Try systems companies (e.g. storage, networking) - you get to build products that leverage core CS concepts - algorithms, distributed systems etc. You also get a chance to use your investigative skills to debug problems like race conditions, memory leaks etc.
Ask HN: Where are the hard programming challenges/jobs?
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Re: Ask HN: Where are the hard programming challenges/jobs?
#22I don't know how you feel about working for the military-industrial-tech-surveillance-state but companies or universities that get DARPA or IARPA money work on stuff like flying and/or self driving cars, autonomous systems etc (Lockheed, Honeywell, Carnegie-Mellon, Raytheon, for examples). Of course these things will ultimately be used to crush humanity's soul, but they're interesting software and technical challenges.
Re: Ask HN: Where are the hard programming challenges/jobs?
#23Hard problems are everywhere. Every company, every app, every product has unique and difficult problems to solve.
Sometimes those problems are with product design and UX. Sometimes those problems are mathematical. If you are successful, often they have to do with scalability and reliability. If you work with great people there are always hard problems in enabling productivity and building great tools. Many companies have serious and significant challenges around security and may not even know it. If most companies are solving simple problems, then why aren't most companies automatically successful?
If you broaden your definitions of "hard" you might find that there are many things that qualify. If what you mean is "hard mathematical problems" then yes, you will have to learn some math.
Re: Ask HN: Where are the hard programming challenges/jobs?
#24Try looking for bioinformatics jobs. It involves big data where the amount of data to be analyzed is growing exponentially every year, a lack of knowledge on what to research to provide meaningful results, and huge benefit when people come up with novel ways to interpret data successfully. It will involve acquiring some domain specific knowledge to be truly successful (what hard problem doesn't?), but you will be abl…
I'm slightly hijacking the thread here, but does HN have any recommendations on CS-heavy bioinformatics grad programs (not just US based)?
Re: Ask HN: Where are the hard programming challenges/jobs?
#25Try the games industry!
The pay sucks compared to other development, and work hours are crap, but you will be able to work on AI, gameplay, Graphics, physics (whatever your experience is).
But in all honesty, if you started programming a couple years ago, and learned a bit of rails/ruby, you have a lot to learn in various languages and systems (try C, embedded, iOS/Android, learn Haskell, big data, etc)
Re: Ask HN: Where are the hard programming challenges/jobs?
#26What is your topcoder ranking?
Re: Ask HN: Where are the hard programming challenges/jobs?
#27It depends on what kind of "hard" you're looking for. I've worked on games (Crash Bandicoot), search (ITA Software), and email (http://inky.com) and all have been hard, though in different ways.
Games are hard in that you're always trying to squeeze more into severely constrained resources, so you end up having to produce convincing but fake approximations of algorithms that would be far too expensive to run in their "real" forms.
Travel search was algorithmically very hard (see the few papers by de Marcken about this for a glimpse into this world).
Email is hard because it combines many disparate skills (design, UX, back-end scaling, protocol details) and because the MVP is incredibly complex.
All involved tremendous amounts of slogging.
Re: Ask HN: Where are the hard programming challenges/jobs?
#28This sounds like a variant of the meme "I could build stackoverflow in a weekend".
If you think you can build 99% of the apps out there, go out and try to build a moderately complex app. Make it better. You'll see there are all types of challenges from the technical, to the social to the political in small and large companies. Being a software developer is about solving all sorts of challenges, and not all of them are technical.
Re: Ask HN: Where are the hard programming challenges/jobs?
#29It's not the only way but a PhD will certainly open a lot more doors at the "high end" research end of things. That said, even Microsoft Research will hire "Research Software Development Engineers" who work with researchers to implement cutting edge stuff as well as migrate it into regular Microsoft products, and only a bachelor's is required: http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/jobs/fulltime/technical.... .. these s…
If I had money and free time, then I'd love to do research on my own. Thing is, I need a job to pay the bills :( I'm thinking of getting into freelancing and using that to float me as I get to do more and more research.
This is the strategy I'm currently implementing. I've been doing freelance work while working on research with physiological sensors as computer input.
You'll need two things to get started doing this sort of thing: standing out as a member of your community so people come to you, and an understanding of business needs.
If you really want to make the switch, shoot me an email. I'll give you some tips on making the transition.
Re: Ask HN: Where are the hard programming challenges/jobs?
#30One place to find hard open problems is at the end of technical papers (e.g. in math, science or engineering). Many of them will have a section talking about issues, future work, ideas remaining to explore, etc.
There are infinitely many hard problems out there. If you want to stay motivated, work on stuff that matters.
http://radar.oreilly.com/2009/01/work-on-stuff-that-matters-...