Newbie Programming Interviews/Get a Job Megathread: Fake it 'til you make it

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Gazpacho: Jun 18, 2004; by Fluffdaddy; Slippery Tilde

e: Oh christ, did I actually respond to a first page post? Hanging my head in shame here.

Gazpacho fucked around with this message at 00:35 on Aug 5, 2013

# ? Aug 5, 2013 00:01

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# ? May 22, 2024 10:56

The Sweetling: May 13, 2005; BOOMSHAKALAKA; Fun Shoe

bonds0097 posted:

The Safari Books Online library is much better than what ACM offers and any school worth its salt already has an Institutional Membership to Dreamspark, which is in fact awesome.

I would agree that your suggestion is different, but hardly 'better'.

Well, if you're a web developer then you could look into "The Web Application Hacker's Handbook" as a broad survey of AppSec in the Web Application environment. Covers stuff like SQL Injection, CSRF, XSS, authentication vulns, etc. A large part of AppSec is Web-focused and questions about XSS and SQL Injection are very common in interviews. For a more general perspective on Software Security, I would recommend "Software Security" by Gary McGraw.

Exactly what I needed, thanks.

# ? Aug 5, 2013 00:10

Cryolite: Oct 2, 2006; sodium aluminum fluoride

UnfurledSails posted:

Honestly, I don't really know who would want me when I'm surrounded by ridiculously talented people who have been coding since before high school.

Ugh, this is toxic self-talk. For you and anybody else reading this in a similar position, please don't think this. I didn't major in computer science because of this - I told myself I couldn't compete with kids who had been programming since they were 12. Then At 22 I figured out that no, I like it anyway, so after graduating with a useless degree in biology I took some community college programming courses, hustled an entry-level programming job while going back to school at night, and now I make a living with it like everybody else. Probably not making as much as I could have if I hadn't fed myself bullshit though.

The only thing you need to worry about is whether or not you enjoy it and what you'd like to do with it, and the answer to that has nothing to do with your classmates.

edit: The whole programming whiz kid phenomenon is way overstated I think. Most people can't code worth poo poo. Or maybe my perception is warped since I'm not in Silicon Valley.

Cryolite fucked around with this message at 00:42 on Aug 5, 2013

# ? Aug 5, 2013 00:36

Cicero: Dec 17, 2003; Jumpjet, melta, jumpjet. Repeat for ten minutes or until victory is assured.

Yeah the whole "programming since middle school" thing is way overstated. For the vast majority of those kids, their prior coding experience is advantageous for one, maybe two CS classes. Relatively few go beyond writing simple programs, and virtually no teenager self-teaches about Big-O or pumping lemmas or whatever. To the extent that those kids do better in CS programs, it's because those with more aptitude in the first place are more likely to start early in life, not because that early experience itself was some enormous advantage.

Although it may be different at a school like Stanford, I don't know.

On to more important things:

We need more example resumes! If you have more than a year or two of software engineering experience and your resume is not an abomination in the sight of, uh, Guido? Then please donate it (in anonymized form, of course) for the benefit of fledgling goon coders everywhere. :911:

For reference, here are the top twenty hotshots in this thread.

code:

0.  Ithaqua
1.  shrughes
2.  Cicero
3.  Sab669
4.  baquerd
5.  Strong Sauce
6.  2banks1swap.avi
7.  Safe and Secure!
8.  kitten smoothie
9.  tef
10. Otto Skorzeny
11. hieronymus
12. gucci void main
13. Gazpacho
14. No Safe Word
15. Orzo
16. Good Will Hrunting
17. Chasiubao
18. pigdog
19. Pweller
Honorable mention: how!!

fake edit: changed to true coder numbering system

Cicero fucked around with this message at 01:53 on Aug 5, 2013

# ? Aug 5, 2013 01:48

evensevenone: May 12, 2001; Glass is a solid.

For like 98% of programming jobs you don't want some Stanford whiz kid who thinks his poo poo doesn't stink anyway.

# ? Aug 5, 2013 01:58

bonds0097: Oct 23, 2010; I would cry but I don't think I can spare the moisture.; Pillbug

evensevenone posted:

For like 98% of programming jobs you don't want some Stanford whiz kid who thinks his poo poo doesn't stink anyway.

That's a pretty stupid generalization.

Regardless, Standford graduates make up well under 2% of all B.S. grads in CS, so I suppose even according to you there's more than enough jobs for them.

# ? Aug 5, 2013 02:07

New Yorp New Yorp: Jul 18, 2003; Only in Kenya.; Pillbug

Things I've learned today: I post in this thread too much.

# ? Aug 5, 2013 02:35

etcetera08: Sep 11, 2008

Che Delilas posted:

I'm going to give you some advice from someone who has been in a similar position as you, that is, someone who is in an environment full of really really smart, talented people and for whatever reason find yourself "mired" in the middle or low end of the pack.

Stop worrying about the best people. Stop comparing yourself to the top of the heap. For the love of god, don't get hung up on the fact that you weren't coding when you were 12 years old. Or at least, when you inevitably do, remind yourself that it's okay to not be the very best (an incredibly fluid term in this field anyway). You aren't competing with your whole class for the top three spots in the class, you don't go into interviews with 100 people in the same room and whoever finds the solution to a problem first gets the job. There are about a bazillion factors that go into hiring a candidate, and your unique skills, qualities and circumstances may make you the "best" for a particular job and company even over the people whom you consider "better" than you at programming.

Also, realize that who you are and what you know IN school is only tangentially related to who you are and what you know OUT of school. What I mean is, after about 6 months in your first job, your education will not be much of a factor. You'll be immersed in real-world projects and learning more in a month that you did an entire term of school, and that might even be understating things. After your first job, your education will be about 2 lines at the bottom of your resume, and the only part of it a hiring company will care about is the initials on your degree. It's honestly a bit depressing how quickly your education becomes nearly irrelevant.

Finally, realize that your first job out of school probably isn't going to be your dream job. There are plenty of programming jobs out there for educated programmers who aren't "rock stars," "superheros" or "ninjas." Realize that job postings are wish lists, not absolute minimums (even if they SAY that a skill is absolutely required), so apply to jobs even if you don't meet all the requirements. Let THEM make the decision to reject you, don't do it for them. Be honest in interviews if you don't know something they ask about, but don't put yourself down.

Hell, graduating from Stanford by itself is likely going to put you ahead of the majority of candidates a company will consider anyway.

This is a good post, didn't want it to get lost at the bottom of previous page.

I got a minor in CS, learned about 3x as much during 6 months in a working environment than I did at school. That said, I've learned a *ton* on my own outside of school/work as well.

# ? Aug 5, 2013 02:43

Gazpacho: Jun 18, 2004; by Fluffdaddy; Slippery Tilde

evensevenone posted:

For like 98% of programming jobs you don't want some Stanford whiz kid who thinks his poo poo doesn't stink anyway.

It might surprise you to learn that quite a lot of Stanford CS students struggle and feel inadequate. If I were looking for grads who think their poo poo doesn't stink, I might look instead at schools that graduate people without challenging them.

# ? Aug 5, 2013 03:25

HondaCivet: Oct 16, 2005; And then it falls
And then I fall
And then I know

Z-Bo posted:

If they are not looking for entry/mid level engineers, it means one of two things:

1) Her delivery team Lead has no idea what she is working on, or doesn't restrict her, or she is trying to generate her own line of business.

2) Recruiting is all about relationship management, so a young recruiter (typically those who recruit young developers) will try to find workers who as she climbs the ladder will climb the ladder with her, and give her bigger and better company contacts.

3) She is so low on the totem pole as a recruiter that she has no role in Ends Management and making sure contractors the firm already works with remain employed, so you are very valuable to her even if she has no openings for you.

[Edit: And, her delivery team lead should be looking at the market place. If the time-to-fill spreads on developer roles are greater than QA testers, I might tell my team to get me as many candidate names as possible, and that for this recruiting cycle we have a candidate name generation target we have to reach to increase our closing volume.]

Also, you're over-thinking this. Be honest, but be smart. Articulate yourself well. There are many ways to phrase something, and negative viewpoints. If you sound jaded it indicates a negative viewpoint and that you aren't focused on your future so much as escaping your past/present. Your prospective employer is not a refugee camp. Also, take notes every time you talk to a recruiter. Learn not only what questions they ask, but how. Record the phone call and play it back, ideally a week later so you distance it appropriately.

Thank you! She actually kind of explicitly mentioned #2 now that I think about it. Which is flattering in a way, someone presuming that I'll have actual clout someday. :allears:

Che Delilas posted:

I'm going to give you some advice from someone who has been in a similar position as you, that is, someone who is in an environment full of really really smart, talented people and for whatever reason find yourself "mired" in the middle or low end of the pack.

Stop worrying about the best people. Stop comparing yourself to the top of the heap. For the love of god, don't get hung up on the fact that you weren't coding when you were 12 years old. Or at least, when you inevitably do, remind yourself that it's okay to not be the very best (an incredibly fluid term in this field anyway). You aren't competing with your whole class for the top three spots in the class, you don't go into interviews with 100 people in the same room and whoever finds the solution to a problem first gets the job. There are about a bazillion factors that go into hiring a candidate, and your unique skills, qualities and circumstances may make you the "best" for a particular job and company even over the people whom you consider "better" than you at programming.

Also, realize that who you are and what you know IN school is only tangentially related to who you are and what you know OUT of school. What I mean is, after about 6 months in your first job, your education will not be much of a factor. You'll be immersed in real-world projects and learning more in a month that you did an entire term of school, and that might even be understating things. After your first job, your education will be about 2 lines at the bottom of your resume, and the only part of it a hiring company will care about is the initials on your degree. It's honestly a bit depressing how quickly your education becomes nearly irrelevant.

Finally, realize that your first job out of school probably isn't going to be your dream job. There are plenty of programming jobs out there for educated programmers who aren't "rock stars," "superheros" or "ninjas." Realize that job postings are wish lists, not absolute minimums (even if they SAY that a skill is absolutely required), so apply to jobs even if you don't meet all the requirements. Let THEM make the decision to reject you, don't do it for them. Be honest in interviews if you don't know something they ask about, but don't put yourself down.

Hell, graduating from Stanford by itself is likely going to put you ahead of the majority of candidates a company will consider anyway.

Thank you! I graduated from a pretty good school so this was good for me to hear again even though that was a few years ago now.

# ? Aug 5, 2013 07:44

astr0man: Feb 21, 2007; hollyeo deuroga

Here's my resume if you want it for the OP. It's pretty sparse/simple but it works.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/cs19ld0aybn9fzn/astr0man%20-%20resume.pdf
Latex file: http://pastebin.com/3pXY5NSY

# ? Aug 5, 2013 13:50

aBagorn: Aug 26, 2004

Redacted. See post below for new resume

aBagorn fucked around with this message at 13:01 on Aug 6, 2013

# ? Aug 5, 2013 13:55

FamDav: Mar 29, 2008

code:

0.  Ithaqua
1.  shrughes
2.  Cicero
3.  Sab669
4.  baquerd
5.  Strong Sauce
6.  2banks1swap.avi
7.  Safe and Secure!
8.  kitten smoothie
9.  tef
10. Otto Skorzeny
11. hieronymus
12. gucci void main
13. Gazpacho
14. No Safe Word
15. Orzo
16. Good Will Hrunting
17. Chasiubao
18. pigdog
19. Pweller
Honorable mention: how!!

at least one person on that list doesn't even have a job.

# ? Aug 5, 2013 17:20

Tres Burritos: Sep 3, 2009

All posters now ranked by lines of code on github, correctness of resume and current job status.

# ? Aug 5, 2013 18:07

Pilsner: Nov 23, 2002

aBagorn posted:

Here's my crappy resume. I don't love it at all, but it landed my 2 jobs so far.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/odwynsjdayc1lk2/Resume.pdf

Hello there (edit: name removed)!

Beware of metadata in PDF files.

Here's a tool that can nuke it - http://www.becyhome.de/becypdfmetaedit/description_eng.htm. I would run any PDF you send out through it for good measure.

Pilsner fucked around with this message at 08:57 on Aug 7, 2013

# ? Aug 5, 2013 19:07

Zhentar: Sep 28, 2003; Brilliant Master Genius

UnfurledSails posted:

Honestly, I don't really know who would want me when I'm surrounded by ridiculously talented people who have been coding since before high school.

From some quick googling, it looks like Stanford will have somewhere around 200 CS graduates next year. My employer will probably hire around 200 developers (maybe even more) over the next year... so even if we do prefer prefer everyone else there over you (and they all want jobs rather than going on for a master's), we've still got enough job openings to hire you as well.

# ? Aug 5, 2013 19:27

aBagorn: Aug 26, 2004

Pilsner posted:

Hello there Justin!

Beware of metadata in PDF files. Here's a tool that can nuke it - http://www.becyhome.de/becypdfmetaedit/description_eng.htm. I would run any PDF you send out through it for good measure.

GDI.

Well then.

# ? Aug 5, 2013 19:56

JawnV6: Jul 4, 2004; So hot ...

Cicero posted:

edit: \/\/\/ Having Stanford on his resume will help get him interviews, but it won't automatically grant him offers. \/\/\/

lol

UnfurledSails posted:

Honestly, I don't really know who would want me when I'm surrounded by ridiculously talented people who have been coding since before high school.

What concerns me is you're only hitting "oh poo poo i know people better than me in every dimension!!" in your junior year. Should've hit you freshman year, sophomore at the latest. Too much time hanging around EBF? Regardless, it's high time you learned how to market yourself as a package instead of on solitary aspects.

The leg up you've got on 90% of that crowd ought to be people skills. Most jobs require rudimentary coding skills and a shitload more talking to relevant professionals.

I don't have a github. This has not affected my career trajectory in the slightest.

# ? Aug 5, 2013 22:55

wolffenstein: Aug 2, 2002; Pork Pro

You know quite a shitload more than any of us plus worked several years at a Fortune 100 tech company. That speaks a hell lot more than a GitHub account.

For someone wanting to get into a software engineering role with no professional experience, it's now almost mandatory to have a portfolio of some kind available. GitHub mostly fills that necessity.

wolffenstein fucked around with this message at 23:12 on Aug 5, 2013

# ? Aug 5, 2013 23:09

Sarcophallus: Jun 12, 2011; by Lowtax

JawnV6 posted:

lol

What concerns me is you're only hitting "oh poo poo i know people better than me in every dimension!!" in your junior year. Should've hit you freshman year, sophomore at the latest. Too much time hanging around EBF? Regardless, it's high time you learned how to market yourself as a package instead of on solitary aspects.

The leg up you've got on 90% of that crowd ought to be people skills. Most jobs require rudimentary coding skills and a shitload more talking to relevant professionals.

I don't have a github. This has not affected my career trajectory in the slightest.

On the other hand of that, I have a github with literally only my capstone project in it, and it was a big part of this first job I got out of college. Having some kind of code sample can really make a huge difference, especially if it's substantial enough to earn some questions in an interview. Questions which should hopefully be incredibly easy to answer confidently since you spent X amount of time writing this thing they're asking you about.

# ? Aug 6, 2013 00:10

oRenj9: Aug 3, 2004; Who loves oRenj soda?!?; College Slice

I had my phone interview with Amazon today, we didn't manage to get through everything in the hour they allocated, so I'm not sure that's a good sign. I also missed some pretty obvious bits of information here-and-there and made up some convoluted solutions to simple problems. At least the interviewer was kind enough to go back and emphasize key elements to help me fix my mistakes, such as when I recommended a hash map to store the frequency counts of all the numbers between 1 and 100 in a file. :eng99:

Ithaqua posted:

Things I've learned today: I post in this thread too much.

At least you have more cred than shrughes.

# ? Aug 6, 2013 01:05

FamDav: Mar 29, 2008

oRenj9 posted:

I had my phone interview with Amazon today, we didn't manage to get through everything in the hour they allocated, so I'm not sure that's a good sign. I also missed some pretty obvious bits of information here-and-there and made up some convoluted solutions to simple problems. At least the interviewer was kind enough to go back and emphasize key elements to help me fix my mistakes, such as when I recommended a hash map to store the frequency counts of all the numbers between 1 and 100 in a file.

famdav's top tip: always be dumb until you need to be less dumb.

# ? Aug 6, 2013 01:33

UnfurledSails: Sep 1, 2011

JawnV6 posted:

What concerns me is you're only hitting "oh poo poo i know people better than me in every dimension!!" in your junior year. Should've hit you freshman year, sophomore at the latest. Too much time hanging around EBF?

I'll be a senior this fall. I'll actually take a 5th year to finish my degree.

For what it's worth that feeling you mention was there from the beginning. When I arrived I wanted to learn something I had no idea about instead on working on stuff that I knew I was competent at in high school. CS sounded like magic so I decided on that. I took my first CS class out of curiosity, and the only way I could type was pretty much pecking at the keyboard with a finger. That sense of utter inferiority plus being so far away from home for the first time led me to get diagnosed with depression at the end of my first quarter. I took antidepressants and went to weekly therapy sessions for about two years.

I gave up on CS after that first class. In the beginning of my junior year I started feeling much better about myself so I took another CS class, thinking that I might maybe minor in it. Its workload demolished me (it was a weeder class), but I learnt such an immense amount and liked the work so much I decided to major in the systems track, hence the need for a fifth year. My GPA is actually not that bad (3.3 and slowly rising) and I know I'm not a moron, but that sense of "what the hell am I doing here?" is always there.

# ? Aug 6, 2013 03:53

Cicero: Dec 17, 2003; Jumpjet, melta, jumpjet. Repeat for ten minutes or until victory is assured.

Classic imposter syndrome. I work at a big tech company and I feel the same way a lot of the time. Especially when I read posts on hacker news. Everyone else just seems much more knowledgeable.

# ? Aug 6, 2013 04:08

kitten smoothie: Dec 29, 2001

Man, I'm glad I'm not the only one who feels immensely inadequate after reading hacker news. I start thinking I'm worthless as a human being because I don't have time to make an artificially intelligent grocery shopping list recommendation engine in Node.js as a weekend project.

# ? Aug 6, 2013 05:18

Cicero: Dec 17, 2003; Jumpjet, melta, jumpjet. Repeat for ten minutes or until victory is assured.

Yeah. Just keep in mind that the silent majority doesn't do that kind of thing, and even of those who try, many either don't finish, fail, or their project isn't cool enough to stay on the front page more than 5 minutes.

Appendix has been updated with the two resumes posted here recently, and also one more PM'd to me.

# ? Aug 6, 2013 06:54

oRenj9: Aug 3, 2004; Who loves oRenj soda?!?; College Slice

I especially loves those people who pull all of that poo poo off at the age of 19...

# ? Aug 6, 2013 07:16

Hunter2 Thompson: Feb 3, 2005; Ramrod XTreme

oRenj9 posted:

I especially loves those people who pull all of that poo poo off at the age of 19...

I had more (probably too much) self-confidence when I was 19 but I think my senior project and applying for jobs has beat it all out of me. I used to just jump into stuff without fear (like rebuilding a neglected car from the ground up).

I graduated recently with an EE/CS-ish degree from a school near Silicon Valley and am searching for jobs. I wish I got hit over the head with the notion that I should apply to internships earlier and often, but my school isn't as connected to industry as bigger schools like Stanford or Cal (though they're working on improving that) and doesn't offer much in the way of co-op or serious career resources for engineering students. I have to blame myself, at least partially, for thinking on-campus research and IT jobs were acceptable surrogates.

Most firms in the area seem to make software products, but I'm more interested in working close to hardware. Unfortunately, the few open jobs usually require years of experience. Jobs with companies like Tesla or some kind of non-defense aerospace and robotics firm would be ideal to me.

To top it all off, I get occasionally depressed that I haven't found happiness now that I've worked extra-hard and graduated with honors (a fallacy of our time) and alternatively I get depressed whenever I'm reminded of people I know first- or second-hand who already had internships at big-name tech companies and make 80-200k+/year out of school. It's a mix of feeling cheated and also worthless. I try to break out of this type of thinking whenever it happens, because both are dangerous and destructive.

# ? Aug 6, 2013 09:13

shrughes: Oct 11, 2008; (call/cc call/cc)

Learning to type and learning to program. To be fair I switched over to the Dvorak layout my first semester at school right before a major programming assignment.

UnfurledSails posted:

and I know I'm not a moron

Well that answers it right there.

Note that when I said you're not very good at programming, the operative word there was very. I hope I didn't contribute to your imposter syndrome. (On the other hand, I'd bet that not one Stanford CS undergrad is somebody I'd even class as "good" at programming. Actually I'd call myself barely good. Half-decent, maybe.) Right now I work in Mountain View [1], so we've had a few interns from Stanford. They were all scrublord noobs that wrote poo poo code. Smart, but bad programmers. This is true of all undergrads, everywhere, with a few snowflake exceptions. Not until after graduation and maybe a year into a real job do undergrads really shape up into decent programmers. Especially when it comes to being able to grapple with big projects.

UnfurledSails posted:

CS sounded like magic so I decided on that. I took my first CS class out of curiosity,

Well that sounds like a great reason. (Are you sure you didn't do it for the money? You didn't want to become a game designer? You didn't watch "Swordfish" and decide it was cool?)

UnfurledSails posted:

but I learnt such an immense amount and liked the work so much I decided to major in the systems track

Holy loving Christ, you obviously picked the right major and the right field to work in!

[1] I learned a fun Mountain View fact today! It's illegal for Mountain View residents to ride their bikes in Mountain View unless they get a license from some other community in California.

# ? Aug 6, 2013 10:23

greatZebu: Aug 29, 2004

Programming is a very humbling experience. If you don't get reminded that your code isn't as good as it could be on a semi-regular basis, you're either aiming too low or working with the wrong people. I've gone through many cycles of realizing that some aspect of my programming wasn't good enough and working to improve, and I expect to keep going through that process for as long as I'm writing programs. It's painful, but it's a necessary part of improving and pretty much everyone has to go through it.

Also, apparently I've been flouting Mountain View law.

# ? Aug 6, 2013 10:56

aBagorn: Aug 26, 2004

Here is updated resume (because like a dummy i didn't censor myself properly)

https://www.dropbox.com/s/odwynsjdayc1lk2/Resume.pdf

# ? Aug 6, 2013 13:05

Sab669: Sep 24, 2009

What's the goon opinion on working as a contractor as an entry/junior developer? Found a job posting for a contract-to-perm job that I was interested in. I work a steady job that I know I won't lose anytime soon but for a large number of reasons I'm unhappy here. But I don't want to quit, get this 3 month contract and then have them not offer a permanent job at the end.

# ? Aug 6, 2013 14:15

aBagorn: Aug 26, 2004

Sab669 posted:

What's the goon opinion on working as a contractor as an entry/junior developer? Found a job posting for a contract-to-perm job that I was interested in. I work a steady job that I know I won't lose anytime soon but for a large number of reasons I'm unhappy here. But I don't want to quit, get this 3 month contract and then have them not offer a permanent job at the end.

I'd do it if I didn't have a family to support.

# ? Aug 6, 2013 15:23

Z-Bo: Jul 2, 2005; more like z-butt

Sab669 posted:

What's the goon opinion on working as a contractor as an entry/junior developer? Found a job posting for a contract-to-perm job that I was interested in. I work a steady job that I know I won't lose anytime soon but for a large number of reasons I'm unhappy here. But I don't want to quit, get this 3 month contract and then have them not offer a permanent job at the end.

40% markup over what you currently make, and no less. Also, Connecticut and Massachusetts do double taxation on contractors so beware! Figure out if you will be independent or work thru a staffing firm as a 1099. If it is a job posting then you are defining your bill rate. Customer facing bill rates are higher than "back office" internal software. You will also likely be discouraged from billing hourly despite working 12 hour days M-F. Research the company to see if its a sweat shop.

Also always send me your resume.

# ? Aug 6, 2013 15:32

Sab669: Sep 24, 2009

aBagorn posted:

I'd do it if I didn't have a family to support.

Why's that? I don't have a family to support, but I do have a poo poo ton of student debt to worry about :v:

Can you collect unemployment if you were a contractor and out of work? Because I wouldn't be able to afford rent for very long without a job.

Z-Bo posted:

40% markup over what you currently make, and no less. Also, Connecticut and Massachusetts do double taxation on contractors so beware! Figure out if you will be independent or work thru a staffing firm as a 1099. If it is a job posting then you are defining your bill rate. Customer facing bill rates are higher than "back office" internal software. You will also likely be discouraged from billing hourly despite working 12 hour days M-F. Research the company to see if its a sweat shop.

Also always send me your resume.

It is through a staffing agency, but I'd be working for the actual company not the staffing agency. And I am a MA resident according to my driver's license but I've been living in RI for the past 3 years.

Hmm, GlassDoor has me a little worried actually. Sounds like lovely benefits and poor raises...Though any raise is better than where I am now :colbert:

Sab669 fucked around with this message at 15:39 on Aug 6, 2013

# ? Aug 6, 2013 15:32

Cosmic Horror: Feb 2, 2009; DON'T BRING A GUN TO A SHELBY FIGHT MOTHER FUCKER, THAT'S RIGHT YOU GOT KNOCKED THE FUCK OUT

Sab669 posted:

What's the goon opinion on working as a contractor as an entry/junior developer? Found a job posting for a contract-to-perm job that I was interested in. I work a steady job that I know I won't lose anytime soon but for a large number of reasons I'm unhappy here. But I don't want to quit, get this 3 month contract and then have them not offer a permanent job at the end.

That's basically what I'm doing right now, only the contract ends after 6 months instead of 3 (I'm a little over 4 months in now). It's not the greatest job, but I wasn't happy at my previous job for various reasons, so it's a step up. My boss confirmed that I will get an offer when my contract ends (since he said this during a review, I don't have written confirmation so I'm not counting on it).

My advice would be to go for it, but have a back up plan and don't make too many plans that rely on that job. I'm still commuting a fair bit because I don't want to sign an apartment lease closer to work that I wouldn't be able to afford if I didn't get offered a permanent position.

Cosmic Horror fucked around with this message at 22:31 on Aug 6, 2013

# ? Aug 6, 2013 15:47

kitten smoothie: Dec 29, 2001

Sab669 posted:

Why's that? I don't have a family to support, but I do have a poo poo ton of student debt to worry about
Can you collect unemployment if you were a contractor and out of work? Because I wouldn't be able to afford rent for very long without a job.

Assuming your student loans are federal loans, then if you're unemployed you can get a deferral*. If they're private, well, you may as well treat them like each loan is a mouth you have to feed.

A company that hires you as an independent contractor does not pay taxes, benefits, or the like on your behalf. That means you are liable for self-employment tax, but that also means they do not make unemployment insurance contributions on your behalf either. You can't collect unemployment.

* Interest will most likely accrue during your deferral period but what would you rather have, being forced to pay the loan now with money you don't have, or paying a little more later.

# ? Aug 6, 2013 16:12

No Safe Word: Feb 26, 2005

JawnV6 posted:

I don't have a github. This has not affected my career trajectory in the slightest.

A little late to quote but wanted to emphasize this. My github consists of half-hearted crap that doesn't tell anybody anything about me and I don't put it on my resume (though it's easy enough to find by searching my name). Nevertheless I've been fine in my career and haven't had issues with applying to things and whatnot.

If you have stuff to show off, github is a nice way to do it. But it's not by any means a prerequisite for an application.

# ? Aug 6, 2013 16:18

Plorkyeran: Mar 22, 2007; To Escape The Shackles Of The Old Forums, We Must Reject The Tribal Negativity He Endorsed

So far I have seen exactly zero people suggest that is it impossible to get a job without an interesting github profile, so I am somewhat confused as to why people keep feeling the need to refute that idea.

# ? Aug 6, 2013 16:33

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# ? May 22, 2024 10:56

Che Delilas: Nov 23, 2009; FREE TIBET WEED

Plorkyeran posted:

So far I have seen exactly zero people suggest that is it impossible to get a job without an interesting github profile, so I am somewhat confused as to why people keep feeling the need to refute that idea.

Nobody's made the claim that it's impossible, but a common piece of advice is "Start a GitHub profile." People are providing examples of getting jobs without having one, presumably so people who don't have one won't fret too much over not having one.

# ? Aug 6, 2013 18:12

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Serious Hardware/Software Crap > The Cavern of COBOL > Newbie Programming Interviews/Get a Job Megathread: Fake it 'til you make it

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