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Becoming a compiler engineer

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Re: Becoming a compiler engineer

#61

Post by ekidd »

verandaguy wrote: post #47
munificent wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I'm a bit shocked that it would take significant effort/creativity for an MIT grad with relevant course/project work to get a job in the niche That bit was heartbreaking to me too. I knew the economy was bad for new grads but if a double major from MIT in SF is struggling, then the economy is cooked.

While the economy's definitely in a shitty spot (and IMO heading towards shittier), I wouldn't necessarily take this specific line as a sign of the times. The author does outline reasons why demand for compiler engineers (and junior ones in particular) is likely low in her post. Compiler development is (for better or worse) a niche that favours people who've got real-world experience doing this. The traditional ways…

Yup, I have been a junior compiler engineer at three(!) different jobs early in my career, before moving on to other stuff.

It has never been a huge niche. It's fun work if you can get it. There were often MIT grads around, but I don't think it made you an automatic hire?

Once in a blue moon, for old times' sake, I send a bug fix PR for someone's optimizer, or build a small transpiler for something.

Re: Becoming a compiler engineer

#62

Post by jasonjmcghee »

typpilol wrote: post #59
jasonjmcghee wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No I'm literally saying - she writes fiction- how can you plagiarize a fiction book and make it work lol (I have no knowledge / context of this situation - no idea if she did or what happened here)

You can't plagiarize fiction? So if I copy paste Harry Potter that's ok? What kind of argument is that

Absolutely not saying this or making this argument.

I just don't see how this could possibly work - how would slapping Harry Potter in the middle of the book your writing work

Re: Becoming a compiler engineer

#63

Post by sarchertech »

defrost wrote: post #48
thereitgoes456 wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What I just said is a fact. Look it up if you like

The similarities are intriging but not compelling. https://docs.google.com/document/d/1pPE6tqReSAXEmzuJM52h219f... Stories of "asian face" actresses with eyes taped back, prominent pieces of anti asian grafitti on walls and drawn in bathrooms are common tropes in asian communities, etc. The examples of plagiarism are examples of common story arcs, with an educated asian female twist, and use of examples that multiple…

One of her publishers pulled her book from print, publicly accused her of plagiarism, and asked other publishers to denounce her for plagiarism.

That’s pretty damning evidence. If a publisher was on the fence they might pull her books quietly, but they wouldn’t make such a public attack without very good evidence that they thought would hold up in court. There was no equivocation at all.

Re: Becoming a compiler engineer

#64

Post by tiu »

The comments are wildly fragmented in this thread. I agree with @torginus, the article has less and less of anything useful to people that want to get into compilers.

Anyways, the "Who .. hires compiler engineer?" section is fairly vague in my opinion, so: AMD, Nvidia, Intel, Apple, Google definitely hire for compiler positions. These hire fairly 'in-open' so probably the best bets all around. Aside from this, Jane Street and Bloomberg also do hire at the peak tier but for that certain language. The off beat options are: Qualcomm, Modular, Amazon (AWS) and ARM. Also see, https://mgaudet.github.io/CompilerJobs/

I seriously attempted getting into compilers last year before realising it is not for me but during those times it felt like people who want to be compiler devs are much much more in number compared to jobs that exist (yes exist, not vacant).

The common way to get going is to do LLVM. Making a compiler is great and all but too many people exist with a lox interpreter-compiler or something taken from the two Go books. Contributing to LLVM (or friends like Carbon, Swift, Rust) or atleast some usage experience is the way. The other side of this is doing GNU GCC and friends but I have seen like only one opening that mentions this way as being relevant. University level courses are rarely of any use.

Lastly, LLVM meetups/conferences are fairly common at most tech hubs and usually have a jobs section listing all requirements.

A few resources since I already made this comment too long (sorry!):

[0]: https://bernsteinbear.com/pl-resources/ [1]: https://lowlevelbits.org/how-to-learn-compilers-llvm-edition... [2]: https://www.youtube.com/@compilers/videos

Re: Becoming a compiler engineer

#65

Post by sarchertech »

jasonjmcghee wrote: post #62
typpilol wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can't plagiarize fiction? So if I copy paste Harry Potter that's ok? What kind of argument is that

Absolutely not saying this or making this argument. I just don't see how this could possibly work - how would slapping Harry Potter in the middle of the book your writing work

Instead of slapping Harry Potter in the middle of your book wholesale, imagine you lifted a few really good lines from Harry Potter, a few from Lord of the Rings, and more from a handful of other books.

Read the evidence document another poster linked for actual examples.

Re: Becoming a compiler engineer

#66

Post by mattgreenrocks »

tiu wrote: post #64

The comments are wildly fragmented in this thread. I agree with @torginus, the article has less and less of anything useful to people that want to get into compilers. Anyways, the "Who .. hires compiler engineer?" section is fairly vague in my opinion, so: AMD, Nvidia, Intel, Apple, Google definitely hire for compiler positions. These hire fairly 'in-open' so probably the best bets all around. Aside from this, Jane S…

Good synopsis! I enjoyed my time doing some compiler-type work in the past, but there are so few job openings that it can feel quite cramped after awhile, especially without great experience/credentials.

Definitely worth some self-study, however, if only for the healing effect of being exposed to a domain where the culture is largely one of quality instead of...everything except that. :)

Re: Becoming a compiler engineer

#67

Post by thereitgoes456 »

sarchertech wrote: post #63
defrost wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The similarities are intriging but not compelling. https://docs.google.com/document/d/1pPE6tqReSAXEmzuJM52h219f... Stories of "asian face" actresses with eyes taped back, prominent pieces of anti asian grafitti on walls and drawn in bathrooms are common tropes in asian communities, etc. The examples of plagiarism are examples of common story arcs, with an educated asian female twist, and use of examples that multiple…

One of her publishers pulled her book from print, publicly accused her of plagiarism, and asked other publishers to denounce her for plagiarism. That’s pretty damning evidence. If a publisher was on the fence they might pull her books quietly, but they wouldn’t make such a public attack without very good evidence that they thought would hold up in court. There was no equivocation at all.

Said publisher also claims Rona directly admitted plagiarism to them. That’s probably why they’re so confident.

Re: Becoming a compiler engineer

#68

Post by defrost »

sarchertech wrote: post #63
defrost wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The similarities are intriging but not compelling. https://docs.google.com/document/d/1pPE6tqReSAXEmzuJM52h219f... Stories of "asian face" actresses with eyes taped back, prominent pieces of anti asian grafitti on walls and drawn in bathrooms are common tropes in asian communities, etc. The examples of plagiarism are examples of common story arcs, with an educated asian female twist, and use of examples that multiple…

One of her publishers pulled her book from print, publicly accused her of plagiarism, and asked other publishers to denounce her for plagiarism. That’s pretty damning evidence. If a publisher was on the fence they might pull her books quietly, but they wouldn’t make such a public attack without very good evidence that they thought would hold up in court. There was no equivocation at all.

That's a pretty damning response, sure.

The evidence, at least the evidence that I found cited as evidence, appears less damning.

Perhaps there is more damning evidence.

What I found was on the order of the degree of cross copying and similar themes, etc. found in many pools of young writers going back through literary history.

Rona Wang, whom I've never previously heard of, clearly used similar passages from her peers in a literary group and was called out for it after receiving awards.

I would raise two questions, A) was this a truly significant degree of actual plagarism, and 2) did any of her peers in this group use passages from any of Tona's work ?

On the third hand, Kate Bush was a remarkable singer / song writer / performer. Almost utterly unique and completely unlike any contempory.

That's ... highly unusual.

The majority of writers, performers, singers, et al. emerge from pools that differ from their prior generations, but pools none the less that are filled with similarity.

The arc of careers of those that rise from such origins is really the defining part of many creators.

Re: Becoming a compiler engineer

#69

Post by doix »

tiu wrote: post #64

The comments are wildly fragmented in this thread. I agree with @torginus, the article has less and less of anything useful to people that want to get into compilers. Anyways, the "Who .. hires compiler engineer?" section is fairly vague in my opinion, so: AMD, Nvidia, Intel, Apple, Google definitely hire for compiler positions. These hire fairly 'in-open' so probably the best bets all around. Aside from this, Jane S…

Semiconductor companies developing DSPs also likely hire them. My first job was writing an LLVM backend for a DSP.

Looking through the domains in the LLVM mailing list or the git commits should get you a longer list of "off beat" options.

Re: Becoming a compiler engineer

#70

Post by sarchertech »

defrost wrote: post #68
sarchertech wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One of her publishers pulled her book from print, publicly accused her of plagiarism, and asked other publishers to denounce her for plagiarism. That’s pretty damning evidence. If a publisher was on the fence they might pull her books quietly, but they wouldn’t make such a public attack without very good evidence that they thought would hold up in court. There was no equivocation at all.

That's a pretty damning response , sure. The evidence , at least the evidence that I found cited as evidence, appears less damning. Perhaps there is more damning evidence . What I found was on the order of the degree of cross copying and similar themes, etc. found in many pools of young writers going back through literary history. Rona Wang, whom I've never previously heard of, clearly used similar passages from her…

It is evidence because a strong condemnation raises the likelihood that the accusation is true.

It doesn’t prove anything, but it supports the theory that they have seen additional evidence.

After researching this a bit, it looks like someone from publisher says she admitted it to them. That certainly explains why they weren’t afraid to publicly condemn her.

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