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Gin_Rummy posted:Yeah, don’t get me wrong… I’m definitely glad to be in this job vs my old one, where I had gotten stuck and stagnated for like three years straight. But now I’m just afraid I’ve already hit that same wall here… I can’t even develop further skills or little side projects in the off/slow time because my work has to be done in a room on its own network without internet access… and all the tools and frameworks are super outdated. I can’t imagine I’d learn much for any future jobs by tooling around in VS2008, right? So I'm basically trying to make my career out of making the FNG process not soul sucking*, and its an uphill battle. If you think you can jump right now to something better, you can start looking, but if this is your first real SE job the truth is you probably need to work the spice mines for a while. What was your other engineering role? After about 18 months give or take you'll have enough experience (or be able to convincingly fake it) to find a better job (that I promise will have a lot of toil and CRUD but probably have some more interesting periods too). You'll also be able to land a job somewhere with a more modern tech stack because in this path your first "real" job will probably be your 3rd one. That's ok though, because unlike other areas were you have to pay your dues you'll still be making a good wage and if you keep your wits about you shouldn't have to work ridiculously hard. Getting that clearance is a ++ though, so its worth staying for that. If it doesn't look like that's going anywhere I'd expect your going to be stuck in that broom closet until a miracle happens so it's probably better to be thinking of long term exit strategies. I actively work to give people pathways from new person to actual grown up developer and it's an uphill battle to make that work as a rule outside of adhoc someone falling in love with a junior, internal dev. In your situation I'd not count on moving up to more interesting stuff by just doing your job. So try to budget some time to keep your skills sharp. I kinda stupidly let my clearance lapse but apparently that opens up some doors where there are not nearly enough qualified people. I don't know much about it since I'm 15+ years removed. *this is not a very smart career path
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Oct 29, 2021 20:36
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my first job i stayed at for 3 months, next was 15 mo, then 6 mo, now im at a new job. each one was significant pay increases. it doesnt matter, just apply. if someone hires you then it worked out, if you dont get hired its not like youve hurt your career by interviewing: you actually gain interviewing experience. theres nothing lost by applying
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Oct 29, 2021 21:42
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Lockback posted:So I'm basically trying to make my career out of making the FNG process not soul sucking*, and its an uphill battle. If you think you can jump right now to something better, you can start looking, but if this is your first real SE job the truth is you probably need to work the spice mines for a while. What was your other engineering role? After about 18 months give or take you'll have enough experience (or be able to convincingly fake it) to find a better job (that I promise will have a lot of toil and CRUD but probably have some more interesting periods too). You'll also be able to land a job somewhere with a more modern tech stack because in this path your first "real" job will probably be your 3rd one. That's ok though, because unlike other areas were you have to pay your dues you'll still be making a good wage and if you keep your wits about you shouldn't have to work ridiculously hard. I actually don’t mind getting out before my clearance finalizes. I absolutely do not want to stay in this industry if I am working as a SWE. Anything that requires a clearance requires working in a windowless room with no WFH options, as I previously alluded to. I was previous a MechE and a big part of trying to make my hobby into a job was the prospect of forever working from home. It’s very hard to find a MechE job that doesn’t want you a stone’s throw from their shop floor. I appreciate all the other advice though. This job is so simple that I feel like I have enough energy to do something each night to further hone some skills. Lately I’ve been volunteering with a friend’s organization to help ETL their website’s databases… so I guess I’ll just keep doing what I’m doing while also applying for other stuff.
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Oct 30, 2021 02:23
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I don't have any practical advice to give, but man I feel you. I still work for the same company, but the role prior to mine was promised to be doing 50/50 aerospace engineering work and software development but it ended up being a huge drag where I was churning out these crappy VBA spreadsheet concoctions. I got really lucky amidst the pandemic where hiring was frozen and another group doing actual software engineering needed headcount so my previous boss recommended me for an internal transfer. Definitely keep trying to develop the skills that you actually want to develop on your off time and keep applying. Opportunities will eventually appear if you keep trying, just gotta be ready for them.
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Oct 30, 2021 02:50
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I wanted to express my gratitude for this thread! I'm still only around halfway done with the bootcamp I'm in, but it's felt very helpful reading everyone's advice on how to get your foot in the door with the first job. This week we finally get to make our own vanilla Javascript projects, and then in just a week we're going to begin learning React, so it's exciting times at my bootcamp right now. Getting to work on my own project is honestly just so fulfilling after 8 weeks of following instructions and skeletons to varying degrees. It's a weird feeling when I'm actually...looking forward to working more over the weekend???
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Oct 30, 2021 03:44
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first move tengen posted:I wanted to express my gratitude for this thread! I'm still only around halfway done with the bootcamp I'm in, but it's felt very helpful reading everyone's advice on how to get your foot in the door with the first job.
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Oct 30, 2021 03:55
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Gin_Rummy posted:I actually don’t mind getting out before my clearance finalizes. I absolutely do not want to stay in this industry if I am working as a SWE. Anything that requires a clearance requires working in a windowless room with no WFH options, as I previously alluded to. I was previous a MechE and a big part of trying to make my hobby into a job was the prospect of forever working from home. It’s very hard to find a MechE job that doesn’t want you a stone’s throw from their shop floor. I mean, yeah take the advice above and start looking now, may as well. But I suspect you'll need to put in some time, the market is still pretty saturated at the "totally green" level. It gets way better with a bit of experience and the ability to start dictating your work.
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Oct 30, 2021 04:13
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My anecdotal experience with throwing applications out there for level 2 type roles at 1 year mark of experience in SWE (8 years prior in aero eng.) was getting 3 HR screening interviews where 1 of them got past to the hiring manager interview out of the ~25 applications that I sent out. These were all remote work jobs too. I think I interviewed well and I legitimately thought the conversations were engaging, my impression was that I just lacked experience compared to the rest of the pool of applicants so no one moved forward in the process.
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Oct 30, 2021 05:04
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Gin_Rummy posted:Anything that requires a clearance requires working in a windowless room with no WFH options, as I previously alluded to.
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Oct 31, 2021 02:53
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If you're bored at work and have some free time, maybe start coming up with ideas on how to automate, test or tool the products you work on for some problem you see people at work or that the customers are having. If you need to code something up, go hog wild and use whatever if you can pull it from github unless it's built into the app itself. Then demo it to some teams when you have a mvp. Or grind leetcode on the job lmao. I started in defense and left after a lovely raise, was super bored at work to the point where I'd sleep in my cube, and the pay wasn't great. The grass isn't always greener though. I'm actually back in the defense realm now (and get to wfh quite a bit ayyyy), but at a smaller shop that has pretty free reign to what tech we use since we do more r&d, but it's not all roses here either. Good luck on your search.
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Oct 31, 2021 07:07
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How much should I worry about passing all the tests on a screening technical exam except the ones that time out? I have tons of time, they gave us 12 hours for a 3 question exam, I'm just out of ideas for "make code go faster".
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Nov 5, 2021 03:35
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If it is for just one of the questions, you are likely fine. If it is for all of them,  Also lol at 12 hours screener, ouch.
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Nov 5, 2021 09:51
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It wasn't ok. That's fine. I'd been focused on class and hadn't been doing "learn the algorithm so you can interview" stuff for a bit and the whole thing snuck up on me. Pretty much got an email from a recruiter asking if I planned to take the assessment and sure enough the invite was buried in my spam folder so I ended up needing to do it that afternoon/evening. At least they gave me the courtesy of an auto reply which most places don't bother with.
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Nov 8, 2021 18:26
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So now that my JS project is done, soon we'll be doing full-stack clone projects using React. Is it likely that pretty much any website that I choose will impress recruiters around equally, or does anyone have ideas on something that might get me more mileage? They gave us a list of suggested websites, and most of them will involve learning about and using AWS, and a few will use WebSockets. I want to make something impressive and I'm ready to put in extra time but it's hard looking at a list of websites and figuring out which ones will look the best.
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Nov 9, 2021 03:22
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EDIT: Removed.
fawning deference fucked around with this message at 15:38 on Nov 10, 2021 |
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Nov 9, 2021 22:26
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first move tengen posted:So now that my JS project is done, soon we'll be doing full-stack clone projects using React. Is it likely that pretty much any website that I choose will impress recruiters around equally, or does anyone have ideas on something that might get me more mileage? They gave us a list of suggested websites, and most of them will involve learning about and using AWS, and a few will use WebSockets. I want to make something impressive and I'm ready to put in extra time but it's hard looking at a list of websites and figuring out which ones will look the best. Pick something you’re actually interested in and just throw features at it that you can explain in an interview. My longest interview I had was a code review on a project and it went really well cause I was able to clearly explain how stuff worked and why I chose to implement it how I did. If you like video games, do a game review website. If you like music, do a Spotify clone (one of my classmates did this and it was super impressive).
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Nov 9, 2021 22:41
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Everything but the weather app gives a 404? I assume not intentional? I found them in your resume though. Though not employee tracker? So yeah, that is weird. I'm not a huge fan of having to sssccrrrooollll to get to projects. I see there is a shortcut but didn't notice that at first. Might not be a huge deal but first impression was the site was kinda sparse until I found the meat. Otherwise yes, I think this is a very good junior dev portfolio. I don't think my company has any openings for juniors right now, but if we did I'd be interested.
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Nov 10, 2021 02:35
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Lockback posted:Everything but the weather app gives a 404? I assume not intentional? I found them in your resume though. Though not employee tracker? So yeah, that is weird. Oh wow, they are 404. You got me out of a big jam, they were working, but it looks like I had the wrong URL's in there when I edited the code tonight. Thank you! If you go now, they should all work, and it's great that you think it's a solid portfolio, I was nervous. EDIT: I didn't put Employee Tracker on my resume because 3 projects take up enough room as it is, and I'll have more on my LinkedIn featured section and portfolio anyway. fawning deference fucked around with this message at 02:48 on Nov 10, 2021 |
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Nov 10, 2021 02:41
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Anyone opening this on mobile data will probably not appreciate downloading your uncompressed assets. brent.jpg doesn't need to be >8mb and homeroom.png doesn't need to be >7mb
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Nov 10, 2021 05:25
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Hargrimm posted:Anyone opening this on mobile data will probably not appreciate downloading your uncompressed assets. brent.jpg doesn't need to be >8mb and homeroom.png doesn't need to be >7mb It is also broken on mobile phone, so that's the lesser problem.
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Nov 10, 2021 08:07
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Xarn posted:It is also broken on mobile phone, so that's the lesser problem. Hmmm. Broken how? I did test it on different mobile viewports and it looked not broken to me. I'll try to compress my images too, good call.
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Nov 10, 2021 12:59
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Using Chrome on Android 12 on Pixel 4a, I got a centered view of the pictures from your project and couldn't side scroll.
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Nov 10, 2021 13:37
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Xarn posted:Using Chrome on Android 12 on Pixel 4a, I got a centered view of the pictures from your project and couldn't side scroll. OK, so I guess I should take my stuff down because I didn't really think twice about putting my stuff on here for feedback, but I ought to be careful, so anyone who's willing to take a look at my job materials, let me know and I can PM them. fawning deference fucked around with this message at 15:38 on Nov 10, 2021 |
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Nov 10, 2021 13:53
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fawning deference posted:EDIT: Got a hellyeah new url for it: Are you OK with totally doxxing yourself?
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Nov 10, 2021 15:20
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Armauk posted:Are you OK with totally doxxing yourself? Hmm. Forgot this is SomethingAwful. Fair enough, I can take this stuff down, but if I want feedback from people who are not malicious here, where should I post my stuff? Also I was being an idiot on purpose with getting a dumb url, so I am aware it's stupid. "hellyeah url" had a lost tone online I think. Completely joking. fawning deference fucked around with this message at 15:25 on Nov 10, 2021 |
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Nov 10, 2021 15:22
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I think the feedback you’ve been given is useful and not malicious.
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Nov 10, 2021 16:38
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barkbell posted:I think the feedback you’ve been given is useful and not malicious. It absolutely was good feedback, I'm just taking protective measures because this is the internet.
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Nov 10, 2021 16:46
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How are any of the program courses for Zenva? or other places like this: https://www.fanatical.com/en/bundle/python-beginners-elearning-bundle or is there a suggested path for someone who had classes a decade ago but hasn't done coding stuff since?
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Nov 11, 2021 06:52
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My partner did https://www.freecodecamp.org/ and really liked it.
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Nov 11, 2021 16:08
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Udemy constantly has sales going on.
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Nov 11, 2021 20:58
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When you sign up for Udemy you get massive(usually 90%) discounts for either your first purchase or first 24 hours or something like that. When it runs out, sign up for udemy again. If you use a gmail address, just add a random period and it will still go to your primary email.(i.e. jeff@gmail.com becomes je.ff@gmail.com and it still goes to jeff@gmail.com) That being said, Udemy and such are all great once you have already learned how to code. They are usually very specific courses that do not give you an adequate breadth of knowledge if your goal is to get a job in the field. Having many different areas of knowledge such as knowing how to do vanilla JS, react, angular and vue is much better than doing a course that teaches you vanilla JS and a course that teaches you Vue. freecodecamp is the one you want if you're just starting. It's very long, but it's very thorough and you will be familiar enough with enough different stacks and systems to be able to work just about anywhere as a junior dev. Just want to do something extremely specific and not get a job in the industry? Set up a website for your mom's business? Then yeah, udemy is fine.
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Nov 12, 2021 11:41
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MIT's opencourseware is the gold standard for learning to code from scratch; it's also free: https://ocw.mit.edu/courses/electri...thon-fall-2016/ They have a huge massive catalog, worth checking out. You can always watch the lectures are 1.25-2.00x speed to get through the preamble
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Nov 13, 2021 00:13
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came here to say that now that i'm working at a fairly large bay-area company, I've come to conclusion that development work will get boring no matter where you go and a bigger company just means you can get away with doing less work day-to-day. I think my next job is going to be a small company and i'll probably never work at a >200 person company again. The only problem is the benefits and perks are better
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Nov 18, 2021 23:13
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I work as a dev for ~90 person company and I still don't do poo poo most of the day.
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Nov 19, 2021 00:50
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Romes128 posted:I work as a dev for ~90 person company and I still don't do poo poo most of the day. 10-20 is the hotspot where it's obvious when you're not doing anything. At several hundred some people get positive perf reviews and promotions without doing anything meaningful.
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Nov 19, 2021 01:31
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The character Wally from Dilbert was not created in a vacuum
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Nov 19, 2021 01:40
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Hadlock posted:The character Wally from Dilbert was not created in a vacuum I'm a new manager is it more of a power move to set my slack icon to phb or wally? Though I probably won't do either because of Scott Adams
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Nov 19, 2021 01:46
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On a scale of 1 to 10, Wally us probably a 0 and phb is a 1 Depends on your personality I guess. One manager o saw recently was using Rick and Morty themed stuff on his video call backgrounds
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Nov 19, 2021 01:51
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Anime or King of the Hill (western anime) background is the most powerful move imo
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Nov 19, 2021 03:34
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sim posted:My partner did https://www.freecodecamp.org/ and really liked it. As someone in her 40s looking for a career change with no programming experience since the 1980s, I'm really enjoying freecodecamp. I also got a lot of value out of the Al Sweigart Python books which are all up online for free at inventwithpython.com. It's probably baby stuff for most people but I really appreciated the style and pace.
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Nov 19, 2021 04:02
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