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JawnV6 posted:uhhhh i've got some bad news about this "become a self employed/contractor" plan the talent deficit posted:this is like 90% of your time as a solo contractor Fair  I was hoping short term contracts would be more directly, "We know what needs to be done, we just need someone to write it". I used to get emails about ~3 month contracts relatively often from recruiters but previously I never looked at them so I wasn't sure what sort of work they typically entail.MrMoo posted:I look for say a 6-month contract every year, goal is to tour around in a VW campervan and chillax. Even better to have maintenance contracts for regular bill payment. Hell yea, this is basically what I want to do. Don't need to rake in the dough, I just want to be able to afford food and gas/insurance/car payment.
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Aug 1, 2019 12:55
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Dont forget connectivity!
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Aug 1, 2019 13:09
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Sab669 posted:Fair My guess is that for a company to have their poo poo together enough to have a perfectly specc'ed requirements document for that sort of situation, they would probably need to be coders themselves to understand all the ramifications of their decisions and level of detail they need. I feel like an average contract position would need a contractor who is able to step up and help them shape the requirements and manage expectations, which could be a pretty stressful experience if the people hiring don't have a lot of experience. I also have a long-term plan to pay off my house and then do part time contracts, but those concerns along with taxes / self employment paperwork seem like too big of a hassle right now.
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Aug 1, 2019 13:11
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vonnegutt posted:I also have a long-term plan to pay off my house and then do part time contracts, but those concerns along with taxes / self employment paperwork seem like too big of a hassle right now. Yea, as I said I've still got 5 years on my student loans so I'm trapped in the Full Time Cube Drone mode until then at least. Maybe even another year or two after that depending on how much I have saved up for said van + hardware to make it livable. Just trying to get vague ideas of what to expect for work to support such a lifestyle 
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Aug 1, 2019 13:28
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Wasn't sure whether to put this in the Amazon thread or not. But I've got through to interview as a "Technical Account Manager" at AWS, by being referred by our own TAM. Really excited for it but nervous about the Amazon interview process; 1x Technical phone screen 1x Management phone screen If I pass those two it's another 5 hours of interviewing at the local office. I'm used to 1x phone + 90 minutes on site, this seems insane to me, so has anyone gone through this sort of process before and has any tips? I'll be making sure I have something to drink after.
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Aug 1, 2019 21:29
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Goon Agrik is an Amazon TAM, he posts regularly in the IT threads and the cloud giant thread.
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Aug 1, 2019 21:35
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Cancelbot posted:Wasn't sure whether to put this in the Amazon thread or not. But I've got through to interview as a "Technical Account Manager" at AWS, by being referred by our own TAM. Really excited for it but nervous about the Amazon interview process; All-day on-site interviews are very normal for desirable tech companies. Two phone screens seems like relatively a lot, though.
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Aug 1, 2019 22:55
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Yeah, most tech company onsites tend to be about 5-6 hours plus lunch. Nothing out of the ordinary there. It can be kind of grueling, but try to stay upbeat and make the most of it. Even if you had what you feel was a bad session with one person, it might not be as bad as you thought and it also doesn't mean that you're sunk, either. Also at Amazon they often fully intend to throw a really tough "bar raiser" interview at you which is meant to make you sweat and feel like poo poo after.
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Aug 1, 2019 23:21
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Cancelbot posted:Wasn't sure whether to put this in the Amazon thread or not. But I've got through to interview as a "Technical Account Manager" at AWS, by being referred by our own TAM. Really excited for it but nervous about the Amazon interview process; Im an SDE at AWS, not a TAM, but for any role you should be prepared to have a good anecdote you can cite (preferably in STAR format) for each of the Amazon Leadership Principles. If your interview starts a question with something like tell me about a time when...; thats your cue.
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Aug 2, 2019 02:08
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Multiple phone screens, week long technical "tests", day long gruelling interviews all seem absurd. I mean I sort of get it I guess, there is lots of competition for roles at BIG TECH because they are effectively golden tickets on your CV but cripes....
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Aug 2, 2019 02:48
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Xik posted:Multiple phone screens, week long technical "tests", day long gruelling interviews all seem absurd. Five hours is more than I've experienced in a single day. I have seen 3-4 hours more than once, and neither was at a "high profile" company nor were they for roles beyond "line-level" software engineer. That amount of interviewing for Amazon seems like a lot but I guess they can demand it because it's Amazon. Anway, I love the post-interview beer. It feels so good when you're done and you can put your guard down a bit.
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Aug 2, 2019 03:08
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How is Amazon these days? A decade ago it was a place with unbelievably high turnover that churned through junior devs like mad and didn't spend any money on perks -- you got your (generous) salary and stock grants, medical, etc., but the offices were barebones cubical labyrinths with lots of drab grey. Has that changed much?
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Aug 2, 2019 03:17
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Some effort posts were made by goon TAM agrikk not too long ago: https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3653857&pagenumber=1465&perpage=40#post496507587 The Fool fucked around with this message at 03:44 on Aug 2, 2019 |
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Aug 2, 2019 03:34
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Big tech doesnt really do takehomes, which is awesome. Id way rather do a conversational phone screen and a day on campus than the bullshit that small tech companies do where theres at least one phone screen, maybe having to do a coderpad thing, freaking _homework_, and then you get to go on campus for a bunch of interviews Of course the non-tech-company thing where (apparently) you roll in and chat for an hour and get a job offer sounds like an impossible fantasy land to me.
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Aug 2, 2019 03:54
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TooMuchAbstraction posted:How is Amazon these days? A decade ago it was a place with unbelievably high turnover that churned through junior devs like mad and didn't spend any money on perks -- you got your (generous) salary and stock grants, medical, etc., but the offices were barebones cubical labyrinths with lots of drab grey. Has that changed much? I've been in AWS three years now, my impression is that it just really depends on your team. It was probably also like that back then. The only difference I've been told is that they've made it easier to transfer teams. The offices are definitely much nicer than you describe. Perks are decent but not as good as other big tech companies from what I gather. Personally, I have less stressful working conditions than I ever did before, and I get to work on stuff I actually care about. I also make more money than ever before, but a lot of that is getting lucky with the stock appreciation.
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Aug 2, 2019 04:53
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Maybe Im weird because I preferred the homework style interview problem for my current job (smaller public tech company) in lieu of a technical phone screen. They said it was a 2-3 hour problem and that was totally accurate. Plus it was all practical skills demonstration, nothing too contrived or esoteric. The on-site was pretty typically what youd expect from a big tech interview, but overall pretty well executed. However I was also pretty targeted in my applications for companies I was really interested in, not juggling a million interviews. I had a decent job and was fishing for a better one.
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Aug 2, 2019 06:16
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Give me a realistic take-home over a series of ridiculous high-pressure time-limited guess-the-algorithm problems any day.
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Aug 2, 2019 07:36
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Adhemar posted:Im an SDE at AWS, not a TAM, but for any role you should be prepared to have a good anecdote you can cite (preferably in STAR format) for each of the Amazon Leadership Principles. If your interview starts a question with something like tell me about a time when...; thats your cue. Thanks, this lines up with what our TAM said to be prepared for, he lamented a lot of people hear that question and don't tell a story but just recite technical nonsense. The longest/worst interview i've had was 2 hours compared to the more typical phone screen + 90 minutes face to face for developer positions. So this is definitely new territory for me. I've also read Agrikk's posts and they line up with how our TAM describes it, if you've got your head screwed on it's a good job to have; if your customers are happy then you have a great time. Cancelbot fucked around with this message at 08:00 on Aug 2, 2019 |
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Aug 2, 2019 07:54
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If I can come away from a take-home having learned something, I'm cool with it. I did a screening question for a fintech company this past spring that involved learning about the relationship between FIFO accounting and tax liabilities in stock trades, and the problem domain was pretty interesting.
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Aug 2, 2019 13:42
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quote:I'm fully expecting the bottom to drop out of the online ads market at some point in the next five years. It's happened before (2003-2004), and there's a growing awareness that hypertargeted advertising isn't anywhere near effective enough to justify what people are paying for it. It'll be very interesting to see how Google and Facebook will deal with a shift like that. I think there's a self-awareness within the market that may help alleviate this potential bust though. I've been working as a data engineer at one of these media/marketing consulting firms and there is a high level of self awareness with respect to selling hopes and dreams vs. developing solutions that generate measurable growth for our clients. We aggressively drop clients who just want to purchase the hopes and dreams package.
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Aug 3, 2019 00:07
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Ralith posted:Give me a realistic take-home over a series of ridiculous high-pressure time-limited guess-the-algorithm problems any day. Absolutely. Let me write some real code, at my own desk, and my own computer. Then in the in-person, let's talk it over like we would if we worked together. I hate the adversarial interview style that often emerges out of the "better use my favorite algorithm" problems. Great, suppose I made it through the gauntlet and got an offer. Now I have to make nice and work with you after you sat there throwing things at me trying to make me fail.
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Aug 3, 2019 05:45
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You should work in the UK. Sure the pay is less good, but universal healthcare and the interview processes is way more pragmatic in my experience. I've interviewed for 8 jobs throughout my career and all of them select for "not being a dick" more than "can they write an algorithm to find the greatest common divisor of two integers in 30 seconds on a whiteboard". This is why I'm nervous about my Amazon interviews. It's unlike any other interview I've been through. On that however, I think I did well on the technical screen and I'll get feedback Monday/Tuesday.
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Aug 3, 2019 11:15
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I worked for a valley company that didn't do technical screens of any kind and like a third of the peeps who had the title developer couldn't understand for loops, it was bad
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Aug 3, 2019 16:27
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I had worked at a place where the screening was the interviewer's choice of either got a mildly interesting technical problem to build a solution for, or a 1 hour phone call. Following that there'd be a one-day in-person interview. Seemed to work fine.Cancelbot posted:You should work in the UK. Sure the pay is less good, but universal healthcare and the interview processes is way more pragmatic in my experience. I've interviewed for 8 jobs throughout my career and all of them select for "not being a dick" more than "can they write an algorithm to find the greatest common divisor of two integers in 30 seconds on a whiteboard". The impression I'd gotten before is that the UK pays pretty bad compared to most of Europe? I don't know how much of that is GBP collapsing.
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Aug 3, 2019 17:32
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Interesting that this thread is talking about ridiculous interviews as that just came up in the local facebook gigs group too. I'm pretty sure the ridiculous interview process is a san francisco thing. I went to the end of two in June/July and I think I counted something like 11 touches at one and 13 at the other. I've appreciated the current company I'm interviewing at who is at the check references before making an offer stage just over a week after I started talking with them. Personally, my favorite is a phone screen, a take home project on a mini version of your software, a code review on said project, and a single manager/CTO/CEO interview.
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Aug 4, 2019 00:23
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Also, in actual career advice ask: Has anyone done a masters of engineering management or MBA to better move from IC to manager. Worth it? Easier to land the management jobs? Not any easier to transition from Senior to Management?
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Aug 4, 2019 02:49
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kayakyakr posted:Also, in actual career advice ask: IMO/IME only real way to make the jump is at a job where you're senior IC and express interest. I would never go back to school, personally.
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Aug 4, 2019 07:33
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Ive been working from home as full time remote so I wake at 6:30, at stand-up by 7, done the day at 4 PM Im useful to the company as a full stack dev, but going hardcore into distributed systems is what I really want to do. Hard to do anything relevant with Kafka or Dynamo DB or Kubernetes just studying on my own and dicking around with examples. Dunno if I should just put down that dream and pick up something else like Infosec or embedded development
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Aug 4, 2019 10:43
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Mao Zedong Thot posted:IMO/IME only real way to make the jump is at a job where you're senior IC and express interest. I would never go back to school, personally. Agreed. I made the jump from IC to an EM because I wanted to take on more responsibility, my boss wanted me to have more responsibility and the opportunity presented itself (fair amount of luck). As someone who who manages managers - I can say that most people do not want to do it. If I have someone who expresses interest in people management, I do my best to make it happen. Coffee Jones posted:Ive been working from home as full time remote so I wake at 6:30, at stand-up by 7, done the day at 4 PM Have you told your manager/boss about it? If so, what'd they say?
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Aug 4, 2019 14:54
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Doh004 posted:Agreed. I made the jump from IC to an EM because I wanted to take on more responsibility, my boss wanted me to have more responsibility and the opportunity presented itself (fair amount of luck). As someone who who manages managers - I can say that most people do not want to do it. If I have someone who expresses interest in people management, I do my best to make it happen. Yeah, that's the theme of the current search. IC at places that are growing and may require fresh Leads/Managers soon. I want that myself, and also want to move into management before I start hitting the software engineering ageism wall in a decade or so. The company that I contract for doesn't want to lose me but keeps dropping the ball when it comes to doing any sort of retention. They've hinted at a leadership group that would give me some EM experience, but no movement in the 2 months since they mentioned it. Somewhat ironically, I have experience as a manager, but it was 6 years ago. Then I made the mistake of going consulting and back to senior-level IC for the next 6 years, which means I lost the immediacy of that experience.
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Aug 4, 2019 15:55
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kayakyakr posted:Yeah, that's the theme of the current search. IC at places that are growing and may require fresh Leads/Managers soon. I want that myself, and also want to move into management before I start hitting the software engineering ageism wall in a decade or so.
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Aug 4, 2019 19:51
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Keetron posted:When would you say is this wall? I've seen people start reporting it gets bad ~ mid 40's, and past 50 it gets real hard to find a job, even if you've been programming in the latest and greatest all that time.
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Aug 4, 2019 19:58
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40 seems about the time Id want to stop being an IC and move into management.
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Aug 4, 2019 20:00
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There's also architect/PM paths, you don't necessarily need to go into management if you don't want to. I think by 50 I'd start looking at doing things that actually contribute to society, like plumbing.
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Aug 4, 2019 21:00
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Coffee Jones posted:. Ask for a research budget. Set up an etl pipeline where a bunch of processes generate events into Kafka get consumed by the etl controlled via kubernetes and writes the results to dynamodb.
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Aug 4, 2019 21:12
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Janitor Prime posted:40 seems about the time I’d want to stop being an IC and move into management. Same. I'm aiming for management by late 30s (I'm 31) and hopefully running my own shop by 50
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Aug 4, 2019 21:44
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I'm starting to wonder if maybe I can use my nest egg to transition into indie game development. It has got to be the stupidest goddamn idea from a statistical standpoint, but I feel like I can afford to throw a year or two at it to see if it sticks without getting set too far back.
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Aug 4, 2019 21:49
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I don't want to become a manager and I don't see how I could ever contribute to society, so I guess my career path after 40 involves a bullet.
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Aug 4, 2019 22:21
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Architect and PM are management adjacent without the direct reports. You do have to interact with a lot more people
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Aug 4, 2019 22:44
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TooMuchAbstraction posted:I'm starting to wonder if maybe I can use my nest egg to transition into indie game development. It has got to be the stupidest goddamn idea from a statistical standpoint, but I feel like I can afford to throw a year or two at it to see if it sticks without getting set too far back. If you can afford to make no money whatsoever from what you do during that time period, then yeah, you could give it a shot. You should think seriously about moving someplace with a low cost of living, though.
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Aug 4, 2019 22:53
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