CS career megathread / AMA
Re: CS career megathread / AMA
recent amazon phone screen
Started out with the interviewer asking a few qs about the work i do, then drilling more into the exact nature of the work. i think they're developing some chips that do ML so they need someone to work on sw stack. spent about 25 minutes on these work-ex qs and they explained some of the things they do and how my work could fit in. last 20 mins they posted a problem on a shared screen where the task was to evaluate an arithmetic expr e.g. 2 + 5 *7. took about 5 mins to sort of limit the scope of problem to basic arith ops and suggesting an approach using a stack machine. then i coded the solution in the next 15 mins or such, before identifying that it may not work correctly for some - number cases, which i then fixed. thought was a tricky one to do in 20 mins but apparently it turned out ok.
Started out with the interviewer asking a few qs about the work i do, then drilling more into the exact nature of the work. i think they're developing some chips that do ML so they need someone to work on sw stack. spent about 25 minutes on these work-ex qs and they explained some of the things they do and how my work could fit in. last 20 mins they posted a problem on a shared screen where the task was to evaluate an arithmetic expr e.g. 2 + 5 *7. took about 5 mins to sort of limit the scope of problem to basic arith ops and suggesting an approach using a stack machine. then i coded the solution in the next 15 mins or such, before identifying that it may not work correctly for some - number cases, which i then fixed. thought was a tricky one to do in 20 mins but apparently it turned out ok.
Re: CS career megathread / AMA
those who work in tech, how common is no response to slack message is at your work?
Re: CS career megathread / AMA
In my experience it is all over the map. Behaviors towards slack varies both by company, teams, and even individuals.
I work on a security incident response team, almost everyone on my team will respond to messages fairly quickly, and for most even at fairly odd times. Although when you get to other parts of the company, many people pay much less attention to slack.
Re: CS career megathread / AMA
my work got terribly busy during the last month that made interview planning a little out of whack. like this is p much the most fast-paced place i've worked at.
this industry pays well but work can be crazy demanding.
this industry pays well but work can be crazy demanding.
Re: CS career megathread / AMA
i can't even keep up with the slack messages and channels based communication that's likely become prevalent at all tech places now a days.
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Re: CS career megathread / AMA
And this is coming from a guy who was a millionaire in his 20s.
Re: CS career megathread / AMA
I used to work at a big tech company and my first team out of college was me and 3 guys who were labeled "subject matter experts" who were all here from India on H1B visas. Within 6 months, they all got fired and deported, and their jobs were taken by fresh college grads with 0 experience like I was at the time. I have no idea how the government lets tech companies continue to get away with this. The job description for my role required so much crap that literally nobody who I worked with had. It also really sucked working for a company whose primary goal was to either replace me with someone overseas or turn me into a contract worker.
Re: CS career megathread / AMA
eh would take w a grain of salt. def has a bit of a personal vendetta, he's making tons from the interview course side gig, and his whole shtick is 'intentional' clickbait. but yeah the h1b process is fucked and fb can be stressful as hell
(i personally know techlead and joma tech (was on the same team at fb, close friends w the latter) and helped w the course)
(i personally know techlead and joma tech (was on the same team at fb, close friends w the latter) and helped w the course)
Re: CS career megathread / AMA
relatedly i was talking with somebody else about this recently and i think tech is becoming increasingly bimodal (similar to law?)
once you've got your foot in the door at a big tech company you have it made and almost certainly won't struggle to find more high-paying jobs. the whole demand >>> supply that people think applies to everybody in CS does actually apply for you
but if you don't get the right break, it's maybe surprisingly hard to get that first entry-lvl job. and with big tech increasingly hiring contractors even for 'skilled' work (there are two on my team who are new grads with CS degrees), the disparity grows. to be clear the path dependence / chicken & egg problem exists for every career but the huge pay and opportunity disparity def doesn't
e: tho still think that it's probably one of the highest ROI paths you can take if you have the potential and the interview process is relatively 'gameable'
e2: also it's relatively easy to go from not-so-well-paying to well-paying, doesn't seem like that's as possible in law
once you've got your foot in the door at a big tech company you have it made and almost certainly won't struggle to find more high-paying jobs. the whole demand >>> supply that people think applies to everybody in CS does actually apply for you
but if you don't get the right break, it's maybe surprisingly hard to get that first entry-lvl job. and with big tech increasingly hiring contractors even for 'skilled' work (there are two on my team who are new grads with CS degrees), the disparity grows. to be clear the path dependence / chicken & egg problem exists for every career but the huge pay and opportunity disparity def doesn't
e: tho still think that it's probably one of the highest ROI paths you can take if you have the potential and the interview process is relatively 'gameable'
e2: also it's relatively easy to go from not-so-well-paying to well-paying, doesn't seem like that's as possible in law
Re: CS career megathread / AMA
I guess ppl don't realize how sw eng doesnt have a long life purely in sw. There is v high Tc just a few years out of college but the stress becomes unbearable after some time. In the first couple of years a sw eng wouldn't mind going down the rabbit hole of futile sw hacks to please product manager or bosses, but after a decade or so, you realize how useless, opposite to laymen idea of sw engineering it is, and people just burn out.
Last 1.5 months of my life, i have no idea where they went due to work, and im underpaid wrt the industry.
Last 1.5 months of my life, i have no idea where they went due to work, and im underpaid wrt the industry.
Re: CS career megathread / AMA
not to downplay your experience but don't think that generalizes; the vast majority of my friends who are SWEs with 5-10+ YoE are happy and not burned out. i myself work maybe 40 hrs/wk and don't think i've ever worked more than 50 hrs a week. we have it good on the whole
Re: CS career megathread / AMA
happy in what way? do they want to be changing some lines of code for some social media product, submitting git PRs until they retire?
Re: CS career megathread / AMA
lol that’s uh a pretty uncharitable take, but actually yes for some of them. for others they don’t necessarily need to find intrinsic meaning or fulfillment in their jobs, ie they can find happiness in their hobbies or relationships or traveling etc outside of work. having the privilege of making a lot while working not that many hours makes much of that possible
for yet others they do find happiness or at least satisfaction in becoming better at what they do, solving usually interesting problems, engaging in stretches of flow, being surrounded by usually smart people, and having quite a bit of freedom to work. cf daniel pink re autonomy, mastery, and purpose in driving motivation. esp relative to almost all other well-paying jobs, tech does well there
and finally, if you are seeking to change the world and don’t buy into SV-style ‘changing the world at scale’ and won’t be happy otherwise, there’s plenty of nonprofits and social good companies starving for tech talent. you won’t be paid as much as in big tech but you’ll def still be living a v comfortable lifestyle. nobody’s stopping you from using that optionality
you’re asking kind of an existential question but personally i think it’s more or less a fool’s errand to try to find all your happiness in a job. but if i had to locate some meaning in a career, i feel p fortunate that i’m in a position where i can do that (via flow, craftsmanship, etc) and still do other things i enjoy
for yet others they do find happiness or at least satisfaction in becoming better at what they do, solving usually interesting problems, engaging in stretches of flow, being surrounded by usually smart people, and having quite a bit of freedom to work. cf daniel pink re autonomy, mastery, and purpose in driving motivation. esp relative to almost all other well-paying jobs, tech does well there
and finally, if you are seeking to change the world and don’t buy into SV-style ‘changing the world at scale’ and won’t be happy otherwise, there’s plenty of nonprofits and social good companies starving for tech talent. you won’t be paid as much as in big tech but you’ll def still be living a v comfortable lifestyle. nobody’s stopping you from using that optionality
you’re asking kind of an existential question but personally i think it’s more or less a fool’s errand to try to find all your happiness in a job. but if i had to locate some meaning in a career, i feel p fortunate that i’m in a position where i can do that (via flow, craftsmanship, etc) and still do other things i enjoy
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Re: CS career megathread / AMA
I saw you in the Jomatech interview. Why do you think there are so many depressed Asian/Asian Americans in the tech industry? Jomatech did a video about him being depressed and deleted it. Seems like a big issue in Silicon Valley, and Techlead is just pointing it out.suralin wrote: ↑Sat Oct 12, 2019 1:14 pmeh would take w a grain of salt. def has a bit of a personal vendetta, he's making tons from the interview course side gig, and his whole shtick is 'intentional' clickbait. but yeah the h1b process is fucked and fb can be stressful as hell
(i personally know techlead and joma tech (was on the same team at fb, close friends w the latter) and helped w the course)
Did you read that Medium post about how awful Snap's culture is?
It's very possible if you're good at business development. Problem is most lawyers do not it or have terrible business sense (look at the many posts on this forum).e2: also it's relatively easy to go from not-so-well-paying to well-paying, doesn't seem like that's as possible in law
There's another difference too for those that want to go the salary/worker route, there are many auxiliary tech jobs that aren't titled SWE/SDE, but still pay very well such as PM, Solutions Engineer, Data Engineer, Data Analyst. I've even seen former devs go into chill but comfortable paying careers as recruiters or bootcamp instructors.
There aren't that many JD advantage jobs out there that don't require very specific experience, like there are PM or solution engineering roles you can get fresh out of college.
Re: CS career megathread / AMA
uh weirdly assumptive / racist-adjacent q
1) that’s not the case 2) if it were the case it’s bc some asian ethnicities are relatively overrepresented in tech, not that asians are uniquely dispositioned to be depressed (??) 3) selection bias and 4) i do think that people are more and more realizing the importance of mental health and the prevalence of stress or burnout but i don’t think it’s unique to the tech industry (see any consulting, banking, med school or uh law forum) and it’s probably becoming more a topic of conversation partly as an implicit pushback against the narrative that all tech jobs everywhere are unicorns
also that snap post mainly didn’t reflect well on the author, but wrt culture generally it’s almost always dependent on the specific team. i think snap’s overall culture is probably one of the best in the valley
e: reiterating that it’s seriously bizarre to point to my friend’s mental health as some overall indictment on tech
1) that’s not the case 2) if it were the case it’s bc some asian ethnicities are relatively overrepresented in tech, not that asians are uniquely dispositioned to be depressed (??) 3) selection bias and 4) i do think that people are more and more realizing the importance of mental health and the prevalence of stress or burnout but i don’t think it’s unique to the tech industry (see any consulting, banking, med school or uh law forum) and it’s probably becoming more a topic of conversation partly as an implicit pushback against the narrative that all tech jobs everywhere are unicorns
also that snap post mainly didn’t reflect well on the author, but wrt culture generally it’s almost always dependent on the specific team. i think snap’s overall culture is probably one of the best in the valley
e: reiterating that it’s seriously bizarre to point to my friend’s mental health as some overall indictment on tech
Re: CS career megathread / AMA
i read your earlier post as the first invoking happiness in general in conjunction with work. if you're ok coding as long as you get paid enough go for it ride it. the issue i raised is that the wave may not last forever if all your goal from work is to do code changes to a sw for money.
Re: CS career megathread / AMA
Not CS related but this seems like a good place to ask about tech startups
Have an interview with the COO of an early stage tech startup (they recently completed series A funding round) for in house counsel position. The role is really exciting but I have no idea how to evaluate the chances of the startup itself at such an early stage. What sort of things should i ask/look for in the company when determining whether it has a chance of sticking around and being successful??
Have an interview with the COO of an early stage tech startup (they recently completed series A funding round) for in house counsel position. The role is really exciting but I have no idea how to evaluate the chances of the startup itself at such an early stage. What sort of things should i ask/look for in the company when determining whether it has a chance of sticking around and being successful??
wiz wrote:
call-insuralin wrote:
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Re: CS career megathread / AMA
Are the investors Sequoia Capital or Andreessen Horowitz? Any big names from Y-C or former Y-Cers?Hambone wrote: ↑Thu Oct 17, 2019 4:25 pmNot CS related but this seems like a good place to ask about tech startups
Have an interview with the COO of an early stage tech startup (they recently completed series A funding round) for in house counsel position. The role is really exciting but I have no idea how to evaluate the chances of the startup itself at such an early stage. What sort of things should i ask/look for in the company when determining whether it has a chance of sticking around and being successful??
wiz wrote:call-insuralin wrote:
Re: CS career megathread / AMA
^ did you get the startup in-house role?
I worked in a startup once. not sure exactly what to ask from a lawyer role pov, but I think the most important thing to look for is success history of founders, and the VCs involved. some VCs are in for short gains, others for the long haul. plus the quality of VCs is very important. the correlation of vc quality, founders success history, and success of the startup is high.
keep in mind though 90% of startups fail according to some estimates.
I worked in a startup once. not sure exactly what to ask from a lawyer role pov, but I think the most important thing to look for is success history of founders, and the VCs involved. some VCs are in for short gains, others for the long haul. plus the quality of VCs is very important. the correlation of vc quality, founders success history, and success of the startup is high.
keep in mind though 90% of startups fail according to some estimates.
Last edited by app on Sat Nov 21, 2020 5:21 pm, edited 2 times in total.
Re: CS career megathread / AMA
how are those interviewing at tech companies finding job search these days?
Re: CS career megathread / AMA
i’m in a golden handcuffs situation with snap’s stock appreciation so don’t have much personal insight, but seems p much like business as normal, maybe slightly more difficult. am going ahead with a netflix interview though just out of curiosity, pretty unlikely that i’d actually take it
Re: CS career megathread / AMA
what is snap? what kind of work you do?suralin wrote: ↑Tue Nov 24, 2020 9:04 pmi’m in a golden handcuffs situation with snap’s stock appreciation so don’t have much personal insight, but seems p much like business as normal, maybe slightly more difficult. am going ahead with a netflix interview though just out of curiosity, pretty unlikely that i’d actually take it
i've not interviewed that much recently so am ignorant about a lot of new companies.
Re: CS career megathread / AMA
recently onsited at fb. am expecting an offer. but I'm concerned about the poor WLB and PIP stories i've heard.
a lot of posts online i see suggest constant chat/discussions in internal workflow tools with FB. 6 month review cycles and constant push for so called 'impact'. i don't think i can take that kind of work culture for long.
companies i've worked with are known to be relatively better wlb, so it seems like it's going to be tough to jump ship.
edit: received offer from fb
a lot of posts online i see suggest constant chat/discussions in internal workflow tools with FB. 6 month review cycles and constant push for so called 'impact'. i don't think i can take that kind of work culture for long.
companies i've worked with are known to be relatively better wlb, so it seems like it's going to be tough to jump ship.
edit: received offer from fb
Re: CS career megathread / AMA
Congrats on the offer! Do you think fb would be enough of a gold star on your resume to open up other doors down the road even if you did a short stint there?app wrote: ↑Tue Dec 08, 2020 11:07 pmrecently onsited at fb. am expecting an offer. but I'm concerned about the poor WLB and PIP stories i've heard.
a lot of posts online i see suggest constant chat/discussions in internal workflow tools with FB. 6 month review cycles and constant push for so called 'impact'. i don't think i can take that kind of work culture for long.
companies i've worked with are known to be relatively better wlb, so it seems like it's going to be tough to jump ship.
edit: received offer from fb
Re: CS career megathread / AMA
PIP = meets most for two PSCs?
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