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Grump posted:I was thinking about making an app that gives you programming project ideas based on some input That's just stupid enough to make the front page of hacker news. Do it.
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Aug 16, 2017 00:22
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Ideas are easy if you're just trying to gently caress around. Make an app that let's you walk around your house and draws a map based on your gps. Make a Web page that has cool dogs. Write your own terrible programming language. Make a map of all the alleys in your city that smell like piss when it hasn't rained in a while that others can update
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Aug 16, 2017 00:35
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PokeJoe posted:Write your own terrible programming language. https://interpreterbook.com/ quote:Make a map of all the alleys in your city that smell like piss when it hasn't rained in a while that others can update $200 million dollar idea
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Aug 16, 2017 00:41
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a hot gujju bhabhi posted:Sorry for the super late reply. The sequence of events were: Ha ha, thanks for this. Nice work getting a better job! The biggest raise I've gotten has been $10k, while the biggest bump from changing jobs has been $35k. Even so, I was picturing that a major title-change would come with a larger raise...
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Aug 16, 2017 14:24
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lifg posted:That's just stupid enough to make the front page of hacker news. Do it. Eh, I dunno. Way I see it, the only project worth working on is one you have a real and compelling reason to do. In my experience, trying to do a project just for the sake of having a project and not something you're majorly committed to is likely to end up with you getting bored of it quickly and not actually finishing it or learning anything. If you make something, it has to be something you really need. Otherwise, that spark and drive to complete it just isn't there - why bother when someone else has done it already, or done something better? You could say that the "need" in this case is "need to prove I can program and have the chops to back up my words", and that's kind of what I did when I first started programming, but that only goes so far.
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Aug 16, 2017 14:55
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Mniot posted:The biggest raise I've gotten has been $10k, while the biggest bump from changing jobs has been $35k. Even so, I was picturing that a major title-change would come with a larger raise... I've been knocking it out of the park as a QA but I have a feeling I'll have to pull what you did and just change jobs to get that kind of a raise because they will lowball me again.
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Aug 16, 2017 15:12
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Pollyanna posted:Eh, I dunno. Way I see it, the only project worth working on is one you have a real and compelling reason to do. In my experience, trying to do a project just for the sake of having a project and not something you're majorly committed to is likely to end up with you getting bored of it quickly and not actually finishing it or learning anything. This is why my only successful (in the sense that other people are using it) software projects are things that I originally wrote to fix a problem I had.
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Aug 16, 2017 16:00
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AAAAA! Real Muenster posted:I've been knocking it out of the park as a QA but I have a feeling I'll have to pull what you did and just change jobs to get that kind of a raise because they will lowball me again. You could spend some of the next two months searching for another offer, which would improve the leverage you'd have in that raise negotiation, or possibly get you something even better.
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Aug 16, 2017 16:56
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fantastic in plastic posted:You could spend some of the next two months searching for another offer, which would improve the leverage you'd have in that raise negotiation, or possibly get you something even better.
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Aug 16, 2017 17:28
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Pollyanna posted:Eh, I dunno. Way I see it, the only project worth working on is one you have a real and compelling reason to do. In my experience, trying to do a project just for the sake of having a project and not something you're majorly committed to is likely to end up with you getting bored of it quickly and not actually finishing it or learning anything. This a bad opinion, imo. I say do projects because they're fun and you'll most likely learn something new
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Aug 16, 2017 19:11
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I may be receiving an offer from a job in another state soon, and I'm worried the pay isn't going to justify the move. I'm also worried that even if it does, the job doesn't seem secure enough to depend on. If the money isn't enough, and they're not willing to come up, I think my only option is to see if they'll consider remote, or just turn down the offer. But If the pay is good enough, I still want to protect myself in the event the job isn't very stable. To that extent I plan on asking for either a relocation package, guaranteed minimum term of employment, or maybe some sort of 'trial period' where I work remote for a couple months, just to make sure the job is going to work out. Relocation packages are pretty common, but I've gotten the impression that they don't do them. I feel like the other two options are far less likely. Do I have any other options here? I just can't bring myself to move across the country and leave behind all my support for a job that may last me a month.
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Aug 16, 2017 19:12
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Pollyanna posted:Eh, I dunno. Way I see it, the only project worth working on is one you have a real and compelling reason to do. In my experience, trying to do a project just for the sake of having a project and not something you're majorly committed to is likely to end up with you getting bored of it quickly and not actually finishing it or learning anything. I don't agree with this, it feels good to make something even if other people do it better. The same way it feels good to make furniture out of wood even though you could just go buy a better one and pay less.
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Aug 16, 2017 19:14
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The company I was talking about working in data analytics, my one contact, just posted he had a new job on LinkedIn 
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Aug 16, 2017 19:28
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Shirec posted:The company I was talking about working in data analytics, my one contact, just posted he had a new job on LinkedIn If he didn't burn his bridges before leaving I don't see how this changes things much.
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Aug 16, 2017 22:05
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huhu posted:If he didn't burn his bridges before leaving I don't see how this changes things much. It was a networking thing where I had passed my resume to him, we had an interview, and then after saying he'd get in contact with me for next steps, radio silence. I don't know if he passed my info on or someone took over his roles. It's just a dangling thread I don't know if it's gonna be picked up
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Aug 16, 2017 22:11
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Shirec posted:It was a networking thing where I had passed my resume to him, we had an interview, and then after saying he'd get in contact with me for next steps, radio silence. Have you followed up? You should do that.
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Aug 16, 2017 22:22
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After 2-3 years of studying while working in a networking/IT position, and doing some side projects for the development team, I finally got offered a full-time developer position at my current company. This is the thread that got me started on this path, so thank you to all the goons who help us newbies out in here. And this happens a week after I almost gave up because prospects seemed hopeless. To everyone who's still working at it, keep pushing!
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Aug 17, 2017 16:50
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InevitableCheese posted:After 2-3 years of studying while working in a networking/IT position, and doing some side projects for the development team, I finally got offered a full-time developer position at my current company.
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Aug 17, 2017 16:58
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InevitableCheese posted:After 2-3 years of studying while working in a networking/IT position, and doing some side projects for the development team, I finally got offered a full-time developer position at my current company. Very similar route, just got my offer today. Thanks everyone for all the help!
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Aug 17, 2017 17:08
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AAAAA! Real Muenster posted:Congrats! I'm just getting started myself - just got a QA position and I have to learn some basic java for our automation work, any advice or tips especially regarding how you got started? For me, I just bought used books on Amazon and worked through them, and paired it with video training. I looked up what type of development work was popular in my area and my current workplace and focused on the relevant subject matter. For me, it was mostly web and server side development. Plus a little bit of PowerShell automation (which was super handy in getting a leg up in the Networking Job). As far as video training goes, I used a combination of TreeHouse (which is my favorite), and Pluralsight (great for more advanced/specific subjects) to learn. I tried as much as I could to not only learn how to code, but how to code well. The biggest complaint I saw regarding self-taught programmers was that they had the passion, and knew how to program, but when it came to standards/algorithms/efficiency they were lacking. Good books for this were: Design Patterns: Elements of Reusable Object-Oriented Software Clean Code: A Handbook of Agile Software Craftsmanship Code Complete: A Practical Handbook of Software Construction Refactoring: Improving the Design of Existing Code The Pragmatic Programmer: From Journeyman to Master I have a meeting here in a few but I can type up more later if you like.
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Aug 17, 2017 17:15
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Any advice for sending a company a rejection letter? I have no idea what to say.
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Aug 17, 2017 17:32
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Zero The Hero posted:Any advice for sending a company a rejection letter? I have no idea what to say. Thank you for your time. I've decided to pursue other opportunities. Best of luck.
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Aug 17, 2017 17:45
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InevitableCheese posted:For me, I just bought used books on Amazon and worked through them, and paired it with video training. I looked up what type of development work was popular in my area and my current workplace and focused on the relevant subject matter. For me, it was mostly web and server side development. Plus a little bit of PowerShell automation (which was super handy in getting a leg up in the Networking Job).
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Aug 17, 2017 18:26
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huhu posted:Thank you for your time. I've decided to pursue other opportunities. Best of luck. This is the most cathartic answer.
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Aug 17, 2017 18:37
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When would it be appropriate to send a follow-up email about a phone interview that seemed to go really well? It even ended with asking how I felt about an in-person/tech interview with the project manager. I'm a little anxious about this, because this was the first such interview that I've had and happened at the beginning of the month. Granted, this week was the first week I was expecting to hear back from them, because both people on the team were out of town either last week or the week before. What's the usual time between phone and in-person? Does each individual candidate get a direct process or is it more "do all the phone interviews, cull for most promising, go on to the next step"? EDIT: Some real bad typos. vvv Also, thanks! BirdOfPlay fucked around with this message at 19:30 on Aug 17, 2017 |
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Aug 17, 2017 18:50
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BirdOfPlay posted:When would it be appropriate to send a follow-up email about a phone interview that seemed to go really well? It even ended with asking how I felt about an in-person/tech interview with the project manager. I'm a little anxious about this, because this was the first such interview that I've had and happened at the beginning of the month. Granted, this week the first week I was expecting to hear back from them, because both people on the team were out of team either last week or the week before. Send a polite and enthusiastic follow up email inquiring about next steps. If it's been two weeks that's long enough.
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Aug 17, 2017 18:52
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Any UK-based programmers here? Was looking for some advice on where to look for jobs and what jobs to actually look for. Background: No qualifications or experience, learned enough Python to make a few basic games in the console (most recently: Blackjack) and write a couple tiny automation scripts that can go in-browser or mess with files. I have a decent grasp of HTML and CSS, and a small amount of JavaScript. Those four are probably my main focus. Also done some Git (have a Github page that's on my CV), did Codecademy courses on Java and PHP but they were basically worthless and I haven't really dabbled with any frameworks (keep meaning to get on Django or Flask!). I'm searching for "developer" jobs on Reed and gov.uk. But everything is way out of my league expecting degrees, years of experience, to know about a hundred languages and frameworks, and £35k-75k salaries. I was hoping to find some kind of Junior Developer or low-level, entry-level role. My "skillset" probably skews webdev, but I'd be happy with pretty much anything. Anyway, would appreciate any pointers!
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Aug 19, 2017 21:24
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VagueRant posted:Any UK-based programmers here? Was looking for some advice on where to look for jobs and what jobs to actually look for. You probably need a lot more experience before you'll get your foot in the door unless you can land an internship or find someplace desperate. How many websites have you built? If the answer is 0, go make something.
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Aug 20, 2017 02:37
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How prevalent is this attitude?https://ayende.com/blog/90113/if-you-dont-have-pet-projects-i-dont-think-i-want-you posted:"Put simply, we are looking for a .NET developer and one of the most important things that we look for is passion. In general, we have found that people that care and are interested in what they are doing tend to do other stuff rather than just their work assignments. This seems very short sighted, and uses the presence of personal projects/up-to-date OSS contributions as a requirement for employability. Who says passion must be so burning hot that the only valuable people are the ones who dedicate every waking hour to it?
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Aug 21, 2017 14:54
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Common enough that it's cited in a few surveys as one of the bigger reasons women don't go into or drop out of CS majors. It's probably less common at more established businessier companies, but the more "nerdy" a place it the more it's likely to feel this way IME. It's also code for "you're salaried but we expect truly absurd amounts of crunch/overtime" along with "looking for coding ninja/rockstar".
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Aug 21, 2017 15:20
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Well, look at it from the employers perspective. If I'm wanting to hire people who will give their heart and soul for my product, I want people who love coding so much they do it all the time for fun. That doesn't mean the whole dev job market is going to be like that (mainly because there isn't enough candidates and many/most dev jobs are in industries who only hire devs reluctantly into their cost centers). If I've got a business I'm passionate about, and it's built on software, I want people who demonstrate a burning desire to code. You can make arguments about whether that's a good proxy for dev passion, but I don't think there's a slam dunk argument against it. (not that I've spent like any time thinking about it)
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Aug 21, 2017 15:24
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What about people like me, who simply don't have any pressing needs or interests that merit a side project? I have my hobbies, sure, but I don't have anything that I think of and go "you know what this needs? An app!". Am I meant to just force myself into building something I wasn't interested in in the first place?
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Aug 21, 2017 15:28
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Well projects don't need to be a fully-fledged app. I'm sure they would see you as passionate even if you did things like making a pop-out navbar because you wanted to learn how to do it or making an image with purely CSS because you thought it was cool. I really can't imagine there are developers out there that won't touch any code with a 10-foot pole unless they're getting paid for it.
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Aug 21, 2017 15:38
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I have so much passion for software development that I do it 8 hours a day, 5 days a week.
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Aug 21, 2017 15:44
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Thermopyle posted:Well, look at it from the employers perspective. If I'm wanting to hire people who will give their heart and soul for my product, I want people who love coding so much they do it all the time for fun. Wouldn't they want someone who was passionate enough about the code they write for work that it scratches their itch?
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Aug 21, 2017 15:54
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Thermopyle posted:Well, look at it from the employers perspective. If I'm wanting to hire people who will give their heart and soul for my product, I want people who love coding so much they do it all the time for fun. I feel like there's a couple issues with this line of thinking: - It's pretty exclusionary. Not everyone has time for side projects (family responsibilities are the big one, but there's plenty of things that might eat up someone's spare time). That doesn't mean they're any less interested or passionate about their work. - It assumes that writing code is the most important / challenging part of the job which hasn't been my experience. Anecdotes are like assholes, though.
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Aug 21, 2017 17:00
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Jose Valasquez posted:I have so much passion for software development that I do it 8 hours a day, 5 days a week. jony neuemonic posted:- It assumes that writing code is the most important / challenging part of the job which hasn't been my experience. Anecdotes are like assholes, though.
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Aug 21, 2017 17:50
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Jose Valasquez posted:I have so much passion for software development that I do it 8 hours a day, 5 days a week. I do 12 hours a day, 5 days a week, at contract rates   coding C++, TypeScript for Node.JS, and vanilla JavaScript for HTML5 processing real time market data.
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Aug 21, 2017 18:16
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Pollyanna posted:What about people like me, who simply don't have any pressing needs or interests that merit a side project? I have my hobbies, sure, but I don't have anything that I think of and go "you know what this needs? An app!". Am I meant to just force myself into building something I wasn't interested in in the first place? Then you're not the person they want to hire? I want to find people who are passionate because they care about the end result, not just checking off boxes on a spec and avoiding responsibility. The people I'd consider passionate have tried to expose themselves to new things, have pushed their knowledge (and that can be from zero knowledge to beginner level), and can explain why they care about what they're doing. Self directed projects are just a really good way of demonstrating that but shouldn't be the only way. Still, there are definitely good hires out there that wouldn't be considered passionate, and it's a shame that they're likely excluded from companies where they could make a good contribution. I get tons and tons of applicants, and I don't filter for ones who have personal projects or anything like that. But if they say in the interview that they're passionate about what my role does and can't talk me through an example project, either personally or in school, the interview is pretty much over. How can you know you're passionate about something if you've never done it?
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Aug 21, 2017 18:41
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Thermopyle posted:I want people who love coding so much they do it all the time for fun. This is a great way to get cowboy coders who invent metaproblems instead of doing a solid hour of straightforward work, think themselves too good to write their own tests, and generally won't deign to communicate with anyone who hasn't sunk as much time into a code base as them. A user had a complaint?!? Well, do they have any MORE elegant way to run disparate templated queries through a homogenized global visibility monitor?? The 9-5 folks know they have a time limit and might bother to empathize with a nontechnical user.
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Aug 21, 2017 19:07
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