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My test was to design a simple card game and evaluate some hands. Pretty easy and the longest things for me were figuring out why my JUnit classpath was hosed up and finding the bug in the Python test script they were giving out with the assignment, which probably wasn't necessary but I did.
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Oct 9, 2016 23:12
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Good Will Hrunting posted:My test was to design a simple card game and evaluate some hands. Pretty easy and the longest things for me were figuring out why my JUnit classpath was hosed up and finding the bug in the Python test script they were giving out with the assignment, which probably wasn't necessary but I did.
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Oct 10, 2016 01:37
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Ralith posted:General wisdom seems to be that searching for jobs by sending out resumes should be your last resort, also. Make friends with people in the industry and get a foot in the door. Make friends? Welp, I'm hosed. But seriously, I used to be in games, so anyone I know is there, and I'm not interested in going back to that. I'm in this weird position where I've got some job experience, but it feels like it might as well be my first job search as far as connections are concerned. I'll figure something out I guess.
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Oct 10, 2016 05:29
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Deep Dish Fuckfest posted:Make friends? Welp, I'm hosed. Ralith is exaggerating wildly. Connections are definitely very helpful but if everything else was a "last resort" then there wouldn't be this giant recruiting infrastructure glued to the industry.
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Oct 10, 2016 06:11
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Eggnogium posted:Ralith is exaggerating wildly. Connections are definitely very helpful but if everything else was a "last resort" then there wouldn't be this giant recruiting infrastructure glued to the industry. IME, connections are good for getting past the HR filter and that's about it (for orgs > 20 people; smaller anything goes). Not that I'd want it any other way, but the utility always seems to be overstated. Occasionally you'll get to look at a position that's not listed, but only rarely.
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Oct 10, 2016 12:31
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I had to get my two cents in but this discussion was rightly called not for the Newbie thread sosarehu posted:Being lazy and being unable to wake up early are both byproducts of the root cause of being unable to deprive oneself in the present in order to benefit in the future. There is a correlation. Smart companies know to let their employees figure out when they do their best work, and sometimes that includes the evening. In the case of sleep, depriving yourself means only not staying awake for more than 16 hours at a time, and maintaining sleep hygeine. The phase of your cycle has nothing to do with it. Google's wellness programs literally tell me to figure out when I do my best work and have a good balance, but at my old company without all the bells and whistles, we had people who came in at 6:30-7 and left at 3 (which is awesome because you beat a lot of traffic) and others who came in at 10 or 11 and would call me at 7pm to ask me a question. They were all bright people who did excellent work. The early guy was closer to the hardware, and less people around in the morning probably helped him focus, and I think he also worked his schedule around his kids' school hours. I type this from the 7am shuttle. Tomorrow I'm taking the 6:20am shuttle Blinkz0rz posted:Let's put it this way: if normal business hours are 9-5, you're an rear end in a top hat if you roll in at noon and work until 8 because you're intentionally restricting your team from meeting for 3 hours during every workday. Oh no. I'll have to meet with her at 1. So inefficient Also, if you're in more than 2 meetings per day as a developer something is very very wrong
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Oct 10, 2016 15:58
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taqueso posted:I'd be annoyed at my coworker just for disqualifying candidates based on one tech question, especially on a phone screen. And it sounds like this Q was fairly esoteric. Heh, Wolfram Mathworks sometimes asks for "a C++ operator that can be unary or binary," where what they actually mean is a symbol that can be a unary or binary operator. Examples are * and &
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Oct 10, 2016 16:16
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Stinky_Pete posted:Oh no. I'll have to meet with her at 1. So inefficient There's a lot of talking past each other, but I've generally seen more shade thrown at folks who leave at 5PM sharp than the ones who work off-hours. Stinky_Pete posted:Also, if you're in more than 2 meetings per day as a developer something is very very wrong
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Oct 10, 2016 18:03
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That's fair, I guess I haven't seen enough roles to know that they all don't require lots of meetings with different groups e: but to be clear, I meant more than 2 meetings every day, not just "how could you possibly have 3 meetings on the same day" Stinky_Pete fucked around with this message at 15:09 on Oct 11, 2016 |
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Oct 10, 2016 18:22
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kitten smoothie posted:If the take-home isn't a total trainwreck I don't mind it. A past job of mine gave iOS/Android candidates a take-home that would probably take an hour if you were at all qualified to do the job. I had to do both to get my job.
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Oct 11, 2016 10:51
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For those of you who use Visual Studio: what version do you run and why? I downloaded VS Code to get my feet wet with its layout, extensions, and foibles, but I'm a little lost when it comes to compiling code for something like C++. VS Community may have a bit more native support, but I'm not sure where to look for what. Basic Google searches talk about editing the tasks.json file, but do I add the task I want to reference for compiling or replace what's there? And apparently it's specific to each project? I apologize if this is simple stuff and I'll probably feel like a dunce once answers are revealed, but for now... 
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Oct 12, 2016 23:25
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BlueInkAlchemist posted:For those of you who use Visual Studio: what version do you run and why? I downloaded VS Code to get my feet wet with its layout, extensions, and foibles, but I'm a little lost when it comes to compiling code for something like C++. VS Community may have a bit more native support, but I'm not sure where to look for what. Basic Google searches talk about editing the tasks.json file, but do I add the task I want to reference for compiling or replace what's there? And apparently it's specific to each project? VS Code is an editor, not an IDE. Presumably tasks.json is some crappy functionality you add to make your editor kick off builds. You probably want to use real Visual Studio, unless you have an existing project using some other build toolchain (make, etc.).
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Oct 12, 2016 23:38
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VOTE YES ON 69 posted:VS Code is an editor, not an IDE. Presumably tasks.json is some crappy functionality you add to make your editor kick off builds. You probably want to use real Visual Studio, unless you have an existing project using some other build toolchain (make, etc.). Even if you use some other tool chain VS is still good. And free now, too with community.
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Oct 13, 2016 01:53
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Just to add that VS Code is very nice for javascript development. It's written in Typescript and is open source : https://github.com/Microsoft/vscode
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Oct 13, 2016 03:34
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leper khan posted:Even if you use some other tool chain VS is still good. And free now, too with community. Sure, I'm not really trying to poo poo on VS Code, just noting that even though it is called 'Visual Studio', it is not an IDE or really all that close to any other VS product. It is Atom/SublimeText from Microsoft. It is not comparable to actual VS. edit: I'm bad at reading comprehension 
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Oct 13, 2016 03:39
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VOTE YES ON 69 posted:Sure, I'm not really trying to poo poo on VS Code, just noting that even though it is called 'Visual Studio', it is not an IDE or really all that close to any other VS product. It is Atom/SublimeText from Microsoft. It is not comparable to actual VS. I never said 'Code' lol that thing is lol
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Oct 13, 2016 03:41
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Do Angular 2 & React qualify as "bleeding edge" techs? What about Moment & Node? What iterations of Python, Lua, Unity, etc are out there creating buzz? I feel like any Google search my nascent returning-to-programming-as-a-primary-focus-no-for-real brain would make lacks specificity. Other than AS, what techs/languages are getting sunset? What's on the way out? I really appreciate everybody's input, there's a lot to take in out there and I want to seriously narrow things down so I don't get too overwhelmed/distracted once I pick a path.
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Oct 13, 2016 23:45
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BlueInkAlchemist posted:Do Angular 2 & React qualify as "bleeding edge" techs? What about Moment & Node? What iterations of Python, Lua, Unity, etc are out there creating buzz? I feel like any Google search my nascent returning-to-programming-as-a-primary-focus-no-for-real brain would make lacks specificity. Unless you have a specific company in mind, chasing the bleeding edge is an exercise in frustration. Focus on the fundamentals, and focus on solid languages that aren't going away any time soon. If you want to work mostly on frontend, learn Javascript, HTML and CSS. If you're more into the middle layer, it's hard to go wrong with C# or Java (Python's probably fine too). You can take experience in those languages and apply it to the more specialized poo poo as you go through different companies (who all use different frameworks of the month, and no, you don't have to have 5 years of Fadly.IO to get a job somewhere, even if a job posting is really insistent about it). Again if you have a particular company or industry you're targeting, and you know they lean towards certain things, by all means feel free to specialize. The financial sector for example sees a lot of C++ and F# from what I've heard (but I have no personal experience to back that up). But if you get the fundamentals first, any path you start going down will be easier to escape if it turns out it's not for you.
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Oct 14, 2016 01:04
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Che Delilas posted:Unless you have a specific company in mind, chasing the bleeding edge is an exercise in frustration. Focus on the fundamentals, and focus on solid languages that aren't going away any time soon. If you want to work mostly on frontend, learn Javascript, HTML and CSS. If you're more into the middle layer, it's hard to go wrong with C# or Java (Python's probably fine too). You can take experience in those languages and apply it to the more specialized poo poo as you go through different companies (who all use different frameworks of the month, and no, you don't have to have 5 years of Fadly.IO to get a job somewhere, even if a job posting is really insistent about it). This is helpful advice! I picked up some books on C#/Unity and Python since I want to branch out from web dev.
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Oct 14, 2016 02:09
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I personally Love C# it's a beautiful language with lots of cool features that let you build stuff how you want while still taking you by the hand along the way. Microsoft is really king of the hill in term of developer tools : Visual Studio + Sql Server management studio make everything easy. MS cloud offering (Azure) is really starting to pick up in term of feature and it's easy to learn when you are familiar with their ecosystem. C# / will get you a lot of Line of Business apps dev type of jobs. Lots of web dev also. The Javascript ecosystem is vibrant, innovative but it lacks structure and sanity. Any javascript framework over 6 months old can become obsolete. jQuery has been around for a while and it still does the trick but it's certainly not San Francisco cool. Unless you really want to get involved with the community and spend your whole time doing javascript it's not really worth it IMO. With today's framework you can build everything in javascript : Mobile, Web front-end and back-end and desktop apps, you might transform in a hipster or lose your mind doing it tho. If you want to know what the cool kids and SF startup use head over to https://news.ycombinator.com/ gently caress PHP, there's a market for it and surely will have one in the future but really it's terrible, worst then javascript. C++ for AAA games. C for IoT and Embed. Python for AI. You should definitely be comfortable around SQL and NoSQL databases. There are tons of options and you can't master them all, I've left tons of languages and techs, there are so much of them. Is there a particular field you'd want to go ? Desktop, Mobile, Web backend, Web frontend, Embedded, Robotics, AI, Big Data, Virtual & Augmented reality...
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Oct 14, 2016 02:19
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AskYourself posted:Is there a particular field you'd want to go ? Desktop, Mobile, Web backend, Web frontend, Embedded, Robotics, AI, Big Data, Virtual & Augmented reality... Mostly desktop gaming. I've dabbled in modding games (Lua for WoW mods, poking Skyrim mods with a stick/TES5Edit, etc) and dev blogs from Blizzard and Bethesda are fascinating to me.
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Oct 14, 2016 02:25
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AskYourself posted:You should definitely be comfortable around SQL... SQL/database design is one of the few college courses that I took that I use almost everything I learned daily. Even further, if, as a developer, you can learn the ins and outs of a particular RDBMS, you'll be extremely valuable in many organizations. Many DBAs are trash, and when a query is causing a customer pain, getting in there and analyzing execution plans, fixing indexes and tweaking settings will elevate you to developer God tier. Many developers don't understand, or shy away from, DBs. Don't be that guy.
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Oct 14, 2016 02:42
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Edit : ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Lol man our reg dates are one-day apart ! That's not my field so hopefully someone else can give better information than me but here's what I know : Hardcore AAA desktop gaming is done in C++, Ideally you want some to be strong in math if you are working on 3d engines. You also want strong fundamentals in optimization. If you want a smoother learning curve, you can start with mobile gaming or light desktop games with Unity (free) or a native mobile tech : Java (Android Studio) or Swift (buyin to Apple required). Try and build an app or a game using either Unreal Engine or Unity for a start I guess. I don't know how it is for other cities but in Montreal you have to show some accomplishment to get hired at one of the big game studios. AskYourself fucked around with this message at 02:54 on Oct 14, 2016 |
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Oct 14, 2016 02:52
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AskYourself posted:If you want a smoother learning curve, you can start with mobile gaming or light desktop games with Unity (free) or a native mobile tech : Java (Android Studio) or Swift (buyin to Apple required). One of the resources I've picked up integrates C# with Unity, so that is definitely where I'll be starting, with some basic games (I think the book starts with a simple platformer). I'm getting started with C++ in Visual Studio. I'm also brushing up on web dev and programming fundamentals (OOP, usability, etc) so I can be a little more well-rounded in that regard. That way I'm not trying to learn all of this on top of Python and Java and Angular and 
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Oct 14, 2016 02:56
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Follow up! I have this textbook arriving Monday, and just downloaded Unity to get started on learning it (I grabbed Visual Studio Community as well). Spending some time in B&N, I also came across this, this, and this. Intrigued as I am by the various types of games these would help me learn to build, I worry that they might be redundant, and therefore a waste of money if all I want is a tutorial on how to code & publish a particular kind of game. What other resources might there be? Do you recommend books like this as references? NB: I checked out C++ For Dummies from my local library to use with VS, so that second discovered book would be in addition to that. Likewise, the third discovery would be a follow-up to the incoming textbook.
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Oct 15, 2016 01:53
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BlueInkAlchemist posted:What other resources might there be? Do you recommend books like this as references?
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Oct 15, 2016 03:11
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BlueInkAlchemist posted:Follow up! I have this textbook arriving Monday, and just downloaded Unity to get started on learning it (I grabbed Visual Studio Community as well). Spending some time in B&N, I also came across this, this, and this. Intrigued as I am by the various types of games these would help me learn to build, I worry that they might be redundant, and therefore a waste of money if all I want is a tutorial on how to code & publish a particular kind of game. What other resources might there be? Do you recommend books like this as references? If your c++ book wasn't written for c++11 (or later), you shouldn't use it.
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Oct 15, 2016 04:43
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BlueInkAlchemist posted:Mostly desktop gaming. I've dabbled in modding games (Lua for WoW mods, poking Skyrim mods with a stick/TES5Edit, etc) and dev blogs from Blizzard and Bethesda are fascinating to me. If you're interested in working on the big AAA titles, it's worth mentioning that no one on those projects is "just" a programmer. You'll be an engine programmer, a 3D programmer, a gameplay programmer, a network programmer, an AI programmer, a tool programmer, and so on and so forth. The requirements for each of these are different. I mean, there's obviously a common core of being able to write code that works, but beyond that you'll be looking at very different kinds of problems. It's worth thinking about this as you learn and work on personal projects, so you can focus on things that will really matter for the positions you want to target. For example, nobody really cares if a network programmer hasn't done any math beyond high school, but a 3D, physics or animation programmer needs a pretty good grasp of linear algebra and calculus in order to be able to do anything at all. Likewise, the entire algorithm toolbox of an AI programmer is pretty specialized and not really used directly by anyone else. Gameplay programmers often have to hack stuff together quickly when asked to prototype something by game designers, and tend to work a bit more iteratively than other positions because of that.
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Oct 15, 2016 04:56
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What do you reply if someone asks a question(s) about something you haven't used in a while? Like two places I've interviewed at now have asked about SQL and I don't list it anywhere beyond the tail end of my "skills".
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Oct 17, 2016 17:08
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Good Will Hrunting posted:What do you reply if someone asks a question(s) about something you haven't used in a while? Like two places I've interviewed at now have asked about SQL and I don't list it anywhere beyond the tail end of my "skills". If you can't answer questions then it shouldn't be on your resume. If they ask something esoteric then clarify that you don't use it frequently and you'd look it up. You're pretty much screwed in that situation though.
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Oct 17, 2016 17:33
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Good Will Hrunting posted:What do you reply if someone asks a question(s) about something you haven't used in a while? Like two places I've interviewed at now have asked about SQL and I don't list it anywhere beyond the tail end of my "skills". This is why I prefer putting a list of "skills used" per job. Then it becomes obvious that, yes, I have used VBScript, but it was 10 years ago.
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Oct 17, 2016 18:07
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So, I'm supposed to take things off my resume that I haven't used in a while? It's not really esoteric but I haven't used SQL much since college (beyond the basics) and definitely don't remember the exact way certain aggregations and such work, but feel pretty confident that if I actually got the time to use it I'd ramp back up pretty quickly.Skandranon posted:This is why I prefer putting a list of "skills used" per job. Then it becomes obvious that, yes, I have used VBScript, but it was 10 years ago. I do literally exactly this with my major current work projects. And I have a section at the bottom mentioning poo poo I've worked with in passing before.
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Oct 17, 2016 18:08
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Good Will Hrunting posted:So, I'm supposed to take things off my resume that I haven't used in a while? It's not really esoteric but I haven't used SQL much since college (beyond the basics) and definitely don't remember the exact way certain aggregations and such work, but feel pretty confident that if I actually got the time to use it I'd ramp back up pretty quickly. Then just answer honestly like you did here. If they are looking for an SQL expert, it's probably not you. If they are looking for someone who is familiar enough with SQL and could ramp up in short order, they should be able to figure out if you fit or not. As long as you didn't put "SQL EXPERT 20 YEARS" and reply "SELECT? Sorry don't remember" you should be fine.
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Oct 17, 2016 18:15
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Good Will Hrunting posted:So, I'm supposed to take things off my resume that I haven't used in a while? It's not really esoteric but I haven't used SQL much since college (beyond the basics) and definitely don't remember the exact way certain aggregations and such work, but feel pretty confident that if I actually got the time to use it I'd ramp back up pretty quickly.
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Oct 17, 2016 18:47
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Yeah, just be honest. "I haven't worked with SQL in a few years so I'm a bit rusty, but would be easily able to get back up to speed." It's fine (probably good even) to list SQL on your resume even if you're rusty on it, as long as you aren't applying for like Chief SQL Expert positions. Agree you should be tailoring your resume, but something like SQL is a pretty general 'hey just FYI I have worked with databases' thing to note.
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Oct 17, 2016 18:53
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JawnV6 posted:Do you really want a job that's selecting you because of SQL 10 years ago? At a certain point you're past the scattershot "give me anything that pays" point and targeting your search for things that would actually excite you. If you're not tailoring your resume for each position, you're advertising core competencies and that's a much shorter list. gently caress no, I was actually shocked (and embarrassed) for the companies that interviewed me like that. My search has been extremely tailored to places I want to work and the interview process at at least 2 of them was complete garbage. Thursday I have two more and I expect at least one to be similar garbage if the phone screen of bullshit trivia was any indication. I turned down 2 places after talking to their engineerings because of how dumb and poor the interview process was. That said, the two places with the take-home assignments were great reflections of my skills (so far - lets hope their in-persons are just as good). VOTE YES ON 69 posted:Yeah, just be honest. "I haven't worked with SQL in a few years so I'm a bit rusty, but would be easily able to get back up to speed." It's fine (probably good even) to list SQL on your resume even if you're rusty on it, as long as you aren't applying for like Chief SQL Expert positions. Basically I have SQL on there to say "I have taken a database course at one point and understand SQL even though I work mostly with NoSQL solutions for my current projects" and try to get into a discussion about why we use it/why it wasn't the best choice for some/etc.
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Oct 17, 2016 19:24
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Anybody familiar with Udemy's classes? I have some deep discount codes and I want to know if it'd be a waste of time.Good Will Hrunting posted:Basically I have SQL on there to say "I have taken a database course at one point and understand SQL even though I work mostly with NoSQL solutions for my current projects" and try to get into a discussion about why we use it/why it wasn't the best choice for some/etc. My goal is to have SQL on my resume/online portfolio for the same reasons. Along with 'showcased' projects in C#/Unity, HTML5, and possibly Python, it should demonstrate at least baseline competence, and the springboard to talk about OOP, how I use the ADDIE model (which may have a new/more recognizable name nowadays), and why knowing the whole stack is important instead of just saying "IMMA CODE DIS" and then spending 80% of my time debugging. BlueInkAlchemist fucked around with this message at 15:04 on Oct 18, 2016 |
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Oct 18, 2016 15:00
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VOTE YES ON 69 posted:Yeah, just be honest. "I haven't worked with SQL in a few years so I'm a bit rusty, but would be easily able to get back up to speed." It's fine (probably good even) to list SQL on your resume even if you're rusty on it, as long as you aren't applying for like Chief SQL Expert positions. I'd like to suggest expressing this in a positive. Lead with, "I can do a SELECT FROM WHERE or an UPDATE WHERE query off the top of my head, and it's easy to look up keywords I haven't used in a while but know are needed." Y'know, I expect most hiring managers just want to hear "I won't be spending multiple paid hours discovering how SQL works"
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Oct 18, 2016 15:21
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"I won't be that guy who does a FROM x, y, z, a, b on massive tables and literally brings down our production Spark cluster for hours."
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Oct 18, 2016 15:27
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I think most places with higher technical standards will want someone to have sufficient understanding of SQL concepts that they wouldn't bring down the other guys. The ones I ask for "familiarity" with SQL is keys, replication concepts (don't need details), indexes, and how you would try to understand if your queries suck beyond "ask the DBA!"
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Oct 18, 2016 16:00
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