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Siliziumleben posted:How hosed/blessed will I be when I'm applying for jobs in the US with a degree from a German university? Probably nobody will recognize the name of your school and they'll have no idea what tier it lies in. This probably won't be a problem. Make sure that it's impossible to miss the part of your resume that says you can legally live and work in the US. As long as your accent isn't impenetrable I don't think you'll run into more trouble than anyone else who probably wants relocation and has a masters with no work experience. Disclaimer: about a third of my department is foreign-born, your mileage may vary at a place that hasn't hired from abroad before
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Sep 10, 2015 15:21
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After messing up a potential great job opportunity, only to recall the correct answer 10 mins after the skype call, I got another one lined up, but checking the company on glassdoor and reviews seem weirdly bipolar. Not quite sure what to make of it.
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Sep 10, 2015 15:25
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Siliziumleben posted:Not well. German mom and US dad means I get to have two passports. Haha yeah I was making a joke because a bunch of the U.S. Men's National team are German kids whose dads were American GIs. Companies are gobbling up people with tech skills, especially in Austin (which is essentially a smaller Silicon Valley with better tacos) so I'm sure you won't have any trouble finding something.
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Sep 10, 2015 16:08
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I keep hearing that about Austin (from Austinites). What are the 'top tier' google/facebook/etc equivalents of the area?
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Sep 10, 2015 16:20
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Flat Daddy posted:I keep hearing that about Austin (from Austinites). What are the 'top tier' google/facebook/etc equivalents of the area? Google, for one http://maps.google.com/?q=Google%20Austin@30.386272,-97.736708
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Sep 10, 2015 17:04
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Google doesn't list engineering as one of the orgs in Austin: https://www.google.com/about/careers/locations/austin/ I don't think there are many devs there. I work on a team that does some computer vision stuff (Google Photos) but the computer vision guys are here in Mountain View. If you want to move to Austin because of the city's "vibe", you may also want to consider Portland or Seattle; Seattle in particular has a very strong tech industry. Cicero fucked around with this message at 17:45 on Sep 10, 2015 |
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Sep 10, 2015 17:42
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I feel like my cover letters are poo poo and hindering me, what kind of cover letters do you guys like to see? I know the general bullet points of highlight skills the company cares about, why you're interested, why you're a good fit for the company etc. What else? Do you prefer more formal or informal letters? How short is to short, long is to long? etc.
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Sep 10, 2015 18:34
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When I was actually helping make hiring decisions I didn't even look at the cover letters. Frankly, I consider them a vestigial thing(behavior?) when hiring a developer.
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Sep 10, 2015 18:48
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Cover letters are good to show that you're making an effort, since it's tailored to the company you're applying to. A short and sweet cover letter is a nice touch for sure, but it is somewhat irrelevant in the grand scheme. The worst thing you could do would be to have a generic/non-tailored cover letter with mistakes and poo poo. At that point clearly no cover letter at all would be better.
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Sep 10, 2015 20:33
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Mr. Crow posted:I feel like my cover letters are poo poo and hindering me, what kind of cover letters do you guys like to see? I've usually gone for short, to the point, fairly informal (I've used phrases like "right up my alley" for example). If the company has a flagship product, I try to link something specific that I've done to that product. I also pre-address potential concerns - "While I'm not currently local, I will be moving to <city> for this position", etc. I've addressed an employment gap not by calling attention to it, but by bringing up personal projects that I've done during that gap. The biggest thing I try to do is give the letter my own voice, which I can't do when it's too formal. I need to make it look like I wrote it, not that it was spit out by a cover letter machine. I like to do about half a page (not counting all the spacing for signatures and things); if they want the nitty-gritty they can look at my resume but the last thing I want to do is bore or annoy them with too much text. Oh, and I basically assume that this document is going to be read by an HR drone that I need to get past, and that people who can actually evaluate me are going to be more interested in my resume and asking me for more details about X or Y bullet point. So, again, sound like human not robot. Che Delilas fucked around with this message at 20:51 on Sep 10, 2015 |
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Sep 10, 2015 20:48
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Munkeymon posted:When I was actually helping make hiring decisions I didn't even look at the cover letters. Frankly, I consider them a vestigial thing(behavior?) when hiring a developer. No Safe Word posted:Cover letters are good to show that you're making an effort
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Sep 10, 2015 22:47
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My uni's coop dept. hammered on about how cover letters should be a full page, 4 paragraphs, single spaced etc. and resumes should be 2 full pages now I come from working in the service industry where if it's not a short, succinct 1 page without any extraneous bullshit, and only stuff that relates to the job, it's likely gonna get tossed in the trash. So, how full of it was the coop dept?
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Sep 10, 2015 23:40
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JawKnee posted:My uni's coop dept. hammered on about how cover letters should be a full page, 4 paragraphs, single spaced etc. and resumes should be 2 full pages
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Sep 10, 2015 23:42
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I'm in Vancouver, Canada
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Sep 10, 2015 23:42
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Mr. Crow posted:I feel like my cover letters are poo poo and hindering me, what kind of cover letters do you guys like to see? I see cover letters maybe in 1/20 candidates or less. I don't know if HR sees them, but I sure don't as hiring manager, and frankly, I don't care because I already spend less than 60 seconds on a resume because unless there's some really interesting and relevant stuff there (ultra rare) I just want to know if you can code and solve problems.
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Sep 10, 2015 23:46
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I'm in Toronto, always used like 3 short-ish paragraphs (introduction and why I applied, what I'm doing now at work, and then what I'm doing that's relevant otherwise), never cared about the formatting of the cover letter, 1 page resume, never had any issues with getting interviews. I would sweat making the resume 1 page and easy to read quickly, and not sweat the cover letter much at all.
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Sep 10, 2015 23:46
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You will get different answers from different people depending on different wordings of your question and at different times of the day. It's a crapshoot. Give up and spam everything. 
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Sep 11, 2015 01:28
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I posted in here a bit ago asking if being able to code some games in Pygame is good enough to possibly get me into an entry-level position as a self-taught hobbyist and was told to post some code for critique. So, here goes. Please dig in, but also be kind. I don't have any formal training and don't profess so be sure my code is great, but I'm pretty proud of it anyway. If you want to run the code, you'll need Python 3.4 and the appropriate PyGame extension package available here. Tetris isn't pretty, and there aren't any sounds or nice animations, but I'm really happy with the game logic. Wormy is a snake clone and uses the two .wav files included. If you find any bugs, feel free to let me know. I'm mostly interested in my code style though. Bugs can always be ironed out, but I'd rather fix self-taught code style problems before they become too ingrained. Download the .py and .wav files here
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Sep 11, 2015 01:49
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dantheman650 posted:I posted in here a bit ago asking if being able to code some games in Pygame is good enough to possibly get me into an entry-level position as a self-taught hobbyist and was told to post some code for critique. So, here goes. Please dig in, but also be kind. I don't have any formal training and don't profess so be sure my code is great, but I'm pretty proud of it anyway. If you want to run the code, you'll need Python 3.4 and the appropriate PyGame extension package available here. I don't know anything about writing games but I skimmed both of them and the logic looks fine to me. Regarding style, get in the habit of running pep8 and flake8 on your Python code.
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Sep 11, 2015 02:41
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First things first: get a Github account and learn how to use git. It will make storing and sharing your code infinitely easier.
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Sep 11, 2015 02:53
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Pollyanna posted:First things first: get a Github account and learn how to use git. It will make storing and sharing your code infinitely easier. Yeah, this has been on my to-do list for a bit now. I will very soon.
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Sep 11, 2015 03:29
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JawnV6 posted:This was my opinion. But, as Oh yeah I definitely still pull out generic_cover_lever.txt and fill in some things relevant to the company to show HR I'm willing to do the ritual dance, but I'm annoyed when one is required because I assume other technical people, whose opinions I actually care about, are also ignoring it and that's why I start with the generic pap instead of spending actual time thinking about it. Munkeymon fucked around with this message at 15:45 on Sep 11, 2015 |
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Sep 11, 2015 15:23
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Munkeymon posted:Oh yeah I definitely still pull out generic_cover_lever.txt and fill in some things relevant to the company to show HR I'm willing to do the ritual dance, but I'm annoyed when one is required because I assume other technical people, whose opinions I actually care about, are also ignoring it and that's why I start with the generic pap instead of spending actual time thinking about it. See this was my thought process as well, and course of action, but I'm not hearing back from as many companies as I'd like  Probably doesn't help I'm being very picky with the location and jobs + only 4 years of application experience, but still.
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Sep 11, 2015 17:37
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"Only four years" is more than you'd think.
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Sep 11, 2015 18:11
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Blotto Skorzany posted:Make sure that it's impossible to miss the part of your resume that says you can legally live and work in the US. Flat Daddy posted:I keep hearing that about Austin (from Austinites). What are the 'top tier' google/facebook/etc equivalents of the area? dantheman650 posted:Yeah, this has been on my to-do list for a bit now. I will very soon. In other news, the Georgia Tech/Udacity CS masters program extended the application deadline til the 21st. http://www.omscs.gatech.edu/
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Sep 11, 2015 19:56
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Mr. Crow posted:See this was my thought process as well, and course of action, but I'm not hearing back from as many companies as I'd like Four years in? You're gold, dude. You're not demanding far north of six figures yet, but you're also past the point of needing your hand held.
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Sep 13, 2015 05:23
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This is a while back now but thanks everyone for the advice! Y'all made good points about not making companies feel like backups if/when a "big name" interview falls through. Especially since it's not true; there are a lot of companies out there doing interesting things in more appealing (to me) locations. With that in mind, I polished my projects up to PEP 8, added a couple blog posts, did a lot more coding challenges and whiteboard practice, and generally feel more confident about what I want. I'm going to start sending out apps this week in earnest. Hopefully some of them turn into interviews. Also, some of these code challenge websites get crazy! I decided to try a "hard" problem and next thing I knew, I had blown a couple hours learning and implementing the Needleman-Wunsch DNA alignment algorithm... despite packages for it already existing. It was interesting practice with dynamic programming. That's my story and I'm sticking to it. Just have to work on bringing some balance back into my life. There is so much to learn that I have become a hermit for the past couple months. Which is probably why this is turning into a blog post. So I will stop.
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Sep 13, 2015 07:29
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pr0zac posted:In other news, the Georgia Tech/Udacity CS masters program extended the application deadline til the 21st. http://www.omscs.gatech.edu/ Do you think this is good for a recent grad(May) with a job? My job will cover the entire tuition as well, just worried about getting out of the healthcare industry after this.
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Sep 13, 2015 08:29
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I’m embarking on the ‘self-taught programmer’ route and would greatly appreciate some advice from this thread. Basically I was doing a CS degree last year, and dropped out due to some personal issues and have been working hospitality since then. It isn’t really an option to return to uni since I failed so many subjects and was put on academic suspension. I’m aware that makes me sound like a hopeless student but I actually did fairly well in high school, and I’m medicated now for my mental health problems blah blah e/n sob story bullshit. I enrolled in Udacity’s ‘data analyst nanodegree’. I’m really enjoying it so far, it’s super hard but i’m definitely putting the work in and i’m very confident that I want to work in a CS field. I was wondering if anyone could give any advice at what my job prospects would be if I finished it successfully and did a really good job with it, and what other steps I should be taking to make myself as employable as possible once I finish - since my only accreditation is the nanodegree and basically CS101 level skills in python, Java and C# from my studies last year. Also, is it realistic to get a job in the interim even with no real skills, but in the field somehow that would show I’m a bit more committed - basically would *random unskilled IT role* appear better to an employer than ‘bartender’ once I finish and start applying for actual development jobs (I’m in Melbourne, Australia fyi but I’m willing to move basically anywhere if it would help). I’m not under any illusions of how difficult this whole endeavour is going to be or how disciplined I need to be with study etc. Thanks, I really appreciate any input/advice etc.
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Sep 14, 2015 01:53
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Well, I'm also self-taught, so here are a couple thoughts: * Nobody is going to really care about the nanodegree. If you're getting something out of it, go forward, but don't think of it as resume fodder. * It'll make life easier if you have some projects that are functional to show off * It might be easier to start out on the administrative side than the programming side. In my case, I did this at a very small company and was eventually able to transition into dev. That may not be realistic for a lot of people but I'd say the system administrative world is pretty heavy on self-taught people. It also has certifications that are more valuable than any of the ones (other than a CS degree) available to programmers. Maybe a good stopgap for you.
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Sep 14, 2015 02:11
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RICHUNCLEPENNYBAGS posted:Well, I'm also self-taught, so here are a couple thoughts: RICHUNCLEPENNYBAGS posted:* It might be easier to start out on the administrative side than the programming side. In my case, I did this at a very small company and was eventually able to transition into dev. That may not be realistic for a lot of people but I'd say the system administrative world is pretty heavy on self-taught people. It also has certifications that are more valuable than any of the ones (other than a CS degree) available to programmers. Maybe a good stopgap for you.
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Sep 14, 2015 02:31
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SKELETONS posted:
A lot of people use those as stepping stones to "real" system administration jobs at bigger companies.
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Sep 14, 2015 03:56
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SKELETONS posted:Basically I was doing a CS degree last year, and dropped out due to some personal issues and have been working hospitality since then. It isn’t really an option to return to uni since I failed so many subjects and was put on academic suspension. I’m aware that makes me sound like a hopeless student but I actually did fairly well in high school, and I’m medicated now for my mental health problems blah blah e/n sob story bullshit. Almost every university in the US (I'm just guessing you're in the US) has some kind of academic renewal policy where people who flunked out can re-enter after a set time away from school, or if they take classes at a community college for a semester or two and transfer back. You should absolutely take a look into this.
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Sep 14, 2015 04:03
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Sombrero! posted:Almost every university in the US (I'm just guessing you're in the US) has some kind of academic renewal policy where people who flunked out can re-enter after a set time away from school, or if they take classes at a community college for a semester or two and transfer back. You should absolutely take a look into this.
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Sep 14, 2015 04:39
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KidDynamite posted:Do you think this is good for a recent grad(May) with a job? My job will cover the entire tuition as well, just worried about getting out of the healthcare industry after this. I mean, if your job would pay for you to get a masters yes its probably worth doing it.
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Sep 14, 2015 05:11
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RICHUNCLEPENNYBAGS posted:A lot of people use those as stepping stones to "real" system administration jobs at bigger companies. Sombrero! posted:Almost every university in the US (I'm just guessing you're in the US) has some kind of academic renewal policy where people who flunked out can re-enter after a set time away from school, or if they take classes at a community college for a semester or two and transfer back. You should absolutely take a look into this.
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Sep 14, 2015 08:14
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Siliziumleben posted:I recently graduated with a master's degree in Computer Vision & Computer Graphics from a mid-tier German university. I live in Germany, but I want to relocate to the Austin, TX area for personal reasons and find a job in a computer vision-related field there. I've lived in Germany all my life, but I don't need a Green Card to move to the US because I've got dual US-German citizenship, so that's not a problem. Blotto Skorzany posted:Make sure that it's impossible to miss the part of your resume that says you can legally live and work in the US. pr0zac posted:More exactly, write "US Citizen". I'll just put both. "US citizen - can legally live and work in the US." As a followup to my own question, am I right in assuming that I have a snowball's chance in hell at landing a job in the US while still living in Germany even if I explicitly state on my applications that I am eager and able to relocate? Siliziumleben fucked around with this message at 15:48 on Sep 14, 2015 |
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Sep 14, 2015 15:44
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Siliziumleben posted:As a followup to my own question, am I right in assuming that I have a snowball's chance in hell at landing a job in the US while still living in Germany even if I explicitly state on my applications that I am eager and able to relocate? I wouldn't worry about it. Plenty of places are willing to fly folks a few thousand miles to do an onsite loop and give them a lump sum for relocation assistance. The internal recruiters for big employers are usually pretty good at working the logistics for this sort of thing out
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Sep 14, 2015 15:51
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Blotto Skorzany posted:I wouldn't worry about it. Plenty of places are willing to fly folks a few thousand miles to do an onsite loop and give them a lump sum for relocation assistance. The internal recruiters for big employers are usually pretty good at working the logistics for this sort of thing out What is a "normal" amount of applications to be sending out per week when looking for an entry level job in software?
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Sep 14, 2015 19:05
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Siliziumleben posted:I'll just put both. "US citizen - can legally live and work in the US." Just don't put "Proud White US Citizen" on your resume in a red-white-and-blue block next to your name. Seriously.
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