Happy to chat with you just email me Steve dot Morin @ Tripping dot com. Am a CTO at a Bay Area company happy to give advice.
Ask HN: Got a CS degree, but I’m unable to be programmer. What can I do?
21–30 of 324 posts
Re: Ask HN: Got a CS degree, but I’m unable to be programmer. What can I do?
#22I'd guess that implementing Fizz Buzz or describing a basic database schema is enough to get hired to 50% of programming jobs. That includes quite a few senior positions. Not exaggerating, Fizz Buzz or a similarly trivial problem is the only tech screen more often than you'd expect. Not only that, but the algorithm challenges are less common now. It's been a long time since I interviewed with a company that didn't gi…
I'd say Fizz Buzz + knowing when to use a map vs an array and you up your chances to 80%
Re: Ask HN: Got a CS degree, but I’m unable to be programmer. What can I do?
#23Project manager, Business Analyst, Sales engineer, devops, high level support role, a role in system integrations, technical writer.. etc etc. I believe CS degree is a good base now and days and doesnt mean you have to go straight into development. Best people I know in the above roles have a programming background. Good luck, don't stress and dont give up. First job was the hardest for me :)
Get out there and interview if its important to you. The more interviews you fail the better you will get at them! If you wish to master the silly technical interviews IMO the best way is to throw yourself into the fire.
Re: Ask HN: Got a CS degree, but I’m unable to be programmer. What can I do?
#24Do you actually enjoy making things with code? Leaving aside the mostly BS algorithmic interview fodder (you're never going to use any of that until the next job search at 99% of places), when was the last time you just wrote some code to do something you wanted to do, or screwed around with a library or a framework for the hell of it? Have you done any real software development work in the past?
Most of what I do as a software engineer is not particularly complicated; it's playing with Legos or akin to construction tradework. I've got to have attention to detail, and a mental map of how the piece fits into the whole, but it's not super clever or complicated. And I try my damndest to avoid things that are clever or complex, because they're usually far too easy to get wrong, and create too much work for future-me down the road. A startling percentage of my time is just doing variations on database crud operations and munging data from one source through some transformations and pushing it at some destination.
Re: Ask HN: Got a CS degree, but I’m unable to be programmer. What can I do?
#25how many leetcode problems have you done? are you really not picking up any of the tricks? which language are you writing in?
Re: Ask HN: Got a CS degree, but I’m unable to be programmer. What can I do?
#26Project manager, Business Analyst, Sales engineer, devops, high level support role, a role in system integrations, technical writer.. etc etc. I believe CS degree is a good base now and days and doesnt mean you have to go straight into development. Best people I know in the above roles have a programming background. Good luck, don't stress and dont give up. First job was the hardest for me :) Get out there and interv…
I would hope that a "Devops Engineer" or similar would be able to breeze through Easy leetcode problems (i.e., string manipulation) without issue.
Re: Ask HN: Got a CS degree, but I’m unable to be programmer. What can I do?
#27At work you will normally have an internet connection, so what are effectively useless "elite code" algorithm puzzles are A) easily looked up, and B) not most of what the work is. Those are not realistic problems, business have better things to do than waste time on those sort of things. Here is a realistic problem that might be encountered at work: "We need output X under these circumstances, but instead got output…
That is true, but in order to get the jobs you described that pay reasonably well you still need to solve algorithmic problems on Leetcode or CTCI. And sometimes knowing different data structures and algorithms do come in handy, so some problems on Leetcode can be considered realistic.
No, you can get there by finding jobs where the interviewers/hiring managers aren't using Leetcode as their filter. (They do exist, even if they're not as common as they should be.)
Re: Ask HN: Got a CS degree, but I’m unable to be programmer. What can I do?
#28Lots of great advice on this thread, but here's a different way of looking at things:
If you like programming itself, don't pull the parachute cord on it just yet. There are plenty of companies that aren't tech companies that need programmers -- maybe that's less pressure mentally and from actual demands from the job? Something to think about, at least.
Also, consider a secondary skill or interest and mull over what kind of company could benefit from the intersection of that and your programming skills. (That's somewhat inspired by this: https://medium.com/the-mission/make-the-pursuit-of-curiosity...)
Re: Ask HN: Got a CS degree, but I’m unable to be programmer. What can I do?
#29First, congratulations, you have accomplished a lot by getting a CS degree and should feel very proud of that.
Now before presuming you can't handle a workload at a company that isn't all testing-mensa-crazy, you might want to look into how you respond to this stress before evaluating the best course of action.
As other commenters have said, there are many options, but at the root of it you should understand what/why you feel this stress and it would be best to get professional advice on that.
I'm the last person who wants to advocate pharma-everywhere solutions, but I've worked with some extremely talented people who otherwise struggled through life and managed to find the right formula that worked for them.
Re: Ask HN: Got a CS degree, but I’m unable to be programmer. What can I do?
#30Lots of great advice on this thread, but here's a different way of looking at things: If you like programming itself, don't pull the parachute cord on it just yet. There are plenty of companies that aren't tech companies that need programmers -- maybe that's less pressure mentally and from actual demands from the job? Something to think about, at least. Also, consider a secondary skill or interest and mull over what…
This. I couldn't/can't pass a programmer interview at BigCo but I'm capable at LoB software that loads of business need. It's mostly script languages, moving data, integration of existing systems. Loads of "un-sexy" problems to solve, decent pay, lower stress, get to be a polyglot, big-fish, small pond.