131–140 of 140 posts
Earlier quoted context omitted.
feel free to ignore me: does this mean a plan was available to you, or you couldn’t enroll without your own plan? Going to assume the former, in which case, awesome!
if you follow the above link, you'll see that you could join the Harvard health plan, even as a family. If you had your own, your could opt out. You can't be a 3/4 or above time student without health care coverage in MA. It's the law.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Could you please share more about your application process? I applied for couple of jobs and in their career portal... never received even an acknowledgement.
There was Data Analytics Career Fair at Harvard, which is another advantage of being a student here. You get invited to the career fairs.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Not long ago I was "self-employed" (just work, no money), and had to go back to interviewing for a job after I ran out of money. My biggest issue was gathering as much will as I could to start doing it. After the first 2 or 3 interviews, which were utterly terrible, I realized that the hardest thing was bearing those first rejections and shameful (to me) interviews. After that things got a bit easier each time until…
I get interview rejections left and right (usually in the phone interview round), and since I have been in the same period of unemployment since 2015 I feel like I haven't really learned much or improved much with interviewing. It's pretty terrible to get little feedback but expect to introspect for fix it (My introspection itself needs work- I don't know what I don't know).
Since I don't know more about your particulars it's hard to give more useful tips or suggestions and don't want to come across as condescending or rude.
But if there is indeed something I could help you out with, please reach out through my Keybase in my profile.
You did something way bolder but I wanted to share another successful career restart story. I worked in tech startups in business roles (ops & product management) but was always excited about the engineering side. I decided to do a career restart at 32 and taught myself the basics of web development using Udacity and other web tutorials. I then went through a coding bootcamp and joined a mid size company. It's been a…
I am someone who has been 'programming since they were 12' and I worry about perhaps not being as well-rounded as you describe yourself. What kind of experiences that taught you the soft skills you mentioned would you recommend to someone like myself to become a more attractive engineer?
* take as many opportunities as you can in presenting to others. Public speaking skills are important * refine your skills in creating good product demos of your work * spend time writing concise and well structured documentation * Do some self reflection every time you get into a heated argument with a co-worker. Think about what you could have done better to prevent emotions from flaring up. The best engineers at my company are the ones who are really good at managing discussions * Make sure that any meeting you attend flows well. If people (including yourself) are meandering from the main point of the meeting then lead the group back to the main point. Take good notes. Make sure the meeting has an agenda. If it ends early then tell people they can leave rather so you can give back attendees time. If you have a shy person in the group pro-actively ask their opinion. On the same end if you have a verbose person in the group make sure to end their discussion if they are meandering. * Put yourself in your user's shoes as much as possible. Don't just evaluate a feature from a technical standpoint, but also a user standpoint. Your product manager will be happy that they can trust you to wear a "product manager" hat
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I highly recommend taking a look at and following https://www.reddit.com/r/cscareerquestions/ ...they're very supportive and there's such a range of experiences along yours (and mine), and you'll no doubt get some good pointers. Today is "Interview Questions" day, so you can post your interview experiences in that thread and often someone will respond with some tips and/or pointers.
I already go to that sub regularly, and a lot of the time, interview advice that I read or get is very company specific, or not applied in a very active, personalized way. For something involving soft skills like interviewing, I learn better by watching, or someone taking an active role in correcting my mistakes. A lot of interviewing advice is situation specific. It needs to be more personalized, more "you-specific"…
I thought there was also a video part of this where a person on the screen would ask you questions, but I can't find it right now.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
A lot of it was stuff that is basic to someone with years of work experience: * Start assignments as soon as they are given out. Stupid, right? * Don't be shy about asking lots of questions. Don't be egotistical or afraid about asking for clarification. * Build personal relationships with the professors and TAs. They are there to help. This is not an adversarial relationship. Show genuine passion for the material. *…
How did you deal with the financial issues about returning to college? Non-STEM graduate here, looking to work in places that have more deeply engineering related backgrounds. I'd prefer getting a CS or ECE degree. My situation is especially complicated. I have been unemployed (save a few short freelance gigs) since early 2015. I cannot interview effectively anymore. This, I think, is my biggest problem I live with m…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
At the very least, I would call the local community college and talk to a counselor. You could get a two-year CS degree that will give you the important concepts and plenty of programming exposure for not a lot of money. If you really want to transfer for a full bachelor's, the community college can still give you cheap units for everything you need up until you switch schools, and it may just be that your previous d…
I can think of a few local community colleges I can go to for starting. And then ask about housing options, or perhaps get into a campus job. If the campus job can waive most of your tuition, do you think just having that would suffice? Also, do you recommend more on transferring out of the CC later to go to a very reputable CS university (UC Berkeley for example)? I'd like to be one of those people who can land an i…
I'm in my mod thirties now so have had quite a lot of experience interviewing and recently being the interviewer so have noticing a lot of patterns. It is amazing how often the questions get repeated, if you spend an hour writing down all the likely questions I am sure you will cover 80% of the questions of any interview. Then spend a few hours writing two or three ideal answers to each of the above questions. Such questions would include : -what has been the proudest project you have worked on? -what have you been doing the last few years with your time while not working? (I'd, recommend referring to your open source contributions or doing background learning here) -what are your goals? - how do you deal with confrontation? - how do you deal with pressure etc?
You could say all boring questions but you are very likely to come across them in an interview and crafting a positive response to each one and practicing it out loud, ideally with a friend or two in the mirror will help tremendously.
Also get an experienced friend to review your resume, it is amazing how many talented engineers get overlooked because of lack of attention to detail on their resume.
It was good advice above by @saganus about interviewing a lot as it is definitely a skill which takes practice . After each interview push for feedback, some will say they can't say but a lot will give you honest feedback which is very helpful. You can also try this with a friend or someone online over video chat.
Finally I would consider getting a less glamorous CS job in the interim to help pay the bills through school and get back in the industry. Tons of web agencies are crying out for engineers and while it may not be your long term goal, a role like that could help you get your foot back in the door, pay the bills and give you time to get setup for your end game or save for more expensive university.
I've thrown a lot of advice here but hope some helps, as mentioned above getting interview and career ready is an ultra marathon not a sprint. :)
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I am someone who has been 'programming since they were 12' and I worry about perhaps not being as well-rounded as you describe yourself. What kind of experiences that taught you the soft skills you mentioned would you recommend to someone like myself to become a more attractive engineer?
My suggestions would be to: * take as many opportunities as you can in presenting to others. Public speaking skills are important * refine your skills in creating good product demos of your work * spend time writing concise and well structured documentation * Do some self reflection every time you get into a heated argument with a co-worker. Think about what you could have done better to prevent emotions from flaring…
I'm 35 and have been working in web development since 2007, but I feel like my career has went completely off the tracks since 2015. You see, I have been under-employed or unemployed for three years and I cannot convert any interviews into job offers anymore. I also have a non-STEM degree and the prospect of going to grad school for CS or Math related courses seems tempting. I don't want to work for local small web s…
Congratulations on your new career. On a side note, anyone else a bit worried that there being a tech or economic bubble? Reading this thread, I can't help but be reminded of the dotcom bubble when everyone was getting into tech or the "I just became a realtor" craze before the housing bubble crash. Anyone maintain a list of indicators other than S&P 500 PE ratio or the interest rate? I'm generally optimistic on the…