About a year ago, I was practicing coding interviews on pramp.com .
At the end of the round, I was chatting with my partner, and they mentioned how they’d been approached by Google while in their master’s program (which they were still in), and how they had been unprepared and had bombed the technical screening. I will never forget how they phrased it in such a rueful tone:
“That opportunity came and went…”
Truth be told, life works that way, especially when you’re looking for work. Especially in a market like this.
In a labor market like this one, you might get a handful of serious leads in a fiscal quarter (3 months). You need to be in position to capitalize on those opportunities, and that doesn’t always mean being able to bang out Leetcode mediums on the spot.
Sometimes that means you need to be able to talk confidently about your education and past experiences, and position them in the content of your career goals and current learning agenda. Your resume needs to be up-to-date. Your digital profile (LinkedIn, Indeed, etc.) need to be clean and professional.
You need to be up when recruiters are likeliest to hit you up, which is during the workday, especially before lunch. I cannot tell you how important being about to respond to a message within the hour is — it’s extremely good signal.
You need to go out and meet people. Go to tech meetups in-person or online. Don’t let your communication skills atrophy under a torrent of garbage content.
And you need to be prepared to take the shitty job, especially if you don’t have significant prior experience. You can always study and interview your way to higher compensation. Please believe, the first job is the hardest to get.
When I got into this industry four years ago, it was via a sub-contracting company. Someone on LinkedIn reached out to me. The company paid us minimum wage to go through their ‘fullstack’ virtual training program, then marketed us to enterprise clients as SDETs (software engineers in test).
Those that expected to be carried downstream washed out or landed at shitty clients. Those that swam… they all make $100k or more. Some make $200k+.
Even though I accepted the offer and went through the training program, I had no intention of being an SDET or of working for the company I was contracted out to. I wanted to be a SWE at a tech company (which, today, I am). So I hustled and made a way for myself.
You can, too.
You have to create a path for yourself as you make good on opportunities (large and small) that come your way. Some will dismiss this as survivorship bias or naive hopium. But for those that understand what I’m saying, you go this.
submitted by /u/stellar_interface
[link] [comments]
r/cscareerquestions About a year ago, I was practicing coding interviews on pramp.com . At the end of the round, I was chatting with my partner, and they mentioned how they’d been approached by Google while in their master’s program (which they were still in), and how they had been unprepared and had bombed the technical screening. I will never forget how they phrased it in such a rueful tone: “That opportunity came and went…” Truth be told, life works that way, especially when you’re looking for work. Especially in a market like this. In a labor market like this one, you might get a handful of serious leads in a fiscal quarter (3 months). You need to be in position to capitalize on those opportunities, and that doesn’t always mean being able to bang out Leetcode mediums on the spot. Sometimes that means you need to be able to talk confidently about your education and past experiences, and position them in the content of your career goals and current learning agenda. Your resume needs to be up-to-date. Your digital profile (LinkedIn, Indeed, etc.) need to be clean and professional. You need to be up when recruiters are likeliest to hit you up, which is during the workday, especially before lunch. I cannot tell you how important being about to respond to a message within the hour is — it’s extremely good signal. You need to go out and meet people. Go to tech meetups in-person or online. Don’t let your communication skills atrophy under a torrent of garbage content. And you need to be prepared to take the shitty job, especially if you don’t have significant prior experience. You can always study and interview your way to higher compensation. Please believe, the first job is the hardest to get. When I got into this industry four years ago, it was via a sub-contracting company. Someone on LinkedIn reached out to me. The company paid us minimum wage to go through their ‘fullstack’ virtual training program, then marketed us to enterprise clients as SDETs (software engineers in test). Those that expected to be carried downstream washed out or landed at shitty clients. Those that swam… they all make $100k or more. Some make $200k+. Even though I accepted the offer and went through the training program, I had no intention of being an SDET or of working for the company I was contracted out to. I wanted to be a SWE at a tech company (which, today, I am). So I hustled and made a way for myself. You can, too. You have to create a path for yourself as you make good on opportunities (large and small) that come your way. Some will dismiss this as survivorship bias or naive hopium. But for those that understand what I’m saying, you go this. submitted by /u/stellar_interface [link] [comments]
About a year ago, I was practicing coding interviews on pramp.com .
At the end of the round, I was chatting with my partner, and they mentioned how they’d been approached by Google while in their master’s program (which they were still in), and how they had been unprepared and had bombed the technical screening. I will never forget how they phrased it in such a rueful tone:
“That opportunity came and went…”
Truth be told, life works that way, especially when you’re looking for work. Especially in a market like this.
In a labor market like this one, you might get a handful of serious leads in a fiscal quarter (3 months). You need to be in position to capitalize on those opportunities, and that doesn’t always mean being able to bang out Leetcode mediums on the spot.
Sometimes that means you need to be able to talk confidently about your education and past experiences, and position them in the content of your career goals and current learning agenda. Your resume needs to be up-to-date. Your digital profile (LinkedIn, Indeed, etc.) need to be clean and professional.
You need to be up when recruiters are likeliest to hit you up, which is during the workday, especially before lunch. I cannot tell you how important being about to respond to a message within the hour is — it’s extremely good signal.
You need to go out and meet people. Go to tech meetups in-person or online. Don’t let your communication skills atrophy under a torrent of garbage content.
And you need to be prepared to take the shitty job, especially if you don’t have significant prior experience. You can always study and interview your way to higher compensation. Please believe, the first job is the hardest to get.
When I got into this industry four years ago, it was via a sub-contracting company. Someone on LinkedIn reached out to me. The company paid us minimum wage to go through their ‘fullstack’ virtual training program, then marketed us to enterprise clients as SDETs (software engineers in test).
Those that expected to be carried downstream washed out or landed at shitty clients. Those that swam… they all make $100k or more. Some make $200k+.
Even though I accepted the offer and went through the training program, I had no intention of being an SDET or of working for the company I was contracted out to. I wanted to be a SWE at a tech company (which, today, I am). So I hustled and made a way for myself.
You can, too.
You have to create a path for yourself as you make good on opportunities (large and small) that come your way. Some will dismiss this as survivorship bias or naive hopium. But for those that understand what I’m saying, you go this.
submitted by /u/stellar_interface
[link] [comments]