Want a Job in Silicon Valley? Keep Away from Coding Schools

Sorry if I wasnt clear, this is more about the interview process than anything. I've been able to find some companies that seem to be a near perfect fit, and they range from SV giants to smaller shops in between. It just feels like I cannot pass the modern day technical interview and I'm looking for some advice in that domain.

I've interviewed at a few big tech companies, including google. If you have a relevant degree from a decent university, you're likely to get an interview at some point.

I was a no hire. But for google, all I can really say is study the crap out of data structures and algorithms. Buy a copy of "cracking the coding interview" and make sure you can do the difficult problems in it in 45 minutes. Practice at a whiteboard, with a friend if possible. Don't just memorize answers, you have to be able to do this quickly and readily on things you haven't seen before. Try it, work at it, finally look at a solution, then repeat. Basic data structures should be so ingrained that you don't really need to think about them - this is how you'll be able to reason abstractly during an interview.

That's google, other companies may not be quite as data structures and algorithms oriented. That makes it tough, though.

In my 15 years, in interviews, I've had data structures white board exams, math exams, sample projects in rails and java. It varies dramatically. You don't really know what's coming.

Another option would be look for a way to be a software developer that doesn't involve taking technical interview exams. That limits your options, but it could happen. If you're an X that programs, rather than an X programmer, this can work. For instance, I know people who work in various analyst jobs, who do a substantial amount of programming. It helps them stand out in their field, but their interviews are more like usual interviews - discussions of experience, that sort of thing. In most fields, interviews aren't essentially exams. The "interview as exam" culture seems to unusual outside software, where it is pretty much the norm.

This won't work at google or Facebook, though, for those, yeah, you'll need to do well on the interview exams.

Yeah, I hear you. This is something people outside tech have trouble grokking. In many tech companies, you really have to pass technical exams that we call "interviews". I think the term interview creates an ambiguity that leads to this confusion.

I know a lot of people who work outside tech, and they actually kind of shudder when they hear about what happens in our field. Yes, interviews outside tech are stressful, and knowledge and experience will be probed, but the whole "here's a marker and a whiteboard, find all strings in this set that combine to form a substring of any other string in this set"? Yeah, that's unusual.

I think there are ways to have a programming career that don't involve this kind of thing, but you do limit your options.

If you're meant to be a programmer, you won’t give up. You will get frustrated, but if you're determined, you'll keep trying. A bootcamp can't give you that motivation.

Some low-cost coding lessons on Code School, Treehouse, NetTuts+, Udacity, Pluralsight, or Launch Academy are also a good option, and they cost far less than does a bootcamp. MooCs are also a good way to find out if you like coding. If you're still coding on your own after a MooC, then you might be interested enough.

Try building a new application every day. Jennifer Dewalt, the founder of Zube, did this and blogged about it. With each new project, she added to her portfolio and gained new skills. Quantity trumps quality when you’re learning. Just build lots of things.

Learning basic computer science can be bad for productivity as you start to worry about memory, bits and cycles. While its good to know for optimization, high level programming is mostly about memorizing methods. Most high level languages have a very good abstraction layer, so it's possible to be a very good programmer without knowing the stack in depth. What I like about new programmers, someone that switched from another profession, so they got a lot of life and job experience, while being eager to learn. I'm dealing with professionals every day do do not want to learn, even if it would make them more valuable and efficient.