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Always Be Coding – How to Land an Engineering Job

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Re: Always Be Coding – How to Land an Engineering Job

#71

Post by danenania »

codex wrote: post #70
kanzure wrote: post #43

Hiring is entirely broken. I don't think anyone is listening to developers. I took some data about this (tracking pixel in a Developer Auction profile), but someone did an even better job than me and posted in these comments: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5730843 I want a company that treats me with dignity and respect, even before and during the interviewing pipeline. How a company treats people during interv…

Bootcamp in the Marine Corps is an example of a tough hiring practice. Are your friends and family doctors or lawyers, per chance? Both professions use grueling hiring marathons which are much, much worse than a software engineering interview (residency and the bar exam). All other engineering professions require a rigorous licensing process, whereas software engineering is one of the cushiest jobs on the planet. In…

No one here is objecting to being tested and challenged. People just want to be tested on how well they can actually perform the job and build solid products, not how well they can memorize algorithm implementations. It's like screening Marines based on whether they can build a rifle by hand. It's a cool skill and could be useful in some ways, but it's not the job.

Re: Always Be Coding – How to Land an Engineering Job

#72

Post by hjalle »

DanWaterworth wrote: post #40

> Master at least one multi-paradigm language ... Some good candidates are C#, C++, Java, PHP, Python, and Ruby. They all look imperative to me, what happened to multi-paradigm?

Would not for example C# or C++ count as multi paradigm as it can be considered to support both imperative and object oriented programming?

Re: Always Be Coding – How to Land an Engineering Job

#73

Post by BSousa »

nitrogen wrote: post #56
hippee-lee wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I forget the exact details but my current employment agreement has a paragraph saying I won't do contract or consulting work while I am a full time employee here. Ethically, I would never be able to interview for your company. Don't most companies like tech companies operate in a similar manner? If so, aren't you limiting your hiring pool to either programmers without those types of agreements or thise whom are ethic…

Interesting. Many (if not most) of the engineers I met in my earliest jobs were moonlighting. How common is such an anti-moonlighting clause in employment contracts?

Quite common.

But in many cases, unenforceable. For example, every contract I signed (both in the UK and Portugal) have it, and while I don't know for the UK, here in Portugal you can't sign your rights away which this falls under. So people just sign it and know if worst comes, the courts will always side by you.

Re: Always Be Coding – How to Land an Engineering Job

#74

Post by acjohnson55 »

It's funny to me that items 1-6 in your technical tips pretty much boil down to "be an A-average student in a CS/CprE program".

I think there's an alternative, and it fits into your ABC. Build useful software. If you've got an idea, implement it, and if possible, open-source it. In the process, you'll likely rely on a bunch of open source software, and maybe you'll run into some limitations. Every limitation is an invitation for you to contribute. And if you can build a bit of a track record, instead of proving yourself with textbook algorithms, you can do by showing your portfolio of actually code.

Re: Always Be Coding – How to Land an Engineering Job

#75

Post by thewarrior »

kamaal wrote: post #37
31reasons wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I just don't have that much drive to get a job. Maybe I underestimate getting a job at google or similar company.

The only problem with big companies is, no matter who they are on an average large set ups are almost the same. There are some minor variations here and there. But your net experience will converge or move around the same point. I don't know much about Google. But from whatever I've heard. The awesome projects where all this nirvana level work happens are very difficult to get into and bulk of the work is really main…

But they pay way more right ? That has to count for something .

Re: Always Be Coding – How to Land an Engineering Job

#76

Post by intractable »

hjalle wrote: post #72
DanWaterworth wrote: post #40

> Master at least one multi-paradigm language ... Some good candidates are C#, C++, Java, PHP, Python, and Ruby. They all look imperative to me, what happened to multi-paradigm?

Would not for example C# or C++ count as multi paradigm as it can be considered to support both imperative and object oriented programming?

OO is a subset of imperative.

Can you name me an OO language which doesn't support imperative programming?

Re: Always Be Coding – How to Land an Engineering Job

#78

Post by wavesounds »

Off topic: I know that formula is made up but it made me think of something. How come nobody has fixed the log base 2 vs log base 10 problem of using log on the internet? Probably the CS article vs Math/Physics article is a good inclination but none the less it seems like a problem we should have solved by now.

Re: Always Be Coding – How to Land an Engineering Job

#79

Post by wavesounds »

wtracy wrote: post #68
tachyonbeam wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And friends, and contacts, and capital, and a huge amount of free time, and unabashed faith in that one idea.

And the ability to get health insurance without being under a megacorporation's umbrella.

Seriously this, solving the health care problem would free up so many people to start companies and innovate growth, it would be the biggest boom to our economy.

Re: Always Be Coding – How to Land an Engineering Job

#80

Post by seivan »

kanzure wrote: post #43

Hiring is entirely broken. I don't think anyone is listening to developers. I took some data about this (tracking pixel in a Developer Auction profile), but someone did an even better job than me and posted in these comments: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5730843 I want a company that treats me with dignity and respect, even before and during the interviewing pipeline. How a company treats people during interv…

I saw your article before it disappeared from the front page. Nice work.
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