Interview Discussion - April 08, 2019 CS Career Questions |
- Interview Discussion - April 08, 2019
- Daily Chat Thread - April 08, 2019
- Professional coders: is it as fun as you thought? Did it ruin programming for you?
- Handed in Resignation Today, VERY Uncomfortable Work Environment Now
- Recruiter emailed me through my WORK EMAIL to set up a call for a 'great opportunity', what sense does this make?
- IBM vs JP Morgan?
- Girlfriend intends to join the military as an officer in a couple years. How hard would it be to find a software engineering job near or on Army bases?
- Feeling hopeless for the upcoming summer, any tips for a Junior that didn’t get an internship?
- Got my dream job but coworkers and work culture is toxic
- Switching jobs too frequently?
- [UPDATE] Quit new grad job after 2 months due to mental state?
- Is learning AngularJS useful? Is it still used?
- How are return offers typically handled for interns?
- CS Career outside Software Industry?
- What should I spend $5000 of professional development on?
- DevOps
- Full stack engineering Bootcamp
- Need Help Deciding Between Palo Alto and Boston
- When do I apply for full-time roles if I'm graduating this December?
- Y-Combinator Work at a Startup Internship
- IT internship vs software engineering internship
- A question about Revature’s Promissory Note
- Should I negotiate with the CTO for compensation as an unpaid intern?
- How can i get a job that allows me to work around my disability?
- BA in Computer Information Systems vs Computer Science
| Interview Discussion - April 08, 2019 Posted: 08 Apr 2019 12:08 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 - April 08, 2019 Posted: 08 Apr 2019 12:08 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]  |
| Professional coders: is it as fun as you thought? Did it ruin programming for you? Posted: 08 Apr 2019 07:41 AM PDT I really enjoy programming; especially when I get to work from start to finish on something that will make my life easier. I code as a hobby from time-to-time. I am intermediately proficient in both Python and C#. I know enough to get started on a project and use Google to answer the various questions I run into as they come up. I feel like I can accomplish a lot so long as I have the time to learn. I'm 23 with a degree in Electrical Engineering and I make ~$80k, but my job is hardly fulfilling. I got my degree because I wanted to go into process controls (PLC/DCS programming), but I haven't made it there yet. I find much more enjoyment in developing software than I do at my current job. Would you say that programming for work (software developer/software engineer/etc) is as fun as you thought it would be? Does it make you less excited about programming? Do you have to work on stuff that's mundane and miserable? What are your experiences with programming for work? I'm lightly entertaining the idea of pursuing a different career path in the next 2-3 years and I guess I just want to know if the grass is really greener on the other side. Cross-post from /r/csharp since this sub makes more sense. EDIT: You guys gave me an incredible amount of insight. To everyone that responded: thank you! I see now that the answer really is "it depends." If I landed on a team of people working on something interesting, I'd probably love it. However, I could also hate it just as much or more than my current job if that is not the case. Realistically, if I am able to land a job doing PLC/DCS programming like I want, I could have the best of both worlds. I could do programming-like stuff at work, but I could also utilize my EE skills. Bonus of getting to retain the novelty of software development as a hobby! It seems like there is a huge overlap in my current job and in most other jobs: a lot of people interaction, meetings, and nonsensical politics. It's actually a bit sobering to know we're not the only place that has issues with this. [link] [comments]  |
| Handed in Resignation Today, VERY Uncomfortable Work Environment Now Posted: 08 Apr 2019 04:58 PM PDT I resigned from the toxic job that was burning me out and literally taking away my will to live today. My boss was pretty cool with it; she said she knew it was only a matter of time before I grew into a more challenging opportunity than a non-profit. She announced my pending resignation (2 weeks notice) to the company, and I could feel every set of eyes on me judgmentally. Not a single person clapped, congratulated me, or wished me good luck. Most people will not speak to me now, or they do so with a harsh tone. I had a SVP immediately question my loyalty, apparently he feels like I should be indebted to the company because they let me take FMLA leave. Not gonna lie, money was a factor, and they purposely have my job description written so that the "above-market compensation" for my role is undervalued -- I am considered a web administrator and not a software developer. HR tried to deny me several hundred dollars in benefits because she forgot to reactive some of my benefits after I came back from FMLA leave. I was told all of the benefits would be managed for me and she sure didn't need a reminder to turn them off the second I went on leave. Here's what is expected of me before I leave: homepage completely redesigned, while documenting everything the company doesn't know about the website (everything), leading content editor training sessions with multiple departments, redeploying all of our server environments, documenting the setup of a new server environment for an outsourcing firm, handling all tech support questions that come in from staff, conducting a usability study, helping the outsourcing vendor review all their requirements, fixing a difficult bug in our newsletter subscription management application, figuring out why our site search is broken, fixing a remote code execution vulnerability in our CMS because I caught our previous vendor lying about their billing and discovered that they were literally charging us thousands of dollars a month to do nothing. Up to this point, my boss acknowledged that I was being overworked and instructed me to keep a record of hours worked on weekends/evenings to earn unofficial PTO. Now that I am in my final 2 weeks, I am not allowed to take PTO and I believe that I will not be compensated for any of my extra hours because it was off the books. I am also not allowed to work from home anymore, even though I have a far better setup at home and am able to better focus at home. TL;DR: Employer is setting me up to fail in my final 2 weeks and trying to guilt-trip me into overworking myself for no compensation. Do I have any legal protection? I really want to try to explain my situation to my new employer and see if it's cool if I go to work tomorrow, drop off my laptop, and basically ragequit. I almost cried at work today, which is something I have never done before. I've worked my ass off for this company, put an end to a ton of vendor fraud and shady billing, and saved them stupid amounts of money on software they would typically outsource and none of that seems to matter. Do I just show up to work and watch Netflix all day? Do I try to fight for better working conditions? [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 08 Apr 2019 07:43 AM PDT She initially messaged me through LinkedIn, which is okay. I'm used to getting emails by third party recruiters already. Not even 5 minutes later, I get a new email in my WORK EMAIL. With my name spelled wrong in the subject line, with the exact same message she sent me in the LinkedIn message. We have a pretty generic email, just firstname.lastname@company.com so I guess she just guessed it. I never listed it anywhere, only my personal email which is very different than my work email. Who in their right mind would want to work with this recruiter if they are sending these types of emails to your work email! I'm just a little amazed this person thought this would be a good idea. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 08 Apr 2019 12:07 PM PDT So I recently got offers from both JPM and IBM, and as it's going to be my first job after I graduate in May, I'm not sure which I should pick. At IBM, I would be a back-end engineer working on the IBM Quantum team at the Thomas J. Watson Research HQ in Yorktown Heights, NY. As for JP Morgan, the offer is for their SEP/TAP program in Columbus, OH. I haven't been told much about what I would be working with there, they had me fill out a survey on interests/experience, but I haven't heard anything more than that as of yet. Which company would you say would be better to work at? I've heard some bad things about IBM, but I'd assume these experiences are highly team-dependent. Any thoughts? Edit: Name of IBM office [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 08 Apr 2019 06:28 PM PDT As the title says, my girlfriend intends to do ROTC in about 1.5 years to become an Army Officer and then she would graduate 2 years after that. We are both in our mid 20s located in the Bay Area and I already have my degree in Statistics and I am getting a CS degree currently, but am employed in the Electrical Construction industry until I take my Algorithms course this year and begin job hunting. I have read a bit about army spouses being sad because they can't find jobs or they have dead end jobs on military bases and I am just wondering if it's because these people are uneducated/unmotivated or because of the lack of openings. I found this map that has potential locations where we would get located once she graduates, she wouldn't get to choose. https://www.goarmy.com/about/post-locations.html I don't know much about how the job market is in these regions since I mostly hear about the hot spots like PNW/NY. Are SE jobs still available in these regions? I am going to check the BLS by region later, but if anyone living near these bases can shed some light it would be greatly appreciated. I am not looking to land a Big 4 job, but I do want to have a job as a programmer or data analyst ideally. Also, has anyone else dated/married someone in the military? How was your career? [link] [comments]  |
| Feeling hopeless for the upcoming summer, any tips for a Junior that didn’t get an internship? Posted: 08 Apr 2019 08:23 PM PDT So like the title says, I failed at acquiring an internship this summer. I received coding challenges from Twilio, Google, Amazon, Twitter, Western Digital, and Atlassian. Failed all (didn't bother with Twitters because I hear everyone gets it) except Western Digital where I went on site but didn't get the offer. Obviously this means I lack the technical ability for an internship so I've been grinding LeetCode and HackerRank in preparation for next summer but I don't want to just sit around on my ass all summer. I already have 2 pretty substantial projects on my resume (both are relatively intricate and consist of solid front-end and back-end design) so I'm not sure if a third project would really do my time well. I'd say despite not having any internship experience, my resume is pretty solid because I did hear back from 6 big companies, just didn't have the data structures and algorithms skills to proceed. My uncle and I are thinking about starting a summer camp for kids where we'll teach them the basics of coding and making a business out of it so that's going to be pretty cool, but I definitely feel like I want to do something MORE. My friend gave me a referral to another company and they said if their current round of interviews don't make it they'll give me a call but I don't wanna get my hopes up on a "maybe." I was wondering what are things I could do this summer (besides the obvious LeetCode grinding) to make myself more hirable for summer 2020? I honestly just really want an internship and regret messing up all those coding challenges because with the level I'm at now, I could have definitely passed Google's and Amazon's (in retrospect, they really weren't that bad, I was just a lazy idiot who did no LC prior to AFTER failing the challenges). Do you think companies would let me potentially shadow Software Engineers? I'd even do it for no pay at this point. I just want something to put my foot in the door of the industry. Any tips are appreciated and if you guys know of any companies who are still looking for interns (Bay Area/SoCal preferred) I'd greatly appreciate letting me know. Of course I'm still applying to the few that are left but many are for Fall or for MS/PhD students :/ [link] [comments]  |
| Got my dream job but coworkers and work culture is toxic Posted: 08 Apr 2019 08:16 PM PDT I've been working for about 6 months now out of school from a top uni for a large game studio. I like my job and find it fun, however the work culture and people I work with are really unbearable. There is rampant misogyny in the conversations people have and in which I am expected to participate in. It really has a bro culture. I have very liberal leaning views and my colleagues even other new grads seem to belittle me and make SJW jokes when I am around. I have resorted to shutting myself off to cope and now everyone seems to dislike me. Even the others who were ok comment and say stuff like I am too sensitive etc when they witness others talking to me. I really don't know what to do. It is probably worse at my company but I feel like this industry has some serious culture issues. I actually miss the uni environment now and the people I used to be around there. [link] [comments]  |
| Switching jobs too frequently? Posted: 08 Apr 2019 06:54 AM PDT Austin, TX checking in. I stuck with my first job out of college for 1 1/2 years, and I've been at my second job for 7 months now. Unfortunately, I was hired under false pretenses and so am doing work that I strongly dislike. I'm asking to be switched to work that I had agreed to do when I was being hired, but nothing has been done. I'm going to bring it up one more time and if nothing changes, I'm quitting. My question is, will it be a black mark on my resume to have only worked here for less than a year? I don't plan on staying at my next job for any more than 2 years max either, but I'm worried a 7 month stint would look particularly bad. [link] [comments]  |
| [UPDATE] Quit new grad job after 2 months due to mental state? Posted: 08 Apr 2019 07:15 PM PDT Hi all, First, thanks to all those that replied to my previous post, it was extremely helpful in sorting my thoughts and feelings at the time. It's been about 4 months since then and I wanted to post an update. I'm still working at the company. I've come to terms with the gravity of the work I do on a day-to-day basis. I'm no longer fazed by extremely urgent and important matters, as they happen a few times a month and I've dealt with enough of them now to know that life will go on. I began seeing a therapist about 3 months ago. My sessions have gone really well. I've learned many coping mechanisms, although to be honest I don't use them as often as I should. There are still sometimes when the anxiety and stress get the better of me, though I'm not nearly as panic attack-ish as I was 4 months ago. This is especially true because I've been prescribed beta blockers to use on a per-need basis, so really I feel like there's nothing I can't take on anymore. However, that last point is the biggest reason why I feel like it's still the best move for me to leave my current position. I feel like I shouldn't be subjecting myself to a job where I literally need to take drugs in order to function normally and keep my sanity. I feel that I'm a decent enough SDE that I can get away with working at a more reasonable level of outside/work stress while working regular hours and still be plenty successful. This job isn't the one for me, and even though I'm in a great position due to this being a job at a well-known company, I really shouldn't continue. I've been fortunate enough to save enough money to last me nearly a year, though I feel that if I leave now that my coworkers won't hold me in high esteem because I've only recently started contributing seriously to the team. Is quitting if I feel that I won't be able to get good recommendations from teammates a bad thing? Do recommendations really matter that much? I'd really like to be able to quit sooner rather than later. Also, if I quit in May I'll technically be able to say I was working for over 9 months, if that changes anything. Thoughts? TL;DR I'm doing much better now (Thanks y'all!), buuuuuut I still want to quit and I'm looking for advice. [link] [comments]  |
| Is learning AngularJS useful? Is it still used? Posted: 08 Apr 2019 05:30 AM PDT I started working as an intern and even though I know JS they use AngularJS too so I have been learning it for a bit now. The thing is that I am not motivated in learning it since I feel it is a very antique and obsolete technology and that I shouldn't put as much effort to understand and use it well. At the moment I just want to learn the basics and as much as I would use at work but nothing else. Am I wrong? [link] [comments]  |
| How are return offers typically handled for interns? Posted: 08 Apr 2019 08:35 AM PDT Currently working with a large company now until the beginning of July and I'm expecting a return offer, but I'm rather confused about their offer period and looking for a bit of advice. They have a firm 2 week acceptance period in July - so I'd be expected to accept a job offer over 14 months in advance before starting next September - leaving me unavailable to look for competing offers by applying to more graduate positions in September/October of this current year. Is this standard for return offers? Should I decline and reinterview with regular candidates? I'm just wary that if I accept and get a much better offer down the line I'd have to renege - and it's not a company I'd really like a no hire mark against. [link] [comments]  |
| CS Career outside Software Industry? Posted: 08 Apr 2019 10:23 AM PDT As I'm going through college and into my 3rd internship at a software company, I was wondering what it's like to work in a different industry than strictly software as a Computer Scientist. I've been very passionate about the environment ever since I was a kid, and was wondering how careers are for Computer Scientists (other than Data Science/Data Analytics) in environmental fields or at companies that aren't strictly software. I wouldn't mind working just directly in software but I want to keep my options open and see where I can go with my degree. Or are there environmentally focused CS companies? I love CS but I'd like to also be working in an industry that I can feel passionate about, and I don't want to be making internal CRUD apps for the rest of my life. [link] [comments]  |
| What should I spend $5000 of professional development on? Posted: 08 Apr 2019 03:41 AM PDT I have $5000 of a personal professional development budget that is "use it or lose it", and I have until the end of the calendar year. What should I spend it on? I'm a level I engineer looking to become a staff engineer/architect maybe 5-7 years from now. I was considering these (but open to other suggestions, of course): [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 08 Apr 2019 02:53 PM PDT I'm casually searching for a new job but I keep running into this problem were I am being presented with LeetCode, HackerRank, and CoderPad type interviews. I am in DevOps and I do not have a CompSci degree so I am not used to these types of interviews. I am not in Silicon Valley but in the Greater Chicago Area and my job search has now become disheartening. In my experience from DevOps, SRE, Cloud Engineer job position we write code to automate shit. This can be to deploy infrastructure, manage infrastructure, automate routine tasks, usually just turning what was manual to automation. The most difficult thing I do on a daily basis is iterate over some JSON or working with APIs. When did DevOps, SRE start to become a Software Engineer position? I don't have time to grind LeetCode. [link] [comments]  |
| Full stack engineering Bootcamp Posted: 08 Apr 2019 08:39 PM PDT Hey all, So basically I am considering applying to a boot camp in MN and I'm a little nervous although I haven't gotten accepted or even began the boot camp I will be giving up working full time for the next 20 weeks and its not like I work some high paying job or a job that I love its just leaving my security blanket to try something that I don't know will get me a job as a Software engineer. I have spoken to one person who did it and she gave me positive feedback and what I would need to focus on but in the work industry do you find companies hire people without that formal CS degree or what challenges do you think they face? Thanks to whoever responds! [link] [comments]  |
| Need Help Deciding Between Palo Alto and Boston Posted: 08 Apr 2019 08:34 PM PDT Simply put, my girlfriend has been accepted for law school at Stanford and at Harvard, and we are trying to both decide which city we should move to. She was accepted to Harvard first, so I have been looking into tech opportunities in Boston for a few weeks now. I'm interested in machine learning and cryptocurrency and I have seen some good opportunities there, though I'm still nervous about job prospects in the area. On the other hand, Palo Alto is like the tech capital of the world. I'm interested in entrepreneurial things, and for a while it has been a goal to get a job at a place like Google. While Boston has quite a few smaller offices of the big tech companies, there are probably more in Palo Alto. Again, I'm going to act confident in an interview but I don't know if I can seriously rely on getting a job in the Palo Alto area. Overall, I'm really torn. Any advice? Personal opinions from a career perspective? I think Palo Alto is a better culture fit for me as I'm not crazy about the cold, but I wouldn't mind living in an older historic city for a few years. (I happen to be from the midwest, haven't visited either city before) About me: I'm graduating with my BSCS in May and I'll be working on my masters part-time with the OMSCS program from Georgia Tech. I have a 3.6 GPA from an average university and I've had a notable internship for about a year and a half. Finally, I've been doing leetcode every day for about two weeks and I'm just okay at it (a little slow), I would say it's my weakest point overall. [link] [comments]  |
| When do I apply for full-time roles if I'm graduating this December? Posted: 08 Apr 2019 07:00 AM PDT I'm a senior due to graduate in December of this year. I have a summer internship that finishes in August, and then a final semester. I was curious about when I should ramp up my applications for full-time entry-level dev positions - typically I'd spend August studying for technical interviews / send out feelers and then I'd make my biggest push for jobs in September, aiming for work that begins in January of next year. I'm assuming firms hire devs all the time, but I wanted to make sure I wasn't missing some well-known hiring season that begins earlier or something. Any thoughts? [link] [comments]  |
| Y-Combinator Work at a Startup Internship Posted: 08 Apr 2019 08:29 PM PDT How was the interview process for the companies you applied for? Were you given an offer? etc. [link] [comments]  |
| IT internship vs software engineering internship Posted: 08 Apr 2019 08:19 PM PDT I'm a junior in college studying cs. I've been looking for a cs internship for the summer. So far, I applied to several cyber security related internships and just two software engineering internships. I just want to know how companies will look at these experiences once i graduate. Do companies treat these internships equally? Is an IT internship seen as a valid experience by a software engineering firm and vise versa? [link] [comments]  |
| A question about Revature’s Promissory Note Posted: 08 Apr 2019 08:01 PM PDT So I'm staring at the document that's to sign my life away. I went through the interview questions and they accepted me. I went through the document and saw mentions of a Promissory Note. I wondered what exactly that means and what I could owe to the company so did some digging and ended up calling my recruiter and asked if I could have a copy of it. I was told that I couldn't because it's different for every person, so copied can't really be made. So I did some more digging and I've come across a crap ton of threads and comments on them about either how bad Revature is or how good it was for someone when they finished the training. It's been hard to find any middle of the road opinions on the company. So my question is, can anyone give me an idea as to what I'm to expect from this Promissory note? I've seen hints of what it is here and there but no direct answers. I've been able to gather that i would owe $20k if I quit after 10 days? Or maybe it's before 10 days? I'm asking this because from what else I've read, a person with the GPA I have might be better off taking the Revature path, I just want to know if I'm going to have to pay for training after I finish it and once I'm placed somewhere. [link] [comments]  |
| Should I negotiate with the CTO for compensation as an unpaid intern? Posted: 08 Apr 2019 05:48 AM PDT I'm a final year university student in Australia. Recently got an internship and I was told it was unpaid, 2-3 months, 3 days a week. Had my first day yesterday and have been slowly tackling Jira problems. I'm by no means 'good' at what I do, but I do believe I am adding value to the company. In terms of mentorship, I really only have a dev that I sit next to that I'm supposed to shadow, but I pretty much just get given tasks and solve them myself, and frequently ask him for help where needed. I'm definitely not as fast, but I'm doing what all the other paid developers do? I am supposed to be signing the term agreement tomorrow, which is obviously signing unpaid, but I want to negotiate with him for comp. I don't know how much ground I have though? I'm afraid if I ask him it will just give off vibes that I want to leave, or I'm scared he won't care and will just replace me. They definitely like me but I don't want to sacrifice my job. Should I work there for a few weeks and then pop the question? How will this conflict with my signed unpaid agreement down the line? Would it be better to speak about it ASAP before I sign it and demand compensation terms there and then? Help would be appreciated. [link] [comments]  |
| How can i get a job that allows me to work around my disability? Posted: 08 Apr 2019 01:24 PM PDT I'm a junior level engineer who started his first job a couple months ago, but had to quit due to chronic pain (only ended up working there for a month.) I'm in the job market again, but due to chronic neck pain i would prefer to not sit 8x5 hours a week. It seems like the only options available to me our part-time jobs and internships, but the former is hard to come by and the latter is usually reserved for college students. I don't care about how much i get paid. Experience / growth is more important to me. I could definitely work from home as it allows me to take periodic breaks to rest my neck, but i'm not sure if that's going to be available for an entry-level employee. Thanks in advance for the responses, i apologize for any typos as i'm using dictation software. [link] [comments]  |
| BA in Computer Information Systems vs Computer Science Posted: 08 Apr 2019 07:15 PM PDT Pros and Cons between the two? Exact differences? Does it really matter that much? I want to become a programmer. Ideally front end development to start as I enjoy HTML and haven't tried back end development so I can't speak to it [link] [comments]  |
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