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So I applied for an internship at some kind of a non-profit software company. They emailed me back saying that the internship pays $10 an hour, and they sent a list of questions for me to answer in an email. The thing is, I'm in a little bit of a bind. I'm working now doing InDesign and software testing type stuff, so I'd love to get the experience of this internship, but i'm making $20 an hour now, and I'm in school more or less full time. Is that pay rate too low? I'm in a place where I would think it would be decent rates (Baltimore). Can I reasonably hope to get an internship that pays as much as I am making now? Also, the job I'm at now is always sort of up in the air. I've been there for about 16 months, but it's basically doing content preparation and development (edit: but no actual coding) for an app which is sort of a growing library of ebooks with a lot of interactive content (translations, commentaries, hyperlinks, etc) and we finished one huge project, and are now working on a few smaller ones. The thing is, it's also technically a non-profit and since a lot of our funding comes from donations, we're never sure if there will be anything that is approved after our current project until the last minute. So I have about a year and a half left of school, and would love to find an internship. But it's going to be hard leaving now or soon if the internship is only going to last a couple months, as I need the money. Do any internships let you stay on as an intern for a while if you do well? Any tips on how to try to transition? Doghouse fucked around with this message at 17:07 on Feb 7, 2014 |
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Feb 7, 2014 14:16
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JawnV6 posted:If microsoft agreed with me I'd be more worried. How's winpho doing in its 3rd decade again? Man, I just bet those grapes would have tasted really sour anyway!
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Feb 7, 2014 15:21
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Doghouse posted:So I applied for an internship at some kind of a non-profit software company. They emailed me back saying that the internship pays $10 an hour, and they sent a list of questions for me to answer in an email. The thing is, I'm in a little bit of a bind. I'm working now doing InDesign and software testing type stuff, so I'd love to get the experience of this internship, but i'm making $20 an hour now, and I'm in school more or less full time. $10/hr is very, very low. If you want to work in the open-source world you can probably just code code code in your free time until you can convince someone to give you a shot (with a real salary). That being said, the first gig I took was a combo of SEO/PPC and development, and I started at 25k. I used my time there to try new things and quickly got out of there as soon as I got the chance.
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Feb 7, 2014 15:46
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If a company you applied to writes back with "Well we can't accept you for this job but please apply to something else," do they really mean it? It was for a language I haven't done in a while, so it feels like "we like you but try for something related to what you've done immediately."
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Feb 7, 2014 17:35
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A decent company will pay a software engineer intern about the same as what a new grad makes except hourly. That's about how much I got paid at ExxonMobil (plus you get time and a half for overtime), but I was offered $15/hr at National Instruments. I also had an offer at a company in Japan, but that wasn't software related.
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Feb 7, 2014 17:37
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2banks1swap.avi posted:If a company you applied to writes back with "Well we can't accept you for this job but please apply to something else," do they really mean it? Does it matter? Make the application and put the onus on the company to decide whether they mean it or not. Remember: if you don't apply you are excluding yourself. Whenever I've said that I mean it but it's rare. If I don't want a candidate working for me then I probably don't want him in a different part of the organization doing anything similar and so I wouldn't suggest they apply to something else.
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Feb 7, 2014 17:51
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Tomahawk posted:Yes, I'd really appreciate that, thank you! My email is onbrokenwings at gmail dot com Just added you on GCHat. I'll be around tonight and all weekend.
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Feb 7, 2014 19:16
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Doghouse posted:So I applied for an internship at some kind of a non-profit software company. They emailed me back saying that the internship pays $10 an hour, and they sent a list of questions for me to answer in an email. The thing is, I'm in a little bit of a bind. I'm working now doing InDesign and software testing type stuff, so I'd love to get the experience of this internship, but i'm making $20 an hour now, and I'm in school more or less full time. There are definitely internships that pay as much as you make now though, I would look for summer internships at for-profit tech companies.
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Feb 7, 2014 19:24
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I was offered $13/hr by my university when I was still enrolled, and instead took a crappy contracting thing at $20/hr here in a crappy part of Florida. Don't settle for table scraps.
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Feb 7, 2014 21:05
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2banks1swap.avi posted:I was offered $13/hr by my university when I was still enrolled, and instead took a crappy contracting thing at $20/hr here in a crappy part of Florida. Don't settle for table scraps. Don't underestimate research assistant job either. A lot of my most challenging and interesting work happened in a research lab before and during grad school. Although that might just be a testament to how dull and unimportant the work I've done since is. Anyway I found this blog post by some dude Before You Graduate From Computer Science. I haven't read it all yet. It may or may not contain helpful advice. Use as directed. I also contacted Amazon today and they said that the team that interviewed me is going to meet to discuss me sometime today and I'll have a response either today or early next week. Basically I'm not getting anything done today until I hear from them.
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Feb 7, 2014 21:25
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No this was to be a web dev and it monkey, lolresearch. I was getting a Bachelor's for that matter.
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Feb 7, 2014 21:40
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If I'm interviewing for a webdev/UI type position, should I really expect algo questions like the ones in CTCI? I could learn that stuff easily enough but it seems like a lot of it wouldn't really come up in the kind of positions I'm applying for. I'm just trying to figure out what I should prep for.
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Feb 7, 2014 21:45
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USSMICHELLEBACHMAN posted:If I'm interviewing for a webdev/UI type position, should I really expect algo questions like the ones in CTCI? I could learn that stuff easily enough but it seems like a lot of it wouldn't really come up in the kind of positions I'm applying for. I'm just trying to figure out what I should prep for. I interviewed at a Rails/JS shop once that did mostly webdev-like stuff and my coding challenges were standard CTCI-type stuff. When I interviewed at Dow Jones, which is mostly node.js stuff and other webdev-y things, I also had a CTCI-like code challenge (which was basically a modified binary search).
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Feb 7, 2014 21:50
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USSMICHELLEBACHMAN posted:If I'm interviewing for a webdev/UI type position, should I really expect algo questions like the ones in CTCI? I could learn that stuff easily enough but it seems like a lot of it wouldn't really come up in the kind of positions I'm applying for. I'm just trying to figure out what I should prep for. For bigger companies? Absolutely. Smaller companies? Maybe not.
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Feb 7, 2014 21:59
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Just yesterday I wrote the first for loop since I started here. So much "real world" programming is just glue coding it's kind of depressing. Few months ago I wrote a lambda to make a list of lists out of a list  The only 'fun' stuff would be SQL sprocs or just walking through with a debugger. I'm starting to see why web dev is looked down upon.
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Feb 7, 2014 22:04
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No that just sounds like a really boring job.
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Feb 7, 2014 22:07
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Oh, making 15 versions (added together) of 3 js libraries work together stays pretty interesting. So does playing dodge ball with unannounced changes to the database and ill documented web services!
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Feb 7, 2014 22:11
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2banks1swap.avi posted:Just yesterday I wrote the first for loop since I started here. quote:So much "real world" programming is just glue coding it's kind of depressing. Getting to work on the Android Kindle reading app was a lot cooler, I got to actually make things I could play around with. For example, if you read Kindle manga content either on a regular Android device or a Kindle Fire, I did the plurality of work on that content type in the app itself, and if you double-tap to go into virtual panel mode and tap around with the navigation animations to go between panels, that part is pretty much 100% my code. In conclusion get a different job.
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Feb 7, 2014 22:13
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2banks1swap.avi posted:Just yesterday I wrote the first for loop since I started here. So much "real world" programming is just glue coding it's kind of depressing. I'm learning MongoDB, kind of. Doing REST stuff, and some JS libraries (Knockout) and HTML. Also learning a lot about working with a large(r) team/company with lots of existing products and infrastructure. I guess it's what you make of it man. I'm not really doing any more / less copy paste stuff than I used to do making inventory management backends. Also it depends on your definition of fun I guess. I could probably be doing boring-rear end tax software and still enjoy the work. Unless the place legit sucks I guess.
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Feb 7, 2014 22:17
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2banks1swap.avi posted:Just yesterday I wrote the first for loop since I started here. So much "real world" programming is just glue coding it's kind of depressing. But tons of foreach loops and LINQ extension methods  
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Feb 7, 2014 22:20
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Hashrocket wants to do a Skype call on Monday! I'm kinda nervous  I've interviewed before, but none of them went anywhere and I'm worried that it's because I'm bad at them. I applied for an "Apprentice" position, so I'm not entirely sure what the interview would be about, but I can't imagine it'd be particularly difficult. (EDIT: This is the position. I understand what is expected of me, but I still don't know what questions they will ask.)Worst case scenario I learn a lesson I guess v v...
Pollyanna fucked around with this message at 23:17 on Feb 7, 2014 |
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Feb 7, 2014 23:06
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Pollyanna posted:Hashrocket wants to do a Skype call on Monday! I'm kinda nervous
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Feb 7, 2014 23:17
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USSMICHELLEBACHMAN posted:Haha, me too. Awesome. What location?
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Feb 7, 2014 23:17
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Pollyanna posted:Awesome. What location? I told them anywhere, because I don't care. I also applied more for the developer position than the apprentice position, but I'd probably be happy with either (which is basically an open invitation to hire me as a developer but not pay me much).
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Feb 7, 2014 23:20
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USSMICHELLEBACHMAN posted:I told them anywhere, because I don't care. I also applied more for the developer position than the apprentice position, but I'd probably be happy with either (which is basically an open invitation to hire me as a developer but not pay me much). Yeah, I went for the apprenticeship since I'm relatively inexperienced The one thing bugging me is that I may have to drop to two classes per term, but I already committed to 3 this term. Oh well, I'll be fine.
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Feb 7, 2014 23:26
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USSMICHELLEBACHMAN posted:I told them anywhere, because I don't care. I also applied more for the developer position than the apprentice position, but I'd probably be happy with either (which is basically an open invitation to hire me as a developer but not pay me much). I like that they give you your birthday off, that's a nice touch. 2banks1swap.avi posted:Just yesterday I wrote the first for loop since I started here. So much "real world" programming is just glue coding it's kind of depressing. You're making way too broad of a generalization based off of a single job.
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Feb 7, 2014 23:26
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Pollyanna posted:Yeah, I went for the apprenticeship since I'm relatively inexperienced Good luck. They look like a really cool company. (They're also the first job I've applied to out of about 40 that didn't claim to be disrupting how brands are expressed in the social sphere or something equally obnoxious).
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Feb 7, 2014 23:31
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Barf. Kept coming up with O(n^2) solutions even with handholding.
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Feb 7, 2014 23:37
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biochemist posted:Barf. Kept coming up with O(n^2) solutions even with handholding.
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Feb 7, 2014 23:58
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biochemist posted:Barf. Kept coming up with O(n^2) solutions even with handholding. Amazon interview? Please, tell more. Especially the questions because I'm avoiding doing any work.
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Feb 8, 2014 00:03
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Cicero posted:Eh, that's not uncommon, still happens to me in interviews because often the 'trick' to getting the run time faster is unintuitive. Like the example in the OP, yeah it's obvious in retrospect, but at the time I didn't get it until my interviewer basically acted out the operation using whiteboard markers. I guess we'll see what happens. I really should've gone for a practice interview but instead I opted to study data structures since I didn't know much. I learned a lot in the last week, that's for sure. But now it's the weekend, I'm gonna go have fun. Thanks for all of your help!
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Feb 8, 2014 00:05
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Some you just get, some you need a bit of help. There was one completely dumb questions where I just didn't understand the interviewer (he was a terrible interviewer). I don't look forward to reviewing all of this poo poo in 18-24 months when I want a new job, though.
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Feb 8, 2014 00:07
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So it has come to light that part of the interview process for the company I applied to involves a week of paired programming before you hear whether you're hired, and as far as I can tell you are not compensated for it. "Each day during the week the candidate will pair with a different Hashrocket developer on a real project" isn't very clear, but I have my qualms about it if I would be expected to contribute to their own consulting projects instead of either internal development, or a course designed for evaluating prospective employees. Additionally, the position has points on its listing like "salary based on experience" (fair enough?), "you MUST be able to work full-time at one of our offices" (I would have to reduce courseload to work there), "familiarity with Vim" (there appears to be no alternative!), and what gives me the most pause: "35 hours billable client work and 5 hours of open-source contributions per week" (I'm not even paid for 40 hrs/week!?). Suddenly, I am not so sure about this. The interview would have been both ways regardless (I'm evaluating them as much as they are evaluating me), so at the very least I won't have nothing to ask about at the "any questions?" stage. On the other hand...I do not have many opportunities, like, at all, so I may have to take what I can get. That said, I want it to be worthwhile, because I would be delaying my Masters degree by going from full-time to part-time - plus, I want to leverage it into a higher-level job at some point. Are my worries unrealistic, or should I be wary of this?
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Feb 8, 2014 00:48
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quote:"35 hours billable client work and 5 hours of open-source contributions per week" (I'm not even paid for 40 hrs/week!?). quote:"you MUST be able to work full-time at one of our offices" (I would have to reduce courseload to work there), edit: It sounds like you don't really know whether you actually want to be a software engineer, because if you did it probably wouldn't bother you much to have to switch to part-time school for a master's program. You already have a bachelor's in a technical field, so even dropping out wouldn't have much impact on your career path if you got good work experience right from the get-go. edit2: A whole week for interviewing does sound kind of crazy though, that'd definitely put me off, especially if it's unpaid. Cicero fucked around with this message at 01:01 on Feb 8, 2014 |
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Feb 8, 2014 00:54
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Pollyanna posted:So it has come to light that part of the interview process for the company I applied to involves a week of paired programming before you hear whether you're hired, and as far as I can tell you are not compensated for it. "Each day during the week the candidate will pair with a different Hashrocket developer on a real project" isn't very clear, but I have my qualms about it if I would be expected to contribute to their own consulting projects instead of either internal development, or a course designed for evaluating prospective employees. You will learn more pair programming with people that know what they are doing than you would doing basically anything else, so in my opinion you would be insane to not at least go and try this out, viewing this as a training bootcamp. I agree with Cicero regarding both things he commented on. They also only ask one fifth of people they interview over Skype to audition, and you have neither "some professional programming experience" nor Rails knowledge, so you might not even get it. Cicero posted:edit2: A whole week for interviewing does sound kind of crazy though, that'd definitely put me off, especially if it's unpaid. I would agree with you about this for a lot of people but this is basically a godsend for Pollyanna. Edit: Also it looks like they cover your travel costs, your hotel, and pay some amount for the week. EAT THE EGGS RICOLA fucked around with this message at 01:09 on Feb 8, 2014 |
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Feb 8, 2014 01:02
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EAT THE EGGS RICOLA posted:I would agree with you about this for a lot of people but this is basically a godsend for Pollyanna.
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Feb 8, 2014 01:08
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I applied for the same thing. I have 2 years of actual experience and I'd still be thrilled to take the apprentice position (although I applied for the dev job). It looks like a really great way to bootstrap your carrier.
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Feb 8, 2014 01:16
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How do they expect to hire any experienced developers that are currently employed? There is a 0% chance I would take a week off from work just to interview with 1 company.
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Feb 8, 2014 01:18
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Don Mega posted:How do they expect to hire any experienced developers that are currently employed? There is a 0% chance I would take a week off from work just to interview with 1 company. Sometimes you don't want an A with a bunch of preconceptions. You want a moldable C you can train your way into an A.
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Feb 8, 2014 01:24
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biochemist posted:Barf. Kept coming up with O(n^2) solutions even with handholding. Did you sort first.
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Feb 8, 2014 01:24
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