Interview Discussion - April 11, 2019 CS Career Questions |
- Interview Discussion - April 11, 2019
- Daily Chat Thread - April 11, 2019
- What are some intern dos and don'ts? What makes an intern stand out in your eyes?
- Didn't get an internship this summer. Feeling pretty defeated
- I ran untested code directly in production today.
- I feel like a fraud...
- I have to literally lookup up every leetcode solution. Is it normal?
- What are the hard truths/prospects of the Computer Graphics industry (preferably from people in said industry)
- What are some red flags in a CS job advertisement?
- I hard-balled my employer during a salary negotiation, and now I think they might be looking for a replacement. Help!
- How to deal with being underpaid?
- What is it like working as a developer in Marcus by Goldman Sachs? (Specifically Dallas)
- People who have finished EPI, how did you do it?
- Have any Canadian CS grads moved to US?
- Personal project with Spring Boot/ Docker/ AWS - what complexity can I add to showcase my skills? Anybody is welcome to join me in this project!!
- Advice on moving out of my country as a React/Node developer
- Should I stay an extra semester to complete a math minor?
- Advice for graduates starting their first software engineering position
- How to let employer know I'm on OPT?
- Unsure of how to communicate with employer in this situation
- DC/Nova non-government companies?
- What should i do from here?
- Do you need to major in CS to become a software engineer?
- Software Quality Assurance Internship
- Good software development practices and processes
- Possible to start Programming Career in Thailand?
| Interview Discussion - April 11, 2019 Posted: 11 Apr 2019 12:05 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 11, 2019 Posted: 11 Apr 2019 12:06 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]  |
| What are some intern dos and don'ts? What makes an intern stand out in your eyes? Posted: 11 Apr 2019 08:07 AM PDT As summer approaches, it gets closer and closer to intern season. I'm sure many of you will be getting a fresh wave of interns in about a month. What is some advice you would give the new interns so that they walk in and get as much out of it as possible while benefiting the company as well?
I myself am going into a new position, as are all of my friends. We got on the topic about what some of us are or aren't doing to get ready, and what we hope to get out of it. That made me want to ask here to get other opinions and for others in the same position to get some advice maybe they haven't heard. [link] [comments]  |
| Didn't get an internship this summer. Feeling pretty defeated Posted: 11 Apr 2019 02:22 PM PDT I've been applying to internships since mid January and haven't even gotten an interview. I've had my professors look at my resume, built a good-looking website, and even wrote a cover letter, but no one has even bothered responding. At this point it's looking like I'm shit out of luck for an internship this summer and I just feel like giving up. What can I do so that my summer isn't a total waste? [link] [comments]  |
| I ran untested code directly in production today. Posted: 10 Apr 2019 08:44 PM PDT Last week we had a severe data issue which caused a million bad records to be inserted into several tables. I've been pressed on this to clean it up, the monthly release is this Friday, business users have been severely impacted because of the bad data and hence they asked me to do a cleanup before Friday. I ran some data scrub scripts in UAT and other test environments, everything was good and ready to be run directly in production... Except one caveat: the database structure was supposed to change this Friday along with the release and I had done my data scrub testing against a database with the new structure. So today when I ran my scripts in production, they ofc didn't work because of the old database structure. So the risk taker in me took the release branch from the past month, did some changes there, and ran the code + scripts directly in production to clean up the bad data. The corrupted data was cleaned up and business users won't face the same issues anymore, but I may lose my job. Pray for me bros. And yes I have write access to production, If anyone is wondering. My company has some bad practices. Edit 1: since some of you have pmed me asking: No this isn't a a startup or even small business. It's a large corporation with like 80k employees and millions of customers, software isn't the main product but it does assist heavily. I'm pretty sure other product departments in the company have good practices, but not the one I'm in! Edit 2: looks like my job is safe lolol Edit 3: to the four of you (probably same person with different accounts) that pmed me calling me a disgrace to the software industry and telling me I should resign and find a different career: Nah [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 11 Apr 2019 08:32 AM PDT ... for working as a programmer. I'll try to keep this short, but I can't promise anything. I'm a 20 year old guy in Austria, who finished a good technical college and loves programming. I've managed to get a job at a rather small company (not a startup) as Junior Java Developer. Have been working there for 6 months now. Until just 2 weeks ago I didn't write a single line of code at work. All I did 40+ hours a week, is online documentation. 2 weeks ago I basically finished the whole documentation platform and there was nothing else to do, so they "allowed" me tp program. I really like my colleagues and work overall isn't that bad (despite all the above). But there is this weird woman in her thirties. Don't get me wrong, I get along with her quite well and she is an absolute beast when it comes to work. She easily does the work of 2 developers in half the time (well, her code quality reflects that..., but still). Anyways, we have a few different applications. Some bigger, some smaller. But most of them are huge. The one I have to work on is by far the biggest. I even asked my boss if it's just me and my lack of experience or if it's really that big and messy. \ He just said: "Well, it's no photoshop or ms office, but it's no joke". The 30ish woman I'm working with is supposed to mentor me a bit. Teach me how the application works, what it does, the flow of it etc. Instead, she just expects me to know it all and if I even dare to ask for help, she'll usually say "Just debug it and try to understand" - or she will just take the ticket, assign it to herself and do it. In that case, I always review the pull request and 95% of the time I understand what's going on or what she did - but this is frustrating. Especially when there are methods with 250+ lines of code inside of them or 12 parameters. Maybe this is normal in a professional setting/application - I wouldn't know since this is my first job as a programmer. It has come to the point where I seriously question my abilities as java developer. I ask myself questions like "Should I be able to understand this quicker?", "Am I doing something wrong?", "Am I even allowed to call myself programmer?". It's just embarrassing and I feel like a fraud of sorts... Like I shouldn't even have this position. Out of 10 hours at work I spend at least 8 just debugging and trying to understand this monster of a project. Day-in day-out, for 2 weeks straight. I'm asking you guys, out of despair, is this normal? \ Maybe my programming capabilities just aren't as good as I thought. \ I'm getting things done, I implement features and I am part of the sprint. But I constantly have to ask questions and my tickets take way longer than they should. I really don't know what to do. [link] [comments]  |
| I have to literally lookup up every leetcode solution. Is it normal? Posted: 11 Apr 2019 06:56 PM PDT Hi guys. I graduated with a bachelors in computer science in December. I started doing leetcode problems( mostly arrays,linkedlist and strings) 2 weeks ago. I can't solve any problem(Easy) without looking up the solution..i usually try and think for about 20 mins before looking up the solution. Is this normal or am i just dumb? i feel like i shouldn't be struggling this much especially since i have a cs degree. I have done about 15 problems so far. I know i have to practice alot but i am not seeing any progress..i feel like i should be able to solve a few problems without having to look up the solution. How many problems do i have to practice before i start seeing any progress?thanks. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 11 Apr 2019 10:53 AM PDT I have an inspiration to go into the Computer Graphics industry as a programmer. Preferably tools/animation but I'm a pretty resilient person and would work on just about anything if it meant being in the field. I'm trying to find information on the state of the field, how it looks for someone who would be entering in about 4 years, and the steps i should be taken throughout my education to prepare myself for that. [link] [comments]  |
| What are some red flags in a CS job advertisement? Posted: 11 Apr 2019 07:32 AM PDT In my searching for a summer job in the CS industry, I've come across many advertisements that seem a little shady or underdeveloped compared to what is expected from a job advertisement. With tech startup companies on the rise, I'm not sure whether most of these advertisements are due to lack of experience on the company's end, or whether there are some underlying issues. What are some of the red flags in an advertisement that immediately warn against applying for the job or contacting the employer? [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 11 Apr 2019 12:47 PM PDT First off, this is a followup to this post. I got the job 3 months ago, and this is the first corporate job I've had in a while. I accepted a relatively small junior salary ($65k). The job is a full stack dev position and relies on a lot of .net core and angular. I'm a newbie in angular but have a ton of experience in .net, and web in general. During the past 3 months I've done impeccable work here and it became blatantly obvious that I am not a junior developer. My team lead has referred to me as a "senior" or "lead" numerous times. On Monday, I completed my probation and requested a performance/salary review. My team lead, one of the senior executives, and the company's recruiter/HR guy were there. My team lead gave the most legit review ever. He told them I was dependable, pulled my own weight, worked well with others, etc. He mentioned several times that my level of experience was "senior". After he left the remaining 3 of us started to renegotiate my salary. I told them I wanted $100k, which was based on my own research into what I think my skills are worth. I believe that this is approximately the average for my level of experience. These guys did not like the fact that I was negotiating and pushed back hard. But I kept asserting that my current salary was below the market rate and I don't wish to be compensated as a junior (actually my research revealed that even juniors get paid more than me on average). In the end, they said they needed more time to decide, and told me that they'd put me on a new project within 2 weeks and have a different team lead assess me before mid-May. I agreed, since I understand that it's a lot of money, and I'm fairly confident that ultimately they will have no choice but to give me a bump, given that its seems to be a seller's market. Well, I was. But now I'm starting to get a bit worried. In the office right across from my desk, I can see that they've been bringing in a lot of new faces and giving them the same technical test that I wrote when I applied for my job. So I checked linkedin and sure enough I see that they have a new position posted 22 hours ago for a .net back-end developer and is marked as "urgent". It's almost like they wanted me to see the new interviewees. I'm kind of impressed by this tactic lol. Another red flag is that my current project was originally supposed to end by the end of my probation, but it got extended, and happens to end exactly on the day that I will be receiving my next performance review. That's going to give them a TON of leverage, especially considering that I seem to have given them a whole month to find a replacement for me. What should I do? Is this some type of weird negotiation tactic, or am I likely being replaced? Should I settle for a smaller raise? Should I start accepting interviews at a different company? Should I just wait it out? I REALLY don't want to jump ship right before the project is supposed to be done, but I'm worried that I am being used to complete this project only to lose my bargaining chip and get replaced by some one much cheaper. Edits: Salaries are in CAD and $100k is the industry average according to my research. [link] [comments]  |
| How to deal with being underpaid? Posted: 11 Apr 2019 09:54 AM PDT Just to give a bit of background on the situation, I'm a CS graduate in my 20s and I moved to a new country 1 1/2 years ago. I worked as a developer for about 8 months before the move, but then spent some time learning the language of my new country and about 6 months ago started a job as a QA Engineer, because that's what I really want to do. I made peace with the fact that as QA I would never get the salary I'd get as a developer, but it was okay for me because I go to work with a smile on my face (almost) every morning. I accepted a lower offer than I wanted because I didn't have that much work experience and my language skills were okay, but not great. I knew at the time that I was probably being paid less than market value. I recently passed my probation and my colleagues had nothing but praise for my work and said I made a huge difference to the team and project in general. In the time I've been here I've learned not only a really complex software project and all the moving parts around it, but even (sort of) mastered their CMS system by learning it by myself. My manager told me that I exceeded all the expectations he had at the time I was hired and then some. About 3 months ago a new QA person started at the company. She had about a year of experience in manual QA and before that she spent a few years doing a completely unrelated job in a non-IT field. She was appointed for manual QA because she didn't have a lot of technical knowledge. I don't say that to knock her, because I have a lot of respect for her and she's been working really hard to learn everything and get going in test automation, which is not easy when you don't have a technical background. The salary discussion came up today and I told her what I get and she told me she gets more. She didn't want to say how much and I suspect that's because it's quite a bit more and she didn't want to upset me, because shortly before that she was saying how she didn't understand why people are shy to talk about salaries. Where I was happy yesterday, this piece of news has been eating away at me all day today. I love my company, I love the people and I think the work culture is amazing, and I don't want to leave But I feel it's incredibly unfair that I, a person who has development skills and a CS degree, gets paid less than someone who brings less relevant skills and experience to the job. I want to keep working at this firm, but I also have to think about my future here. How do I approach this conversation with HR without burning bridges or worst case scenario, getting fired? I really feel like the only fair thing for them to do here is to at least match my salary with the other QA's salary. I also really can't afford to lose this job, because my visa is dependent on it, so I don't want to threaten them with leaving and end up getting shown the door. I also would prefer not telling them that my coworker told me she gets more. [link] [comments]  |
| What is it like working as a developer in Marcus by Goldman Sachs? (Specifically Dallas) Posted: 11 Apr 2019 07:23 PM PDT I have what they refer to as a "super day" next week. I have pending offers on the table, with one of them being an amazing fit for me as far as compensation, benefits, and work, but I wanted to give Goldman Sachs a try because it has the best "name". I heard that Marcus is their startup-y division, but I also keep hearing that they are a meat grinder and try to work you to the bone. How much do they normally pay a developer with 3-5 years of experience? I've heard it's fairly low, but I'm also hearing that they have stepped it up due to competition. What is a fair range I could ask for in the Dallas area? Right now it seems like the only thing that would sway me is if they give me a higher total compensation and the fact that it is Goldman Sachs. But at the same time, I do not want to work more than 40 hours a week (i know there will be times where I'll have to work more, I don't mind that, but I don't want it to be like that every single week). Can someone please offer some insight? [link] [comments]  |
| People who have finished EPI, how did you do it? Posted: 11 Apr 2019 01:44 PM PDT I'm going through the 4 month study plan in EPI (Elements of Programming Interviews) right now and I often have to re-do questions multiple times before I fully understand the solution and implementation. I've heard of people finishing the whole book multiple times, do they just do the question once or only implement some of them? I think it's also taking me a bit longer because I'm used to doing things in C++ and now trying to get used to the python way of thinking. I'm spending 3 hours / weekday on EPI right now, would be nice to hear from others who have finished it or are in the process of going through it, how much time they spend, if they repeat questions, any other thoughts on EPI, etc. [link] [comments]  |
| Have any Canadian CS grads moved to US? Posted: 11 Apr 2019 06:22 PM PDT Hi everyone, I'm a Software Engineering/CS student at a university in Southern Ontario. I don't go to UoT or Waterloo (hint: It's close to Waterloo lol) but I was wondering if any Canadians that have recently graduated have moved to the US for a job from a "not-as-prestigious" university (like Waterloo)? About me: I am average. Definitely not the worst, but definitely not the best either in the class. How hard is it to find a normal American company (small to medium sized) to hire you (not just the big ones in Silicon Valley)? I am really interested in the south, especially Texas. I know the tech scene is growing there but I worry that it is very difficult to get a TN visa or an H1b sponsor, especially if I am grad student. Any stories that people have? Also, has any Canadian moved to the US and remained there permanently? I would if I could (because of the job opportunities, pay, and the *WEATHER*) but I hear the H1B -> GC process is really hard to get. All responses are appreciated! [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 11 Apr 2019 08:32 AM PDT I've been working on a simple Online Shop application - a micro version of Amazon. The backend is Spring Boot RESTful api's connected to MySQL. I'm deploying this app as a containerized docker app to AWS ElasticBeanStalk. Planning to add frond-end in Angular. This app is basically to learn new tech stacks as I work on Java EE at work. and build my GitHub profile. Will this kind of app a good showcase for showing coding/ design skills to prospective employers (tech firms). What do you guys think can I add to make it a bit more complex - technology wise ? Would appreciate any suggestions! Anybody is welcome to join me in this project!! Please PM me if you want to.. [link] [comments]  |
| Advice on moving out of my country as a React/Node developer Posted: 11 Apr 2019 07:33 AM PDT Hello, everyone, I'm Asdrúbal, a React/Node developer from Venezuela, recently my country has been hit by severe blackouts that have left us without electricity for about 12 hours a day. During that time I was beginning a career as freelancer which I was really enjoying, however, due to things unrelated to blackouts I lost my current income and as per the blackouts I haven't been able to reach out new clients. So here's the thing, I have a few friends in Argentina and I'd love to move there. I know the economy in that country is not the best, but it's way easier to move legally than say Chile. Peru was another option but right now there are many issues with xenophobia there. So, the thing is, since I don't really have professional contacts abroad, should I move out without a job? Note that I've already applied to a few jobs in here through WeWorkRemotely however I've failed to appear to some interviews due to blackouts. I've been trying to contribute to NodeJS despite the blackouts and so far I'm learning about the internals. I'd really love to work remotely and become a digital nomad in the future. What if any advice can you give me? Here's my github in any case https://github.com/asdrubalivan [link] [comments]  |
| Should I stay an extra semester to complete a math minor? Posted: 11 Apr 2019 03:42 PM PDT I am currently in the process of choosing courses and I am having a really difficult time making up my mind. I am not particulary interested in taking more math courses for any reason other than finishing my math minor. I need two courses to do that, which is feasible but I won't have the opportunity to take foreign language courses that I want to take for the sake of learning. I am toying with the idea of taking an extra semester. I don't think affording it would be an issue, and getting an extra software internship under my belt could be a positive thing. I also like school a lot. The downsides are just spending more time in school and perhaps some minor sadness seeing friends graduate without me. The big question is: Do getting minors on your resume help your applications to software companies and maybe other jobs should I pivot out of software? Is it worth the extra semester? Thanks for the advice in advance [link] [comments]  |
| Advice for graduates starting their first software engineering position Posted: 11 Apr 2019 05:47 PM PDT I'm about to start an entry level software engineering position in a couple of months and I was wondering what I could do to prepare myself. I haven't had any relevant work experience so I have no idea what to expect. What could one do to become a great team member rather than a good one [link] [comments]  |
| How to let employer know I'm on OPT? Posted: 11 Apr 2019 01:33 PM PDT As far as I know, it does not cost the company anymore hiring an OPT student than hiring locally. For STEM OPT I get to work legally in the US for three years. Every time I check "not a H1B holder" or "not a US citizen" on my job app I feel like it's a death sentence. 50+ applications and only two called back. One heard my OPT starts mid July and said "I need to check with my manager" and ghosted. The other one said she'll call back last week and probably ghosted too. [link] [comments]  |
| Unsure of how to communicate with employer in this situation Posted: 11 Apr 2019 05:15 PM PDT I'm an undergrad at Purdue University. As I mentioned in this post, employers are not receiving emails that I send from my @purdue.edu email address. I will call up iTap (our Technology help desk) some time over the weekend to see if there is any problem with my account. Someone in the comments of that post told me to send an email from my @purdue.edu address to my @gmail.com address and see if I was able to receive the mail. I was. So I'm not sure why company A in the post which I made couldn't receive my email (they use gmail too). It could be due to IP address reasons. Then again, the system could've just randomly decided to not send my email to company A. As someone in the comments of the post I linked above said, "this happened to me, but it wasn't in every email". If that is the case, then there is a possibility that company B did receive my email but just hasn't seen it yet. (It's been ~2 weeks since I replied to their email, though.) I am planning to follow up with company B using my Gmail account. While there is a possibility that they didn't receive my initial email response (due to IP address reasons or pure randomness or some problem with my account), it is not confirmed and I don't want to make any assumptions when I email them. What would you suggest I tell them? So far, I have this written down:
The above statement is alright, but it assumes that they didn't receive my email, when they could have technically just not seen it yet. I am stumped on what to do next. Any help would be appreciated! [link] [comments]  |
| DC/Nova non-government companies? Posted: 11 Apr 2019 02:37 PM PDT Do you guys know many non-government, non-defense companies around the nova area? I've been looking and around and they seem to be dominating the job market. Are there many big CS jobs that arent government related? [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 11 Apr 2019 04:46 PM PDT I graduated with an associates in software development in may of 2017. I did pretty well grade-wise. No internships coming out of college i had trouble with finding a job. I've had several interviews but nothing back. It's been almost 2 years, and I haven't been searching the whole time because i become distraught after a while before starting again. In the mean time i have been learning on my own and have made a couple cool/decent web applications to put on a resume. I'm at the point where im ready to just go back to school and finish my 4 year. Would it be worth it to do so? I see a lot of job ads that require a 4 year and I'm wondering if it would be easier to find an entry level job with a bachelors rather than an associates [link] [comments]  |
| Do you need to major in CS to become a software engineer? Posted: 11 Apr 2019 07:42 PM PDT For example if I majored in another related field (data science), would I be able to become a software engineer with the skill set I learned in data science? [link] [comments]  |
| Software Quality Assurance Internship Posted: 11 Apr 2019 03:55 PM PDT Hello! I'm currently a junior in CS. I've recently accepted an SQA internship at a large company and haven't done much of the sort before. I want to go in prepared and do some studying/practice before hand. However, I haven't done anything in the realm of scripting or automation. I also don't really know best practices for real product testing at all past my own projects. Are there any general tips for QA or study/practice materials anyone can recommend? It would be much appreciated by me and my future employers! [link] [comments]  |
| Good software development practices and processes Posted: 11 Apr 2019 07:33 PM PDT Hello, I have a decent understanding of fundamental theoretical CS (e.g. algorithms, data structures) in a purely academic setting as I was an engineering student with a minor in computer science. However, I do not work as an engineer and frankly don't see myself pursuing coding as a career but have always enjoyed it and would like to participate in interesting open source projects one day and/or perhaps work on startup. Unfortunately, most of my coding is based in an academic setting so I have never learned what real software development process is like. I would like to learn about the best practices in software engineering such as writing production level clean code, absolute do's and don'ts, organizing your program, importing packages in an efficient and clean manner, etc. Are there any books or MOOCs that are excellent in teaching you excellent practical programming guidelines and practices? I have heard numerous times from my friends at Google that working at Google teaches you to be an excellent engineer, and I would like to learn how to get there somewhat without..working at Google per se. I would appreciate any advice as I've noticed there are so many books and literature on algorithms but not on actual software development! [link] [comments]  |
| Possible to start Programming Career in Thailand? Posted: 11 Apr 2019 03:45 PM PDT I have the somewhat interesting prospect of starting a programming career in a small town in the Southern United States. This is all fine and dandy, but I was wondering if it would be possible to do that in Asia or more specifically Thailand. Thailand is geared towards digital nomads with their co-working spaces and multiple tech meetups. I remember it being very tech savvy. People tell me to get the job and then move, but I've been living in a small town for the past few years and I'd really like to get out. Would leaving for Asia now be reckless? I'm willing to apply in surrounding countries too. [link] [comments]  |
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