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

Ither: Jan 30, 2010

So a staffing company has multiple job postings on their website. I like quite a few of them, but they're governed by different recruiters. What should I do?

I'm thinking about sending a group email to the recruiters. But should I email them separately instead? Or maybe even only apply to one?

# ¿ May 7, 2017 18:37

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# ¿ May 5, 2024 15:59

Ither: Jan 30, 2010

GrimmGamer posted:

Okay, cool, thanks for all the advice guys. I feel a lot less discouraged now. I'll definitely stay clear of places like Revature because they seem decently shady. I guess I'll just get a retail job while I work on some cool stuff to learn/show off my programming skills to potential employers.

I actually recently picked up that Cracking the Code interview book, so I'll definitely focus on that.

Again, thanks for the replies. It really means a lot to me.

Revature is a mixed bag.

They'll provide you training and housing, but they'll want you to work for them for two years.

They'll probably get you a position, but it could be anywhere in the US, and they'll take a chunk out of your salary.

FDM is a similar company but they're based in NYC.

When dealing with companies like that, the most important things are being knowledgeable about what they're offering and also being knowledgeable, and firm, about what you want.

# ¿ Jul 13, 2017 09:45

Ither: Jan 30, 2010

This discussion raise a question.

How do you bypass HR and get your resume in the hands of the nerds?

# ¿ Jul 31, 2017 14:01

Ither: Jan 30, 2010

I received an offer from a company.

In the employment agreement, it says that within a certain period, if they ask, I have to inform them of any New Employer I jump to.

Also, I think it basically says, they own anything I do whether it's related to the job or not. IANAL so I don't know for sure.

How standard is this? I'm thinking of telling them to amend some sections.

# ¿ Sep 5, 2017 23:35

Ither: Jan 30, 2010

lifg posted:

1) Does it *prevent* you from being employed by someone else?

There is a non-complete clause in addition.

The Contract posted:

Employee expressly agrees that Employee will not (either directly or indirectly, by assisting or acting in concert with others) Compete with the Company during the Restricted Period within the Restricted Territory.

quote:

2) Do they own things you do on your own time that is not related to their industry?

It seems so:

The Contract posted:

Employee further agrees to and hereby grants the Company, as directed by the Company, a non-exclusive, royalty-free, irrevocable, perpetual, worldwide, sublicensable and assignable license to make, have made, copy, modify, make derivative works of, use, publicly perform, display or otherwise distribute any copyrightable works Employee creates during Employee�s Employment.

# ¿ Sep 6, 2017 02:57

Ither: Jan 30, 2010

I decided not to sign with the company in the end.

No way am I restricting myself like that.

# ¿ Sep 8, 2017 22:13

Ither: Jan 30, 2010

Keetron posted:

Did you tell them it was because of the restrictions?

Yup.

# ¿ Sep 9, 2017 12:59

Ither: Jan 30, 2010

kitten smoothie posted:

Did they try to negotiate it with you at all or was it just "OK, door's over there"?

"This is a standard contract that everyone who works here has signed. We don't make changes to it."

# ¿ Sep 9, 2017 19:18

Ither: Jan 30, 2010

Has anyone ever heard of Pega?

Shirec posted:

You were insanely right about your take on this. Only differences was they are very focused on testing and version control. The team was awesome, the work seemed really interesting, and has a ton of potential for growth.

They are also fast about decisions. I had an awesome interview/technical interview back to back, they had be an offer letter the same day, I signed it today. So! I'm officially going to be a junior web developer as of next month!

Congrats!

# ¿ Sep 11, 2017 23:02

Ither: Jan 30, 2010

Keetron posted:

Yeah I heared of it, what about it?

I did a little research on it, and it seems to be a way to build enterprise applications without coding. Is that correct?

# ¿ Sep 12, 2017 10:26

Ither: Jan 30, 2010

Keetron posted:

Ah, I just know it from the context of testing, where I found it is some horrible beast that needs tons of closed source stuff to be able to test on and then still one can only pray it is as expected.
But yeah, any tool that promises "application without coding" is shady in my book.

Huh, I've seen openings for an Automated Tester for a Pega Team. Maybe I should ignore them.

# ¿ Sep 12, 2017 12:35

Ither: Jan 30, 2010

I'm starting to think external recruiters are useless.

# ¿ Sep 14, 2017 22:37

Ither: Jan 30, 2010

Fortuitous Bumble posted:

Does anyone have advice on what I should know or be prepared to discuss regarding object oriented programming in an interview? This is for a java development position.

I'm not sure what people care about since a lot of info online about OOP looks kind of outdated to me and I'm trying to figure out what's actually important in 2017, and the recruiter said that this company will discuss it at their interviews. The things I'm mostly familiar with that I think are related to object oriented programming are:

Composition and inheritance
Restricting access to internal state
Dependency injection
Patterns that people might refer to in real life (factories?)
Dynamic dispatch
Generics

Is there anything important I'm missing?

What is MVC and why is it important?

# ¿ Nov 7, 2017 00:22

Ither: Jan 30, 2010

How do you guys stay abreast of the latest trends or new frameworks/technologies in the industry?

I have a job now, but I don't want to be complacent.

# ¿ Nov 15, 2017 14:26

Ither: Jan 30, 2010

I hate companies that make you jump through hoops to apply to an opening.

Just let me submit my resume!

# ¿ Dec 31, 2017 15:06

Ither: Jan 30, 2010

Yea, don't stay in unhappy situation because of what others might think.

# ¿ Jan 2, 2018 15:09

Ither: Jan 30, 2010

I've never written a cover letter and never will.

# ¿ Feb 23, 2018 01:34

Ither: Jan 30, 2010

Nippashish posted:

This is a very strange cross to die on.

My other cross is writing a post interview thank you letter.

# ¿ Feb 23, 2018 07:21

Ither: Jan 30, 2010

a hot gujju bhabhi posted:

Learn to suck dick real good.

Way ahead of you.

# ¿ Feb 23, 2018 15:01

Ither: Jan 30, 2010

a hot gujju bhabhi posted:

Pm me

Can't

# ¿ Feb 24, 2018 00:26

Ither: Jan 30, 2010

Vincent Valentine posted:

Keep in mind guys if shirec gets fired for reporting her boss there is zero chance she will win a retaliatory suit because he has been loudly and aggressively chastising her in public for basically everything. He can just point to all of those times and say he was unhappy with her performance. Is not that simple.

Meanwhile, I looked up why shirts have collars. It's too keep warm and hide ties. The reason you use a cover letter even if you assume it won't be read is because you need to give yourself every conceivable advantage. Everyone else is. Why would you purposely hamstring yourself in a market as hard to find a great job in as tech?

Because, to me, cover letters (and thank you notes) reek of desperation. My resume and the subsequent interviews should tell a potential employer everything they need to know.

It's not that hard to get a good paying job in the tech field.

# ¿ Feb 24, 2018 00:47

Ither: Jan 30, 2010

The purest truth.

# ¿ Mar 24, 2018 00:01

Ither: Jan 30, 2010

In 30 years, hopefully capitalism will have ended and people will be living in the VR Utopia.

# ¿ Apr 17, 2018 03:24

Ither: Jan 30, 2010

Company A is contracting you out to Company B.

Your managers will be from Company B, your assignments will be chosen by Company B, and your coworkers will be from Company B (or else contractors like you)

Company A is really just there to pay you, handle insurance, and handle taxes.

If it's a good contracting company, you won't really interact with them from day to day. Occasionally, you might get a "how are you doing?" email.

If it's a bad contracting company, they will be overbearing. You'll have to give a status update every week and constantly work to increase the presence of Company A in Company B. This may include skullduggery versus other contracting companies.

A thing to watch out for is to not do free work. This sounds obvious, but I've seen people work for 50+ hours, but only bill for 40. Don't do this.

# ¿ Jul 6, 2018 07:41

Ither: Jan 30, 2010

As someone who also moved from being a QA to being a developer, I agree with Keetron

# ¿ Jul 18, 2018 09:10

Ither: Jan 30, 2010

Kaedric posted:

I've been calcifying at the same job for 5+ years now and we've had a recent surge of people leaving for greener pastures. I've been stupidly underpaid in my current role for the entirety of my time here so I'm kinda sick of it but I also fear change, since I require stability due to having a large family where I'm the sole breadwinner.

So that out of the way, I was referred to a recruiter who has multiple positions doing pretty much what I'm doing now, but the pay is at a minimum 30-35% more per year. The problem I have with it is that it's 3 months contract-to-hire. So i'm looking for goon wisdom on if I should A) implicitly not trust recruiters and apply directly to jobs like this myself and B) never under any circumstances take a contract-to-hire because it's a fool's gamble.

Am I just being gun-shy?

A) Some recruiters are trustworthy. It depends on the company and person. Researching them helps.

B) Only take contract to hire if you're comfortable with the possibility of being let go when the contract term is up

# ¿ Jul 25, 2018 13:46

Ither: Jan 30, 2010

Keetron posted:

Is this going to be another goon in a well situation?

Goon in a well?

# ¿ Jan 6, 2019 01:22

Ither: Jan 30, 2010

Yea, if you play your cards right, your salary will sky rocket in the next coming years.

# ¿ Feb 22, 2019 12:40

Ither: Jan 30, 2010

Ardemia posted:

About to hit my 1 year mark as a programmer and wanted some advice.

I really like coding, and for the most part like the place I'm working at. The big issue for me would be pay. I'm fairly sure I make the least out of everyone on my team. I'm currently at 45k/year. I work on many different things: Wordpress customizations, Magento 1.x front end and back end tasks, Magento 2.2 back end tasks, jQuery/HTML/CSS pages on standard LAMP stack,entry-level SQL, random PHP doings (mostly for making API calls) and I write VBA for several hilariously large Access applications.

My general knowledge has grown leaps and bounds this first year, and I have gained a great sense of calm and happiness from finding a career I enjoy. My past IT experience has been leaned on a bit too much for my liking, and I have had to assist the IT director in troubleshooting and fixing some domain-level problems. I got to go to out of town for a week for a Magento course, and should be taking my exam in the next month. I am very grateful that I got to go do this, as honestly I've never worked anywhere that would bother to invest in my skillset or future in any way. I have been told I will get a raise once I get this certification, but I don't know how much.

I see two problems with this. First, I am currently spending 85%+ of my dev time on VBA, which I am concerned about spending so much time doing. There is not a growing career path to be a VBA specialist, and I don't want to be supporting those applications for the duration of my career. In past months it has gone from a even split to more time in VBA. Spending time out of work and out of town to earn a certificate that I don't actually get to use would be problematic for me.

Second, I'm concerned about not being compensated fairly for having that cert, but at the same time appreciate and am thankful I got to go, and only got to go because of my work. I don't like being so money focused, but I live in an area with a very high cost of living, especially housing. Rent takes 40% of my net pay and is a good deal for the area. Student loans take about 20-25%. I want to buy a house soon, I'm 32 and tired of renting. I need to start saving for retirement as well. I also don't want to be sitting on education and experience that is worth a lot more than I am getting paid for.

My one year eval is in a week or so, and I'll be discussing this with my team leader and our managing exec. I would really like to make this place a career, but if I can't get paid enough to afford to live where my work is within a reasonable commute then I have to explore other options.
If you were me, what would you do?

Since money seems to be the only issue, see if they'll pay you more.

If they don't, leave.

# ¿ Mar 28, 2019 07:59

Ither: Jan 30, 2010

Dogfood?

# ¿ May 8, 2019 00:46

Ither: Jan 30, 2010

Take home tests are the worst.

If you want to evaluate my coding skill, bring me in or lets do a screenshare.

Ither fucked around with this message at 13:18 on Jul 12, 2019

# ¿ Jul 12, 2019 13:16

Ither: Jan 30, 2010

Congratulations

# ¿ Dec 6, 2019 13:39

Ither: Jan 30, 2010

Because of COVID my job is now 100% remote. It's an easy gig, so I think I can handle a side hustle.

Does anyone know a good listing of part time remote development jobs?

What about full time?

# ¿ Jul 10, 2020 12:56

Ither: Jan 30, 2010

huhu posted:

Have you attempted any research? It sounds like you think there's some magical website of part time job gold that has yet to be mined.

I have done research before. It would be great to do it again. There's something about proving things that brings more satisfaction that building another CRUD app.

ultrafilter posted:

Are you under an agreement with your current employer that prevents you from doing this?

I am barred from competing with them or poaching, but besides that I'm free.

lifg posted:

The two ways I know of to get part time work is 1) ask former employers if they have anything for you, and 2) get a simple freelance job and do well enough that they keep giving you more work.

Thanks.

I'm exploring freelance options now. Seems like Toptal and Gun.IO are the good ones. Does anyone know anymore?

Ither fucked around with this message at 18:01 on Jul 10, 2020

# ¿ Jul 10, 2020 17:59

Ither: Jan 30, 2010

Adhemar posted:

Sorry to hear you had a crappy experience interviewing at Amazon. I work there and we are supposed to treat candidates like customers, which means giving them a positive experience whether they do well or not. Of course, there are plenty of assholes who don�t care. Were you surveyed afterwards?

That said, in my experience interviewing is always somewhat of a crapshoot, FAANG or not. It�s just not an exact science. But, that�s also a reason to not take rejection too seriously and try again later; you might get a better interviewer fit in your loop.

Since you work at Amazon, is it a good idea to apply to multiple openings at the same time?

# ¿ Aug 7, 2020 21:08

Ither: Jan 30, 2010

Shadow0 posted:

So I was finally kicked out of Korea and have started job searching back in the US of A in earnest.

And so far nothing. The lack of 3 years of experience in anything feels like an unsurmountable barrier.

But I did get an offer from Revature.
The pay isn't great, and I will have no control at all on what they train me for.
And also it's funny to think my 6.5 years of university are less valuable than their 10~12 weeks of training.

But despite the low pay and relocation requirement, it's pretty tempting.
The review sites all give them pretty high reviews, but I thought I would ask this thread just in case someone knows something I don't.
I feel like if I can just get that 2 more years of programming experience, a lot more opportunities will starting being available to me.

Is Revature a good place for me to build experience, or am I just being impatient in my job search?

I know several people who started their IT career with Revature.

You'll be underpaid (~50K) while working with them, but after your two years is up, and you leave, your salary will skyrocket. A couple of them are at six figures now.

Be prepared to relocate to anywhere in the US and be prepared to be assertive if management starts messing you.

EDIT: Make sure to talk to them about (get this in writing) overtime and raises.

Ither fucked around with this message at 06:08 on Feb 6, 2021

# ¿ Feb 6, 2021 06:00

Ither: Jan 30, 2010

I'm a backend guy.

My favorite jobs are the ones that allow me to be a backend code monkey.

Frontend? I dislike Javascript. Waiting for front end Java to make a come back (Vaadin? WebAssembly?)

Devops? I hate having to thing about deployments/config.

# ¿ Sep 13, 2022 17:50

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# ¿ May 5, 2024 15:59

Ither: Jan 30, 2010

Congratulations! Awesome story.

# ¿ Apr 25, 2024 11:40

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