They were also saying Ruby's popularity was declining. Even better, what I had already learned throughout the JS section could be applied to the backend. I ended up giving Node a shot and focus on that. How did I learn? Enter Udemy. When I found them, they were having a sale I thought was incredible at the time. "$10 for a $200 course? I'll purchase 3!". First one I completed was the Web Developer Bootcamp by Colt Steele. Second one, the Node.js course by Andrew Mead. I went halfway through Maximilian Schwarzmüller's React one. I know now that the value of these courses is closer to $10 than to $200, but don't regret purchasing them. They kept me engaged, they helped me learn. Then YouTube. There are great free tutorials and content there, which one could argue are better than Udemy's content. Coding Train content is awesome. Made me learn that the inadequacy feeling will stick around, and I feel Dan S. is incredibly engaging and a great inspiring educator. Traversy Media and The Net Ninja both produce great tutorials**. Coding Garden** is also great, I learned a lot watching CJ live code and dealing with problem solving, and as the community is smaller than the ones above, I liked better participating there (senpai noticed me!). What did I build? A lot. I took dozens of side projects, which completed maybe 5%. I don't think that's a bad thing... I usually started a side project was I was interested in applying a specific skill. Once I applied it and understood it, another skill I was interested in showed up. Someone had recommended to create a blog, so I did. I purchased a domain for it, I built the layout of the site and power it through Jekyll. Throughout these two years, I barely have 3 posts created. Funny thing... I received an email from Skillshare saying that they were impressed with my expertise and wanted me as an educator on their platform. WHAT? How did they even find me? I have never self promoted anywhere. My posts are all entry level, if at all. Thinking they had massively sent that email, I tried Googling online if that was the case but I am still unsure. It's cool to be noticed like that, even if I don't know how it happened. Maybe as a middle-term plan... I'm most proud of a full stack app which is still undergoing. I'm building it with the MERN stack. It's a soccer pool webapp I use with my friends mostly, but it has full authentication and all those good things. I'm currently building a 'forgot your password' functionality. I find the feature building process extremely satisfying: OK, let's build X feature ... Let's research how others have implemented it ... Trying ... Works? No ... Trying again (ten times)... Now it works! I have also posted a couple of tutorials on YouTube. Nothing to be proud of yet. Like with other stacks, I still dipping my feet into stuff to figure out what works for me. Job applying and interview process I started applying to jobs maybe 9 months ago. Overall, I think I submitted about 40 applications. Out of those, I maybe received 5 responses: 3 screen calls (failed 2), 3 coding tests from home (failed 2, never received a response regarding the third), and only one interview which eventually turned into the offer I accepted. The hiring process of this company is interesting. Nothing like the experiences I read online. They had a normal phone screening process in which they briefly asked if I was familiar with HTML/CSS/JS/React/Node. I said I was and directed them to the full stack app as my primary example. Shortly after that I received a request to interview onsite. I researched on Glassdoor what people were saying about their interview process. It matched what the recruiter told me: It's just going to be a conversation between you and the hiring manager. And it was... I was asked close to 30 questions related, again, to HTML, CSS, JS. It's impossible for me to remember every question, but the interaction was something like this:
That was it. No coding exercises. No whiteboard test. Just a conversation (driven by a questions of course), which I felt went pretty well. I was told I would receive a follow up call some days after that. The offer Like I said before, all this happened while I still had a full time job. My current compensation is good. Between mine and my wife's compensation, we're able to pay our house, the bills, save and travel. I'm not on an entry level position even though it's not related to coding at all. I received a call from the recruiter saying they wanted to offer me the position. Considering how "easy" the interview process was, and that I would definitely start from the bottom, I was expecting them offering me less than my expected compensation (I told them I was hoping to be paid the same). Turns out, they matched it and I gladly took the offer. I'm starting in two weeks. #heavybreating What did not work? I think it's unfair to say "did not work". It's more like "what I didn't do"... I did not participate in open source projects. It was on my to-do list, but it's daunting af. It will still be on my to-do list, and I hope it becomes less daunting as I learn to interact with a team. I did not go to meetups/conferences. There aren't too many interesting options in my country. I went to one, but some people were clearly extremely uncomfortable to interact and the others were already friends with each other, making it hard for me to introduce myself. Conclusion It has been an incredible interesting journey. Some things have worked for me, others did not. I could have perhaps gotten an offer sooner, but I wanted to maintain a balanced life. If you're reading this while you start your journey, I strongly encourage you to try everything you can. Some thing will click, others will not. And that's OK. Take it one day at a time. And build, build, build, build and build. The first things you'll build will suck. That's fine. As you learn something new through a tutorial, build something different with it. Learn, reapply. If you're reading this as an established developer who likes helping others: THANK YOU. Thank you for investing time in the development of others when there's nothing in for you. Your share is invaluable. I'm slowly working towards a position where I can also give back. If you have any questions or need any help, feel free to hmu on the comments below or via PM. [link] [comments]  |
| Are there any big companies that have yet to begin (or recently started) recruiting new grads? Posted: 24 Nov 2018 05:15 PM PST It seems like places like the Big 4 are winding down, but are there any places known for having later recruiting cycles? [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 24 Nov 2018 06:49 PM PST I am just curious because I am that awful developer. [link] [comments]  |
| How do you operate with a culture clash at work Posted: 24 Nov 2018 02:03 PM PST Company has been in hypergrowth with a hiring spree and growing pains. Do you side with the c-level leadership who want to preserve the original culture. Or do you adapt to the new subcultures and values of new cohorts of employees [link] [comments]  |
| How much of data structures and algorithms do you actually use in your job? Posted: 23 Nov 2018 08:12 PM PST I've always been told that their the fundamentals that "you should know" but never why. Do people actually use it in their careers? I've done internships in the past and I've never once ever had to use it, makes me wonder why tech companies consider it to be so important? [link] [comments]  |
| Change of plans... sorta... help me out please Posted: 24 Nov 2018 07:35 PM PST Im a CS student at a good state school. So... my girlfriend might be pregnant and I would definitely need to support our kid and work instead of full time school. Im going to finish my degree but slowly while I work. My question is, will I be able to land some type of entry level jr programming job without my degree being completed or am I screwed? Not necessarily something with great pay, 40k wouldnt be bad. I know procedural and object oriented programming and data structures. I use C++ so I can learn other languages super fast in the next few months. Any advice is appreciated cause this is really important... [link] [comments]  |
| Switching from data science to another field? Posted: 24 Nov 2018 01:07 PM PST I'm a career changer and chemical engineering grad. My first job in tech was as a data scientist thanks to all the probability and stats courses I took in undergrad. Everyone in my group has an MS or PhD, and I have been finding it a bit hard to get promoted at my company due to my lack of a grad school degree. I was wondering what are my options for employment if I want to move up in a company? I am friends with many of the data engineers and software engineers at work and find both of their jobs fascinating. Furthermore, I have been familiarizing myself with some of their tools that they both use at work. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 24 Nov 2018 04:43 PM PST What is a good new grad salary target for NYC if I want a studio apartment and relatively comfortable lifestyle? [link] [comments]  |
| New grad Job Hunting in 2001 and 2008? Posted: 24 Nov 2018 12:37 PM PST Has anyone experience the job hunting during 2001 and 2008? How hard was that as new grad at that time? IT bubble seems like coming to the end, I'm worrying about the tech will go down when I graduate. [link] [comments]  |
| Do companies care about GPA once you have a few years experience? Posted: 24 Nov 2018 07:18 PM PST I just received a job offer which looks like it's worth taking. Due to my first few years of university, and switching colleges, my overall GPA is pretty low: a 2.3. I've got the opportunity to start a master's degree at the moment, and the project is one that is interesting to me. One reason I'd do that is so that I'm more marketable in the future since it's a way for me to "repair" my past. If I took the job and got a few years experience instead, does that look better to future employers, or do places typically still want your GPA? [link] [comments]  |
| Recruiters: what is the best way to connect with you? Posted: 24 Nov 2018 05:05 AM PST I am thinking about cold emailing or cold messaging on Linkedin. Do you usually read those messages? If yes, what should I write to make you interested in me? [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 24 Nov 2018 04:48 PM PST Anyone in the hiring pipeline this season as far as Internships go? [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 24 Nov 2018 01:23 PM PST Hello,
I am a senior undergraduate student who will be graduating in May with a CS major and math minor. I'm starting to look for full time positions but have been struggling trying to decide things like where and in what industry I'd like to work. I don't have internship experience but I've worked in a couple different labs, mainly building software for data analytics and visualization. I also have taken quite a few upper level classes, stuff like operating systems, machine learning, database management systems, bioinformatics, algorithms, etc, and have an okay GPA (~3.3).
My question for you all is in regards to how someone with a CS background, interested in software engineering and data science, could somehow work to help climate change. This could be in research/modeling using actual climate data, raising awareness, or even just working for a company that actually cares about climate change and won't prioritize quarterly profits over the future of the planet. If going to grad school and getting a master's or PhD would be a more effective way to make this happen I am also open to that and hope to get a graduate degree at some point anyway. Sorry if this sounds idealistic or sappy but one of the few things that I'm truly passionate about is the preservation of the planet and I feel that if my job can relate to that I'll be more motivated to work hard and less likely to burn out. If you have any advice it would be much appreciated, thank you. [link] [comments]  |
| Verbal offer Vs. Written offers Posted: 24 Nov 2018 05:46 PM PST I have one verbal offer from a big name company. We've discussed it via email, so there is a trail for the offer, numbers, and acceptance. I even set my training dates and PC setup with the manager. I've been told it's approved and just needs to pass through their system but due to holiday the right people may not be in. I had to delay my decision with the written offers and waiting for the written offer from the big N. I'm definitely not putting my two weeks until I have a written offer. However, my deadline is Monday with the written offers and I'm worried about it. I've already extended it once. Any other situation I'd say don't decline the written offers in favor of the verbal one. This is a bit different though so I wanted to hear your thoughts. I'm leaning on just going with it. I feel there is a low chance it would be rescinded. Even if it did, they'll find me a different position. Any thoughts on this would be greatly appreciated. Thank you. [link] [comments]  |
| Considering MS or Bootcamp. Suggestions given my status? Posted: 24 Nov 2018 07:41 PM PST Hello all! Situation:
Skills and Experience: Two years academic and non-academic experience coding in R, SAS, with 4 (2 first-author) peer-reviewed publications in field. Master of Science in Epi/Biostats. NIH sponsored summer internship in genomic data analysis. Thank you for any and all input! I welcome your suggestions and questions. Let me know if anything needs clarification. [link] [comments]  |
| How To Find Volunteer Opportunities? Posted: 24 Nov 2018 03:54 PM PST I can't find an internship. My city is just too small, and there's too much competition. There's at least 8 colleges within an hour from me, one of which is the biggest in the state. I am required by my school, in order to graduate, to get an internship. If I don't get an internship, I can't complete my degree, which means I can't get a job or transfer (community college). Volunteering will meet my requirement per the coordinator. So I've decided it might be a bit easier to volunteer as a developer than get an internship The only issue is, I don't even know where I can offer my services. Does anyone have any advice on this? I'm at ends meet trying to meet this requirement before I finish all my courses this spring... [link] [comments]  |
| Windows developer looking to branch out in web/mobile development Posted: 24 Nov 2018 08:53 AM PST Hey, I've been developing desktop applications professionally for 15+ years (anything from c++/win32/MFC to C#/WinForms/WPF), but I feel that I'm missing on career opportunities because of my lack of expertise in web/mobile programming. The issue I have is that the domain has grown so much since I played with web programming (perl cgi and early asp) that I have no clue where to even start. I was thinking of going with React to learn front-end and asp.net for the back-end (since I already know C#). Does that make sense? Did any of you guys go from a desktop dev background to a full stack career? If so, any tips that you want to share? Thanks! [link] [comments]  |
| How much does a freshman internship matter? Posted: 24 Nov 2018 06:11 PM PST For the summer after my freshman year, I have the choice between a name brand internship (one step below big N) across the country or an internship at a local unknown, not too technical startup. The name brand internship pays double the local one, which pays minimum wage. How much will choosing the local start up hurt my prospects in the future? I kind of want to have one last summer to hang out with my friends and family. Thanks for reading. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 24 Nov 2018 10:32 AM PST I'm currently a new grad at a very large tech company. I recently received my first annual review and I am unsure of how to interpret it. For reference my company uses a tier system to quantify performance. For my overall review my manager placed me at the middle tier (e.x. performed as expected) while for each of the individual components that comprise the review he placed me at the second highest tier (e.x. performed above expectations), except for two components for which he placed me in the middle tier. When I asked him about the discrepancy between the overall score and the individual scores he gave me a hand-wavy answer which boiled down to it being because I am a new grad and such I am expected to perform worse. On top of this he told me I received only positive feedback from himself and the people I work with, and that there is nothing I need to improve on. This doesn't feel right to me, like there is some reason he is hiding from me. I also did not receive any RSUs, which he told me were regularly given as part of the annual review/bonus. Is this normal? Are there any follow-up questions I could ask to get a real answer out of him as to why my overall score was lower than 80% of my individual scores? This makes me feel like my performance is lacking in some way but having gotten no criticism of it I am left confused. Any advice or guidance would be very appreciated! Side note: I don't directly work for or with my manager. [link] [comments]  |
| How long after completing the Goldman hackerrank did you hear back? Posted: 24 Nov 2018 05:00 PM PST I have another offer that will expire soon, thinking I'll just take it but I had high hopes about Goldman b/c I aced the hackerrank which is rare for me lol. It's been two weeks now, should I assume it's a no? [link] [comments]  |
| Big company little desire to work Posted: 24 Nov 2018 08:49 AM PST I have been working for more than a year in one of the largest technology companies in my country. When I came here, I imagined something totally different. I am part of a very small team that takes care of a product with a reasonable amount of customers. The problem is that in the area of development, we have only myself and my partner. My cordenador has been here for 3 years and from what I saw this year that I am here during this period nothing has changed in the product. Okay, he kept the product up and running and maintained periodic maintenance and included new business rules, however, we have the same problems that our customers complain about for years and nothing has been done. I came from a smaller company, but from a team that had a great head and a willingness to innovate. Here in this 1 year I did not learn anything new and had no opportunity to create anything. I am currently working on a new project, which goes a lot against what my work partner thinks. All my ideas are thrown away and there is no innovation. We lose customers, we do not add value and the worst: In all my jobs, my greatest motivation is the interest in learning new things, new techniques and experimentation ... I did not have any of it here. How do you handle it? Has anyone ever been in the same situation? [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 24 Nov 2018 03:34 PM PST I have a project where I need to do different analysis on salary information for software engineers over the next 5 years. I was wondering if anyone knows of good resources for me to find accurate information about salaries, including raises and cost-of-living increases for specific areas for the next 5 years? I'm having a hard time finding anything. [link] [comments]  |
| Citadel vs Pinterest vs Databricks Posted: 24 Nov 2018 02:10 AM PST I recently had the fortune to receive spring co-op offers at Citadel, Pinterest, and Databricks, but am having trouble figuring out the best choice for my career. I'm mostly interested in distributed systems and product infrastructure. I'm looking to optimize for the maximal amount of learning and diversity of experiences (while still being able to enjoy every day of my internship). Citadel - Large Chicago hedge fund (I'm interested in HFT but not sure if Citadel is the place to try it out) - Systems engineering - Legacy code / poor WLB - Large SF social media company - I'm not a user/fan of the product - Distributed computing/ growth/ experimentation Databricks - Small SF company - Big data/ distributed computing - Their founders come from academia, lots of graduate students here - Code is mostly Scala I'm currently leaning toward Pinterest since it's a strong name and has interesting intern projects. My misgivings are that: (1) Citadel and Databricks seem to be better places to work on systems (2) I personally don't use Pinterest (3) Pinterest is very similar to my summer company EDIT: I originally wrote 'Tech stack is antiquated' for Citadel – poor choice of wording on my part, C++ is definitely a plus for me, not a minus. I meant to write legacy code, which I've heard from various sources online. I edited this in above. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 24 Nov 2018 09:10 AM PST Is it going to hurt my career if I accept an internship at a big entertainment company as a Web Dev Intern? I'm a new grad and it's been about 3 months and this is my only offer so far. I'm just thinking that wouldnt taking an internship after graduation instead of a full time position make it harder to move into a SWE position afterwards? The team that I'll be on is small with limited budget so return offer is unlikely. [link] [comments]  |
| Where can I find all the Leetcode solutions explained? Posted: 24 Nov 2018 03:06 PM PST I tried looking at Github I only see the solution but no explanations. [link] [comments]  |
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