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I have a "technical exercise" this week for a company I'm interviewing at. I have 48 hours to work on it. I won't have the details until that time starts but I was told it would be some kind of web application backed by a database and I need to have it working and hosted somewhere at the end of those 48 hours. Problem: I haven't interviewed in over a decade and have no idea where to host a little project like this. Also I don't know javascript, just a bit of html and css, and haven't worked on a web app since Silverlight and GWT were in vogue. I mostly know Java and C#. I'm kind of in desperate need of suggestions for suggestions on the simplest way to write and host a toy web app in either language. edit: I'm an oldbie, but this seemed like more of a newbie question. Let me know if it's better suited for the other thread
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Sep 18, 2022 22:51
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Can't you get free AWS hosting, or likely any cloud provider, in some sort of trial tier? That seems ridiculous for 48 hours, and in general, and I'd probably tell them to f off unless you're desperate for a job.
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Sep 18, 2022 23:48
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I mean, you can easily deploy some JavaScript (React) project off Vercel for free.
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Sep 19, 2022 00:47
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Joke answer: use Squarespace. Or just get a free tier AWS EC2 server like the guy said above and start a Ruby on Rails app on it with a database and everything ready to go. The requirements as described are so vague that they allow a wide range of options.
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Sep 19, 2022 01:02
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The requirements are vague now, but I'd bet they'll get much too specific soon enough. Could spin up a $5/month server on digitalocean, put caddy or nginx on it and sort out firewall rules etc ahead of time.
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Sep 19, 2022 02:17
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Use supabase for your back-end and deploy on something like Render.com/Vercel/Fly.io/Railway
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Sep 19, 2022 04:05
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I’ve had a personal website/blog hosted on dreamhost for 20ish years. It has shell access. I’ve used that space for these types of take home tests in the past.
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Sep 19, 2022 18:26
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Something I wasn't prepared for as a new CS grad was how difficult it would be to land a position outside of web development. I would absolutely take a job in webdev, but my knowledge of TypeScript/JavaScript isn't that deep. I can't decide if I should be spending my time doubling down on C++/C# and building applications or getting a better grasp on MERN so I'm more employable v v.
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Sep 28, 2022 23:17
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Grimes posted:Something I wasn't prepared for as a new CS grad was how difficult it would be to land a position outside of web development. I would absolutely take a job in webdev, but my knowledge of TypeScript/JavaScript isn't that deep. I can't decide if I should be spending my time doubling down on C++/C# and building applications or getting a better grasp on MERN so I'm more employable v you don't need a deep knowledge of typescript/javascript to do webdev, it's not difficult at all, it's just kind of a pain in the rear end. if you're looking for positions that'll give good money to people without a lot of experience, webdev is the place to go.
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Sep 29, 2022 01:16
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Grimes posted:Something I wasn't prepared for as a new CS grad was how difficult it would be to land a position outside of web development. I would absolutely take a job in webdev, but my knowledge of TypeScript/JavaScript isn't that deep. I can't decide if I should be spending my time doubling down on C++/C# and building applications or getting a better grasp on MERN so I'm more employable v C++ and C# are not similar languages and will typically lead you down different career paths. C# jobs will typically be focused more on the web dev / web Middleware ecosystem.
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Sep 29, 2022 01:48
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So I’ve finagled my way into a collaboration with the software engineering/informatics team in my department (I do specialized application IT work) and have a series of projects to work on with my manager’s blessing, rebuilding some old visual basic programs that we rely on. It’s essentially an internship with the potential for a software engineering role with the group. I have to learn a lot pretty quickly (hi Python, APIs, and Docker!) while still doing my ‘regular’ work. It seems like a fantastic opportunity for someone with no CS degree and I am determined to make this work out. Any tips on handling this internship while working? How do I get the most out of this without going crazy? It’s normal to feel extremely out of my depth, right?
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Sep 29, 2022 15:42
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Grimes posted:a position outside of web development. Like what?
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Sep 29, 2022 16:07
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Armauk posted:Like what? oh there's the other problem, webdev infects everything. i've seen people write pacemaker control code in node.js, and the reason a lot of the new uis in game suck rear end is that they make the kids write the UI in javascript and put it in a 3d webview. so very difficult to find a dev job where someone, somewhere the building isn't doing webdev. Bruegels Fuckbooks fucked around with this message at 18:31 on Sep 30, 2022 |
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Sep 29, 2022 16:15
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BadSamaritan posted:So I’ve finagled my way into a collaboration with the software engineering/informatics team in my department (I do specialized application IT work) and have a series of projects to work on with my manager’s blessing, rebuilding some old visual basic programs that we rely on. It’s essentially an internship with the potential for a software engineering role with the group. I have to learn a lot pretty quickly (hi Python, APIs, and Docker!) while still doing my ‘regular’ work. It seems like a fantastic opportunity for someone with no CS degree and I am determined to make this work out. Key here for you will probably be efficiency, figure out what you want the work to do, probably run the plan by your manager, and then execute to the best of your ability. Your first 100 questions will be something along the lines of "I don't understand docker can you explain everything" but if you ask that folks will write you off. "I'm trying to get docker to run this program and it won't" is a fine question (although that specific one you should google first). The good news is Python and Docker are very popular things, a lot of folks have written a lot of stuff about them, and there are open source examples of how to do everything you are likely to want to do. Also, use the right tools. PyCharm is very good for helping develop and debug Python.
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Sep 30, 2022 00:23
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I swear there was a thread for resume reviews that was separate from the one in BFC, and was more tailored to tech. Anybody know what I'm talking about?
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Oct 6, 2022 23:09
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I'm in the WGU software development program, coming from 11 years of nursing at various levels. I'm thinking this might give me a small leg up applying for junior EMR spots. I'm kind of pre emptively worried about landing that first job though, not sure what WGU's rep is like in the working world. Should I be looking for internships? Where in a traditional curriculum would students be doing that?
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Oct 7, 2022 04:18
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loopsheloop posted:I'm in the WGU software development program, coming from 11 years of nursing at various levels. I'm thinking this might give me a small leg up applying for junior EMR spots. I'm kind of pre emptively worried about landing that first job though, not sure what WGU's rep is like in the working world. Should I be looking for internships? Where in a traditional curriculum would students be doing that? Unless you went to an elite tech school like MIT, or an ivy league, no one cares what school you went to, or honestly whether you have a degree or not. I don't even know what WGU stands for and wouldn't care if I did. If you want to be a software developer, the best way to get a job is to develop software. Much like nursing, book learning only gets you so far. Jump back and read through the thread a bit because questions EXACTLY like this get posted every few weeks and I'm phone posting and don't feel like thumbing out detailed advice when I know it's a few clicks away for you. Having some domain knowledge is nice but will almost never be the differentiating factor in a hiring decision. I've worked on software in every industry from medical insurance to corporate tax to manufacturing ERP systems to e-commerce selling women's undergarments and had no awareness of any of those domains before getting the jobs. But now I can tell you all about the ins and outs of CPT codes and the transition from icd9 to icd10 and how to size yourself for a bra and what happens if you don't refrigerate a cylinder of boron trifluoride. New Yorp New Yorp fucked around with this message at 05:09 on Oct 7, 2022 |
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Oct 7, 2022 05:04
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Some of that at least sounds useful to know, or minimally not harmful. I'd be a happier person had I never learned about 'scalp degloving'.
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Oct 7, 2022 05:21
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Having a degree might help you in some places, like a small business owner or something doing hiring I had a CTO/founding engineer who was from MIT, and our software architect during his "hello" presentation (after she quit to start another company) said he was from XYZ flyover state private university Other than that I've never heard anyone discuss college degrees Once you get hired on, you're either good and get the good/prestigous assignments and get promoted to senior, or you'll slog on as a junior and struggle to become a dev II. You're judged entirely on the quality of your work and decision making, which... you can't really learn in a CS degree WGU is cool (I think it is) it's cheap and the go at your own pace is good for a lot of people. My buddy did his degree there and makes absolute bank now, but not due to having a degree, almost entirely because I got him the job and he's still there because golden handcuffs. A lot of people see it as a diploma mill... which isn't bad? As was pointed out nobody cares where you got your degree from unless it was stanford or mit (mostly stanford though) and the guy selecting for candidates with a degree isn't going to know about their possible status as a diploma mill
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Oct 7, 2022 07:02
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One place I worked at was an IT/management suit and tie consultancy and they very much had an 'we only hire Ivy League or international equivalent' policy from their chief HR guy (they didn't care about the subject though, my Oxford history degree apparently trumped a CS degree from somewhere less well known). That place sucked balls though, so.
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Oct 16, 2022 18:42
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feedmegin posted:they very much had an 'we only hire Ivy League or international equivalent' policy Yeah that's the natural effect from that kind of policy.
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Oct 17, 2022 17:24
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Thanks for the advice everyone! Still haven't finished my LinkedIn but other random bullshit got me past two screens this week. Next week I have one hour long with a team I'd be potentially hired to (I think that's the last interview) and today I was given a technical assignment to complete by Wednesday for a Thursday interview with a different place. Is there anything I should know going into either? The tech assignment I figure I complete, and try to make as interesting and usable above and beyond as possible (interviewer mentioned this to me but also there's only so far I'm gonna go on a 3 hour project I'm not being paid for). The team interview has me more concerned, to be honest. I was told it was an hour on video with the rest of the team (a couple front-end people, the lead, devops/design) and they'd ask me about how I'd do things in Javascript/maybe python, that the lead for my team is a Typescript believer and is trying to get the rest of the org onboard, and that I wouldn't be asked things like "what's the difference between Flask and Django" (I took it as that was more complicated/wild card than I'd get? but I'm stumped because that feels very basic to me) My plan was to review some basic React 101 stuff (haven't made flashcards about states yet, but...) and a couple of the libraries mentioned in the posting, plus that systems cheat sheet a page earlier, but I'm wondering, are these more like design pattern type questions or js/ts syntax ones? I don't *think* I have to actually type anything but I'm wondering if I'm gonna get points off for not saying stuff like "we should use a load balancer if we get a lot of traffic for this service" which I assume is obvious but maybe is what I'm being tested on
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Oct 20, 2022 21:28
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IME they will ask you about the frustrating parts of whatever technologies you claim to know. I don’t know what that means for JavaScript. But if you know the answer, and follow it up with a time you bumped against it in your own projects, you’ll do well.
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Oct 20, 2022 22:52
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I assume you talked with the recruiter if they can clarify anything for you and let you know if there's things you can focus on. Like if they're talking specifically basic vanilla javascript and webdev or if it's React only. Or if you need to know any system design and talk high level about designing an app. The worst part if it ends up being them asking trivia questions, like what is a javascript closure or event delegation and how you used them. Since it's so open ended I would hope the recruiter can help you a little.
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Oct 20, 2022 23:24
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AlphaKeny1 posted:I assume you talked with the recruiter if they can clarify anything for you and let you know if there's things you can focus on. Like if they're talking specifically basic vanilla javascript and webdev or if it's React only. Or if you need to know any system design and talk high level about designing an app. The worst part if it ends up being them asking trivia questions, like what is a javascript closure or event delegation and how you used them. Since it's so open ended I would hope the recruiter can help you a little. I would! But these are both jobs where I somehow skipped the recruiter step. I think they were just job boards where someone from the team reached out? I tried to ask in the interview a bit but I always forget the crucial parts after bigging myself up for an hour. I'm pretty sure it's React focused, at least. lifg posted:IME they will ask you about the frustrating parts of whatever technologies you claim to know. I don’t know what that means for JavaScript. But if you know the answer, and follow it up with a time you bumped against it in your own projects, you’ll do well. Sweet! Yeah I'm hoping its component inheritance, states and on change stuff, and / or asynch stuff (but hoping thats backend for them). I have reasonable answers and anecdotes about overcoming challenges for those. My fear is there's something I'm completely forgetting that either I think is easy (and so should make sure I mention that) or just isn't on my radar for whatever reason (and so I should cram over the weekend!) Does that look like a reasonable topic list, anyone ITT who would know?
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Oct 21, 2022 00:35
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1 take home tech thing and one tech interview (different places) down, 1 interview tomorrow, then back to looking. The interview was easier and harder than I thought. There were a lot of things I felt like I didn't have a good answer for: - state management library experience (and another question about doing e-commerce where I basically said "I try to use libraries instead of reinventing the wheel", which probably didn't help my whiff on which ones) - how i troubleshot a difficult bug (I had a hard time thinking of a really good bug, ended up talking about lateral thinking because of a change a different team made but I didn't love the answer) - deployment experience - why I didn't always use Typescript (this one actually I might have done okay on) - how I test static sites (this felt like kind of a trick question...) I got credit for being honest about my experience but that doesn't feel like a good thing to hear after an interview that went half an hour short. @ home thing was smoother than I thought. They left it very open ended, so I'm worried they were looking for more dunking than I did. But I did get the thing functional and responsive. I think the move with that one would have been to do a lot of refactoring to reduce API calls, but the instructions were to implement the API calls, so I made the call of do less and then have something to talk about tomorrow (why didn't you do x? well, I would have, but I thought re-writing the entire thing was a weird first impression to make. but if I were going to, I would do ____) I have a follow up interview with the @ home company tomorrow, and I'm probably going to brush up on the things I whiffed on today. In general, I feel like the second one is less of a stretch (and also going to pay me more for easier work), so I'm trying to chalk today up as practice, but still... Anyway, hope this write-up helps someone!
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Oct 27, 2022 00:05
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/\/\/\ Posting your interview questions is always helpful, thanks! Should I worry about how my resume gets processed by an ATS? I've noticed that when I try applying to jobs that autofill based on my resume, my work experience and education is often messed up. I get the impression that ATS systems are pretty limited in their utility and recruiters have to read your resume anyway.
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Oct 29, 2022 00:55
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astr0man posted:For what it's worth, yes an internship will probably be a short term thing, but getting cleared is a huge deal and will open a lot of doors for you in the future. Having an active TS/SCI w/poly clearance will essentially guarantee you a very well-paying full time job in the DC metro area. Almost any major defense contractor will hire someone with an existing clearance regardless of that person's experience and technical ability because not having to get that person cleared saves the company potentially tens to hundreds of thousands of dollars.
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Oct 29, 2022 22:53
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dirby posted:Maybe this isn't the right thread, but there's no trick to this other than "get an internship while you're still in school", right? So many job postings in the DC metro area expect applicants to already have a clearance. You're not going to get a clearance as an intern. You also can't get one without an explicitly stated purpose and need. You get a job, they want to staff you on a project that requires it, you work on projects that don't until it goes through. IMO cleared work, while definitely stable, isn't worth any of the mess of getting the clearance or the quality of life issues involved in working in cleared rooms. It's easier, faster, and more lucrative to get a job that won't require a clearance.
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Oct 30, 2022 00:13
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leper khan posted:You're not going to get a clearance as an intern. To be clear, Secret clearance is fairly trivial, just don't say you're actively using drugs. Top Secret is harder and folks will probably talk to your friends. SCI is, apparently, harder and will take a long time. Postings that want someone with Secret will probably accept good candidates who have never applied for clearance, but not folks who've been denied clearance.
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Oct 30, 2022 02:45
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Secret is less trivial if you've lived outside of the US but otherwise, yeah, it's on par with a corporate background check.
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Oct 30, 2022 04:03
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dirby posted:Maybe this isn't the right thread, but there's no trick to this other than "get an internship while you're still in school", right? So many job postings in the DC metro area expect applicants to already have a clearance. Doing it that way is easiest yeah. But for defense contractors advertising junior/entry level postings, if you are actually interested and know you are "clearable" (i.e. are a US citizen and can pass the background check) you might as well apply even for postings that say X clearance is required. They will give priority to someone that is already cleared, but it's usually not actually a hard requirement (at least for junior level postings). For mid/senior positions, yeah they are looking to poach someone that's already cleared, or at least has been cleared in the past. leper khan posted:You're not going to get a clearance as an intern. You can get TS/SCI as an intern working directly for the government, just as an example, the NSA has like 10 different undergrad & graduate level summer intern programs for anyone studying math/engineering (and they all require getting TS/SCI). e: and yeah, along the same lines as the other poster said, you can absolutely get cleared internships w/defense contractors (and not directly working for the government), but it probably just won't be TS/SCI astr0man fucked around with this message at 10:13 on Oct 30, 2022 |
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Oct 30, 2022 10:06
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astr0man posted:Doing it that way is easiest yeah. But for defense contractors advertising junior/entry level postings, if you are actually interested and know you are "clearable" (i.e. are a US citizen and can pass the background check) you might as well apply even for postings that say X clearance is required. They will give priority to someone that is already cleared, but it's usually not actually a hard requirement (at least for junior level postings). We had an intern for two summers that had also been doing 10 hours of work or so per week for us during the school year. We offered him a position after graduation, but he decided to accept a job with Lockheed Martin that required a secret clearance. Clearance processing was very backed-up at the time, so there were significant delays in granting them. Because of this, LM began his processing several months prior to his actual start date. This was quite a change from when I first got my clearance (like, 25 years ago) when you started the job and then sat around in an isolated room doing paperwork or something until your clearance came through weeks later. Anyway, the guy changed his mind and came to work for us at the last minute. His clearance went through and was held by LM in an inactive state. It has been a few years, so it has probably deactivated by now. I'm sure LM was more than irritated that they shelled out all that money for the clearance, but what are you going to do? The guy didn't sign anything saying that he was financially liable for the cost of the clearance... Also, Happy Halloween to all you job seekers.  
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Oct 31, 2022 13:42
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I posted in this thread a while ago about self-learning as an accountant. I’ve made some progress through a combination of community college classes and MOOCs (I’m halfway through full stack open which uses MERN/create-react-app). My near term goal is still to build some domain specific web apps that I and hopefully other accountants would actually use, but I’m open to a career change if I continue on this path. I started dabbling in leetcode’s “explore” track, which seems like a lighter version of cracking the coding interview type content. It’s fun in a puzzle solving type of way, and it is improving my general JavaScript syntax, but I feel like beefing up my algorithm skills is going to become a distraction from completing full stack open and actually building something that I can show off. It’s been a struggle to avoid analysis paralysis throughout this process. If I take the community college’s DS&A class in the winter I can graduate with a software development certificate, which I know doesn’t mean much but it would be a nice note on my resume and would satisfy my itch to be better in that area. In terms of bringing my “formal” education to a close, I’m thinking I drop leetcode and risk taking a mediocre DS&A class instead, and in the meantime try to knock out full stack open. Writing this out was helpful. Any other thoughts or course corrections are welcome!
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Nov 17, 2022 18:18
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Anyone done contract software development work before? I've interacted with contractors, but only as offshore resources. Can you explain the positives and negatives from your experience? I don't like that jobs are going more to Contract or Contract to Hire but I wonder if I'm unnecessarily cutting off too many jobs from my search.
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Dec 20, 2022 02:14
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Magnetic North posted:Anyone done contract software development work before? I've interacted with contractors, but only as offshore resources. Can you explain the positives and negatives from your experience? I don't like that jobs are going more to Contract or Contract to Hire but I wonder if I'm unnecessarily cutting off too many jobs from my search. Off the top of my head: Pros: - Great if you're a specialist and can focus on your specialty - If you charge enough, you will not get stuck with the poo poo work - Your own hours and rules, maybe? - Higher hourly rate - Tax benefits, if you're clever (ie computer, space, learning can all be tax deductable) Cons: - Very unfulfilling, you only get called when there are problems - Handle your own benefits - Taxes are a pain - Have fun rustling up work - You will be the first to go when there are problems Contract to Hire has a sleazy feel to it, and it can be tense, but it can work out. Just be sure to ask about how many folks have made the transition and/or try to talk with one of them. I would generally not recommend going contractor early on unless you are really good with people, technically skilled, and are not worried about shaking the tree for more work.
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Dec 20, 2022 02:44
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There are also firms that rent out contract developers. If you go down that route, you're going to be looking at something more like a normal job for as long as a given contract lasts. They're also incentivized to find you new work when a project ends, so that can help.
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Dec 20, 2022 04:41
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What about mobility? Are they still generally at-will or are you somehow 'locked in'? I got myself into a bad situation and am hesitant to end up in another one.
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Dec 20, 2022 12:02
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Magnetic North posted:What about mobility? Are they still generally at-will or are you somehow 'locked in'? I got myself into a bad situation and am hesitant to end up in another one. I don't know what being 'locked in' means. Sometimes there are non-competes or agreements to not leave the consulting group for the client you've been working for. Those are often not legally enforceable, but if company A got you a consulting job with Company B, it will burn bridges if you just jump ship and leave for Company B. But it isn't the end of the world or anything.
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Dec 21, 2022 03:05
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I'm freshly educated this summer and worked 3 months at my first position now here in Norway. I'm still enjoying my job just fine, but I'm seeing signs that I might not be interested in working here for too long. At the same time I really need the work experience as I'm in my early 30s and have holes in my resume, and also I really want to stay in the area because of family reasons but there is very little programming or even IT in general here (this is already like 3 hours away because that was the closest I could find a position at a reasonable time). Honestly, the job itself is good. Pays well (I think) for 0 experience entry-level, lots of perks, great coworkers. So there isn't really anything wrong with the position. And as of today I AM still enjoying the job fine. I'm educated in programming and I really enjoyed working with backend. Generally I really loved working with GoLang, Python and C++ (managing C++ projects was a big pain though) but also had some fun with a bunch of other languages. This job, on the other hand, is like 50% SQL/database, 40% proprietary tools for building/maintaining web apps, 10% JS/various. Large company, lots of customers around the world. My work so far has been mostly bugfixing with a couple scripting jobs. And it has been fine so far honestly. I appreciate learning some new stuff But at the end of the day I can tell it's not my kind of thing long-term. There aren't enough tasks that let me do fun problem-solving stuff in the way I enjoy, and the other stuff is wearing out its novelty. Also there is some restructuring going on that is probably gonna mean more client-facing tasks and/or deployment which I'm not interested in. I also haven't really done any programming at home since summer and I can feel those skills deteriorating in my mind weekly tbh, but I don't have the energy or enthusiasm to do anything with it after work these days. If I felt confident that I could do this for a year or two and then go on a happy journey down the path of a programmer writing algorithms and building back-end systems with money in my pocket and legitimacy/a good review on my resume, I would have no complaints really. Instead I'm worried I'll be left with my actual programming skills deteriorating into patchwork, and work experience pigeonholing me into general IT or database-focused positions going forward. Especially since I'm probably not gonna improve on my C++/Python/etc interviewing skills much for job searching by then. Anyone had experience in similar crossroads and have advice on how I should prioritize going forward? When job-searching, what kind of positions should I specifically be looking for that let me gain experience writing at least a decent amount of code? It was honestly really hard to tell what I would be actually working with for like 70% of the positions I applied for over the summer, and those I did find mostly required serious relocation, or in two cases I did not get the position as experienced developers applied and naturally were preferred. This job for example mentioned JS (technically true but like 1% of my actual work) and C# (I have to parse a little bit of it but it's all legacy code maintained across the country so 0 dev work here) prominently as part of the job description in the same lines as the database work I'm actually spending all my time on.
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Jan 16, 2023 00:32
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