Newbie Programming Interviews/Get a Job Megathread: Fake it 'til you make it

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Serious Hardware/Software Crap > The Cavern of COBOL > Newbie Programming Interviews/Get a Job Megathread: Fake it 'til you make it

Melted_Igloo: Nov 26, 2007

FamDav posted:

Speaking of codility, I did the self-cert test(the min_abs_sum one) coming up with what I think is a pretty good algorithm.

Negative. Doesn't tell me what it fails at, either.

So on a whim I code up the problem exactly as it asks in python. I code val, I use itertools to get all possible choices for S, and then I take the best answer.

I still get negative.

What gives?
code:
import itertools

def val(A,S):
    sum = 0
    for i in range(0,len(A)):
        sum += A[i]*S[i]
        
    return (-sum if sum < 0 else sum)

def min_abs_sum ( A ):
    best_answer = 100000000 # more than 100*2000 or whatever their max is.
    for x in itertools.product([-1,1],repeat=len(A)):
        curr_sum = val(A,x)
        if (curr_sum < best_answer):
            best_answer = curr_sum
    return best_answer
I expect for you all to tell me how stupid I am, but this is really bugging me.

I dont code python, but its a simple greedy algorithm

Take largest value from array
Loop
Take largest value from array, substract or add from previous value that was taken
check which one is the lowest absolute value
repeat

# ¿ Mar 18, 2011 04:19

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# ¿ May 3, 2024 08:52

Melted_Igloo: Nov 26, 2007

Average starting salary is an incredibly bad measure, careerwise
(I mean one that spans 20+ years)

In actuallity you want to start with the lowest average salary, beacuse it means youre more likely to get an actual job (lower demand) versus being unemployed forever

# ¿ Apr 26, 2011 16:36

Melted_Igloo: Nov 26, 2007

Cicero posted:

What? This makes no sense. Why would you want a job in a field with low demand, and more importantly, why would low demand increase your odds of getting a job? Are you seriously suggesting that if nobody cares about your skill set, that makes you LESS likely to be unemployed?

More demand for a specific type of skill (say COBOL), does not equate to more jobs

Very unlike the usual demand/supply economics that everyone is taught

Melted_Igloo fucked around with this message at 20:20 on Apr 26, 2011

# ¿ Apr 26, 2011 20:12

Melted_Igloo: Nov 26, 2007

2banks1swap.avi posted:

Okay, enough derail. Sorry Cicero. Pathos > logos and all.

For FLOSS, what would be good projects to jump into? Starting one or contributing to one that you find interesting? Any and all advice or experiences here would be helpful.

For networking, besides joining student groups, palling around with professors, and being a lab-rat, what else works? For those of us who are coming from a Community College to a University, and do not have family who can help us network in this field, what's a good starting point?

For what it's worth, I do this ANYWAY, because I frankly love the subject and stumbling into people with a common interest is a godsend if you life in an area which cares only about things I couldn't care less about. All but the most boring or anti social people would be doing these things, I think, anyway, but I've heard Universities are much more impersonal than CC's on account of the class sizes being so big. Maybe it changes at the upper level? I don't know.

I have about a year of prerqs left before I transfer anyway. Nothing is imminent but I don't want to go "WHOOPS!" and pay for it down the line. The reason I'm so gung ho about this now is I already got sold on how guaranteed my future would be with a given job skill which ended up being a titanic waste of time and money, and I'm not about to do that again this late in my twenties.

If you live where I live, companies dont actually "need" to hire anyone, they can wait a year or 2 and interview 1000 people if they felt like it

There's really nothing that decides whether or not youre getting a job besdies 2 facts: whether they need someone right away and whether you werent a complete fumbling idiot at the interview

And to some extent how high the pay is = less likely to get job

# ¿ Apr 29, 2011 22:08

Melted_Igloo: Nov 26, 2007

shrike82 posted:

Lastly, jobs - LOL it's ridiculous how much of a employee's market it is. As long as you spend time preparing your interview skills, resume - you'll worry more about which offer to accept rather than finding one at all. I've heard from my juniors that mean/median offer salary this year was a bit over $80K.

Good luck!

Er what? where the heck do you live?

Theres like 3 IT firms where I live, and they arent hiring anybody without 15 years experience or something ridiculous

# ¿ May 7, 2011 10:41

Melted_Igloo: Nov 26, 2007

Cicero posted:

Well as one sign, MS recently announced pretty much across-the-board raises and changes in compensation from stock to cash

That could mean literally anything, from making their stock price go up or down,
to more competion from other companies to keep developers from jumping ship
To Steve Balmer getting a blowjob that morning

Also: read the comments on the article, they tell how crappy it really is to work at Microsoft from the averages person perspective

Melted_Igloo fucked around with this message at 12:39 on May 9, 2011

# ¿ May 9, 2011 10:59

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# ¿ May 3, 2024 08:52

Melted_Igloo: Nov 26, 2007

I dread interviews for many many reasons

-Some companies only care if youre using .NET 4.00009 and absolutely dont accept if youre using .NET 4.00008 (I know i made those up)

-Some are just throwing random questions that have no purpose. Someone literally asked me "Do you do any web development?" When I explicitly have HTML/Javascript/AJAX all listed on my resume

-I cant tell if they are normal human beings, because I ask them questions like "Would you like to see some examples of my previous work?" and they shake their head and kind of say no

# ¿ May 12, 2011 15:22

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