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Pollyanna posted:How can you find out what your number should be? Are there stats per location/role? Glassdoor is your friend in that regard (as are other similar sites).
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Aug 20, 2014 15:48
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Otto Skorzeny posted:Glassdoor is your friend in that regard (as are other similar sites). Best approach is to combine several sources, since individually, for some regions and job titles, some of them can be really skewed (looking at you Glassdoor). Also, for Americans, check out http://www.bls.gov/bls/blswage.htm Personally, I did Glassdoor, BLS, and poking through job listings on places like Indeed. Also keep in mind where you're located. For instance, I'm located in a state capital, so the market rate is heavily influenced by the state payscale. All that data is 100% public so it gave me a great baseline to start from. jkyuusai fucked around with this message at 17:03 on Aug 20, 2014 |
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Aug 20, 2014 16:54
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Doghouse posted:So I'm about 2 months in to my 3 month internship (I'm 1 year in to a 2 year masters, my BA was not CS) and my manager told me the other day that I'm doing a good job and that they are going to keep me on after the internship - even though I'm still in school
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Aug 20, 2014 17:25
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If considering freelance/contractor work in addition to my normal job, how do I figure out how much to set aside from the income for tax purposes?
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Aug 20, 2014 20:26
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Uziel posted:If considering freelance/contractor work in addition to my normal job, how do I figure out how much to set aside from the income for tax purposes? In the USA? http://www.bankrate.com/finance/taxes/tax-brackets.aspx
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Aug 20, 2014 20:39
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jkyuusai posted:Also, for Americans, check out http://www.bls.gov/bls/blswage.htm This is telling me I should be getting paid less than half of what I make, without benefits? Not sure about the usefulness here.
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Aug 20, 2014 23:29
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baquerd posted:This is telling me I should be getting paid less than half of what I make, without benefits? Not sure about the usefulness here. I think the sample size for some areas and positions is not that high, so it's not a perfect measure. Once again, multiple sources.
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Aug 21, 2014 00:13
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Uziel posted:If considering freelance/contractor work in addition to my normal job, how do I figure out how much to set aside from the income for tax purposes?
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Aug 21, 2014 02:40
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Edit: Wrong thread.
Hiowf fucked around with this message at 08:30 on Aug 21, 2014 |
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Aug 21, 2014 08:27
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Been quite some time since I first posted in here asking about potential of employment given my background (bachelor's in Physics/Math) and was informed the biggest shortcoming was probably lack of algorithms (and some minor other CS fundamentals) so I worked my way through a semester of that on my own (followed Skiena's own syllabus working through chapters 1-9 of The Algorithm Design Manual including his assigned homework) at a fairly leisurely pace. Also did a dozen Project Euler problems and some other minor programming that isn't really resume material. Anyway, it's been far too long (a year) since I dropped out of grad school and I really need to get going on this. As such, I've got together my resume and would greatly appreciate harsh, but fair, criticism on how to make it less crappy. I tried to comply with the OP advice, CtCI's site "good" resume, and the Yegge post that cropped up (is utility in the same boat as utilize? does the scientist defense work given that's my technical writing training?). One real question on the resume: I'm still undecided on making a github account since I'd have nothing (at this point) but minor Project Euler problems/course projects (MATLAB, don't think anything from my semester of C would be worthwhile) to put up; so, basically, is something better than nothing even if it's not much? If it's relevant: I was planning on applying in the San Francisco bay area (and maybe some Seattle) at big and medium-size companies (small ones/startups don't sound ideal for entry-level/me from the various links/comments that have cropped up in this thread) based on employment possibilities and thinking I'd prefer SF/Seattle culturally/locationally over elsewhere in the US with moderate-to-high concentrations of software engineer/developer employment.
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Aug 22, 2014 02:08
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bUm posted:Been quite some time since I first posted in here asking about potential of employment given my background (bachelor's in Physics/Math) and was informed the biggest shortcoming was probably lack of algorithms (and some minor other CS fundamentals) so I worked my way through a semester of that on my own (followed Skiena's own syllabus working through chapters 1-9 of The Algorithm Design Manual including his assigned homework) at a fairly leisurely pace. Also did a dozen Project Euler problems and some other minor programming that isn't really resume material. I don't know much about much, but I would say there's nothing stopping you from getting more stuff up on github. Think of a project, and build it.
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Aug 22, 2014 02:20
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Thermopyle posted:I don't know much about much, but I would say there's nothing stopping you from getting more stuff up on github. Think of a project, and build it. Can't agree more with this. There's a world of difference between solving some number theory problem on Project Euler, and making a program that people can use for stuff. Even if it's a half rear end twitter clone or something. For the resume; list your different positions in chronological order, and reorganize your skills section. The way you list things doesn't make much sense to me - And I don't care what editor you use, I care if you can write code. And what's Scientific Linux?
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Aug 22, 2014 03:15
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null gallagher posted:And what's Scientific Linux? It's a RedHat-based distro, like CentOS or somesuch, that is targeted at scientific applications.
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Aug 22, 2014 03:17
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Is four jobs in four years really really bad? My siutation is this: job1: First out of college, was great and awesome, left for more money (was being a dumbass hotshot) job2: Was awesome but met now wife there. Didn't feel too bad leaving because while it was fun I wasn't learning much. We decided to move back to my hometown together. Left after 9 months. job3: Been here 13 months. Is okay but second child is about to be born (she already had a 11mo old when I met wife) I need to make some extra bank because we're just scraping by on my salary now. I'm fairly sure I could find a significantly better-paying job or negotiate a raise with said offer. I've found a bit of side-work on oDesk but that isn't cutting it. Problem is: we want to move back to Detroit in about a year or so. So if I take a fourth job now, I may be looking at a situation where I want to find a new job in a new city and I'll have had four jobs with an average of one year per job. I'm pretty sure that will make my search near-impossible with having a 'job-hopper' label. Obviously if I negotiate a raise this is nullified but I need to be able to take the offer if my company doesn't counteroffer. Careful Drums fucked around with this message at 18:26 on Aug 22, 2014 |
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Aug 22, 2014 18:24
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Careful Drums posted:Is four jobs in four years really really bad? It's a red flag for sure, and would give any recruiter/interviewer/potential hirer pause for sure because turnover is loving expensive. Is moving "back" to Detroit undoing the "move back to my hometown" after job 2? It would also make you seem a bit indecisive/flighty if you move back and forth a lot too, even if you can explain it. Ultimately, do what's best for your family and finances, but frankly if you're good enough at what you do and you can convince someone that you're worth the risk you'll still be okay. But that risk component does add up and it will either suppress the salary you can command or flat out disqualify you from some places that can't take on the risk of that turnover. That said, I've seen worse. But it was comically bad (like 15 jobs in 12 years, and not just like consulting projects). That person should basically never get an interview for any fulltime gig ever.
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Aug 22, 2014 18:33
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Careful Drums posted:Problem is: we want to move back to Detroit in about a year or so. So if I take a fourth job now, I may be looking at a situation where I want to find a new job in a new city and I'll have had four jobs with an average of one year per job. I'm pretty sure that will make my search near-impossible with having a 'job-hopper' label. It would be better to negotiate your raise on your value to the company, not on a threat to leave.
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Aug 22, 2014 18:37
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No Safe Word posted:It's a red flag for sure, and would give any recruiter/interviewer/potential hirer pause for sure because turnover is loving expensive. Is moving "back" to Detroit undoing the "move back to my hometown" after job 2? It would also make you seem a bit indecisive/flighty if you move back and forth a lot too, even if you can explain it. Yeah, it just has turned out that leaving Detroit was a bad idea and we want to go back. Its going to be really hard to move back. It's a tough call because my wife will be going back to work a few months after baby anyway, and that income should put us in a much better spot. But we'll have two little ones and their expenses can vary wildly. So I don't know. It might be better long term if I make myself as ideal of a candidate as possible for the move back to the D.
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Aug 22, 2014 18:44
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Gounads posted:It would be better to negotiate your raise on your value to the company, not on a threat to leave. Yeah, that's a much safer idea. I just don't get any actual leverage in that situation but any appreciable increase would help a lot.
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Aug 22, 2014 18:45
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Careful Drums posted:My siutation is this: Mmmaybe also chill on the baby making for awhile?
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Aug 22, 2014 19:07
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jkyuusai posted:Mmmaybe also chill on the baby making for awhile?  (might want to check out BFC though)
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Aug 22, 2014 19:24
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bUm posted:One real question on the resume: I'm still undecided on making a github account since I'd have nothing (at this point) but minor Project Euler problems/course projects (MATLAB, don't think anything from my semester of C would be worthwhile) to put up; so, basically, is something better than nothing even if it's not much? My general experience with having about a dozen Euler problems solved on a Github account is that no one gives a poo poo. For my first and second internships (the second of which led to a full-time position), there was zero talk about the Euler problems I had on my account, and more talk about the silly games I made for fun. In my experience, people enjoy talking about practical/useful/fun code much more than they like talking about academic/algorithmic code. I think anyone who likes algorithms enough to care about the Euler problems you did will probably not be impressed with you solving the first dozen or will be in academia and not be giving you an interview. So yeah, work on a lovely Twitter app or a website or a game or something. Build a robot? People like it when you can show that you like to code for more than just money. Actually, that could even be part of it. A bunch of Euler problems could indicate "ah, yes, I do the programmings for money", while something fun shows some more passion? Just make sure your code quality is something you'd be proud of.
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Aug 22, 2014 19:30
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jkyuusai posted:Mmmaybe also chill on the baby making for awhile? hahaha yeah. TBH if it was me I would have waited to have the baby. It would have avoided this whole issue because we would have gone back to the D this summer instead of buying a house here. But oh well, that's how it goes. We're stopping with our two kids. FWIW 'scraping by' means 'we have a safety net and i am putting away lots of 401k money but id like to pay off my car sometime soon' Cicero posted:Too late now! Yep, I lurk there.
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Aug 22, 2014 19:44
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Mystery Machine posted:My general experience with having about a dozen Euler problems solved on a Github account is that no one gives a poo poo. For my first and second internships (the second of which led to a full-time position), there was zero talk about the Euler problems I had on my account, and more talk about the silly games I made for fun. In my experience, people enjoy talking about practical/useful/fun code much more than they like talking about academic/algorithmic code. I think anyone who likes algorithms enough to care about the Euler problems you did will probably not be impressed with you solving the first dozen or will be in academia and not be giving you an interview. null gallagher posted:Can't agree more with this. There's a world of difference between solving some number theory problem on Project Euler, and making a program that people can use for stuff. Even if it's a half rear end twitter clone or something. I could swear I've seen advice in this thread and links that have come up to put what's most relevant first. The REU is the only programming related experience I have outside of personal stuff/courses so I felt obliged to put it up front (I guess it would with chronological [by end date], but then it'd be followed by, IMO, the least interesting items) with reverse chronological for the rest. Would it really be preferable to have it, a series of 1-2 bullet point entries, then more bulleted items again? I've been curious about people including editors on their skill lists; I, admittedly, only included Eclipse/Emacs because I've seen others do it. Similarly, I included the Scientific Linux to check a box of having Linux experience (everything personal has been Windows... or my Ti-84 calculator). I'll gladly remove all three if nobody thinks they'll help even for HR buzzword screening. And, yeah, I should probably make them consistent ordering (languages, version control, IDEs, Linux [if not removing the latter two]).
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Aug 22, 2014 23:21
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quote:Saw utility of and implemented a random particle generator to test how varied magnetic field directions and strengths allowed identification of charged particles In this case you have a great bullet point which shows not only creative contributions but personal execution on those ideas. But reading "Saw utility of..." on a first pass (which is all you'll usually get) makes it sound like it was someone else's idea and they told you to make it happen, and you just appreciated how good the idea was. Even it if was a joint effort be sure to take some credit for that. I would phrase that something like, "Devised & implemented new simulations that would contribute to the project's success, such as (particles, magnetic fields, etc)". In other words, when it's appropriate try to take things that you did and wrap them up with higher level critical thinking / problem solving that you employed to come to the decision to do the thing that you did. Again don't overstrain and try to spin every detail that way, but when you have an opportunity to take ownership of ideas like that, take it, put it in front and keep "Oh and then i also did the actual work to make it do the thing" as a followup. To me the absolute best hires always possess the quality that after maybe 1-2 weeks of getting familiar with everything, they are able to give valuable perspective/ideas/critiques that the rest of the team might not have seen. So be sure to signal it in your resume and give more detailed examples in interview if/when it comes up. Bhaal fucked around with this message at 19:54 on Aug 25, 2014 |
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Aug 25, 2014 19:51
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Had my first whiteboard coding test...completely blew fizz buzz and a bunch of other questions that I knew the answers to  On the plus I should be getting a job offer today or tomorrow at a place that pays more than ^^ and where I didn't have to do any coding at all during the interview.
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Aug 25, 2014 23:15
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candy for breakfast posted:I didn't have to do any coding at all during the interview. That's a huge red flag for the company. If they don't assess candidates' coding skills during the interview, how do they know they're hiring good coders?
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Aug 25, 2014 23:27
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Ithaqua posted:That's a huge red flag for the company. If they don't assess candidates' coding skills during the interview, how do they know they're hiring good coders? Wouldn't a Github or something suffice for this? Live coding has always seemed a little strange to me just because of that. It seems like it's just more of an indicator of ability to write code on a whiteboard than anything else, but I could be wrong. Edit and it's evidenced by the above poster saying he blew stuff he would've known how to do normally.
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Aug 25, 2014 23:44
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candy for breakfast posted:Had my first whiteboard coding test...completely blew fizz buzz How did you blow the most well known cookie cutter test in programmer recruitment history?
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Aug 26, 2014 00:03
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Knyteguy posted:Wouldn't a Github or something suffice for this? Never, you don't know that the code came out of their brains or off of StackOverflow or somewhere else. quote:Edit and it's evidenced by the above poster saying he blew stuff he would've known how to do normally. Well you can "blow" live coding interview stuff and still demonstrate that you know how to code. Some candidates think they "blow" live coding stuff because they have the wrong answer to start and need a little prodding to get there. In fact, all the coding interview stuff I've done has follow-up conversational questions even if you do get the "right answer" to the initial problem, which will then prompt a little more live coding as well. If it doesn't take significant prodding/hand-holding to get through it all, you may still pass anyway even if your perception might be that you blew it.
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Aug 26, 2014 00:05
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Ithaqua posted:That's a huge red flag for the company. If they don't assess candidates' coding skills during the interview, how do they know they're hiring good coders? I really have no idea at all, but I should clarify that they received assessment tests from my recruiter (where I was in 80th and 90th percentiles) along with a code sample (wherein I complained about the ambiguity of the question in a followup email). So at least they think I know things. Also, their whole situation is that the outsourced company that programmed their systems is going out of business, so they want all the future coding to be done in-house. Perhaps any direction from that is upwards? On the other hand I did talk with their IS corporate management with ideas on how I would approach coming into this job (test driven development, etc) and managed to impress them somewhat. PIGEOTO posted:How did you blow the most well known cookie cutter test in programmer recruitment history? By putting the mod 3 and mod 5 if/else at the bottom instead of the top. And other things.  It was just...bad. Of course with going over with them I did catch all my stupid errors, but it's something I can otherwise do in my sleep. Hell I can even bang out a LINQ version, but still. It was all nerves.
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Aug 26, 2014 00:33
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Whiteboard coding shouldn't be judged at the end of writing with a binary pass or fail. I think that's how most people view it, maybe someone out there is judging it with this stupid mechanism but it's far from the ideal. The interviewer is not judging the code that is on the board when the cap goes back on the marker. They're having a conversation that reveals how the candidate is thinking about the problem. It's that thinking process that's under review. I've given it several times and it generally goes the same way. They pick out a high-level architecture for solving the problem (if/else, switch, etc.), then start filling in the details of the solution. When I notice a bug (e.g. if(var%3) instead of if(var%3==0)) I'll wait and eventually suggest a test case that will fail. They'll step through the code, which I do expect people to be able to reason about on the spot, generally find the error and fix it. candy for breakfast posted:Had my first whiteboard coding test...completely blew fizz buzz and a bunch of other questions that I knew the answers to e: sorry, had this open for a while and missed the response addressing this exact question :/ As was mentioned, it's expected that you won't do perfectly from the start. If you took their hints on where to look at your code with a good attitude, that counts for a lot. I'd rather have a junior employee that gracefully accepts my suggestions and is competent enough to run with them to someone who gets the code right the first time, but bristles with anger and brusquely informs me that they wouldn't accept a client changing the spec. JawnV6 fucked around with this message at 01:16 on Aug 26, 2014 |
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Aug 26, 2014 01:14
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JawnV6 posted:When I notice a bug (e.g. if(var%3) instead of if(var%3==0)) I'll wait and eventually suggest a test case that will fail. They'll step through the code, which I do expect people to be able to reason about on the spot, generally find the error and fix it. That's exactly what happened. And I inexplicably used a StringBuilder, which makes plenty of sense if you're appending results to strings, but not so much when you're asked to output it to the console and nothing more. It was a good learning experience- even though I'm 99% sure I'll get the other job, it's nice to have some experience doing whiteboard/group questions for the next time I'll have to do it.
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Aug 26, 2014 01:36
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You didn't blow the interview, you got to practice for your next interview. 
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Aug 26, 2014 02:48
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I once had an impromptu coding interview to give, so I sat beside the candidate, booted my laptop into a guest account, and let the candidate do whatever they needed to implement FizzBuzz twice (their preferred language then a proprietary language). They still messed up FizzBuzz in their preferred language, but the candidate was thankful I allowed them to use a computer rather than a whiteboard. Whiteboards are fine for diagraming and illustrating something, but I've met coders that don't know how to use a computer that's not their own. Plus most people type faster than they can write. To me, using a computer over a whiteboard was a two birds, one stone solution. I guess I'm in the minority?
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Aug 26, 2014 02:59
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I think a pen and paper is a comfortable medium and pretty practical. That's how I reason out all of my problems.
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Aug 26, 2014 03:32
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When interviewing, interviewers don't really want to know "how you think about a problem", they want to know if you can solve problems quickly without screwing poo poo up. If you make a mistake, yeah, that counts against you, because you couldn't get it right the first time. The last thing I want to see is to observe how somebody "thinks" about a problem. Just write down the loving answer and move on, that's the ideal interview. Anything less means you're a flawed, broken problem solver, and then we only want to see more precisely how flawed you are. You're really judged by how quickly you actually solve the problem. And that's the right way to judge people's performance in interviews. If they do mess up and fix it quickly with a short amount of total time, that's probably closely related to how difficult it is to get the point across in day-to-day conversations. That's related to their ability to write code quickly and fix it when it doesn't work. If they go "herp derp I'm going to step through this" instead of instantly recognizing what must have been their mistake when you point it out to them, you can tell they're probably worse at programming, because they're doing a worse job of it.
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Aug 26, 2014 03:52
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shrughes posted:When interviewing, interviewers don't really want to know "how you think about a problem", they want to know if you can solve problems quickly without screwing poo poo up. If you make a mistake, yeah, that counts against you, because you couldn't get it right the first time. The last thing I want to see is to observe how somebody "thinks" about a problem. Just write down the loving answer and move on, that's the ideal interview. Anything less means you're a flawed, broken problem solver, and then we only want to see more precisely how flawed you are. You're really judged by how quickly you actually solve the problem.  You must be a genuinely insufferable poo poo-sack to work with but hey at least you're good at solving problems!
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Aug 26, 2014 03:57
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What is the general consensus on business cards for networking as a newbie trying to get in the field? I thought of making some to give to people I meet at local meetups, but I'm not sure if it's pretentious or not, nor what I'm even supposed to put on it. I haven't ordered any yet, but so far all I've thought for a title is "A programmer, sort of". Any advice?
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Aug 26, 2014 04:12
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People have given me business cards at tech meetups and stuff. All of them (that I can remember, at least) have been either CTOs, CEOs, or people moderately high up at big name established companies. I think it would look a little weird for a junior software dev. Especially with the self-effacing title.
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Aug 26, 2014 04:17
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Literally Elvis posted:What is the general consensus on business cards for networking as a newbie trying to get in the field? I thought of making some to give to people I meet at local meetups, but I'm not sure if it's pretentious or not, nor what I'm even supposed to put on it. I haven't ordered any yet, but so far all I've thought for a title is "A programmer, sort of". Any advice? It's not a bad idea to have a business card with your name, phone number, email, and a url to your resume/github/website with useful information on it - I would leave off the part with the self-effacing title. It's not a make-or-break thing or a requirement, but it could come in handy and custom business cards are pretty cheap.
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Aug 26, 2014 04:25
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