Category: cscareerquestions

Now you’re competing for work with prisoners… /u/kittenofd00m CSCQ protests reddit

submitted by /u/kittenofd00m
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​r/cscareerquestions “Every weekday morning at 8:30, Preston Thorpe makes himself a cup of instant coffee and opens his laptop to find the coding tasks awaiting his seven-person team at Unlocked Labs. Like many remote workers, Thorpe, the nonprofit’s principal engineer, works out in the middle of the day and often stays at his computer late into the night. But outside Thorpe’s window, there’s a soaring chain-link fence topped with coiled barbed wire. And at noon and 4 p.m. every day, a prison guard peers into his room to make sure he’s where he’s supposed to be at the Mountain View Correctional Facility in Charleston, Maine, where he’s serving his 12th year for two drug-related convictions in New Hampshire, including intent to distribute synthetic opioids. Remote work has spread far and wide since the pandemic spurred a work-from-home revolution of sorts, but perhaps no place more unexpectedly than behind prison walls. Thorpe is one of more than 40 people incarcerated in Maine’s state prison system who have landed internships and jobs with outside companies over the past two years — some of whom work full time from their cells and earn more than the correctional officers who guard them.” Read the whole article at Https://www.bostonglobe.com/2024/12/24/metro/maine-prison-remote-jobs-mountain-view-correctional-facility/ submitted by /u/kittenofd00m [link] [comments] 

submitted by /u/kittenofd00m
[link] [comments]  “Every weekday morning at 8:30, Preston Thorpe makes himself a cup of instant coffee and opens his laptop to find the coding tasks awaiting his seven-person team at Unlocked Labs. Like many remote workers, Thorpe, the nonprofit’s principal engineer, works out in the middle of the day and often stays at his computer late into the night. But outside Thorpe’s window, there’s a soaring chain-link fence topped with coiled barbed wire. And at noon and 4 p.m. every day, a prison guard peers into his room to make sure he’s where he’s supposed to be at the Mountain View Correctional Facility in Charleston, Maine, where he’s serving his 12th year for two drug-related convictions in New Hampshire, including intent to distribute synthetic opioids. Remote work has spread far and wide since the pandemic spurred a work-from-home revolution of sorts, but perhaps no place more unexpectedly than behind prison walls. Thorpe is one of more than 40 people incarcerated in Maine’s state prison system who have landed internships and jobs with outside companies over the past two years — some of whom work full time from their cells and earn more than the correctional officers who guard them.” Read the whole article at Https://www.bostonglobe.com/2024/12/24/metro/maine-prison-remote-jobs-mountain-view-correctional-facility/ submitted by /u/kittenofd00m [link] [comments]

Sanity check that a MS is a BAD idea for ME /u/thisfunnieguy CSCQ protests reddit

submitted by /u/thisfunnieguy
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​r/cscareerquestions I’m pretty sure a masters in CS is a bad idea for me. I’m a mid level eng who has done backend, data and infra work. Still employed. I have a non-CS undergrad, and a number of yrs working as an eng. I have an education benefit from being in the military that would pay some/most of grad school. i am pretty sure the GT Masters is out of reach, and the best programs i could get to would be ASU or Colorado’s Masters. I would do a program part time only, cannot take a career break for it. It feels odd to leave this money on the table, but it seems like the better use of my time is on things like certs (AWS, K8S, etc..), side projects, leet code, or joining open source projects. I work for a tech company now (nothing famous) and plan to keep working in private sector tech for the rest of my career. it seems like a masters would be helpful if i wanted to get into gov work or maybe a research team somewhere. can folks help me sanity check that the masters is not a great use of my time? we only have so much time to spend on professional dev and i dont want to waste it. Feels like the best thing that would come would be to help with some of the imposter syndrome that comes from having a non-CS background. submitted by /u/thisfunnieguy [link] [comments] 

submitted by /u/thisfunnieguy
[link] [comments]  I’m pretty sure a masters in CS is a bad idea for me. I’m a mid level eng who has done backend, data and infra work. Still employed. I have a non-CS undergrad, and a number of yrs working as an eng. I have an education benefit from being in the military that would pay some/most of grad school. i am pretty sure the GT Masters is out of reach, and the best programs i could get to would be ASU or Colorado’s Masters. I would do a program part time only, cannot take a career break for it. It feels odd to leave this money on the table, but it seems like the better use of my time is on things like certs (AWS, K8S, etc..), side projects, leet code, or joining open source projects. I work for a tech company now (nothing famous) and plan to keep working in private sector tech for the rest of my career. it seems like a masters would be helpful if i wanted to get into gov work or maybe a research team somewhere. can folks help me sanity check that the masters is not a great use of my time? we only have so much time to spend on professional dev and i dont want to waste it. Feels like the best thing that would come would be to help with some of the imposter syndrome that comes from having a non-CS background. submitted by /u/thisfunnieguy [link] [comments]

Sanity check: a CS Masters is bad idea for ME /u/thisfunnieguy CSCQ protests reddit

submitted by /u/thisfunnieguy
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​r/cscareerquestions It really feels like a masters is not the right choice for me, but wanted a 2nd opinion about my thinking. I’ve got a non-CS undergrad mid-level eng with years of exp work at a non-famous tech company interested in some niche areas of tech ( iot and edge computing) but won’t be sad if i never get to work there have an education benefit from the military that will help pay for masters unlikely to get into GeorgiaTech masters, ASU or Colorado are probably best options cannot take career break to do school, would only be parttime I THINK that using professional dev time for other stuff (leet code, open source projects, side projects, certs: AWS, K8S) are better for career growth than a masters. BUT it feels weird leaving that money on the table. Am i right about this? Maybe the best reason to do the masters is to quiet the imposter syndrome a bit that comes from not having a CS undergrad degree. Also not a great reason to spend ~2-3 years grinding on a masters in my spare time. Thanks for listening. submitted by /u/thisfunnieguy [link] [comments] 

submitted by /u/thisfunnieguy
[link] [comments]  It really feels like a masters is not the right choice for me, but wanted a 2nd opinion about my thinking. I’ve got a non-CS undergrad mid-level eng with years of exp work at a non-famous tech company interested in some niche areas of tech ( iot and edge computing) but won’t be sad if i never get to work there have an education benefit from the military that will help pay for masters unlikely to get into GeorgiaTech masters, ASU or Colorado are probably best options cannot take career break to do school, would only be parttime I THINK that using professional dev time for other stuff (leet code, open source projects, side projects, certs: AWS, K8S) are better for career growth than a masters. BUT it feels weird leaving that money on the table. Am i right about this? Maybe the best reason to do the masters is to quiet the imposter syndrome a bit that comes from not having a CS undergrad degree. Also not a great reason to spend ~2-3 years grinding on a masters in my spare time. Thanks for listening. submitted by /u/thisfunnieguy [link] [comments]

How much backend programming should a backend software engineering role entail? /u/Crime-going-crazy CSCQ protests reddit

submitted by /u/Crime-going-crazy
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​r/cscareerquestions My current BE software engineering 1 role involves some java/spring implementation. But our org’s mantra also places the work around maintaining, testing, and managing our apps on us. Java/spring code is a cool 10-15% of the actual work we. But everything else involves jenkins, building unit tests, automating all other sorts of tests, managing aws infra, terraform, working with docker, setting up observability (i.e. metric tools), etc. Is this role really a backend software engineering role? Or would other companies view this as more devops with some SRE sprinkled on the side? submitted by /u/Crime-going-crazy [link] [comments] 

submitted by /u/Crime-going-crazy
[link] [comments]  My current BE software engineering 1 role involves some java/spring implementation. But our org’s mantra also places the work around maintaining, testing, and managing our apps on us. Java/spring code is a cool 10-15% of the actual work we. But everything else involves jenkins, building unit tests, automating all other sorts of tests, managing aws infra, terraform, working with docker, setting up observability (i.e. metric tools), etc. Is this role really a backend software engineering role? Or would other companies view this as more devops with some SRE sprinkled on the side? submitted by /u/Crime-going-crazy [link] [comments]

Took a year ‘break’ after bootcamp in 2023, can I still turn this around? /u/Canninster CSCQ protests reddit

submitted by /u/Canninster
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​r/cscareerquestions Hey all, happy holidays if you celebrate them, otherwise happy random 25th of December for no reason at all! TL;DR: Chemical Engineer, graduated from bootcamp in August 2023, had to move abroad in September and haven’t been able to properly code. Should I try or give up? I’m writing this post because I honestly don’t know what to do at this point. For context I graduated as a Chemical Engineer about 6 years ago, but due to the pandemic and the situation in my home country I could only land a job for 6 months. Last year I thought I’d give programming a try, I always thought it was interesting but I liked ChemE more, and signed up to a bootcamp my friend recommended, he took it and they helped him a lot and he managed to land a job with their assistance/advice. So I enrolled and honestly I liked it a lot, I really enjoyed programming, even though I knew what I was doing was extremely simple compared to what a real programmer could do, I was genuinely having fun with it, coming up with solutions, and then overcomplicating/challenging myself with more stuff just to practice some other things. So I graduated in August last year, and had to travel in September to see family. Things happened and due to circumstances I had to move abroad, so now I live in Spain, but for the last year I haven’t touched any projects or tried to do courses, as after managing to get my PC back, I’ve mostly been focused on trying to settle in and adapt, so my github page has pretty much no activity at all. This is honestly what worries me most, as every time something like this is mentioned in subreddits like this, OP is almost always told that the gap is too large and that they should give up on getting into IT fields. I’m not exactly the most positive or optimistic person either, so seeing this kind of response usually gets me pretty down. Our bootcamp was very simple, it was just your typical React + Python bootcamp, using Flask for API, so we obviously didn’t touch aspects like DSA. There was also no mention of Leetcode, which I’ve gotten the impression is a big deal in America, but I have no idea if it’s something that EU positions look at. My github is not that impressive either, mostly your typical projects that people do during a bootcamp (todo list, that kinda stuff). I’ve tried applying to internship/junior positions here and there on my free time, but there really aren’t many postings online, and it feels like a waste of time/effort since anyone could see my github and notice I’m not programming much lately, or my projects aren’t exactly something to ride home about. So my question really is, is there a chance for me? I’m not some coding genius, I can’t code Doom to run on Chrome by rendering ASCI characters, I’m just a guy who genuinely enjoys programming and wants to do it for a living, but it seems that, unlike any other field in the world, that’s just not enough for IT. submitted by /u/Canninster [link] [comments] 

submitted by /u/Canninster
[link] [comments]  Hey all, happy holidays if you celebrate them, otherwise happy random 25th of December for no reason at all! TL;DR: Chemical Engineer, graduated from bootcamp in August 2023, had to move abroad in September and haven’t been able to properly code. Should I try or give up? I’m writing this post because I honestly don’t know what to do at this point. For context I graduated as a Chemical Engineer about 6 years ago, but due to the pandemic and the situation in my home country I could only land a job for 6 months. Last year I thought I’d give programming a try, I always thought it was interesting but I liked ChemE more, and signed up to a bootcamp my friend recommended, he took it and they helped him a lot and he managed to land a job with their assistance/advice. So I enrolled and honestly I liked it a lot, I really enjoyed programming, even though I knew what I was doing was extremely simple compared to what a real programmer could do, I was genuinely having fun with it, coming up with solutions, and then overcomplicating/challenging myself with more stuff just to practice some other things. So I graduated in August last year, and had to travel in September to see family. Things happened and due to circumstances I had to move abroad, so now I live in Spain, but for the last year I haven’t touched any projects or tried to do courses, as after managing to get my PC back, I’ve mostly been focused on trying to settle in and adapt, so my github page has pretty much no activity at all. This is honestly what worries me most, as every time something like this is mentioned in subreddits like this, OP is almost always told that the gap is too large and that they should give up on getting into IT fields. I’m not exactly the most positive or optimistic person either, so seeing this kind of response usually gets me pretty down. Our bootcamp was very simple, it was just your typical React + Python bootcamp, using Flask for API, so we obviously didn’t touch aspects like DSA. There was also no mention of Leetcode, which I’ve gotten the impression is a big deal in America, but I have no idea if it’s something that EU positions look at. My github is not that impressive either, mostly your typical projects that people do during a bootcamp (todo list, that kinda stuff). I’ve tried applying to internship/junior positions here and there on my free time, but there really aren’t many postings online, and it feels like a waste of time/effort since anyone could see my github and notice I’m not programming much lately, or my projects aren’t exactly something to ride home about. So my question really is, is there a chance for me? I’m not some coding genius, I can’t code Doom to run on Chrome by rendering ASCI characters, I’m just a guy who genuinely enjoys programming and wants to do it for a living, but it seems that, unlike any other field in the world, that’s just not enough for IT. submitted by /u/Canninster [link] [comments]

If you care about keeping your job or having a chance to get one, contact your local politician. Check out Elon’s recent tweets from today about trying to reform the H1B process. /u/JustthenewsonCS CSCQ protests reddit

submitted by /u/JustthenewsonCS
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​r/cscareerquestions Basically, it looks like Elon is letting his mask slip at bit with his recent tweets. It appears that he and others like him are calling for a reform to the H1B Visa program that would basically flood the Software Developer market with workers. We already have a surplus of domestic workers compared to job market. There is ZERO reason for reform. If anything, the reform should be to put a freeze on the program for a few years until the job market can equalize. I realize that outsourcing is another issue altogether. But everything they are saying right now indicates what they are probably going to push the new administration to reform H1Bs. I realize people feel powerless, but if people mass called their representative about this it can make a difference. The key thing is to call. Staffers know emailing takes zero effort and they put that low on the something to consider. Someone calling is someone motivated to vote them out and to get others to vote them out as well. That is how the recent budget bill was cancelled. A bunch of people called their representatives to complain about it. We can do the same with this. If they manage to uncap the H1B program or make it worse than it already is, you may as well consider a new field at that point. Not only will it be near impossible to get a job, but the wage suppression and demands employers will be able to demand will be insane. This is a huge deal. People should be doing everything they can to prevent this from happening. submitted by /u/JustthenewsonCS [link] [comments] 

submitted by /u/JustthenewsonCS
[link] [comments]  Basically, it looks like Elon is letting his mask slip at bit with his recent tweets. It appears that he and others like him are calling for a reform to the H1B Visa program that would basically flood the Software Developer market with workers. We already have a surplus of domestic workers compared to job market. There is ZERO reason for reform. If anything, the reform should be to put a freeze on the program for a few years until the job market can equalize. I realize that outsourcing is another issue altogether. But everything they are saying right now indicates what they are probably going to push the new administration to reform H1Bs. I realize people feel powerless, but if people mass called their representative about this it can make a difference. The key thing is to call. Staffers know emailing takes zero effort and they put that low on the something to consider. Someone calling is someone motivated to vote them out and to get others to vote them out as well. That is how the recent budget bill was cancelled. A bunch of people called their representatives to complain about it. We can do the same with this. If they manage to uncap the H1B program or make it worse than it already is, you may as well consider a new field at that point. Not only will it be near impossible to get a job, but the wage suppression and demands employers will be able to demand will be insane. This is a huge deal. People should be doing everything they can to prevent this from happening. submitted by /u/JustthenewsonCS [link] [comments]

Cognitive Science Options from CS /u/DisgorgeVEVO CSCQ protests reddit

submitted by /u/DisgorgeVEVO
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​r/cscareerquestions I graduated with a BS in Computer Science w/ constitution in Software Engineering & minor in Bioinformatics and a Masters in Information Technology w/ a concentration in Web Development. I’ve been in the industry for a couple of years, I enjoy the work and it pays well but I’m interested in going back for a PhD and moving over to research. My research and statistics background is very limited, I did take a statistics course in undergrad and worked on one research project for a semester. It looks like that can make it harder to find a PhD program though. I’m very interested in Cognitive Science. Freshman year I was 50/50 between CS and Psych, some of my favorite authors are Cognitive Scientists, I enjoy reading adjacent authors like Merleau-Ponty, and my favorite course in grad school was my Cognitive Science course. In that course I learned about the overlap between CS, mostly coming from how interdisciplinary CogSci is. Does anyone have advice for this career shift? Anyone work in the industry then go back to school for a PhD? As an undergrad I assumed I wasn’t smart enough to get a PhD but I’m feeling a little more confident now and realized I would really enjoy working as a research professor more. I like my job well enough but it isn’t fulfilling and the money incentive has worn off. I have no desire to work up the chain. Some practical question: how do I pick universities to apply to? How feasible is it for a CS major to get into a CogSci program? It still fills like a distant dream but a more attainable one than it did before I graduated. Thanks for any advice! submitted by /u/DisgorgeVEVO [link] [comments] 

submitted by /u/DisgorgeVEVO
[link] [comments]  I graduated with a BS in Computer Science w/ constitution in Software Engineering & minor in Bioinformatics and a Masters in Information Technology w/ a concentration in Web Development. I’ve been in the industry for a couple of years, I enjoy the work and it pays well but I’m interested in going back for a PhD and moving over to research. My research and statistics background is very limited, I did take a statistics course in undergrad and worked on one research project for a semester. It looks like that can make it harder to find a PhD program though. I’m very interested in Cognitive Science. Freshman year I was 50/50 between CS and Psych, some of my favorite authors are Cognitive Scientists, I enjoy reading adjacent authors like Merleau-Ponty, and my favorite course in grad school was my Cognitive Science course. In that course I learned about the overlap between CS, mostly coming from how interdisciplinary CogSci is. Does anyone have advice for this career shift? Anyone work in the industry then go back to school for a PhD? As an undergrad I assumed I wasn’t smart enough to get a PhD but I’m feeling a little more confident now and realized I would really enjoy working as a research professor more. I like my job well enough but it isn’t fulfilling and the money incentive has worn off. I have no desire to work up the chain. Some practical question: how do I pick universities to apply to? How feasible is it for a CS major to get into a CogSci program? It still fills like a distant dream but a more attainable one than it did before I graduated. Thanks for any advice! submitted by /u/DisgorgeVEVO [link] [comments]

2025 tech predictions /u/etcera CSCQ protests reddit

submitted by /u/etcera
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​r/cscareerquestions My predictions: The job market will only marginally improve. Employment opportunities for entry-level will remain almost nonexistent. There will be heavy investment in AI computer use for desktop environments (see Claude’s beta feature, Browserbase, etc) There will be greater political calls to increase America’s energy production given the heavy electricity consumption of AI-specific datacenters. This will start to be recognized as a strategic failure in policy, in the same vein how Nike’s former CEO Donahoe led the company to near-disaster (treating it as a tech company, replacing Footlocker with DTC, failing to align products with sneaker culture and trends). Most companies will solely adopt AI to reduce cost and headcount By the end of 2025, there will be an industry-wide push to make AI-native hardware The next Meta Quest will feature impressive hardware. Will be priced over $500 for the default model. Apple Intelligence will remain a gimmick. ML will increasingly be applied to robotics, making several newsworthy headlines, but robotics will *NOT* have its GPT moment. A C-suite member of a large tech company will likely be assassinated given the pressures in the job market. What are your tech predictions? submitted by /u/etcera [link] [comments] 

submitted by /u/etcera
[link] [comments]  My predictions: The job market will only marginally improve. Employment opportunities for entry-level will remain almost nonexistent. There will be heavy investment in AI computer use for desktop environments (see Claude’s beta feature, Browserbase, etc) There will be greater political calls to increase America’s energy production given the heavy electricity consumption of AI-specific datacenters. This will start to be recognized as a strategic failure in policy, in the same vein how Nike’s former CEO Donahoe led the company to near-disaster (treating it as a tech company, replacing Footlocker with DTC, failing to align products with sneaker culture and trends). Most companies will solely adopt AI to reduce cost and headcount By the end of 2025, there will be an industry-wide push to make AI-native hardware The next Meta Quest will feature impressive hardware. Will be priced over $500 for the default model. Apple Intelligence will remain a gimmick. ML will increasingly be applied to robotics, making several newsworthy headlines, but robotics will *NOT* have its GPT moment. A C-suite member of a large tech company will likely be assassinated given the pressures in the job market. What are your tech predictions? submitted by /u/etcera [link] [comments]