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Ask HN: Should I quit the field of software development?

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Re: Ask HN: Should I quit the field of software development?

#141

Post by brianwawok »

jki275 wrote: post #98
brianwawok wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you stay current? I see resumes for similar aged people who know cold fusion and Delphi, and those that know JavaScript and Elixer. I suspect interviews go very differently for the two groups.

Absolutely. C++, C, Java, Python, learning Rust now. Working on another MS just for fun. I don't do web dev so I don't give a shit about javascript.

Yah it doesn't mean you need to know everything, but you have to know something current or I think life gets hard for you..

Re: Ask HN: Should I quit the field of software development?

#142

Post by asdfasgasdgasdg »

alexbanks wrote: post #122
asdfasgasdgasdg wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I'd consider that a critical failure of the selection process. Me too. Unfortunately, I have no control over recruiters or the questionable candidates they sometimes choose to send in. I just have to do my best to ascertain whether the person is a good potential teammate.

Yes, and my point is to not take that critical failure out on the candidate.

I wouldn't "take it out" on the candidate. I always treat my candidates with due respect and courtesy. I would no-hire them, though, if they were not a match for the team.

Re: Ask HN: Should I quit the field of software development?

#143

Post by sjg007 »

This type of interview is the equivalent of the SAT. They don't measure absolute talent. It doesn't mean you are a bad programmer or even a bad systems design person. It doesn't mean you might not be a good manage, executive or anything else either. What they measure are skills in a finite domain.

Fortunately, these interviews are coach-able so it might be worth paying for a coach. It will be one part learning things (likely again) and learning how to demonstrate "you know what they want you to know" and if you don't that they know you would know how to figure it out and are motivated to.

These types of interviews are kind of an "abberation" too. The traditional way to get a job is to ask questions of your interviewer and be genuinely interested. Look up the social and psychological aspects of interviewing.

Re: Ask HN: Should I quit the field of software development?

#144

Post by burntoutfire »

dehrmann wrote: post #68
LostTrackHowM wrote: post #19

With over 20 years experience in the industry, and some products I have worked on visible in SuperBowl advertisements, I can honestly say during interviews I can count to potato. Most recently during a live coding challenge I forgot to you, you know, occasionally run and test the code I was working on, and had one hour to complete. I can also anecdotally report code challenges seems to have become a lot more common i…

> I can also anecdotally report code challenges seems to have become a lot more common in interviews recently. At least these are halfway representative of the job. It's a lot better than being told you're two inches tall, in a blender, and the blender's going to turn on in five seconds, what do you do.

Try to dismount the blade from the axle (they're designed to be easily separable, at least in the model I own) and just have the axle rotate and do nothing?

Re: Ask HN: Should I quit the field of software development?

#145

Post by lmohseni »

keenmaster wrote: post #95
lmohseni wrote: post #15

I went through something similar, and ended up failing a bunch of coding interviews. Also I read David Graeber’s book on bull shit jobs, which was really cathartic for me. I ended up quitting my job, selling my house, and now I’m looking for some property to buy so I can subsistence farm.

I've read several stories that start exactly with what you're doing (quitting job, selling everything, moving...) where the author didn't stick to the plan but gained a lot from the journey anyway and ended up back in the workforce, except they were more productive and happier than before. I think it takes a certain amount of reflection to reach a mental state where you become the person you want to be. That is cruci…

Perhaps, but I doubt that I’ll ever be able to go back to a 9-5. Thank you for the kind words, they really do mean a lot.

Re: Ask HN: Should I quit the field of software development?

#146

Post by worker767424 »

lowiqengineer wrote: post #108
angrais wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yo buddy, no need to compare yourself with others. You should compare yourself now with your past self six years ago: are you a better person now? If you've spent 6 years doing leetcode and you're still bad at it, then perhaps realise that such problem solving games are not for everyone. Like sudoku. I prefer the word game where you find the word in a grid and I hate crosswords. We're all different and that's what ma…

> You should compare yourself now with your past self six years ago: are you a better person now? Kinda? I had more potential then, I could have done Facebook after sophomore year and had my career set for life. Instead I failed that interview and my career has been treading water because I had to join Amazon out of undergrad. Its apparent that I"m not good at these things...the problem is my happiness and financial…

> a total compensation less than Stanford new grads despite two years of tenure.

> I failed that interview and my career has been treading water because I had to join Amazon out of undergrad.

WTF? You have an engineering(?) job at Amazon and are complaining you might have done better if you got the internship(?) at Facebook? And that with two years of experience, you make about as much as a new grad? Is this a humble brag?

You're probably in the upper 25% of tech for your experience and the upper 1% in the developed world for your age group.

Is the meat of your complaint that you'd be making more money if you did a stint at Facebook? Don't think it "sets your career for life." Big companies can even hurt carers long-term because you're not exposed to as much. Facebook on your resume will get you calls from Google recruiters and calls back from wherever you apply, but it won't inherently help you pass future interviews.

Re: Ask HN: Should I quit the field of software development?

#147

Post by worker767424 »

lowiqengineer wrote: post #124
maerF0x0 wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I had to join Amazon out of undergrad. You're suffering for a lack of perspective or gratitude. If you're a millennial, realize that you were probably told that you could do anything (and thusly everything), and the effort it would take was trivialized... Both are incorrect. You most likely can do 1 thing super well and it's going to be a shit ton of work if you want to compete against those equally competent.

In what way? I grew up Asian and went to a state school, I got the message that I was incapable of accomplishing anything from an early age!

> state school

5 of the top 10 CS programs are at state schools.

> I got the message that I was incapable of accomplishing anything from an early age

Apparently you took it to heart and can't recognize what you accomplished.

Re: Ask HN: Should I quit the field of software development?

#148

Post by logicslave »

eternalban wrote: post #49

Advice I give to anyone (with career options) that is considering this field is that serious work in this field requires significant professional level learning and intellectual abilities, yet the profession as a whole is effectively treated as "skilled labor". If you are serious about SE as a career, then within in 10 years, do one of the following: 1 - Start your own sofware development company. Do the startup thin…

Great post.

Re: Ask HN: Should I quit the field of software development?

#149

Post by notacoward »

As someone who might quit the software industry myself (after 30+ years) very soon, I can give you a lot of reasons why that might be a reasonable decision ... but the interview process, as bad as it often is, isn't one of them. There are still places that haven't succumbed to the mania for interview processes that are supposedly meant to minimize false positives and/or eliminate bias but have really become more of a hazing ritual. You just need to keep trying until you find one. It took me a long time to find my first programming job, when I had neither degree nor (obviously) experience, but I kept at it and eventually got my foot in the door for what turned out to be a pretty good career.

It might also help to remind yourself that often the goal of these exercises is not actually to extract a technical answer but to observe how you think through a new problem, ask clarifying questions, handle disagreement, etc. Just stay calm, stay personable, ask questions, be willing to say "I don't know" if that's the case, and remember that another person's hasty judgment is a reflection on them rather than on you.

Re: Ask HN: Should I quit the field of software development?

#150

Post by logicslave12 »

notacoward wrote: post #149

As someone who might quit the software industry myself (after 30+ years) very soon, I can give you a lot of reasons why that might be a reasonable decision ... but the interview process, as bad as it often is, isn't one of them. There are still places that haven't succumbed to the mania for interview processes that are supposedly meant to minimize false positives and/or eliminate bias but have really become more of a…

How come you might quit the industry?
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