I fucking love our field.
2I fucking love our field.
Just sitting here stoned after a nice hard week at work, appreciating how great our field is. Don't get me wrong, there are occasional times where I want to rip my hair out, but most of the time it feel so fucking enjoyable solving problems all day. I love how we're all making pretty good money too! It's times like this that I can say there's simply no better field than this, and that for all our bitching about the day-to-days of work, our field is actually pretty damn great.
Which is generally acceptable here. This sub should probably have been called r/CSCareerDiscussions.
It depends how you read it man. I feel Ike there's an implicit "don't you guys feel the same?" at the end, and it opens the thread for discussion and reflection.
Reflection is a beautiful learning opportunity, so I'm glad OP managed to propose this question, even by using an ambiguous text.
OP could just be making a statement, but I don't think OP would do us like that.
Plenty of idiots do the same with "you can do it" / "live your best life" blurbs on here
He is stoned okay. Johnny take that pipe out you mouth and talk to use(said in mom voice).
Anyways can definitely agree where you coming from nobody understands, except for all of us of course but man it is very gratifying, and challenging. It’s a addicting. I’m addicted just as my girlfriend.
you write this like there is a gun pointed at your head
I'm thinking more like he's the stoned CS equivalent to those Texas Roadhouse servers with their t-shirts...."I love my job".
stressful but I'm learning a lot
my master's degree in a nutshell
I feel the same. I'm being paid less than the market, I ask for a salary increase but my boss said no. I need to improve my skills, become a better programmer, and then go to another company that will value my skills.
Don't let people bring your positiveness down man. It is a great field and if people aren't enjoying it as much, then they might not be in the right one for them.
Hell yes dude. I think about this quite a bit. We’re super lucky to be here
but most of the time it feel so fucking enjoyable solving problems all day.
I fell in love with coding in high school, 1969. I enjoyed it until I retired a couple years ago. I was writing code today to support my hobby. I always say that when I was 17 (1) I fell into a terrible rut, programming; (2) I was really fortunate that I enjoyed it for the next almost 50-years; and (3) I was able to support myself and my family doing a job I liked.
What could be better than that? I never got rich, but who cares? I had fun at work 90% of the time.
Rich is relative. To me, it boils down to comfort without worry and not necessarily gross excess. That sounds like an extremely rewarding career.
I honestly think the tech industry is one of the shittiest fields in terms of human development.
Some of the smartest people from my high school went on to change their studies from medicine and research to computer science. They had potential to change the world and make great discoveries but now all that matters is making apps, startups, and trying to IPO to become the next Facebook.
Sure, some companies and/or projects have meaningful research and work. It seems like half the time, though, projects are just created to squeeze some extra dollars out of the consumer base. Genius developers sent to high frequency trading firms to code systems that can trade meaningless currency at fractions faster than the competition, or with better algorithms to increase profits. Minds with great potential working for Facebook or whoever, developing programs that can track mouse movement and eye movement to predict what users are going to buy in order to sell that information to advertisers.
It seems that the more you get paid in this industry, the more meaningless your work is for society.
I don't mean this all too seriously, considering that many developments are truly helpful and innovative. Ride-sharing, cryptocurrency, automated cars, etc. Computer science is great for humanity at many times, but a lot of the time it's just used for corporations to pile on more revenue. Sure, developing is rewarding just like playing video games is. There's a dopamine rush from solving problems. That doesn't automatically mean every developer should jump on their high horse and assume their field is any better than others.
Yeah I kinda agree. You can say the same about corporate lawyers or hedge fund analysts or investment bankers or like most high paying jobs. If a smart person wants to earn money for a comfortable life what makes you think they wouldn't have done a different high paying sellout job? At least you're building new things that might some day be applied for something useful down the line (e.g. CAPTCHA used to train autonomous cars was originally made to deter bots from stealing profit from corporations)
All those smart people could have dedicated their life to research or education too and maybe after they earn "enough" money they'll give back somehow who knows.
I think you’re significantly undervaluing the legitimate benefits for society that derived from software development. Yes, there’s a lot of politicking and bullshit, but think about how the internet and tech have changed (and is continuing to revolutionize) literally every other industry. Lawyers, doctors, and researchers are able to be much more productive as a result. Machine learning is unlocking insights into massive data sets that were literally impenetrable by human intellect alone. Communication is streamlined. Databases are indexed and searchable at incredible speeds. The economy has become more efficient by orders of magnitude.
In every industry there’s a high degree of brain drain: some genius lawyers spend their entire careers enriching megacorps via litigation and defense; brilliant financial analysts and accountants spend their lives finding loopholes in the tax code and lobbying the government. Highly intelligent biochemists work for places like Purdue pharma to develop devastating drugs like OxyContin.
Point being, this isn’t new or unique to CS, and the field does have a massive potential to impact humanity.
It seems that the more you get paid in this industry, the more meaningless your work is for society.
THIS IS THE MIC DROP I'VE BEEN WAITING FOR SINCE I SUBBED TO THIS FUCKING SUB. YES.
How is that our fault? I'm not about to criticize someone for turning down half a million dollars in debt, an 80% chance of divorce and the internal curse of knowing you won't even be financially stable until 45.
Doctors should be paid more and medical school shouldn't be so God damned grueling. It's far from our fault and I don't blame our industry for how poorly the world treats doctors.
In my opinion, your friends are even smarter for choosing a field that will reward their actual life instead of sacrificing their lifestyle and happiness for a thankless job.
This hit a soft spot. I’m Pre-Med but leaning towards SWE. I blame the attractive salaries and my love for technology, although I love medicine because I’ve played sports my whole life, etc. With me, I’d like to think I’ll save quite a few years of my youth being an SWE instead of going into medical school.
What do you do ? Just curious. And I’m being honest when I say I am truly interested. No trolling here.
I honestly think the tech industry is one of the shittiest fields in terms of human development.
The thing to remember is that almost all of the fields are shitty. We know a lot more about the bad things that happen in tech, so it's easy to make a list.
If you take the time to pick another field and make a comprehensive list of pro's and con's, the net benefit is usually going to be worse.
This is of course completely subjective, but it's what I've concluded after asking myself this question every few days for the past 10 years while trying to be objective.
True. No matter what, we are not really designed to sit and write shitty code for shitty people for shitty companies.
Currently im studying AWS and thinking all the time that I will be part of Amazon that enslaves people.
There are billions of great things created in comp science but there are trillion things that are stupid and nonsense
As if computer science isn’t used in the medical field?? This post just sounds like someone not being in the position they want to be in. You talk about tech companies like they are the most evil thing in the world but are totally forgetting how corrupt and greedy pharmaceutical companies are. You have more of a chance to impact the world through computer science than any other field, of course whether it being beneficial or harmful is up to the person. At the end.. no matter what field you are in you can make it interesting or not, it’s up to you and your drive to make that happen.
Not every doctor or researcher changes the world (imo very few do), so the assumption that just because these people switched from medicine/research to CS means they're not contributing to human progress is bullshit. Doctors in particular are just glorified barbers. Customer in, do procedure, customer out. Idk if that's "world changing" by any measure. And most people are just doing it for the money.
In contrast, look at what software has done for humans. Civilization as we know it is unimaginable without software. I'd go so far as to say that a career in software is more impactful on human development than a career in medicine or research.
The other point is that making money enables you to have impact in ways other than through your job. There's nothing paradoxical about maximizing your wealth through whatever means even if your goal is to help the world as much as possible.
It's a rabbit hole, don't think about all the man hours that have been spent on marketing things.
We're in some kind of uncanny valley between all being forced into subsistence farming to survive, and a technological Utopia where our only goal is to be as happy as possible.
Well said. It is a great field in terms of pay and work environment but like you said there's a lot of pretty meaningless high paying gigs that don't contribute anything to humanity other than stuffing more money in the pockets of shareholders. I want to work on something meaningful and beneficial to humanity.
Well before software the “hot field” was finance... before the tech industry really started booming its not like the alternative was the research sciences, it was finance.
I’m leaving healthcare to get into tech. Yes, one huge reward is the opportunity to change lives but it can be a rare feeling. Most of the time I’m physically, emotionally, and mentally exhausted. The pay and benefits suck for the amount of energy required to be positive, caring, and empathetic 8 hours per day. And then, I lifted a patient and suffered a catastrophic injury. I became a patient and was bedridden for 2.5 years. I have to return to work soon and I’m absolutely dreading it. I don’t think some tech folks realize how good the field is in terms of quality of life and longevity. I have some older physical therapist colleagues whose bodies are trashed from the physical labor of lifting and mobilizing patients. I can’t wait to switch careers...thanks OP for the post!
Consumerism and capitalism drives technological advancement. Theses massive tech companies are putting millions of not billions into research to advance technology. How do you think they get it? Through consumerism.
I would disagree if someone is willing to pay you millions of dollars for your shitty app that makes a bird jump up and down on a screen then that is what society values and the person regardless of ability should be rewarded for it.
That is in a sense how our monetary system works you are given money for the services or goods you provide and the relation how useful that good or service is directly related to the money associated with purchasing said good or service i.e. the flow of money, from one individual to another entity, is a direct vote society uses to prioritize goods and services.
Whose to say that creating flappy bird isn't extremely beneficial to the human race. It provided/provides joy to everyday people and makes their day a bit better. Its not a waste if intelligent people are willing to spend their lives: "[to] squeeze some extra dollars out of the consumer base" especially if they enjoy doing it and society is rewarding that service with money.
The problem isn't this industry, the problem is capitalism.
The only well thought out response here.
If tech didn’t have a high salary attached, many of us would have chosen something more meaningful.
Yes, sadly that's how the world works but I would like to shine a little light on this grim reality by saying that after you've made enough you should go back to the thing you're really passionate about. I mean, I'm not saying you have to be like Bill Gates but he's actually a really good example of this.
It's always like that, except now it was CS when 10 years ago it was finance (investment banking, venture capitalism, hedge funds..) eating up all the most talented people. The economy always rewards certain things above others to varying degrees across time. And I think there's still plenty of incredibly smart people pushing the boundries in those fields that you mentioned (that aren't computing).
the thing is, these other industries like medicine require years of study after undergrad that require tuition (med school) or get paid barely anything to work long ass hours (residency). And the "smartest people from high school" probably don't want to work their asses off to be in debt. It's not just medicine, tons of other fields even in stem are requiring higher education. I've seen videos on youtube where cs people say stupid shit like being a doctor is easier but how the fuck would they know? I've talked/shadowed to numerous doctors and residents and that shit is definitely more stressful.
This is just personal experience, but I was working at a bio lab this past semester researching tuberculosis, and the people there were not getting paid jack shit and working just as much, if not harder than many many people in cs. all the grad students and phd students looked tired/depressed all the time. why would i want that lifestyle when i could go work in cs and at least make more money for the same hours of work? I understand that the work in tb would save more lives and is much more important than coding an app, but not all people "with potential" are willing to sacrifice, especially when you have companies like Google paying way more money than a research lab ever could for the same number of hours. If i didn't get into medical school, this is what i would be doing for the rest of my life so I switched out. It's not the tech industry's fault, it's the nature of the other industries.
None of this is meaningless.
The smallest automations, business tools, video games, advertising, ride sharing, dating apps, theme park apps, refrigerator software, all of it. Its all a necessary part of advancing society to a new technological age.
Were like the stone masons or factory workers of the 21st century. None of us are individually doing anything groundbreaking, but its all collectively important work that needs to get done. Now whether you want to be building the aqueducts or brothels, its totally up to you.
finance - Take really brilliant people and they figure out how to make a little more money with financial tricks.
software - Take really brilliant people and they figure out how to get people to click on ads.
I feel the same in many respects. I think I'm the ultimate anomalous anathema to this sub as I'm actually trying to quit software in order to get into medschool.
Software has personally brought me nothing but tedium and misery. Constantly grinding both at work and in my free time for no reward either monetary nor meaningful fulfillment. Just life being wasted.
Computer science is the only industry that's had any innovation in the past 40 years. Instead of trying to convince you about the goods of software, here's why every other field is not "changing the world."
Thinking that medicine, chemistry, physics or really any other field has done anything new at all in the past 40 years is a dream. We declared war on cancer in the 1970s, still not solved. Pharmaceutical companies seem to be causing more pain and suffering than actually helping people. Politicians and the public deem nuclear energy bad, so you can't go in that field. What ends up happening is that these people in these other STEM fields end up working in academia or as researchers for a company that just solves incremental problems.
Edit: don't just take my word for it. This is part of the phenomenon known as the Great Stagnation. It's well known amongst economists and there are books written about it.
Slightly off topic, but do you think getting stoned after work affects your performance at work. When I smoke I tend to forget things that happen earlier in the week. Just wondering.
After work? On a Friday? No, not at all. Maybe getting heavily stoned late at night with work the next morning will leave you feeling a little hazy for a while early the next day, but not enough to be concerned, in my opinion.
To be honest, I get almost comatose level stoned every single night. I'm still one of the top performers on my team.
It may just be me rationalizing my vice, but I feel like it helps me relax so I feel more rested and recharged the next day.
It helps my work performance more than hurts- helps get me through a lot of creativity UI/specs-writing barriers and tasks I don’t want to do and would normally put off. People react to pot differently, and your 100th time is going to be radically more controlled than your 3rd time. There are productivity stoners, there are couch stoners, and there are people that do a little of both. I’m definitely productivity-oriented with it, going from migraine man to designer dude in just a couple minutes.
Edit: to clarify I live in a medicinally legally state and didn’t get assigned the best body so I’m certainly not blanket recommending it to anyone, but it does help my work performance far more than hurt it.
Why do you want people to not express their opinion when they disagree with OP? Because it's not "wholesome"?
it depends where you are honestly.
Wasn't that hard where I live.
Any technical/non-technical advice welcome.
I have a hard time getting any work done after a few hours. Staring at the screen for so long is frying my brain. By the time I get home, I can't even do the stuff I want to, like play guitar, because I'm mentally exhausted. Is this something that will go away or get better with time?
My boss is a pretty great guy to work with. He's down-to-earth, transparent, and respectful of my personal life. I'd consider him a friend outside of work.
But... he fucked up at work. He screwed up a project big-time, and now a few of us are being asked to look into it behind his back. I dislike this sneakiness, and there are questions we're having a hard time answering, but they don't want to ask him because they're worried that "he'll justify it".
To be clear: if you make a mistake, sometimes you just gotta take your licks. I get that. I'm not trying to save him from getting in trouble, per se. I'd just like to give him a heads-up in case he wants to start looking elsewhere for a job.
FWIW, I'm planning to hand in my two-week notice for unrelated reasons in a week or so anyways; I've already accepted an offer with another company. The new job is in a different industry, so it's highly unlikely that even if it's discovered I've told him, that it'll ever come back to bite me in the ass.
How do you guys with impressive open source contributions do it? I don't lack willpower or have ADHD, when it comes to work; I code all the time for work. But try as I may to figure out some project or find some open source project to contribute to, I just don't really care. Other things in my life always take precedence (health, gym, relaxing, other hobbies, etc...). I am not trying to abandon my preferences; I just want to know what inspires you guys to work on your personal projects! How do you get motivation? How do you come up with ideas that interest you enough to work on?
Inspired by the recent 'I fucking love my career' posts, but I have to say as a fellow lady dev, I fucking love supportive lady devs. On the days when the imposter syndrome is crazy high or when the occasional slight happens, other lady devs have come to my rescue to lift my spirit. So shout out to all the lady devs who lift each other up, compliment each other's code and give each other the 'you're doing great, hun' boost of confidence. I appreciate you.
And similarly, shout out to all devs who encourage, uplift, and give great constructive criticism. You are awesome.
I've been browsing this sub for a little bit now and while its got a lot of valuable information, when it comes to job/internship repos and all that there is very little Colorado love. I wanted to give a little resource for people who may be looking in Colorado. This is a list of companies which I've collected and quickly attached the links.
Update: I've tried organizing them into categories but a lot of companies don't have a straightforward category but the company category has been loosely organized to have larger employers at the top. Hope this continues to help and comment any suggestions! thanks
Resource pages:
https://www.builtincolorado.com/jobs
FANG-ish:
https://www.facebook.com/careers/jobs?locations[0]=Denver%2C%20CO
Amazon
Uber
https://www.uber.com/us/en/careers/
Defense/Aero:
Raytheon
Boeing
Lockheed Martin
https://www.lockheedmartinjobs.com
United Launch Alliance
https://www.ulalaunch.com/careers
Northrop Grumman
https://www.northropgrumman.com/Careers/Job-Search/Pages/USA.aspx
Ball Aerospace
https://www.ball.com/aerospace/about-ball-aerospace/careers
Boom
CACI
https://careers.caci.com/ListJobs?FullStateName=Colorado
Hardware/robotics companies:
Western Digital
https://jobs.westerndigital.com
Qualcomm
https://www.qualcomm.com/company/careers
HP
https://www8.hp.com/us/en/jobs/index.html
Intel
Seagate
System76
Arrow Electronics
https://arrow.wd1.myworkdayjobs.com/AC/0/refreshFacet/318c8bb6f553100021d223d9780d30be
Canvas Technology
https://www.amazon.jobs/en/search?base_query=canvastechnology
Cybersecurity:
Optiv
https://careers.smartrecruiters.com/Optiv
Carbon Black
https://carbonblack.wd1.myworkdayjobs.com/Life_at_Cb/2/refreshFacet/318c8bb6f553100021d223d9780d30be
DarkOwl
https://www.darkowl.com/careers
Network/Communications/Cloud
Zayo
https://www.zayo.com/careers/job-opportunities/
Comcast
Spectrum
CenturyLink / Level 3
https://careeropportunities.centurylink.com/jobs/?location=Colorado#4
Verizon
https://www.verizon.com/about/careers/technology
Twilio / SendGrid
Oracle
https://www.oracle.com/corporate/careers/
Viasat
https://careers.viasat.com/careers/LocationDenver
NetApp
https://www.netapp.com/us/careers/index.aspx
JumpCloud
https://jumpcloud.com/careers/
VMWare
Slack
Saas / Other Companies:
Workday
https://www.workday.com/en-us/company/careers.html
Ibotta
https://home.ibotta.com/careers/
DigitalGlobe
https://www.digitalglobe.com/company/careers
HomeAdvisor / Angie’s List
https://www.abouthomeadvisor.com/careers/
Returnpath
https://www.validity.com/careers/
Strava
https://www.strava.com/careers
Bitly
https://bitly.com/pages/careers
Checkr
AirDNA
MLB
http://www.mlb.com/careers/mlbam/
Gusto
https://gusto.com/about/careers
IBM
https://www.ibm.com/employment/
Occipital
SpotX
AppNexus
https://www.appnexus.com/careers
IHS MarkIt
https://careers.ihsmarkit.com/careers.php
Broadcom / CA Technologies
Xcalar
https://jobs.lever.co/xcalar.com
Evolve Vacation Rental
https://careers.evolvevacationrental.com
SoundHound
https://www.soundhound.com/careers
Fanatics
https://jobs.lever.co/fanatics?
Worldpay
https://recruiting.adp.com/srccar/public/RTI.home?d=ExternalSSCS&c=1040145
Progressive
https://progressive.taleo.net/careersection/2/jobsearch.ftl?lang=en#
talentReef
https://apply.jobappnetwork.com/talentreef
Vrbo
https://www.homeaway.com/careers
Tendril
http://jobs.jobvite.com/careers/tendril/jobs?__jvst=Tendril+Website
Alteryx
https://www.alteryx.com/careers
Quizlet
https://jobs.lever.co/quizlet-2?lever-via=e-O_re9Kiq&location=Denver%2C%20CO
Pivotal
Trimble
https://careers.trimble.com/jobs/category/engineering#/
PaySimple
https://paysimple.com/career-opportunities/openings
EverCommerce
So a couple weeks ago my car got broken into and my company laptop was stolen from the trunk. A police report was filed and I reported the theft immediately the next day to my company. I thought the investigation was complete but they are still upset. I understand this falls on me but no data was on the laptop. I am afraid I may get fired but I see no reason to. The word negligent has been thrown around. So I’m wondering if i do can I fight it?
my desk is near a windows and there's a great view of field. looks very nice.
So about two years ago I ended up in a programming internship at the company I'm at now. I did not finish college so this was big. Obviously at the internship they gavee peanuts, 13 dollars an hour.
Well 8 months ago they put me on full time. Giving me this big bullshit about how they cannot make me salaried because I am not a college grad. They made me a full time employee and only increased it to 16 an hour. For those of you who haven't worked hourly for awhile that's only 30k a year.
How do I ask for a raise? What kind of leverage can I even get if I don't have a degree? Other than the salary I love my job and I have had a couple interviews in the past two weeks for better paying jobs. I do the work of a contracted software engineer. I am just as good as other junior devs. Kind of insulted by the pay they are giving me.
Just curious. I do get work done, but ill admit at least 25% of my time is dicking around on reddit, ect. Wondering if I'll get a talking to wondering why their 21 year old male intern is looking up Asian skincare routines
Blind is going a bit nuts right now. It seems a hiring freeze is definitely happening with several people stating their phone and onsite interviews were abruptly cancelled.
Who knows how much truth is behind the layoffs rumor though. Anyone hear anything?
I started my first software job a year ago, and have struggled since day one. I initially pushed through each week by working longer hours, bringing work home, studying on my own time, and not taking time off. This worked for a while. I was told management liked my work and got a raise, but I realized I couldn't sustain it -- and moreover, I didn't want to. My mental health has taken a dive after starting this job. I've had anxiety attacks trying to push out Friday deploys for things my PM wanted out before the weekend (I eventually realized these were fake deadlines and stopped hustling so hard to meet them) because the company fires fast, and I didn't want to be next. I love software engineering, but lately my brain feels like it doesn't work at all as I stare at the same file for hours.
Because I'm new to the industry, I don't know if the things I'm experiencing are just normal parts of the field, and if I'm just not dealing with them properly because I'm inexperienced. If that's the case, I'd be grateful for advice on how to better cope.
There are a few main problems:
- The org is very product-focused and ruled by productivity metrics. They track our task velocity stringently, and my PM once suggested we submit time sheets to him detailing our activities. Nobody else seems to have a problem with this, so I've gotten flak for speaking to my PM to request certain things like that he not ask for weekend work, frequent status updates, or assign me more work after I've communicated during stand-ups that I'm overloaded.
- The estimates are always very optimistic, and given by the PM (who uses estimates more as a 'have it done in this amount of time' tool) and the tech leads (who give the estimates from their POV as people with 4+ years of exp with their code bases). There's a lot of legacy code and git-blame shows countless names of people who no longer work here next to 3 or 4-year old code that's been untouched, and I get tripped up by the inconsistencies between the newer and older code. (e.g. a code base may use multiple data management systems in different places, depending on how long ago the feature/file was last touched, because new systems are introduced but the old systems are still left in because conversion and cleanup was never done). And even though I try my best to Stack Overflow/Google/reason my way through tasks, it often takes longer than the estimate. There are no deadlines, but they always like things to be done faster. There have been times I've finished big projects, only for the PMs to publicly call me out at the end for taking longer than the estimate (no other issues, just the speed). This is a huge downer for me because I take pride in my work and those few times left me embarrassed and demoralized. (I don't need congrats or thanks for doing my job, but it's a bummer when the only thing I get told is that I should've been faster).
- There's no automated testing at all so devs are asked to QA. I do this, but it takes up a lot of my time, which is a problem because the metrics track tasks finished, not bugs caught or quality of work. I've suggested adding testing to the team multiple times, but have been unsuccessful at swaying them because testing is hard to justify to management. Lack of tests also means it's hard to tell when things break. It's common for me to catch serious bugs that have gone unnoticed for months (or sometimes years).
- Documentation is outdated or nonexistent, even for things like initial setup. I've added docs where possible, but in repos I'm new to, the lack of docs coupled with the lack of tests means I struggle to understand the code base. I suggested we set up a knowledge base via an internal SO-like forum, but this idea went nowhere because I couldn't quantify the value add in terms of metrics. Just about everyone who has questions just asks them privately, so I don't think people would post to the forum anyway.
- Many times when I've brought up issues with my TL, I'm met with annoyance and condescending comments about how I need to be a team player, that I'm not cut out for the pace, or that another company may be better for me. I logically know these remarks are rude, but they cause a lot of self-doubt. I've stopped trying to ask my managers for help.
===
Long story short, I'm really struggling. I've always done exceptionally well in school and in other jobs, but somehow I let this job destroy my confidence and sanity. I'm desperate for solutions. I'm grinding Leetcode, but I've been procrastinating on interviewing because I feel unprepared. I also watch videos and read books on engineering/CS in my free time because I enjoy it, but I feel drained and my progress is slow. And it's hard to think clearly about a situation I've been mired in for so long, so I'm turning to Reddit for advice on this to figure out what steps I should take. Thanks for reading, and I'd appreciate any suggestions.
===
Edit: Thank you all for the replies! I seriously appreciate the push to find another job, and the reminder that this is just one company that shouldn't color my views of the industry. It was reassuring to hear that some of you have gone through similar struggles and that I'm not alone in this. I'm going to apply to new places immediately, and the next time I post, it'll be in better times.
Currently wrapping up my internship at a small tech company and I think there's a good chance in the next few days I get an offer to come back as a full time software engineer after I graduate in the spring.
I like the company and there's a pretty good chance I'd come back, but I'd also like to check out my other options as well.
Problem is, companies aren't always the quickest when it comes to posting new grad positions or interviewing for them (only a small handful are up right now), so I'd probably need quite a bit of time to actually apply and interview thoroughly, probably until November or so (my university's career fair is early October, for reference). That seems like a really long time to keep an offer active though.
So my questions are:
What's a reasonable amount of time to get to consider a return offer?
How long are they going to give me, realistically?
In the case where they don't give me as much time as I want, how do I ask for an extension? Do I do it right away, or do I wait until the deadline gets closer and call them up?
How did you get better at coding?
Did you go into a management role?
Did you switch feilds?
Do you think it has hindered your earning potential?
This goes out especially to all of the international students here. So a couple months back I was applying like crazy to internships through a lot of job application websites. During this time I got a call from a guy saying he had received my resume (I'm still unsure of how exactly he received it). He immediately started going into details about the job and what I would be doing. I asked him if I needed to schedule an interview or anything like that and he mentioned it wasn't necessary (this was the first red flag). Essentially it seemed like I already had the job locked down. He also heavily emphasized that they would sponsor international students for their H1B visa. And then he went on to mention that there would be a "training course" before I could begin working that would cost $200. At that moment I was 100% sure this was a scam. An intership/job opportunity should NEVER cost you money. So I asked him to email me information and I started looking through their website and linkedin profiles for the people involved. Their website got taken down in the next couple of days and the linkedin profiles were very sketchy.
I know this seems like a very obvious scam but I feel angered that there are people out there playing on the desperation of international students. I don't know if anyone is naive enough to fall for this crap but I hope this post might serve as a warning for any unexperienced freshmen out there who might come across these scams.
Also just a funny add on: this company called me back a week later. My brother pretended to be my Indian father and started arguing with them about why they were scamming students until they decided to cut the call.
I am a rising senior in college and will start looking for jobs in the fall. I have three years of experience coding and consider myself an okay coder. I recently started solving problems on leetcode to prepare for technical interviews. However, I find even the easy questions on leet code difficult to solve. It is not like I have no idea how to approach these problems. It's just that I cannot always get all the test cases right. I do not know what this means. I know real software engineering is different from leetcode problems, but as far as working in industry, getting a job, and doing well on the job is concerned, what does my struggle with leetcode mean? Am I a terrible coder/problem solver. If so, how do I improve.
P.S. During the summers in college I worked as a research assistant for a professor at my school, so I have very little software engineering experience.
Based off of the post that I made a couple days ago, here's a list of shady companies that you might want to be aware of. Some of these are straight up scams and others are companies with questionable practices. Feel free to comment any others that you'd like for me to add on.
Hire Experts Solution - a full on scam that asks you to pay a $800 deposit for a "training course".
FDM - serfdom like contracting company but good if you have bad luck getting employment
TechField - has lots of ethics issues when it comes to your contract with them.
Smoothstack - the OP from the post I linked gave a pretty good description of their shadiness: " you make $8 an hour during the 3 month program and can be fired for any reason after having to move out to the DC area, and after the 3 months you aren't actually guaranteed employment anywhere. The other big red flag is the complete lack of info about them online outside of their own site/social media and a fishy glassdoor review. "
Quintrix - a company based where interviews have left to dead ends? there isn't too much info out there about this one so it's hard to determine its credibility.
Cogent Infotech - there's a truck load of issues going on at this place, take a look at the first review in the Glassdoor link that I provided.
Miracle software systems - a company with a lot of H1b abuse.
Sollers college - not a company but an "educational institution" that asks for 20% of your income at your first job.
Revature - extremely shitty work pay policies, take a look at the linked comment for more details.
Cybercoders - a hiring agency that is apparently a legit company but incredibly spammy and doesn't actually do what they promise to.
Aspiritech - "It markets itself as a pro-autism workplace, especially for placing QA jobs, but it treats them worse than the "normies" of the company. They don't get 401k or other benefits that non-autistic employees get and get paid much lower, at $12/hr, for QA work. Unpaid training phase and this training doesn't guarantee a job. " (info. from u/ExitTheDonut).
Also a special thanks to u/Ya_mike, u/strikefreedompilot, u/binarySearch_recurse, u/csthrowawayquestion and u/thetapasbalu for providing the names of these companies and information used to make this post. **I decided to stop adding in other users in case this list gets obscenely long.
I'm a software developer. I was a freelance for 3 years, but decided to work for a company again. Currently on my eight-month on this new company.
Boss was mad at most of my team members, because we have nothing to do the past couple of weeks. We had no tasks, either there were no or minor issues with projects, projects were on hold, documentations done or we finished our tasks too fast.
We're no means lazy, most guys and gals on my team are really good. Boss was mad because we had no initiative according to her.
We research new techs and trends in our free time but I'm a man that prefers practice than theory. If it wasn't needed on a project, I won't do it. I like keeping things simple.
Then suddenly a project that needed to be tested was thrown at us, it wasn't our team's project too. We became testers but also developed some frontend. In the end, the project wasn't able to reach the deadline because of a bug and she was blaming it on us on our developed codes.
We couldn't initially prove the bug wasn't on our code. But as we tested, we found out the bug was on the backend, another team's code.
Is this normal in a company? To be berrated when you finished your tasks and had nothing to do?
I used to be a mercenary coder; do my objectives on time and get paid, nothing more, nothing less. Research only when necessary. Is this normal on a company or are these redflags?
Sorry for the long post, I guess I was culture-shocked.
TL:DR; Used to be a freelance but joined a company. Tasks are done. Lady boss angry because we had nothing to do because we're done.
Note before reading: This is my story from the point of view of a Canadian using a very specific provincial program. I am aware it is not available everywhere, but I think it's worth it to get the message out that there may be obscure, not well known programs out there in your state or province that could offer something similar.
Let me start off by saying I am 31 years old living in Quebec, Canada. I have spent most of my life working in a mix of sales and customer service, jumping from job to job. Then a year and a half ago today disaster struck and I lost my job.
I was scared and afraid I wouldn't be able to keep the lights on. I was sick of consistently getting average jobs that didn't really have any depth to them. But I didn't know what to do since I only had a Highschool diploma and very little savings. I just knew I really wanted to get into software development. As a 31 year old with a family and due to my current financial situation - going to school for 3-4 years to get a bachelor's just didn't seem like the good call. Furthermore, bootcamps looked way too expensive. So I just kind of gave up for a bit.
Then a few weeks later I went to meet a friend for coffee. After talking it over with him he tells me
"Why don't you try to see if there are any government programs for you? I did a course for my Commercial Buyer career for 6 months and the government not only paid for it, but gave me a very small sum of money every week to help me finish"
I had heard of those, but scoffed at the suggestion because those programs are only for more traditional jobs. And even if they did offer a programming related one it would be outdated. The programs are called ACS programs.
And the government aid program is called the "Manpower training measure"
But I was so desperate, despite being "so sure" that it was a waste of time, I checked it out.
And boy am I glad I did. It turns out not only did I find a good program with a good course load, but if I get in the Quebec government would pay me 600$ every 2 weeks. Obviously that isn't much, but with my girlfriend supporting me it was just enough to get by and pay rent.
When they sent me the curriculum I couldn't believe it. It actually looked good. Here is what it was (I am missing a few because I am actually going by memory here):
Obviously it is very different from traditional programs because it is more concentrated on getting you up and running in the workforce as quick as possible. The program was actually very hard. There were only 2 weeks of vacation throughout the whole year of study, and it was full time. It was very intensive, but it paid off greatly. I started last August and finished this month. Now I am starting as a junior for a company with amazing benefits for 65k in a very, very low cost of living city. This may not seem like much for many of you but rent here is as low as 650CAD for a big apartment.
The kicker in all this is I was able to do all this thanks to an option that is never, never talked about on here. There is the rare mention of associate's degrees, but it's not the same thing. I wonder how many other provinces or states offer similar programs that people just don't know about. Not only was this an amazing program, but frankly I am pretty sure it is better than any bootcamp you can do, and trust me I looked at all of the bootcamp options. I am now functional in Java, JavaScript and C#. I learned frameworks like Angular and Spring. I can use Linux and Docker to contain whatever my needs require. I am comfortable using JIRA to complete sprints and keep my builds in check with a Continuous Integration process using Jenkins. I am not trying to just throw a bunch of buzzwords around, but I am just trying to bring the point home that this program was very complete considering it was completely free (on my end).
TL;DR Computer Science degrees and Bootcamps are not the only options. There are more out there, you just have to expand your horizons. /r/cscareerquestions doesn't know everything about where your live or what your situation is... So Try to make it work and you don't need to follow the "CS Degree or bust" mentality.
I came across this article and was impressed. I know many people here are looking for engineering l, programming job, but has anyone thought about transitioning to a job in the cyber security field instead?
Does anyone have experience job hunting in cyber security?
I am considering going into a career in computer science and i know that the field is full of opportunities for growth, but I wanted to get a better picture of the not-so-great parts about being in cs. I’ve read some other posts about people having a lot of trouble initially with staring at computer for hours on end, is that a common problem??
Anyway, I’m just looking for some perspective on the industry, any insight would be much appreciated :)
(If i’ve posted this to the wrong discussion, or if there is anywhere else i should be looking for these types of questions please lmk, I’m pretty new to reddit!)
Hi, i just graduated with a CS degree from a California State University in Southern California and have been applying for the past 10 months or so. I have had a very low response rate with my applications, but when I have gotten a reply, i have progressed through a few rounds at multiple places, although still failing to nail the final ones. This leads me to think although my white boarding can improve significantly, I need to step up my resume even more-so . It has gone through many iterations but again still obviously not good enough. If you guys have any tips on my resume or anything else I would be very appreciative! I also apologize if this isn't the correct place to post.
The positions that I have been applying for are entry level software engineering positions, front end, back end, and mostly everything related. I feel like I don't have much of a choice to be picky.
I should also say, I know my projects aren't terribly impressive, and I am studying/working every day for the most part in order to learn and create new things.
Here is a screenshot of a redacted/edited version of my resume https://imgur.com/a/FD0Fp9A .
I work for a fortune 15 company as a dev, and twice a month on friday I just work from home. It's a friday, I put in the same amount of work, I code the same join all the calls, the stand up meetings etc. I do my job just from home, and everytime I request it I get this look like I just killed their first born. if Im doing the same amount of work what is the issue exactly? I just dont feel like waking up 7 AM and putting on a suit and tie and all that shit for my job. Should I just stop doing it to prevent from being fired or what..
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A subreddit for those with questions about working in the tech industry or in a computer-science-related job.
