Newbie Programming Interviews/Get a Job Megathread: Fake it 'til you make it

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Serious Hardware/Software Crap > The Cavern of COBOL > Newbie Programming Interviews/Get a Job Megathread: Fake it 'til you make it

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sim: Sep 24, 2003

Forgall posted:

Are there any companies that are known to be interested in hiring from abroad, or any job listing websites / recruiting companies etc that specialize in this matter?

http://careers.stackoverflow.com/jobs?allowsremote=true
http://www.authenticjobs.com/#onlyremote=1
https://weworkremotely.com/

Yes, they are generally US focused, but they are all remote.

# ? Oct 17, 2014 17:35

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# ? Apr 24, 2024 19:26

jkyuusai: Jun 26, 2008; homegrown man milk

Just had what is supposedly the final interview for a front end dev position with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Is anyone familiar with them? I'm having a followup conversation with someone next week to answer more of my questions. I've been poking around since I first applied, to try and get a feel for how they operate. Among other things, basically looking for any red flags that I need to ask them about when I've got the chance.

# ? Oct 17, 2014 17:46

Forgall: Oct 16, 2012; by Azathoth

sim posted:

http://careers.stackoverflow.com/jobs?allowsremote=true
http://www.authenticjobs.com/#onlyremote=1
https://weworkremotely.com/

Yes, they are generally US focused, but they are all remote.

I was talking about moving to another country, but remote job might be useful to shore up my finances and experience too, thank you.

# ? Oct 17, 2014 18:03

Bognar: Aug 4, 2011; I am the queen of France; Hot Rope Guy

sim posted:

This is a simple evaluation problem. You'll code Bob, a simple message responder as follows:
Bob answers 'Sure.' if you ask him a question.
He answers 'Woah, chill out!' if you yell at him (ALL CAPS).
He says 'Fine. Be that way!' if you address him without actually saying anything.
He answers 'Whatever.' to anything else.
For help in completing the initial problem, specs are attached in each of the following languages: Ruby, Python, JavaScript and Clojure. Please select one language, complete the code in your language of choice so that all specs pass

Please write this as a text adventure game.

code:

You are in a room with gray walls. In front of you is a middle-aged, balding, 
slightly overweight man. Next to the mustard stain on his white button-up 
is a drooping name tag that reads "Bob". His left eye is pointed at you, 
while his right seems to be counting the tiles on the floor.

There are exits to the north and west.

> You are a butte.

Sorry, I didn't understand that.

> say You are a butte.

Bob wheezes, "Whatever."

> north

"Fine, be that way!" says Bob sulkily.

You enter another room with gray walls. You are eaten by a grue.

# ? Oct 17, 2014 18:57

Joe Law: Jun 30, 2008

So I'm interviewing with a company right now, and they gave me "take home" programming assignment. They were pretty lax about the whole thing (just hand it when you're done no rush), and I handed it in yesterday. This morning, I realized I missed an edge case. It's not major (only 1 small edit to a line of code), but I would assume they will test for it. Should I drop a note to my contact saying I thought of an additional case and hand over the fix, or just keep my mouth shut and forget about it?

# ? Oct 18, 2014 04:16

Cryolite: Oct 2, 2006; sodium aluminum fluoride

Hand over the fix.

# ? Oct 18, 2014 04:45

Che Delilas: Nov 23, 2009; FREE TIBET WEED

Cryolite posted:

Hand over the fix.

No question.

# ? Oct 18, 2014 11:53

EAT THE EGGS RICOLA: May 29, 2008

sim posted:

Also one of the jobs I applied for through Hacker News sent me a technical test to take before we even have a phone interview. Here's the test:

This is the first question from http://www.exercism.io/

# ? Oct 18, 2014 13:13

Akarshi: Apr 23, 2011

So right now all I have is an offer from a big bank and their deadline is in around two weeks, which isn't much time for me to apply elsewhere and get another offer.

I don't want to work in finance forever, but is working there for a year or two and then switching to something else viable? Or do tech companies look down at coders from places like Morgan Stanley and such?

# ? Oct 18, 2014 15:20

EAT THE EGGS RICOLA: May 29, 2008

Akarshi posted:

So right now all I have is an offer from a big bank and their deadline is in around two weeks, which isn't much time for me to apply elsewhere and get another offer.

I don't want to work in finance forever, but is working there for a year or two and then switching to something else viable? Or do tech companies look down at coders from places like Morgan Stanley and such?

It super super depends on what you're doing and what the next company you're applying to is looking for/what kind of culture they have. There is a benefit to being able to navigate a giant stupid bureaucracy and deal with tinpot dictators.

# ? Oct 18, 2014 16:12

FamDav: Mar 29, 2008

Akarshi posted:

So right now all I have is an offer from a big bank and their deadline is in around two weeks, which isn't much time for me to apply elsewhere and get another offer.

I don't want to work in finance forever, but is working there for a year or two and then switching to something else viable? Or do tech companies look down at coders from places like Morgan Stanley and such?

what kind of timeline to start working do they expect? if you can tack on an extra month and change, suddenly you have all the time in the world.

# ? Oct 18, 2014 17:33

fritz: Jul 26, 2003

Akarshi posted:

I don't want to work in finance forever, but is working there for a year or two and then switching to something else viable? Or do tech companies look down at coders from places like Morgan Stanley and such?

I've interviewed people from all sorts of companies and backgrounds and there have only been a couple of previous employers about whom I've thought 'ugh'. Big banks aren't among them tho.

# ? Oct 18, 2014 17:37

Akarshi: Apr 23, 2011

I'm currently an undergrad in senior year so I won't start working until July or so. The big bank isn't amenable to changing the deadline though.

In regards to the kind of company I want to work for, I think I would enjoy working for a startup, but I can't help but to get the feeling that startups will judge big banks hard, and I'm afraid that if I pass this opportunity up it will be hard for me to find another one, as I'm not the best interviewee.

# ? Oct 18, 2014 17:50

Forgall: Oct 16, 2012; by Azathoth

Is Cracking the Coding Interview considered to be a good book for interview preparation? Also, is whiteboard coding really as prevalent as it says?

# ? Oct 18, 2014 18:03

Akarshi: Apr 23, 2011

Forgall posted:

Is Cracking the Coding Interview considered to be a good book for interview preparation? Also, is whiteboard coding really as prevalent as it says?

Yes and yes. On all my onsites I've had to whiteboard code (maybe not actually on a whiteboard, but definitely write down code).

# ? Oct 18, 2014 18:05

FamDav: Mar 29, 2008

Akarshi posted:

I'm currently an undergrad in senior year so I won't start working until July or so. The big bank isn't amenable to changing the deadline though.

In regards to the kind of company I want to work for, I think I would enjoy working for a startup, but I can't help but to get the feeling that startups will judge big banks hard, and I'm afraid that if I pass this opportunity up it will be hard for me to find another one, as I'm not the best interviewee.

lol if youre not starting until july then you can literally keep applying right up until you die

because theres no reason you cant apply and interview elsewhere

ever

# ? Oct 18, 2014 18:05

Akarshi: Apr 23, 2011

I thought it was like unethical to keep applying to places after you accept the offer, unless you mean ditch this offer?

# ? Oct 18, 2014 18:12

fritz: Jul 26, 2003

Akarshi posted:

In regards to the kind of company I want to work for, I think I would enjoy working for a startup, but I can't help but to get the feeling that startups will judge big banks hard,

Any startup that does is going to be closed in twelve months anyway.

# ? Oct 18, 2014 18:19

Forgall: Oct 16, 2012; by Azathoth

Akarshi posted:

Yes and yes. On all my onsites I've had to whiteboard code (maybe not actually on a whiteboard, but definitely write down code).

Good to know, thank you.

So. I have about 7 years of working experience with .net, although not in web or enterprise sphere, and that's what seems to be in demand. And I know that it makes my newbie interview questions seem extra dumb, but I've only held two jobs so far (and first started out as internship of sorts), and I never really had to go through job search and interview process "the hard way" until now. I also have extremely low opinion of myself, so now I'm kind of freaking out. And having a 3 year gap in my working history also doesn't help.

Now for the actual question, if I'm applying for a job in an area that I don't have hands on working experience in, is it ok for me to apply for position of a junior developer? I absolutely don't mind lower salary and being bossed around or talked down to, but is it weird to apply for a "junior" position when I'm in my early thirties? Seems like something they'd want to hire recent college grad for.

# ? Oct 18, 2014 18:22

FamDav: Mar 29, 2008

Akarshi posted:

I thought it was like unethical to keep applying to places after you accept the offer, unless you mean ditch this offer?

i wrote some homoerotic fan fiction explaining why this isnt unethical in the slightest but then i realized this is a grey forum.

no its not unethical. it wouldn't be unethical if you applied for jobs all the way until July and got an offer the week after you started. you are free to seek out alternative employment at all times, and the only time people are told not to around here is they either

* have a history of job jumping in a short time span
* have an obvious noncompete/nda between new and old competitor

# ? Oct 18, 2014 18:29

bonds0097: Oct 23, 2010; I would cry but I don't think I can spare the moisture.; Pillbug

Akarshi posted:

I thought it was like unethical to keep applying to places after you accept the offer, unless you mean ditch this offer?

Keep in mind that a company can rescind their offer at any time. They can also fire you without cause in most states.

So do what's best for you, because they'll do what's best for them.

# ? Oct 18, 2014 19:10

Mniot: May 22, 2003; Not the one you know

What would everyone consider "unethical" as far as flipping job offers? I think accepting one offer for the sole purpose of getting a security clearance (or other expensive cert) that you can leverage for another offer might be unethical. But most of the time you'd be jumping from a megacorp to a little company that can't afford to pay for certs, so I don't think I'd care.

Accepting a job offer and then reneging because you got a much better offer later on is certainly not unethical. (It is a breech of chivalric code, so you can kiss your knighthood goodbye.)

I did this (took an offer, then took a different offer two days before I was supposed to start). The second offer was $14000 higher, didn't include a 1 hour commute each way, and was a better fit for me. I think going back on my first offer was the best job decision I've made to date.

# ? Oct 18, 2014 19:54

FamDav: Mar 29, 2008

Mniot posted:

I think accepting one offer for the sole purpose of getting a security clearance (or other expensive cert) that you can leverage for another offer might be unethical.

still isn't.

# ? Oct 18, 2014 20:32

Malcolm XML: Aug 8, 2009; I always knew it would end like ｔｈｉｓ．

Mniot posted:

What would everyone consider "unethical" as far as flipping job offers? I think accepting one offer for the sole purpose of getting a security clearance (or other expensive cert) that you can leverage for another offer might be unethical. But most of the time you'd be jumping from a megacorp to a little company that can't afford to pay for certs, so I don't think I'd care.

Accepting a job offer and then reneging because you got a much better offer later on is certainly not unethical. (It is a breech of chivalric code, so you can kiss your knighthood goodbye.)

I did this (took an offer, then took a different offer two days before I was supposed to start). The second offer was $14000 higher, didn't include a 1 hour commute each way, and was a better fit for me. I think going back on my first offer was the best job decision I've made to date.

There is literally nothing unethical with this and gently caress any company that doesn't see this coming

Remember you are against a huge company so you have to do everything you can

# ? Oct 18, 2014 20:45

null gallagher: Jan 1, 2014

Akarshi posted:

So right now all I have is an offer from a big bank and their deadline is in around two weeks, which isn't much time for me to apply elsewhere and get another offer.

I don't want to work in finance forever, but is working there for a year or two and then switching to something else viable? Or do tech companies look down at coders from places like Morgan Stanley and such?

fwiw, I work at a big financial place, and I interviewed at a startup a month or so back where they said something like "we don't usually interview people with big corporate backgrounds, but you seem really talented so we're making an exception for you".

Literally everything else that they said was pretty much stereotypical_bad_startup.txt: how much they drink in the office, how they have an ~*~Xbox One~*~ in the office, "we expect you to work hard, but we play hard too." lovely sample size, I know, but it doesn't look like tech companies worth working at are going to turn you down solely for working at a big bank, insurance company, etc.

# ? Oct 18, 2014 20:57

down with slavery: Dec 23, 2013; STOP QUOTING MY POSTS SO PEOPLE THAT AREN'T IDIOTS DON'T HAVE TO READ MY FUCKING TERRIBLE OPINIONS THANKS

I'm highly skeptical of anywhere that lists a ping pong table(or an xbox one, or any kind of "fun" things) as a job benefit. One of my worst jobs was at a place where it was a giant open room and right in the middle was a ping pong table. Awesome trying to concentrate on getting work done when the VPs are playing a few rousing games of ping pong at 2pm.

# ? Oct 18, 2014 23:54

Che Delilas: Nov 23, 2009; FREE TIBET WEED

Akarshi posted:

I'm currently an undergrad in senior year so I won't start working until July or so. The big bank isn't amenable to changing the deadline though.

In regards to the kind of company I want to work for, I think I would enjoy working for a startup, but I can't help but to get the feeling that startups will judge big banks hard, and I'm afraid that if I pass this opportunity up it will be hard for me to find another one, as I'm not the best interviewee.

Classic high-pressure manipulation, no less than I'd expect from an industry as famously corrupt as banking. Feel free to accept their offer and then continue looking for jobs anyway - you don't have to put anything on your resume or say anything about how you've accepted an offer already. If you do get a better offer between now and July (quite likely given the time frame), absolutely feel no remorse about cancelling your acceptance of the first offer.

Big companies want job seekers to act like it's still the 1950's. They're the ones who changed the employment landscape from long-term company loyalty into cutthroat, layoff-based short term profit chasing; if they want the 1950's back, it's on them to make the changes.

# ? Oct 19, 2014 00:56

Doghouse: Oct 22, 2004; I was playing Harvest Moon 64 with this kid who lived on my street and my cows were not doing well and I got so raged up and frustrated that my eyes welled up with tears and my friend was like are you crying dude. Are you crying because of the cows. I didn't understand the feeding mechanic.

Just signed an offer letter and am starting Monday as a full time (junior) developer after interning at the company for a few months, and I'm still in the middle of school :c00l:

Didn't get quite entry level pay, but almost, and considering I've only been in school about 14 months (master's without a CS bachelors), I'm pretty happy with it.

# ? Oct 19, 2014 01:40

Cicero: Dec 17, 2003; Jumpjet, melta, jumpjet. Repeat for ten minutes or until victory is assured.

Akarshi posted:

I thought it was like unethical to keep applying to places after you accept the offer, unless you mean ditch this offer?

A guy in my CS program accepted an internship offer with National Instruments, then later they canceled it on him because of ~*~the economy~*~ or something, so instead of getting actual useful experience he was a TA over the summer (and National Instruments is supposed to be a 'nice' company).

Corporate America does what's best for it, not what's best for you. You should probably do likewise.

Realistically, that probably means you can't get a job at that particular company again, but programming is an enormous profession; even a huge place like Microsoft probably has around 1% of the programming jobs in the US, and a bank, even a big one, will have substantially less than that.

Doghouse posted:

Just signed an offer letter and am starting Monday as a full time (junior) developer after interning at the company for a few months, and I'm still in the middle of school

Didn't get quite entry level pay, but almost, and considering I've only been in school about 14 months (master's without a CS bachelors), I'm pretty happy with it.

Nice work!

# ? Oct 19, 2014 04:49

shodanjr_gr: Nov 20, 2007

Did a second round phone interview for my dream gig on Friday and throughout the weekend I've on pins and needles, waiting on HR to get back to me so I'll rant a bit.

I've been doing native code development for 7 years as part of my studies and internships (undergrad and then PhD). Yet somehow all interviews that I encounter now that I'm looking for full-time gigs are of the "how do I linked list" persuasion (guess that's what happens when you're interviewing for "entry" level positions). It's annoying that the expectations for incoming developers are so low that they candidates have to be filtered based on their ability to memorize solutions from Cracking the Code versus actual problem solving and engineering chops.

# ? Oct 19, 2014 22:22

lunar detritus: May 6, 2009

I was asked to make and send them a Tic Tac Toe web game as a technical test. The basics are easy, how can I blow their minds?

# ? Oct 19, 2014 23:02

Malcolm XML: Aug 8, 2009; I always knew it would end like ｔｈｉｓ．

gmq posted:

I was asked to make and send them a Tic Tac Toe web game as a technical test. The basics are easy, how can I blow their minds?

write automated tests and maybe an ai that solves it and forces a draw

# ? Oct 19, 2014 23:05

Literally Elvis: Oct 21, 2013

Joe Law posted:

So I'm interviewing with a company right now, and they gave me "take home" programming assignment. They were pretty lax about the whole thing (just hand it when you're done no rush), and I handed it in yesterday. This morning, I realized I missed an edge case. It's not major (only 1 small edit to a line of code), but I would assume they will test for it. Should I drop a note to my contact saying I thought of an additional case and hand over the fix, or just keep my mouth shut and forget about it?

I have a very similar situation. The guy told me when he was describing the challenge not to worry about every little edge case and whatnot, but I did catch a situation where I missed that. Is the sage wisdom still "hand over a fix"? He told me it shouldn't take more than an hour, and I don't want to violate those rules and come off as if I have been scrutinizing my code all weekend.

# ? Oct 20, 2014 01:53

Fuck them: Jan 21, 2011; and their bullshit

My current job was the result of a take-home assignment, and then sending in some "oh I caught x, y, and z when I slept on it" corrections. I was told they were glad they could see "how I iterated" and how I'd catch bugs and improve upon things.

# ? Oct 20, 2014 03:24

pigdog: Apr 23, 2004; by Smythe

gmq posted:

I was asked to make and send them a Tic Tac Toe web game as a technical test. The basics are easy, how can I blow their minds?

Ask them what they value. Are they simply looking for whether you can code at all? Are they obsessed with neatness, efficiency, documentation?

# ? Oct 20, 2014 09:37

Axel Rhodes Scholar: May 12, 2001; Courage Reactor

gmq posted:

I was asked to make and send them a Tic Tac Toe web game as a technical test. The basics are easy, how can I blow their minds?

Implement the whole thing in C, store the entire gamestate in a 32-bit integer, detect win conditions and invalid moves using bitwise ops

# ? Oct 20, 2014 13:16

Che Delilas: Nov 23, 2009; FREE TIBET WEED

Literally Elvis posted:

He told me it shouldn't take more than an hour, and I don't want to violate those rules and come off as if I have been scrutinizing my code all weekend.

I don't understand. Are you honestly worried that someone will think less of you because someone they might hire as a programmer was thinking about programming when he didn't explicitly need to?

# ? Oct 20, 2014 15:17

Medieval Medic: Sep 8, 2011

I have a question about how much to ask for payment. Now, I already looked on Glassdoor, but I can't find anything similar to my situation.

Just graduated Comp. Engineer and I have a project as a freelance solo developer for a small company lined up. I know it will take me about 2 months, given that I won't be working 8 hours a day on it. I am not sure how much to charge though, since it is a small company, and I am brand spanking new to the scene. How should I go about deciding?

Medieval Medic fucked around with this message at 19:52 on Oct 20, 2014

# ? Oct 20, 2014 19:50

Sil: Jan 4, 2007

Medieval Medic posted:

I have a question about how much to ask for payment. Now, I already looked on Glassdoor, but I can't find anything similar to my situation.

Just graduated Comp. Engineer and I have a project as a freelance solo developer for a small company lined up. I know it will take me about 2 months, given that I won't be working 8 hours a day on it. I am not sure how much to charge though, since it is a small company, and I am brand spanking new to the scene. How should I go about deciding?

$25-$100 / hour * number of hours?

# ? Oct 20, 2014 22:14

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# ? Apr 24, 2024 19:26

Tunga: May 7, 2004; Grimey Drawer

I have a telephone interview for this role at Google:

https://www.google.com/about/careers/search#!t=jo&jid=2839001

Is anyone familiar with this area of Google? I'm unclear whether this involves writing code or if it's more tech support or what? Got a call with the recruiter which will helpfully clarify but I figured I'd ask here too.

# ? Oct 21, 2014 00:08

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