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On the topic of large companies, it helps if the company you work for is getting its rear end kicked by big-name software companies and it's scrambling to bring its tech up to a competitive speed. The group I'm in is more or less divorced from corporate and we're given freedom to implement best practices and put forth our opinions/push back on project requirements. Having your 200+ year old company in danger of being outdone by companies 1/10th as old is a pretty good motivator.
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Jan 8, 2016 15:01
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Mniot posted:I worked at Lockheed Martin for a little while. The military was required to use contractors instead of FTEs ("the private sector is more efficient!") and Lockheed sandbagged the gently caress out of the project. Adjusting for benefits, I got paid a little less than a government FTE would but Lockheed charged about 3x the cost of a FTE. This is pretty much the standard for all contracting companies, everywhere, for what it's worth. 1/3rd of it is your pay, 1/3rd of it is the cost of you to the company as an employee (payroll taxes, holidays, providing you with a desk and computer, all that sort of stuff), 1/3rd is the contracting company's profit.
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Jan 8, 2016 15:16
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Pollyanna posted:On the topic of large companies, it helps if the company you work for is getting its rear end kicked by big-name software companies and it's scrambling to bring its tech up to a competitive speed. The group I'm in is more or less divorced from corporate and we're given freedom to implement best practices and put forth our opinions/push back on project requirements. Having your 200+ year old company in danger of being outdone by companies 1/10th as old is a pretty good motivator. DISRUPTED
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Jan 8, 2016 15:18
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Pollyanna posted:On the topic of large companies, it helps if the company you work for is getting its rear end kicked by big-name software companies and it's scrambling to bring its tech up to a competitive speed. The group I'm in is more or less divorced from corporate and we're given freedom to implement best practices and put forth our opinions/push back on project requirements. Having your 200+ year old company in danger of being outdone by companies 1/10th as old is a pretty good motivator. Who are these big companies suddenly motivated by big-name software? Most of what I've seen is them sticking their heads farther up their own rear end in response to new technology.
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Jan 9, 2016 06:57
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I'm slowly making my way through this thread right now but just wanted to get this question out there as I'm reading. I'm self taught in front end web development (HTML, CSS, JS), have experience with WordPress, and have built 4 websites now. My formal education is in mechanical engineering. I had a phone interview Friday with a head hunter and I'm going in tomorrow for an in person interview in Boston. Any general/specific suggestions?
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Jan 11, 2016 02:16
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Make them love you and don't discuss salary. Remember that half of the interview is trying to figure out if you're competent. You can't do much for that at this point, you've hopefully studied and practiced all you can. The other half of the interview is seeing if you're someone they want to work with. Try to be engaging and act like a socially well adjusted human being, which is harder than it sounds when they're throwing coding questions at you.
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Jan 11, 2016 02:37
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KernelSlanders posted:Try to be engaging and act like a socially well adjusted human being, which is harder than it sounds when they're throwing coding questions at you. One thing that's helped me with this is to consciously recognize (and remind myself over and over, especially right before the interview) that my entire future career and lifestyle do not hinge on this one interview. Yes, it would be great if you got this job and didn't have to look any more for a while, and yes, one bad interview can scuttle your chances at getting it. But it's a numbers game. It's one interview for one job out of uncountable possibilities. Don't become too personally invested in any single one of them and the possibility of failure won't seem so world-ending. Interviews are still loving stressful as all gently caress. But every little bit helps, you know?
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Jan 11, 2016 03:49
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Not really sure if this is the right thread for it, but I'm currently a junior dev and I'm going to be promoted soon, at which point I'll get to ask for a better salary. This is my first real job and I'm looking for some advice on how much to ask. Some stuff which is probably relevant: 1) The average monthly salary for a developer in my city is 1450 eur after taxes 2) I get the feeling that the salaries in my company are a bit under average, but nobody has actually told me how much they make so I have no idea if this is really true 3) At one point a few months ago I asked a senior dev on my team if it would be realistic for me to get 1500 a month (after I get my promotion), he said that it sounds a bit high but it's not impossible 4) Two different senior devs and the project architect have told me on different occasions that they are very happy with my work and that I am definitely better than average at what I do 5) I currently make only 1000 eur a month after taxes, which is probably around average for junior devs in my city, but at the same time, I know a few people in other companies who are making 1200 - 1300 as juniors. I would really like to be making at least 1500, but I realize that it's a pretty big step up from 1000. I was thinking of just asking "How close to 1600 would you be able to go" and hopefully getting an offer for around 1500. Does this sound reasonable, or should I approach it differently?
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Jan 11, 2016 04:41
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Illegal Move posted:Not really sure if this is the right thread for it, but I'm currently a junior dev and I'm going to be promoted soon, at which point I'll get to ask for a better salary. This is my first real job and I'm looking for some advice on how much to ask. What country do you live in?
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Jan 11, 2016 16:09
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Ithaqua posted:What country do you live in? I live in Estonia. Are you asking because the numbers seem low? Salaries are quite low here, but the overall cost of living isn't too bad so I can actually almost comfortably support 2 people and a dog on my current salary. I'm interested in moving into a bigger place though, which is why I don't want to get paid less than what I think is my market value.
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Jan 11, 2016 17:24
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https://github.com/jlevy/og-equity-compensation This is an awesome guide to equity comp.
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Jan 11, 2016 17:54
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My favorite recent bit of negotiation that should have been was when my boss mentioned that he'd offered somebody we interviewed a salary way higher than mine, but the guy turned it down. I should have immediately said, "Well, since you can spare that amount in the budget, you should give it to me instead!" A lesson learned for next time, I guess.
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Jan 11, 2016 17:55
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KernelSlanders posted:Make them love you and don't discuss salary. Think I did decently well besides they asked me during the phone interview and then in person again what my salary expectations are. They said since I don't have a degree, I'll be competing with Bootcamp and college grads. and the range will probably be 50-60k for whatever job they can find me. Since I know the starting average is closer to $70k would I be an idiot for taking such a low paying job? I feel like they wouldn't have brought me in if they didn't think they could find me a job so I'm not sure if there's truth in the statement about having to accept a lower amount or if something shady is going on.
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Jan 11, 2016 19:28
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huhu posted:Think I did decently well besides they asked me during the phone interview and then in person again what my salary expectations are. They said since I don't have a degree, I'll be competing with Bootcamp and college grads. and the range will probably be 50-60k for whatever job they can find me. Since I know the starting average is closer to $70k would I be an idiot for taking such a low paying job? I feel like they wouldn't have brought me in if they didn't think they could find me a job so I'm not sure if there's truth in the statement about having to accept a lower amount or if something shady is going on. That would be pretty low for Boston. You should look for job openings on your own in addition to the headhunter imo
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Jan 11, 2016 20:43
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Hey guys, I'm a sophomore in college right now, and tomorrow I'm gonna be going to a job/internship fair for the first time ever. I'm majoring in Computer Science and I have a pretty reasonable GPA and most of the core coursework completed, but I'm still pretty uneasy since I simply don't have any experience in getting a job or talking to recruiters at all. The fair isn't tech-focused, and a lot of companies aren't even looking for undergrads or offering any sort of internship so my first problem is who should I make sure to talk to? I'm definitely going to talk to all the companies offering internships this summer, but as far as I can tell that's only 3 or 4. Should I talk to anyone representing a company working in tech? Secondly, how on earth do I talk to these people? I'm usually a pretty capable speaker, but this situation is totally new to me, so I'm simply just not sure of what to say. My plan so for is to introduce myself, tell them why I'm interested in them as a company... and then I'm not exactly sure. Do I try to sell myself as a candidate? Tell them why I'd enjoy working there? Or should I phrase it as a more general thing? I guess I should say that my goal is to try and get some sort of internship out of this. I'd really like any kind of industry experience. However, it's also really important that I just get more comfortable with this kind of thing - I don't want to be a senior and still have no idea how to talk to recruiters.
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Jan 11, 2016 22:07
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Problem Sleuth posted:Secondly, how on earth do I talk to these people? I'm usually a pretty capable speaker, but this situation is totally new to me, so I'm simply just not sure of what to say. My plan so for is to introduce myself, tell them why I'm interested in them as a company... and then I'm not exactly sure. Do I try to sell myself as a candidate? Tell them why I'd enjoy working there? Or should I phrase it as a more general thing? Problem Sleuth posted:I guess I should say that my goal is to try and get some sort of internship out of this. I'd really like any kind of industry experience. However, it's also really important that I just get more comfortable with this kind of thing - I don't want to be a senior and still have no idea how to talk to recruiters.
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Jan 11, 2016 23:42
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Problem Sleuth posted:Secondly, how on earth do I talk to these people? I'm usually a pretty capable speaker, but this situation is totally new to me, so I'm simply just not sure of what to say. My plan so for is to introduce myself, tell them why I'm interested in them as a company... and then I'm not exactly sure. Do I try to sell myself as a candidate? Tell them why I'd enjoy working there? Or should I phrase it as a more general thing? just act like a person and maybe ask questions about what they do and what kind of tools and methodologies they use. fake interest in whatever garbage problems they are working on. if you can speak intelligently about anything they mention then bring it up. you know, have a conversation
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Jan 11, 2016 23:58
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at the tech career fairs at my school it was companies/organizations selling themselves to you. Talk to the people at all the ones you find interesting and ask if they have an undergrad intern program. Even if they don't, they'll probably get your info for 'touching base later' or whatever Also I remember there always being a loong rear end line of people waiting to talk to the Microsoft/whatever big company rep (who would then throw your resume into a pile, MAYBE with an illegible scribble on it). Don't waste time with that unless you really want to ask something important to you. Submitting a resume online probably gets you into exactly the same process with them.
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Jan 12, 2016 00:01
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the talent deficit posted:just act like a person and maybe ask questions about what they do and what kind of tools and methodologies they use. fake interest in whatever garbage problems they are working on. if you can speak intelligently about anything they mention then bring it up. you know, have a conversation So the speed dating analogy is correct then. Bullshit your way into getting laid.
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Jan 12, 2016 00:02
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Alright cool, knowing the direct approach is standard is pretty relieving. It seems a lot easier just to ask them directly about an internship program and then have a conversation from there. Thanks guys, I'm sure I'll be back with more naive questions sooner or later.
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Jan 12, 2016 01:21
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huhu posted:Think I did decently well besides they asked me during the phone interview and then in person again what my salary expectations are. They said since I don't have a degree, I'll be competing with Bootcamp and college grads. and the range will probably be 50-60k for whatever job they can find me. Since I know the starting average is closer to $70k would I be an idiot for taking such a low paying job? I feel like they wouldn't have brought me in if they didn't think they could find me a job so I'm not sure if there's truth in the statement about having to accept a lower amount or if something shady is going on. If you can actually do competent JavaScript in a major front-end framework, I wouldn't go below 70k in Boston. Was this SEP? Regardless of who it is, independent headhunters get paid a percentage of your starting annual salary. They don't care about you. They'll place you at a lower salary if it gets you hired faster, because that's ultimately more profitable for them. Some places and individuals may work differently, but by and large you should treat external recruiters with utilitarian distrust. Use them if it gets your foot in the door, but don't rely on them, and be aware that it is actively in their interest to degrade your expectations of salary.
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Jan 12, 2016 04:25
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Cheston posted:If you can actually do competent JavaScript in a major front-end framework, I wouldn't go below 70k in Boston. SEP? Is that a company? If yes, then no. I was pretty straight with them saying I'm also applying for mechanical engineering jobs for which I do have a degree and experience and if I'm looking at a 70k offer from a MechE firm and a 60k offer from some web design firm, I'm probably going with the MechE position. I'd love to do web design and I'll keep trying to apply but it seems like I'll probably end up in a MechE job.
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Jan 12, 2016 05:25
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Illegal Move posted:I live in Estonia. Are you asking because the numbers seem low? Salaries are quite low here, but the overall cost of living isn't too bad so I can actually almost comfortably support 2 people and a dog on my current salary. I'm interested in moving into a bigger place though, which is why I don't want to get paid less than what I think is my market value.
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Jan 12, 2016 23:40
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When I was in school the recruiters at university job fairs were generally just HR reps whose job was just to collect resumes and direct everyone to the company's hiring website. If you have specific questions about specific jobs the person probably won't be able to answer them. That said, my last company would send 2 people to university recruiting events, one HR person and one engineer. But the engineers job was to just answer general questions about the type of work the company did, and the HR rep would still just point everyone to the proper page for internships or general job openings on the company's hiring site.
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Jan 13, 2016 02:14
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astr0man posted:When I was in school the recruiters at university job fairs were generally just HR reps whose job was just to collect resumes and direct everyone to the company's hiring website. If you have specific questions about specific jobs the person probably won't be able to answer them. If the work is at all interesting, you need to be NDA'd before you can be read in.
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Jan 13, 2016 04:17
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kitten smoothie posted:https://github.com/jlevy/og-equity-compensation Please add this to the OP, I was looking for something like this about three months ago.
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Jan 13, 2016 05:30
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Done.
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Jan 13, 2016 07:18
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So, just how bad a sign is it that I've been working this Integration and Testing job for a month and a half (to be fair, that first month was December) and I've gotten enough work to fill maybe two weeks? That's counting bullshit orientation stuff. And how long do I want to stay to at least make it look decent on my resume when I move on (provided, of course, that it doesn't pick up)? I mean, there's worse ways to pull in 55k a year than to spend 90% of my time waiting for stuff to hit the testing phase, and I can at least kill some of that time taking online courses on programming stuff, but it's relentlessly boring and probably not great for my development.
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Jan 13, 2016 23:35
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Spiritus Nox posted:So, just how bad a sign is it that I've been working this Integration and Testing job for a month and a half (to be fair, that first month was December) and I've gotten enough work to fill maybe two weeks? That's counting bullshit orientation stuff. And how long do I want to stay to at least make it look decent on my resume when I move on (provided, of course, that it doesn't pick up)? Why not start automating things?
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Jan 13, 2016 23:38
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Ithaqua posted:Why not start automating things? That's what my team actually does primarily, but I'm not sure where to start on my own, and I've been kind of loaned out to another team to do manual testing on this new project for now. Said project is in it's early stages and I don't think many of the developers are used to Agile yet, so in a 2 week sprint, we're down to 3 days left in the sprint and exactly one of the sprint's stories has hit the testing phase. In the past two days, I've done literally nothing all day other than sit in on the scrum meetings and study up on personal interests. Spiritus Nox fucked around with this message at 00:01 on Jan 14, 2016 |
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Jan 13, 2016 23:41
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Looks like udacity has started job guarantees within 6 months or your money back for some of their nanodegree programs.
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Jan 13, 2016 23:46
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Thom ZombieForm posted:Looks like udacity has started job guarantees within 6 months or your money back for some of their nanodegree programs. I did their Front End Web Dev program, and now I am a professional web developer at a Fortune 500 software company. Udacity is awesome!
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Jan 14, 2016 00:26
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camoseven posted:I did their Front End Web Dev program, and now I am a professional web developer at a Fortune 500 software company. Udacity is awesome! no college degree? guessing you had past experience also or self taught the poo poo out of web dev.
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Jan 14, 2016 00:45
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camoseven posted:I did their Front End Web Dev program, and now I am a professional web developer at a Fortune 500 software company. Udacity is awesome! I was actually looking into their program. I'm self learning the front end dev world, and while I can understand the concepts I learn, it's hard for me to figure out what to do next once I've learned something. I can build a responsive website and write vanilla JS to add functionality like simple ajax calls, animations, form checking, etc. Would you recommend their program to someone who has somewhat of a start already?
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Jan 14, 2016 01:37
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Thom ZombieForm posted:no college degree? guessing you had past experience also or self taught the poo poo out of web dev. I have an unrelated degree. It was an internal transfer (from an extremely non-tech position), but it's not like they hired me out of the goodness of their hearts. I spent about a year doing Udacity, going to meetups, and working on side projects with other devs on the weekends to get my skills where they needed to be. ddiddles posted:I was actually looking into their program. I'm self learning the front end dev world, and while I can understand the concepts I learn, it's hard for me to figure out what to do next once I've learned something. This is why Udacity was perfect for me, actually. I had been trying to get into programming for a while, but I kept stalling out after doing whatever random intro course or tutorial or whatever. You're definitely farther than I was, but the nanodegrees are great because they are project based. Watch the videos, do the quizzes, read the docs, and then build the project. They have people who code review it and give you feedback, and you iterate until you pass the rubric. They are also really into job readiness (duh), and so they spend a decent chunk of time talking about how professionals would approach a particular problem, what sort of tools they might use, etc. For example, they had a whole subcourse to get me up to speed in using git and github, which it turns out is actually a huge leg up over some 'traditional' candidates. They also touched on bower, grunt, npm, etc, which are all things I use every single day in my job. The answer to "what do I do with this knowledge?" is always "build something!", and Udacity is great for providing structure and guidance. They have a new Senior Web Dev course that looks like it could be good for someone at your skill level. That's kind of a dumb name cause literally no one is going to hire someone without prior experience into a senior role, but it looks like it would be great for polishing your skills and getting a portfolio together. They also have a very helpful career services team that will help you with everything from putting a resume together to negotiating your salary. And like Thom ZombieForm pointed out, they are doing a job placement guarantee right now, and I think they are still doing their "50% refund when you graduate" promotion. I'm reading over what I just wrote, I wanna point out to everyone that I am not paid by Udacity or anything, and that doing Udacity is not a one way ticket to success town. I put in a lot of effort outside the program learning things on my own, networking, etc. However, I make twice as much money as I used to, my job is loving amazing, and I wake up excited to go to work everyday. Udacity was a huge part of getting me to where I am now, and I highly recommend them to anyone who's in the same spot I was.
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Jan 14, 2016 03:20
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Spiritus Nox posted:So, just how bad a sign is it that I've been working this Integration and Testing job for a month and a half (to be fair, that first month was December) and I've gotten enough work to fill maybe two weeks? That's counting bullshit orientation stuff. And how long do I want to stay to at least make it look decent on my resume when I move on (provided, of course, that it doesn't pick up)? I'm a month and a half into my second job, and I've had literally nothing to do  Went to a lunch/preliminary interview with a different company during my lunch break today.
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Jan 14, 2016 05:08
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Spiritus Nox posted:That's what my team actually does primarily, but I'm not sure where to start on my own, and I've been kind of loaned out to another team to do manual testing on this new project for now. Said project is in it's early stages and I don't think many of the developers are used to Agile yet, so in a 2 week sprint, we're down to 3 days left in the sprint and exactly one of the sprint's stories has hit the testing phase. In the past two days, I've done literally nothing all day other than sit in on the scrum meetings and study up on personal interests. I've dealt with this problem a lot as an engineering manager. One of the hardest things in my job is getting fresh out of college people up to speed, because if they're not self-motivating it basically wipes out at least half of a senior engineer's productivity to mentor them properly, and if they're just doing OK coming out of college, it may be upwards of a year before I start seeing meaningful contributions from them (even people with multiple internships and such). When I get a properly self-motivated grad who's taught themselves a lot, they might be contributing week one such that the only real difference between them and a senior engineer is experience (which is most definitely valuable, don't get me wrong). It is *hard* to test for this in interviews. There's a lot you can do if you can self-motivate! Start taking initiative to work towards eventually becoming the de-facto authority on whether the product is working correctly. Get in the developer's faces with questions, pair program with them, make sure you understand the acceptance criteria on the stories. Identify common testing components and refactor, start thinking about the longer term and how tests fit into the bigger picture of the product - testing code is often lackluster, but there's no reason it can't be just as well designed as the primary codebase. Try to really understand the product as a whole, and identify gaps in testing or even in product requirements that exist. Set up short meetings for design sessions and knowledge transfer to get developer opinions on how the testing code is designed and to learn from them about their activities. If your problem is more academic in terms of not knowing how to write tests or automation code, focus on making a best effort and more regularly scheduling short, 30 minute one-on-one meetings with senior engineers to bounce your current ideas off on them and learn from their experience. Pair with other more experienced testers as often as possible. Ask directly for feedback and advice from everyone around you. If you can stay the course and become a really excellent tester that takes initiative and really takes ownership of the quality of the team's output, that $55k a year can very easily have a one added in front of it in not very many years.
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Jan 14, 2016 05:35
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Bognar posted:From what I hear, some are worth it and some are ripoffs but there's not a great way to tell which is which. After doing a bit of research, it's pretty hard to tell which of them are worth it because they all seem to have extremely slick PR. This is one I was looking at in my area(toronto): http://lighthouselabs.ca/web Does it look decent/does anyone know someone know anyone who has experience with these guys?
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Jan 14, 2016 06:21
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ddiddles posted:I was actually looking into their program. I'm self learning the front end dev world, and while I can understand the concepts I learn, it's hard for me to figure out what to do next once I've learned something. Unrelated to the schoolwork, but the "okay, what's next?" Was a huge problem for me. There's a million beginner level programming tutorials/books etc, and a huge amount of resources for advanced work, but very little intermediate information. The solution that worked for me is to just build something that I knew would be out if my league. When you hit a part you don't understand, start researching it. Rinse/repeat until you finish it, then start another. For web dev, "intermediate" largely means learning applicable code libraries like jQuery and underscore and learning how to research solutions.
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Jan 14, 2016 11:13
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On account of still completely failing to find work what are the best technologies to learn right now? I need to improve my resume and have time to learn things. Seems like Ruby on Rails and SQL are a big thing but what else? I'm broke as gently caress and need work really badly.
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Jan 15, 2016 01:46
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