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Ask HN: I'm 24, coding since 14, and I don't know what to do

news.ycombinator.com

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Re: Ask HN: I'm 24, coding since 14, and I don't know what to do

#61

Post by nrjdhsbsid »

trymas wrote: post #42
nrjdhsbsid wrote: post #23

The interview process for engineers is absolutely brutal. I almost lost hope on my last job jump when it took me three months and six on-site interviews before I got an offer. What will help you the most in the search is probably not what you think. I thought have a GitHub and some cool projects and a nice blog would make landing a job easy for me... Annnddd 95% of the companies I talked to didn't care. What helped e…

> What helped enormously was studying the same questions that interviewers are likely to pull from. Once I studied hard on interview Q&A I went from no offers to getting three in the same week. Interesting to hear on what are the sources 'that interviewers are likely to pull from'? And probably some guidelines as well, because interviewers like to be stingy and want to hear _the right_ answers.

Study google search results for "interview questions language X" with X being anything mentioned on the application. If js is listed expect things like the difference between == or === and whether variable declarations are hoisted for example.

Other questions I got were things like "can a static class be extended in language X" and other questions that test your trivia abilities but don't really matter when writing code 99% of the time. Like for js, everyone knows not to use == but most people don't know exactly why.

What I did was read several books on the language semantics for my top 2 languages cover to cover multiple times. The process was painful but I was prepared for nearly anything.

Answer quickly even if you might be wrong. Concise answers are perceived as more correct from what I've experienced.

Re: Ask HN: I'm 24, coding since 14, and I don't know what to do

#62

Post by dang »

throwaway_374 wrote: post #56
ninu wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nonsense. Show us what you're made of and learn to build confidence in your abilities. You never will know unless you try! SWE interviews at Google are challenging, no question, but they're also where you can shine presuming there is a command over the basics (data structures, algorithms, etc). You've built multiple apps and coded in various programming languages correct? Post a link to your Github and let's check it…

Sorry but this is total nonsense and false encouragement. Let me translate what "command over the basics" means: If you don't know your Floyd Warshall from your Tarjan from your Manacher then you'll just fumble around thinking you got close unless you have the remarkable gift of being able to derive these from scratch in a whiteboard situation. Also I cannot stress enough how difficult - and entirely pointless - a wh…

> total nonsense

The HN guidelines ask you to edit this sort of thing out of your comments: https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html. We'd appreciate it if you'd err on the side of civility.

Re: Ask HN: I'm 24, coding since 14, and I don't know what to do

#64

Post by throwaway_374 »

dang wrote: post #62
throwaway_374 wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sorry but this is total nonsense and false encouragement. Let me translate what "command over the basics" means: If you don't know your Floyd Warshall from your Tarjan from your Manacher then you'll just fumble around thinking you got close unless you have the remarkable gift of being able to derive these from scratch in a whiteboard situation. Also I cannot stress enough how difficult - and entirely pointless - a wh…

> total nonsense The HN guidelines ask you to edit this sort of thing out of your comments: https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html . We'd appreciate it if you'd err on the side of civility.

I've complied and edited it purely out of courtesy even though it is frankly total and utter rubbish, but feel free to knock yourself out with all the rest: https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=site%3Anews.ycombinator.co...

Re: Ask HN: I'm 24, coding since 14, and I don't know what to do

#65

Post by [deleted] »

nrjdhsbsid wrote: post #23

The interview process for engineers is absolutely brutal. I almost lost hope on my last job jump when it took me three months and six on-site interviews before I got an offer. What will help you the most in the search is probably not what you think. I thought have a GitHub and some cool projects and a nice blog would make landing a job easy for me... Annnddd 95% of the companies I talked to didn't care. What helped e…

[deleted]

Re: Ask HN: I'm 24, coding since 14, and I don't know what to do

#66

Post by [deleted] »

nrjdhsbsid wrote: post #23

The interview process for engineers is absolutely brutal. I almost lost hope on my last job jump when it took me three months and six on-site interviews before I got an offer. What will help you the most in the search is probably not what you think. I thought have a GitHub and some cool projects and a nice blog would make landing a job easy for me... Annnddd 95% of the companies I talked to didn't care. What helped e…

[deleted]

Re: Ask HN: I'm 24, coding since 14, and I don't know what to do

#67

Post by gigatexal »

gigatexal wrote: post #10

Find a niche and start a company -- solve something you hit as a programmer for example. Expose an API and call it good. You seem uniquely qualified being extroverted and competent. It's a crazy long shot I know but I found that only when I was day-tading (not the same thing) I was happiest because I was earning for myself and making my own hours and best of all trying to see if my hypothesis (or in your case your co…

I should add that I lost almost 100k day trading but I learned a few things: 1) my hypothesis didn't work; 2) I loved doing it even given the losses; 3) finance wasn't for me - trading stocks always will be given that it's more-or-less gambling, and who doesn't love gambling -- but it helped me figure out what I wanted to do. The best part was I was my own boss. I woke up at 5AM (willingly!), was often up a few grand by noon, and then left my multi-monitor setup to go have fun for the day. I never felt more in control of my destiny than I was at that time, and I imagine it's the same running your own business

Re: Ask HN: I'm 24, coding since 14, and I don't know what to do

#68

Post by paulcole »

gigatexal wrote: post #67
gigatexal wrote: post #10

Find a niche and start a company -- solve something you hit as a programmer for example. Expose an API and call it good. You seem uniquely qualified being extroverted and competent. It's a crazy long shot I know but I found that only when I was day-tading (not the same thing) I was happiest because I was earning for myself and making my own hours and best of all trying to see if my hypothesis (or in your case your co…

I should add that I lost almost 100k day trading but I learned a few things: 1) my hypothesis didn't work; 2) I loved doing it even given the losses; 3) finance wasn't for me - trading stocks always will be given that it's more-or-less gambling, and who doesn't love gambling -- but it helped me figure out what I wanted to do. The best part was I was my own boss. I woke up at 5AM (willingly!), was often up a few grand…

>was often up a few grand by noon

couldn't have been that often

>lost almost 100k day trading

Re: Ask HN: I'm 24, coding since 14, and I don't know what to do

#69

Post by gigatexal »

paulcole wrote: post #68
gigatexal wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I should add that I lost almost 100k day trading but I learned a few things: 1) my hypothesis didn't work; 2) I loved doing it even given the losses; 3) finance wasn't for me - trading stocks always will be given that it's more-or-less gambling, and who doesn't love gambling -- but it helped me figure out what I wanted to do. The best part was I was my own boss. I woke up at 5AM (willingly!), was often up a few grand…

>was often up a few grand by noon couldn't have been that often >lost almost 100k day trading

It wasn't the smartest choice but it was fun and informative.

Re: Ask HN: I'm 24, coding since 14, and I don't know what to do

#70

Post by itamarst »

ninu wrote: post #52
frostbytes wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

hahaha <3 thanks ninu, I'm not Google material, that is for the exceptionally chosen and talented.

Nonsense. Show us what you're made of and learn to build confidence in your abilities. You never will know unless you try! SWE interviews at Google are challenging, no question, but they're also where you can shine presuming there is a command over the basics (data structures, algorithms, etc). You've built multiple apps and coded in various programming languages correct? Post a link to your Github and let's check it…

This was before the revamp that maybe improved things, but here's a real Google interview story:

Interviewer: Do you know C?

Candidate: I wrote a tiny bit years ago, but not really.

Interviewer: Please write some C.

Also "data structures, algorithms" aren't the basics. The bullshit whiteboard puzzle crap algorithms stuff is irrelevant to 90% of actual programming. Including at Google.

In general Google does not have a good track record for hiring people with non-standard backgrounds except via acquisitions (where magically they do just fine) or if it's someone with a lot of experience. E.g. at least as of 5 years ago to be a product manager you needed a Computer Science degree. Knew one really good product manager who wouldn't have been hired by Google under those rules but had slipped in under older, more lenient rules. He only had a Computer Engineering degree and MBA.

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