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Lessons from a Silicon Valley job search

robertheaton.com

71–80 of 289 posts

Re: Lessons from a Silicon Valley job search

#71
If you're Mexican/Canadian, a TN Visa might be a better option than H1B since there's no annual limit.

I'm currently in Silicon Valley from Canada on a 2.5 day trip, with 4 interviews in that timeframe, and it's quite fun yet intense.

I'd also say that if you're a self-taught programmer (I'm an EE), it's worthwhile to read a book like Intro to Algorithms[1] cover to cover before you start doing technical interviews. There are just too many CS101 concepts that you'll never run into even after years of programming.

[1]: http://www.amazon.com/Introduction-Algorithms-Thomas-H-Corme...

Re: Lessons from a Silicon Valley job search

#72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They deal is data volumes so large and so interconnected, it can't hurt to know those sort of things. Surely you agree?

Agree, but what you described is something that can be googled and quickly learned, whereas all the intangibles op listed should be second-nature.

I highly doubt that someone that does not know what binary search is, that cannot think for a minute and come up with a small implementation, is going to "google and quickly learn" algorithms and the related thinking.

The issue isn't if you can write on simple binary search (considering such a search is a intro-to-programming task[1], that should be a given), but if you have an understanding of the topic in general.

When your project calls for a certain performance bound, will you flail around or have some idea what you're looking for?

1: "Guess my number between 1 and 100!"

Re: Lessons from a Silicon Valley job search

#73

(sorry for sidetracking the excellent piece but...) When I examine the ~13,000 hours I've spent programming I find it hilarious that interviews should centre around algorithmic problems. I've been guilty of it myself and failing FizzBuzz is definitely a true negative but it's so little of a true positive it's not even funny. What I would really love to know about you as a candidate is: - do you know how to actually n…

I am now fairly involved in my company's interview process and Im constantly surprised that none of the resumes I get mention anything about the applicants character or professional demeanor.

For all the fear of being "culturally unfit" for a company, highlighting what kind of role you play and how you interact with your coworkers is fundamental.

Are you diligent and consistent with your work? Are you the kind of person that bursts through work in a flash? Do you prefer to work alone or in a team? How do you feel working with people below your position or above it? etc.

These questions have the issue, however, that you rarely ask them in an interview. You just gauge them from a conversation, that really doesnt speak to any of them. If someone is a complete technical ace, but is silent 100% of the interview besides technical points, i still get red flags. A co-worker is not a cog in a machine, its someone you will be spending 40 + hours a week with.

I disagree with hard theory NOT being important. Im a drop-out but i still went through all the algorithms and data structures classes out there and they gave me knowledge to communicate about hard problems, even though Im not the one solving them (we got some phds for that). And above all, at least in our case currently, several of the algorithm questions we do are actual problems we had in our product. In particular i wouldnt even call O(n) "hard". Its maybe the single most important performance computer science knowledge you need, and its not hard to calculate for the vast majority of applications.

Re: Lessons from a Silicon Valley job search

#74
post #56

"sum of the numbers from 1 to N is O(N^2)" Maybe I'm misunderstanding you, but no it isn't. it's O(N) if you have to traverse a list of numbers it's actually constant time if the numbers are sequential.

It's actually O(1). It's (N * (N+1))/2

that's what I said "constant time"

Re: Lessons from a Silicon Valley job search

#75

This may very well have been an excellent piece. But, the author lost me no later than 2 sentences in with his immature and sexist "nerdy girl" analogy. I just didn't even bother to read the rest. Working in silicon valley myself, I already waste enough time on people who think this kind of immature male mindset is okay.

That is a shallow and inaccurate assessment of what's one the best articles that's been posted in the past month.

Actually, like I said, I didn't even read the rest... so it wasn't an assessment on the article at all. It was an assessment of the author.

But here's a job tip: Don't talk about women like this. If you get a job, you will actually have to work with some. Also this level of immaturity will make your job search that much harder.

Re: Lessons from a Silicon Valley job search

#76

This may very well have been an excellent piece. But, the author lost me no later than 2 sentences in with his immature and sexist "nerdy girl" analogy. I just didn't even bother to read the rest. Working in silicon valley myself, I already waste enough time on people who think this kind of immature male mindset is okay.

That is a reference to a trope in movies where the "nerdy girl" takes off her glasses and suddenly everyone realizes she's beautiful AND smart!

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/BeautifulAllAlong

"She's All That" is a prominent example.

Re: Lessons from a Silicon Valley job search

#77
post #70
post #54

Why is summing a list of numbers 1 to N O(N^2) instead of O(N), don't you just iterate through the set of numbers once? EDIT: Nevermind, I think it means the value of the sum is on the order of n^2

I think he meant factorial rather than sum. The sum of the numbers is O(1) - you can calculate it algorithmically. N*(N+1)/2 Ref: http://www.wikihow.com/Sum-the-Integers-from-1-to-N

https://math.stackexchange.com/questions/195924/proving-a-fa...

Re: Lessons from a Silicon Valley job search

#78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I suspect when they search for it they're going to find their own published writings/blogs ;) I do think some people at FB/Google need to know this stuff cold, but even that isn't going to be 100% of their engineers.

Agreed. I think there's a tinge of arrogance to the claim that Google/FB/what have you need The Best(tm) while everyone else does not. The reality is that there are some jobs (a small minority) at these companies that require incredibly deep algorithmic knowledge - they really do do some complicated things. But the majority of jobs at TwitGooFace are your run of the mill programming jobs, where the requirement and th…

"For the most part, barring a minority of highly specialized high-level positions, engineering ability trumps computer science knowledge."

+1

Re: Lessons from a Silicon Valley job search

#79

(sorry for sidetracking the excellent piece but...) When I examine the ~13,000 hours I've spent programming I find it hilarious that interviews should centre around algorithmic problems. I've been guilty of it myself and failing FizzBuzz is definitely a true negative but it's so little of a true positive it's not even funny. What I would really love to know about you as a candidate is: - do you know how to actually n…

You sure you wouldn't prefer someone who's really good at implementing binary search trees ...

There are plenty of people who are great at CS fundamentals yet write messy, excessively complex, and/or over engineered code. For many software roles I'd much rather have someone who can write clear, maintainable, and performant code first, with deep knowledge of CS fundamentals only a requirement depending on the nature of the role and product.

Re: Lessons from a Silicon Valley job search

#80
post #62

How is your H1B still valid after you lost(?) your job and left the country? H1B is tied to an employer and a specific job, so I don't know how it's still active. Are you sure that your H1B hasn't expired yet? If you try to enter on an expired H1B, you might get banned from entering for 10 years (this happened to my friend 6 months ago) so make sure your immigration status is rock solid.

H1B Transfers don't count against the H1B quota. If you still have time left on your H1B (i.e. approved I797 petiton) and have not violated the 'leave immediately if out of job' rule, it is possible to have a new employer file a petition for transfer of the I797 (H1B) In fact, in such cases, you don't even need a new visa stamp for the transferred H1B. As long old H1B stamp has not expired, you can present this H1B a…

This doesn't appear to be an H1B transfer.

Even if it were some sort of H1B transfer, I believe by leaving the US he might have abandoned his H1B. So I think the OP better get his immigration status verified by his new employer, because the last thing he wants to do is get a 10 year ban at the border.

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