Resume Advice Thread - January 01, 2019 CS Career Questions |
- Resume Advice Thread - January 01, 2019
- Daily Chat Thread - January 01, 2019
- How do you explain to non-technical people what API companies like Stripe/Plaid/Twilio/etc. do?
- Working at my first job out of school - what's a reasonable amount of time to make stupid mistakes?
- [Self-taught] In the context of employability, is it better to know multiple languages or be really good at one?
- Better results on Linkedin or Glass door?
- How do you go back to school for cs?
- Did you ever feel delirious or hysterical at work?
- How to "live in the moment" of your job?
- Do you think Data Engineers will be in high demand in the workforce?
- Does my tactic of getting a job at the desired company look plausible?
- I'm graduating in 2019 (spring) as a computer engineer, but I still don't have a full time offer. Should I be worried?
- PhD student considering quitting and pursuing a career in tech
- What skillset would best allow me to be able to transition to working from home?
- So... is it possible to have a financially successful career in this field and never touching leetcode?
- Bachelor of Arts vs. Bachelor of Science CS - do employers care?
- Currently doing first level support, how to get a foot in the door for a programming job
- Best way to get back into Industry from the Army (prior experience and degrees in C.S also)
- How much will current salary influence future salary if current salary is non-profit level?
- Dropped out of college before I got a degree due to personal issues. Have had a few (paid) software development internships since. I have some questions about importance of work experience vs degree when applying for jobs
- Side projects or research for internships?
- Managerial/Executive positions as a career goal, and the career path/education necessary to achieve it.
- Negotiating salary during promotion
- Self taught software dev with a good job - should I pursue an MS in CS or develop my skills on my own? What’s best for my career?
- How to approach communication difficulties without coming off as rude or demanding?
- Shaving my head. Good or bad for employment?
| Resume Advice Thread - January 01, 2019 Posted: 31 Dec 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. Note on anonomyizing your resume: If you'd like your resume to remain anonymous, make sure you blank out or change all personally identifying information. Also be careful of using your own Google Docs account or DropBox account which can lead back to your personally identifying information. To make absolutely sure you're anonymous, we suggest posting on sites/accounts with no ties to you after thoroughly checking the contents of your resume. This thread is posted each Tuesday and Saturday at midnight PST. Previous Resume Advice Threads can be found here. [link] [comments]  |
| Daily Chat Thread - January 01, 2019 Posted: 31 Dec 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]  |
| How do you explain to non-technical people what API companies like Stripe/Plaid/Twilio/etc. do? Posted: 01 Jan 2019 03:09 PM PST I've been having some trouble with this recently. Do you provide a super high-level explanation like "helps other app developers with payments" or something a little more fine-grained? [link] [comments]  |
| Working at my first job out of school - what's a reasonable amount of time to make stupid mistakes? Posted: 01 Jan 2019 03:56 PM PST I just started my first job out of school in August, and I feel like I'm still making a lot of stupid mistakes. Most of it is due to my lack of communication, starting things without having all the information about what I'm making, having to go back and fix things after it breaks in testing, being stuck on things way too long before asking for help, etc. We had our release and everyone was working really hard so I felt bad asking dumb questions to my team when they were trying to get work done. I haven't broken production or cost the company money (so far), and I'm slowly learning, but I can't help but feel like I'm screwing up or not trying hard enough. I've only been on my team for about 2.5 months and no one's yelled at me, so I'm trying to cut myself some slack, but at the same time I feel like I should know better. How much time do you expect junior devs to make really dumb mistakes before being as productive as everyone else on the team? [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 01 Jan 2019 11:12 AM PST A little background: I have officially quit my current job to teach myself programming full-time, and have saved enough to sustain my unemployed self for an entire year. My goal ideally is to land a job within this time frame. I started teaching myself python 2 months ago, having gone through LPTHW (meh) and currently going through Problem Solving with Algorithms and Data Structures Using Python. I feel pretty comfortable with most easy problems on HackerRank and just finished my first baby project. Right now I am having tons of fun learning python, but a part of me feels a little guilty about not diversifying my language arsenal by learning other languages like Javascript/HTML/CSS, etc. I have no idea what I want career-wise at the minute, but I am aware that python is primarily a back-end language; and the thing that worries me is that all of my programming friends are some form of a front-end web developer who codes in Javascript. My questions are: Are front-end web devs currently more desirable on the market? Am I shooting myself in the foot in regards to employability if I decide to just learn python? Is it better to be okay in multiple languages or really Excel at one? I'm still a gargantuan noob so these questions may be predicated on a severe misunderstanding of how this all works, but I'd appreciate any constructive input, regardless. Edit: a word [link] [comments]  |
| Better results on Linkedin or Glass door? Posted: 01 Jan 2019 12:18 PM PST I am currently employeed and looking for a new job, I am wondering if people have had better luck applying for jobs through Linkedin->jobs or indeed or some other 3rd party job board? [link] [comments]  |
| How do you go back to school for cs? Posted: 01 Jan 2019 07:45 PM PST Hey all. So here's my story. I studied game design for years but decided to switch to computer science near the end since that was mostly want the game design degree was about anyway and I wanted to be more marketable. My mental health has never been great but I ran into some serious problems with anxiety and ended up failing out because I didn't go to my classes. I've got around a semester worth of credits left to graduate, at least at the old school. After that I tried my hand at an online school (Rasmussen) in their CS program which was the biggest mistake of my life. They are a student loan mill intent on milking vulnerable people for all they're worth with no concern for the education they are getting. They maxed out my student loans and I didn't have enough money to continue on. After some research I've come to find out a degree from them would be worthless anyway. I landed a junior software engineering job that I work at full time now. I make a low salary for the field but I'm happy with being in the position. I do want to advance my career though. I'm afraid that without my degree I'll never get lucky enough again to find an employer who will hire me without it. I guess my question is, how important is the degree once I've had some experience, and how do you find the time to attend a school that's not a complete scam while working full time? Are there online courses that aren't worthless? [link] [comments]  |
| Did you ever feel delirious or hysterical at work? Posted: 01 Jan 2019 06:54 PM PST |
| How to "live in the moment" of your job? Posted: 01 Jan 2019 08:43 AM PST Wanted to see if their is anyone else out there with this same problem and if anyone has any advice on getting over it. Starting a new job and I'm trying to do it right. A problem that has plagued me during internships and during my first job is that I am looking forward too much. Constantly thinking about what my next position is going to be and that this is only temporary. This mindset has affected my work. I still get the job down but it's such little effort compared to what I am capable of. And outside of actual work it has some affect on relationships with my coworkers, I get along with them just fine but I don't really have the desire to get to know them or learn anything from them. Any advice going forward into my new position will be appreciated. Thanks! [link] [comments]  |
| Do you think Data Engineers will be in high demand in the workforce? Posted: 01 Jan 2019 05:20 AM PST I can't seem to find much information on this field. All I know is that the job involves things like SQL, Python, Machine Learning, knowledge on Linux and UNIX, as well as the cloud (AWS) I believe all of those things are in very very high demand across the globe. Yet I don't seem to see many positions for Data Engineers on sites like stackoverflow? [link] [comments]  |
| Does my tactic of getting a job at the desired company look plausible? Posted: 01 Jan 2019 08:22 PM PST I applied for an entry-level SWE position at a company (non-tech but has a decent size of SWE department). The reason why I want to work for that company is that it's one of the biggest in its field (prestigious) and I am interested in that particular field. I applied last October, but haven't heard back until now. I assume that I got ghosted, but my application is still active. The company is coming back to my campus for a career fair. My plan is to research in-depth about what they do, especially on the tech side (this is hard to know because they do not disclose much, but I've been researching their tech blog) to impress them and give them an impression that I have a huge passion in working for their company. My second plan is to learn a new technology that is part of their tech-stack. I've searched some SWE in that company on LinkedIn and realized that they used some specific tech stack. I've been studying to self-learn that skill. Finally, there will be a talk where representatives of multiple companies in this particular field will attend. I also registered to attend the talk and am planning to talk to the representative of that company to see if I have a chance for an interview. Will these plan be enough for me to land an interview from that company? I have a strong feeling that I am a very suitable and qualified candidate for that company. I just want to convince them that I deserve to get interviewed (at least). Will these plan be enough? Any other advice would be great. Thanks everyone! [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 01 Jan 2019 08:14 PM PST It seems like peak recruiting season is over, will I have to wait until next year to get a software job? I'm going software path btw not hard in Computer engineering. edit: I have one internship at a large but not really well known company. [link] [comments]  |
| PhD student considering quitting and pursuing a career in tech Posted: 01 Jan 2019 08:08 PM PST I am a PhD student in biology and I have discovered that while I still love science, I hate the world of academia and laboratory research. I haven't been able to get my research to go anywhere and I can't stand it. Meanwhile, my friends from undergrad who learned to program are doing extremely well for themselves. While I earn 25K while working towards a degree that outnumbers faculty jobs 10:1, my best friend earns over 100K a year working in machine learning. The worst part? I watched him go from knowing nothing about programming to landing his first tech interviews in a year (he was a finance major, probably how he knew where the well-paying jobs were). I watched as he went from having no background in computer science to landing a 6 figure salary, and he brags about how new companies try to poach him off of LinkedIn nearly every week. Meanwhile, my friends who work in tech (software engineers, web developers) are the only people I know in their 20s who earn a decent living for what they do, while most other people I know (even those with college degrees) go paycheck to paycheck. I have been teaching myself python lately and it is going well. I still have a million questions but I am just not sure if I want to make the dive. I'm not sure if I would be happy in the tech industry, but I am certainly not happy where I am now. I just don't know if I should do it if all I am interested in is the money, but I would love to get paid well for hard work. I really want to do things like have a family and afford to travel and I just don't see my current path providing that. If I do decide to go down this path, I'm not sure what I would want to specialize in either. Machine Learning seems fascinating and web development looks fun too. I guess most of this is just venting but I just am curious if people on this sub think that I am putting tech on a pedestal, if it is way harder than I think, if it actually sucks on the other side, or maybe my resume will look terrible in a tech interview if I look like a quitter for not finishing my PhD. [link] [comments]  |
| What skillset would best allow me to be able to transition to working from home? Posted: 01 Jan 2019 07:51 PM PST Junior Dev here in a field I don't particularly enjoy (Apex/SF). I would love to be able to work remotely or start my own business in 5 to 10 years. What skill set would be best to focus on to help achieve that goal? [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 01 Jan 2019 06:16 PM PST That seems to be all ppl talk about here. I have a summer internship coming up but the pay is low and they only asked OOP, Java and very basic data structure questions. I tried a few leetcode problems today and hate it. I can't see myself grinding that shit. [link] [comments]  |
| Bachelor of Arts vs. Bachelor of Science CS - do employers care? Posted: 01 Jan 2019 05:50 PM PST I want to change careers and already have a bachelor's degree but it's non-STEM. I found a good CS program at a state university and they have two CS degrees: Bachelor of Science, Computer Science and Bachelor of Arts, Computer Science. The only difference is that the BA does not require calculus, physics, and a couple of other science courses. The CS core courses and electives for the BA are identical to the BS, same professors, same department, etc. I was thinking of doing the BA cause doing all the math and science courses would take me at least another year or two and cost me more money. I want to be a developer and have no plans to go to grad school and I figured at this point time isn't really on my side since I'm older. If necessary, I could just study calculus, etc. on my own with Khan Academy, YouTube, etc. I've been doing free courses online. Will employers see the BA as a negative? [link] [comments]  |
| Currently doing first level support, how to get a foot in the door for a programming job Posted: 01 Jan 2019 07:39 AM PST I graduated in humanities a few months ago and tried to get an IT job, since I've always had a lot of interest in technology and went to a kinda technical high school. I tried to get into beginner positions for programming jobs, but that was not successful. However, terrible and stubborn Java teachers made me not wanting to do further studies related to that. But over the years my fascination with programming rekindled a few times, especially after I found out about Lisps. The problem is that I don't have any experience and I'm still a beginner (learning Clojure currently), so I have no idea what I should try to do at this point. Currently I settled for an IT company and I'm doing first level support, which is fine for the time being (especially for getting a foot in the door for IT jobs in general), but I'd really like to do more technical stuff. Any advice on how to succeed from this job to a programming job would be very much appreciated. Also are there any languages you'd recommend me to get into? I realize Clojure isn't very popular, I just seem to prefer functional programming [link] [comments]  |
| Best way to get back into Industry from the Army (prior experience and degrees in C.S also) Posted: 01 Jan 2019 09:50 AM PST I have a B.S in Computer Science and a M.S in Information Security and Assurance. I worked as a web developer for a few years during my Undegraduate but other than research papers and some capstone projects, I'm limited on my coding portfolio right now. I've been in the Army for 3 years as an Officer now but not in a technical capacity. I'm planning on applying for jobs as a Junior developer or Junior Engineer or something similar since I feel my experiences are more managerial and leadership focused compared to technical. Any advice for learning new technologies/methodologies in the next year? areas to focus on to help me get up to speed in the industry? [link] [comments]  |
| How much will current salary influence future salary if current salary is non-profit level? Posted: 01 Jan 2019 01:32 PM PST Hello, Sorry for omitting some details, I'm trying to have this not be traceable to me. I'm a full stack web developer at a non-profit organization. It's my first 'real' job outside of busing tables in high school. It's in Washington DC. I accepted an unusually low salary because I highly agree with the organization's goals and efforts to improve society. I make enough to live in the area with a roommate, but it's not enough to raise a family on in this area. I also do not have any student loans or other debt, so I also have unusually low income requirements. Now, while I am happy with where I am, I recognize the current situation may not hold, for whatever reason, and want to know what obstacles I may face if I need to locate a new job. I tend to lean towards back end technologies, and have a good grasp of older programming paradigms, though I tend to have difficulty utilizing the JS library of the month. Which leads me to my question: How badly will having a super low current salary effect my future ability to gain a salary more in line with market averages? [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 01 Jan 2019 11:03 AM PST Hello, Here's a bit of backstory that's probably been said a hundred times before me, but I'll include just for more context. I'll include a TL;DR at the end. I started programming when I was around 12 or 13 because I wanted to make my own Minecraft mods (I'm 20 now, and it's crazy to think about how long ago Minecraft was released). I started by teaching myself Java, and went on to take programming classes at a tech summer camp, then throughout high school (as well as learning things on my own). As of now, I'm comfortable/moderately comfortable with Java, C/C++, Python, Javascript (NodeJS & React included), Web Development, and have dabbled in iOS/Android development. I've taken on miscellaneous passion projects throughout the years and have a "portfolio" of documented code in various languages on my Github. I got accepted to an engineering school, very well known for their CS department. I went there for 2 semesters, taking Data Structures, Computer Organization, and Discrete Mathematics courses. During the second semester I really began to struggle with depression and anxiety, but the worst was probably really bad insomnia. I would stay up all night and be exhausted during the day. Then I would pass out and be unable to wake up for classes. I ended up dropping out after the 2nd semester. TL;DR: Had a passion for programming from a young age, comfortable with a good amount of languages, went to a well known university for 2 semesters, struggled with mental health/sleep issues and dropped out (I realize that turned into basically my entire life story. Sorry, I'll get into the relevant stuff now). Start here to skip my "personal-issues sob story"Its been 2 years since then, and I've had a few internships. I developed Digital Signage software, as well as a corresponding website for adding events/slideshow images that would be automatically pulled by the software. This was for a surgery department at a state university, and I worked solo on it. I later interned at the same university in the "Enterprise Application Systems" department, working with a team on a website testing infrastructure using Selenium (Java), Docker, and Bamboo. Now onto my actual questions:
Thank you for getting through my rambling. I'd love to hear any thoughts, or whether anybody else has gone through anything similar. [link] [comments]  |
| Side projects or research for internships? Posted: 01 Jan 2019 04:49 PM PST I'm starting research next quarter so I'm going to be a little busy for side projects that are good. Will employers view research as something significant? [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 01 Jan 2019 12:38 PM PST Hi! I have an all too common dilemma; masters degree. I've got a pretty solid job that I love that I've been at for roughly 1.5 years now. It's truly an amazing work environment and I think I'm blessed to have been hired by this company. All that being said, I don't see myself programming for the remainder of my career. It's fun and sometimes very challenging, but I know myself and I'm very interested in the business side of the company. I'm hoping to one day be in an executive position within the tech industry. Now I've done a lot of reading on r/cscareerquestions MBAs and masters in CS and the general mood tends to be: for an MBA its not worth, for an masters it's only worth if you're going into a niche/specialization or academia. For my end goal of executive/manger though, I feel like an MBA in tech would serve me well. If I did it part time I could keep my job while getting the MBA. But this leads me back to square 1: is it worth it? Can I reach my goal without it? I'm not really interested in being a tech lead, and I've seen the term "engineering manager" floating around and although I don't really understand what that role entails, I see people saying an MBA would be pointless for a role like that. Thoughts? [link] [comments]  |
| Negotiating salary during promotion Posted: 01 Jan 2019 02:57 PM PST This sub has been a big help to me in realizing my potential and bringing my career up to where it should be, so I'm back for some more advice. After asking my manager for a raise in October, he sent me through the promotion process instead. And now it looks like I'm getting promoted from Senior to Lead SWE! I need help on how to approach the negotiation. I'm at 98k right now (low, I know) and I'm looking to ideally get to the 115-120k range. Is this reasonable? I think they are going to come in at 110, and I'm thinking of countering with 125. What are your thoughts on being this aggressive in a promotion negotiation with little leverage? Am I risking getting the offer rescinded if I'm too aggressive? [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 01 Jan 2019 02:43 PM PST Hello! I'm a self taught software developer with a BA in English, zero formal CS education. I work with large scale full stack web apps. I've been doing a lot of React and JS/TS, but due to project needs I'll be focusing more on Java using Spring, Kafka, etc. If I have any specialization at all, it's doing a lot of what people would consider DevOps, but I'm definitely more of a generalist. I have experience with some other languages and tech stacks as well, but this is my day-to-day stack at work. I really want to continue setting myself up for success in this field. I have a great job with a large company, but I'd like to move to a small or medium sized tech company in a few years. My ideal situation is building CI/CD tools and similar things. I figure I can pursue an MS in CS and really get a solid formal education while working full time, or I can keep developing on my own and specialization my skill set that way. If anyone has experienced a similar situation, I'd love to hear some feedback and ideas as I'm at a bit of a loss, just scratching my head while I figure out what's next. Sorry for any typos - typing this on my phone on the train. Thanks! [link] [comments]  |
| How to approach communication difficulties without coming off as rude or demanding? Posted: 01 Jan 2019 02:19 PM PST I started an internship a few weeks ago where I have a ridiculous difficulty understanding two guys in my team. They have really thick french and Indian accents -- the french guy legit sound as if he's speaking french with English words mixed in -- and the Indian guy just have that stereotypical accent and speaks really fast. In casual conversation you can kinda connect the dots what they mean, but in work related talk with technological terms and new stuff I'm not familiar with I become a huge question mark. There are only so many times I dare to ask them to repeat what they said before I feel like vanishing out of shame. I tend to write a lot of notes and thought about maybe asking them to write down what they mean, but that might just come off as a rude and demanding thing to ask for? It has kind of become that I try to avoid them when I ask for help unless they approach me first, which I feel is kind of a shame. [link] [comments]  |
| Shaving my head. Good or bad for employment? Posted: 01 Jan 2019 05:53 PM PST I have sensitive skin, and if my hair gets too long it starts prickling my skin and I get a rash. Also, having longer hair takes longer time to maintain. I am considering just shaving my head. Not bald shave, but just like a really short buzzcut. Will this be weird or bad for employment prospects? I will look somewhat like a monk if I go ahead with this. [link] [comments]  |
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