|
Well I don't think it has to be a powerpoint at all. I'm not sure about just standing there and talking nonstop though. As a new grad, I have had some really interesting projects and some good experience at internships, but it's hard to say like 'Saved X dollars' or whatever quantitative figures. It's for embedded development. So hardware knowledge is important too. Since I've done circuit design and PCB design as well, I'll probably bring in some of the boards I designed to pass around and talk about the software for them. I'm usually pretty comfortable talking about my own projects. Rescue Toaster fucked around with this message at 22:01 on Oct 26, 2013 |
#
?
Oct 26, 2013 21:57
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 8, 2024 06:41 |
|
|
Rescue Toaster posted:It's for embedded development. So hardware knowledge is important too. Since I've done circuit design and PCB design as well, I'll probably bring in some of the boards I designed to pass around and talk about the software for them. I'm usually pretty comfortable talking about my own projects.
|
|
#
?
Oct 26, 2013 22:48
|
|
|
"Show and tell" sounds like a good approach. If they're proper nerds they'll eat up most of your presentation time with questions about the neat things you're passing around. 
|
|
#
?
Oct 26, 2013 23:04
|
|
|
Rescue Toaster posted:So I have an interview where they've asked me to do almost like a little 15-20 minute presentation of some kind... like of me and stuff I have worked on. I guess so the other interview team members don't have to read through my resume? Any advice on how to do something that isn't just a dull as hell powerpoint? Reading the resume would be a drat sight faster for them than watching a 15 min presentation. They're testing your communication and presentation skills, along with giving them plenty of hooks to chat to you about after. At least in the UK, this has been SOP for many positions at big companies for a while now, along with case studies, etc. The general idea is to put you in situations you're likely to encounter in day-to-day business, as funnily enough traditional interviews turn out to be a poor way to judge what someone's like to work with.
|
|
#
?
Oct 26, 2013 23:21
|
|
|
2banks1swap.avi posted:Oh yeah I was supposed to do this i don't think anyone cares that you wrote documentation or had meetings or "implemented inversion of control." talk about how you helped the company.
|
|
#
?
Oct 26, 2013 23:26
|
|
|
Pie Colony posted:i don't think anyone cares that you wrote documentation or had meetings or "implemented inversion of control." talk about how you helped the company. Everyone goes BLA BLA BLA DEVS CANNOT COMMUNICATE. How do I convey that I actually sped the process along and deal with non computer people who can't make up their minds and go back and change things over and over for them? The IoC thing is easy to explain: "We used IoC to implement mock data services to make development go from a snail's pace to pretty quick since we don't have to jump through hoops to access test data anymore, or for that matter develop on a vm that's slower than molasses is on pluto." Hrm.
|
|
#
?
Oct 26, 2013 23:56
|
|
|
Rescue Toaster posted:So I have an interview where they've asked me to do almost like a little 15-20 minute presentation of some kind... like of me and stuff I have worked on. I guess so the other interview team members don't have to read through my resume? Any advice on how to do something that isn't just a dull as hell powerpoint? I had to do one of these for an interview about six months ago. They told me ahead of time that I'd have 4 interview panels for 45 minutes each, and for one panel I'd need to prepare a 30 minute presentation and send them a Powerpoint deck ahead of time. I was to discuss my professional background and so forth. The other three panels were 99% "tell me about a time when it was fourth and goal and you had to get the ball over the line." I basically structured the presentation so I discussed each position I've had in the past and a major project that I owned, and talked about the outcome to the business. Use numbers if you can. "This project resulted in moving all manual work in this department to 24 hour automated control, decreased turnaround time from 24 hours to 30 minutes, and benefited IT by resulting in 50% reductions in peak server load." HondaCivet posted:"Show and tell" sounds like a good approach. If they're proper nerds they'll eat up most of your presentation time with questions about the neat things you're passing around. Yeah, be prepared for questions, you'll probably get some. But the point is also probably to see how you can do a presentation and run a meeting, so you should also be prepared to (very professionally) not let them hijack it, either. My interviewers tied up the time with questions and in 45 minutes I wound up getting only halfway through my 30 minute presentation. Pretty sure that counted against me.
|
|
#
?
Oct 27, 2013 01:05
|
|
|
2banks1swap.avi posted:The IoC thing is easy to explain: "We used IoC to implement mock data services to make development go from a snail's pace to pretty quick since we don't have to jump through hoops to access test data anymore, or for that matter develop on a vm that's slower than molasses is on pluto." The part of this that belongs on your resume isn't the "used IoC and mock services" part, it's the part about dramatically speeding up development and improving testing, preferably with numbers to make your point quantitatively.
|
|
#
?
Oct 27, 2013 01:37
|
|
|
Pie Colony posted:i don't think anyone cares that you wrote documentation or had meetings or "implemented inversion of control." talk about how you helped the company. Resume service specifically asked about the types and number of pages of documentation I generated, and they went into a bullet point. It's not a focus of the section, but it's there to show that I'm able to not only generate code, but make sure other people can read about how to use it and how I designed it and so on. Job postings frequently have one of the duties listed as, "Write requirements specifications, design documents and diagrams (UML preferred)" or some variant. It should take up like one line on the whole resume and be near the bottom of the list of accomplishments for a particular job, but it's not irrelevant.
|
|
#
?
Oct 27, 2013 13:04
|
|
|
everyone posted:that's insane, quit Should I even bother listing this place on my resume? I graduated, didn't start looking for jobs until three months later, immediately got an offer but didn't have a starting date until a month after that, and now I've been here a little over a month. I figure, if "they want me to work ridiculous hours regularly" is a good reason to move on, then I won't look too unreliable by leaving so soon? The alternative is omitting it and looking like I just sat around in my mom's house doing nothing for five or six months.
|
|
#
?
Oct 27, 2013 18:16
|
|
|
Safe and Secure! posted:Should I even bother listing this place on my resume? I graduated, didn't start looking for jobs until three months later, immediately got an offer but didn't have a starting date until a month after that, and now I've been here a little over a month. I figure, if "they want me to work ridiculous hours regularly" is a good reason to move on, then I won't look too unreliable by leaving so soon?
|
|
#
?
Oct 27, 2013 19:13
|
|
|
Safe and Secure! posted:Should I even bother listing this place on my resume? I graduated, didn't start looking for jobs until three months later, immediately got an offer but didn't have a starting date until a month after that, and now I've been here a little over a month. I figure, if "they want me to work ridiculous hours regularly" is a good reason to move on, then I won't look too unreliable by leaving so soon? A few months right out of college probably isn't going to raise any eyebrows; Every 3rd news story about jobs in this country in the last several years has been "More recent graduates than ever can't find work." It takes time sometimes, and they don't know that you weren't looking the whole time. Like Tunga said, you just have to be prepared to explain the short term of employment. But that explanation should be very neutral. Don't badmouth your current employer at all. "It turned out that I don't fit with the culture there" is a good fallback. It doesn't really say anything, but good hiring staff will hear that and realize that there are some bad things at your current company that you don't want to put up with, but that you are too professional to badmouth an employer in an official setting. Once you get hired at a new place, and your new colleagues take you out for beers on Friday night, then you can make with the story time if you like.
|
|
#
?
Oct 28, 2013 01:55
|
|
|
Hey guys, Flew out for the interview. The place was awesome. They gave me an offer and I jumped at the opportunity as the pay was more than I was going to ask for and the work environment was frickin' amazing. They flew me out knowing that I graduate this coming Spring, so they asked for a start date and I gave them a date a few weeks after I graduate. Now I just have to wait, I have signed a bunch of paperwork: the offer letter (with start date and position, salary, etc), employment agreement, permission to do background check, etc. The offer however, is contingent on a background check. I don't start until next summer, so the HR lady says that she will get ahold of me in a few months to do the drug screening and background check. I know this offer is contingent on the drug screen and background check, so what should I do? Something tells me I should keep looking for jobs for the coming summer? Any input is great.
|
|
#
?
Oct 28, 2013 02:28
|
|
|
Keep looking for jobs, and gently caress drug screens, don't do one. Work elsewhere.
|
|
#
?
Oct 28, 2013 04:54
|
|
|
Che Delilas posted:Like Tunga said, you just have to be prepared to explain the short term of employment. But that explanation should be very neutral. Don't badmouth your current employer at all. You should remain professional and objective in your description. That doesn't mean you can't say bad things, just don't do it about subjective things. "My boss was a jerk" is bad. "We would receive comp time (but no additional pay) for working from 9 AM to past midnight. I was required to do this three times in the first month." is acceptable. Either they look at you in horror and completely forget any misgivings... or they think it's reasonable and you don't want to work there.
|
|
#
?
Oct 28, 2013 05:38
|
|
|
shrughes posted:Keep looking for jobs, and gently caress drug screens, don't do one. Work elsewhere. Keep looking for jobs, because who knows you might get an even better offer, but if it's otherwise great I wouldn't care about the drug screen. Drug policies are generally asinine, but frankly if this is your first job out of school, don't hold out for absolute perfection. If a drug screen is the worst this place has to offer, it's already more awesome than the majority of companies in this country. Zhentar posted:You should remain professional and objective in your description. That doesn't mean you can't say bad things, just don't do it about subjective things. "My boss was a jerk" is bad. "We would receive comp time (but no additional pay) for working from 9 AM to past midnight. I was required to do this three times in the first month." is acceptable. Either they look at you in horror and completely forget any misgivings... or they think it's reasonable and you don't want to work there. You know, that's a pretty reasonable point.
|
|
#
?
Oct 28, 2013 13:24
|
|
|
I have a short-duration job I haven't removed from my resume. The reason I left in plain terms is that it was a 20 hour a week job that required me to be in the office, and that I was giving myself busy work to get a full 20 hours. Basically, not enough work to be done as a main gig, despite wanting me in the office and not working remote on my own time. Does being honest about that reflect good or should I just omit it from my resume?
|
|
#
?
Oct 28, 2013 13:44
|
|
|
What exactly is wrong with a drug screening policy? When I left the Corps, the company I joined had a pre-employment drug test and I was super happy that I got to pee in a cup without someone looking at my junk the whole time, that was refreshing.
|
|
#
?
Oct 28, 2013 13:53
|
|
|
bonds0097 posted:What exactly is wrong with a drug screening policy? A looooooooooot of devs smoke things besides tobacco, it seems? I personally don't care - I don't do anything but drink or smoke cigars once in a blue moon - but I've also never been drug tested either.
|
|
#
?
Oct 28, 2013 14:20
|
|
|
shrughes posted:... and gently caress drug screens, don't do one. Work elsewhere. This is stupid; virtually any company worth working for these days drug screens their employees. It's not a big deal.
|
|
#
?
Oct 28, 2013 15:36
|
|
|
Sarcophallus posted:This is stupid; virtually any company worth working for these days drug screens their employees. It's not a big deal. This is wrong. At least the first part. I've never been drug tested, and I've never heard of any of my friends or coworkers being drug tested to work at not-poo poo software companies. Steve French fucked around with this message at 15:58 on Oct 28, 2013 |
|
#
?
Oct 28, 2013 15:56
|
|
|
Sarcophallus posted:This is stupid; virtually any company worth working for these days drug screens their employees. It's not a big deal. Is this an American thing? I've literally never take a test in my life.
|
|
#
?
Oct 28, 2013 16:36
|
|
|
Sarcophallus posted:This is stupid; virtually any company worth working for these days drug screens their employees. It's not a big deal. I mean, it's not a big deal, but the claim that "any company worth working for drug screens their employees" is bullshit because there are way better ways to vet employees and the simplest drug screens are easily defeated. If your vetting process can't filter out folks where drug use is a work risk, then something else is wrong. If a good programmer wants to smoke weed occasionally but otherwise is still a good programmer, who cares?
|
|
#
?
Oct 28, 2013 16:40
|
|
|
Posting Principle posted:Is this an American thing? I've literally never take a test in my life. Neither have I - it's certainly not true that ANY company worth working for drug tests their employees. It's not uncommon, though.
|
|
#
?
Oct 28, 2013 16:41
|
|
|
No Safe Word posted:If a good programmer wants to smoke weed occasionally but otherwise is still a good programmer, who cares? I think it matters more in a "no real work history" sense. Qualified but unproven candidate 1 tested positive for THC and 2 did not. Unless you're doing  driven development, it suggests candidate 2 is taking this whole job thing a little more seriously.
|
|
#
?
Oct 28, 2013 16:55
|
|
|
boho posted:I think it matters more in a "no real work history" sense. Qualified but unproven candidate 1 tested positive for THC and 2 did not. Unless you're doing I don't follow this logic at all. Does it also apply to alcohol or is it just because weed is illegal in most states and federally? Candidate 1: I went to a pub this weekend with my friends. Candidate 2: I smoked a bowl this weekend with my friends. Which one is taking the job thing more seriously?
|
|
#
?
Oct 28, 2013 17:04
|
|
|
Kumquat posted:I don't follow this logic at all. Does it also apply to alcohol or is it just because weed is illegal in most states and federally? It's the same reason that the guy in business casual gets more offers than the goon in the cheeto jeans and WoW T-Shirt.
|
|
#
?
Oct 28, 2013 17:25
|
|
|
The obvious choice is the candidate in a sharp three piece suit with one grey eyebrow from snorting coke up the same nostril.
|
|
#
?
Oct 28, 2013 17:28
|
|
Kumquat posted:Which one is taking the job thing more seriously?
|
|
|
#
?
Oct 28, 2013 17:30
|
|
|
Back to seriousness. I've recently been tasked with basically going through a pile of helper functions (formatting, validation, and generating markup/jQuery/hooking into our custom js helper stuff for the front end) and web services which are either finished, half finished, not started, or not started and the client hasn't even told us how they want us to do it yet. This is where I tell you that we're copying a desktop app in a web app. I went through the byzantine piles of code for the services and our helpers which were sorta half done by a guy who ended up leaving due to medical reasons but never documented it. To top it off I ended up spending quite a bit of time doing something which he had already implemented but never told us about! Anywho, sprint launch this week, I end up getting accolades for what I've done despite being anxious as hell because it's difficult to set goals for how much unknown unknown I figure out. I have no clue how to even begin to estimate something like this, feel crappy because I can't show and tell some thing I added to a web page, and then get told I'm doing good. How the hell do you do make estimates with stuff like this? Is it ultimately just bullshitting that we all do and our project manager translates into "just hurry up and wait" to the business people who think it's easy to estimate or even possible to estimate? I rather liked the whole "show us what you did" part of agile development since I could just show a concrete thing when I had features to do. All I have to show now is a spreadsheet of "yo this was done, this is half done, this wasn't started yet, and you tell me" respectively. My features are either done or waiting on the database to exist right now. The feeling I get is that one just eventually gets used to it and learns how to get the management to just go away for a while until you're done, but ugh. Is that really all there is to this?
|
|
#
?
Oct 28, 2013 17:45
|
|
|
bonds0097 posted:What exactly is wrong with a drug screening policy? Um, because they want to analyze your pee and it's stupid? bonds0097 posted:When I left the Corps, the company I joined had a pre-employment drug test and I was super happy that I got to pee in a cup without someone looking at my junk the whole time, that was refreshing. It sounds to me like you have low standards for personal dignity.
|
|
#
?
Oct 28, 2013 20:24
|
|
|
It's tough to estimate when you don't know what you'll be working on. Estimate as you go. Keep track of the work you are doing and expect to do, obstacles to your tasks, and create test plans. If you can, use a testing framework to automate the tests. Document your work with a ticketing system. If your project doesn't have a ticketing system you can keep a hierarchical document in a text editor or something. As you do the work your idea of what needs to be done will improve. When it does, update your tickets/document to reflect the current state of things. You can share your tickets/documents with your project manager or tech lead to get feedback on the work you're doing. Your tech lead or pm probably should have told you all of this or provided you with some other structure for communication.
|
|
#
?
Oct 28, 2013 21:59
|
|
|
shrughes posted:It sounds to me like you have low standards for personal dignity.
|
|
#
?
Oct 28, 2013 22:03
|
|
|
shrughes posted:Um, because they want to analyze your pee and it's stupid? Yeah, definitely. I was a god drat U.S. Marine, not some pot-smoking shithead who can't get a job at a company that drug tests. Pretty low personal dignity standards.
|
|
#
?
Oct 29, 2013 00:37
|
|
|
Really, you have no personal dignity if you submit to a drug screen? Or you're a pot-smoking shithead if you don't? I think the objection to mandatory drug screens is that it's kind of like submitting to a search of your person even though you haven't demonstrated probable cause. Some people aren't comfortable with the implied, "if you've got nothing to hide, why are you objecting?" Some people don't care. I don't use drugs but I'm not in any position to reject a job offer because of drug screens even though I think it's a lovely policy to have. I also don't think people who smoke pot are shitheads. But this is more a topic for D&D and y'all should calm down.
|
|
#
?
Oct 29, 2013 00:55
|
|
|
bonds0097 posted:Yeah, definitely. I was a god drat U.S. Marine, not some pot-smoking shithead who can't get a job at a company that drug tests. Pretty low personal dignity standards. i dunno man id personally reject a job where i had to kill innocent brown people everyday. but thats just me. (USER WAS PUT ON PROBATION FOR THIS POST)
|
|
#
?
Oct 29, 2013 01:07
|
|
|
Re: drug testing, my company does random drug testing which seems like the biggest waste of money ever. If I'm doing my job perfectly well then why would you care whether or not I'm tokin' it up at home? Unless it's not truly random but my boss assured me it is. Anyway, had a first interview with a CTO (fancy titles make me nervous for some reasons) and despite being super nervous I gave him one of "the best answers he's ever heard" to one of his questions and "made his day."  It sounds like they are going to fly me down to their main office for an all-day interview (although I'll get to work from an office in town here). I'm happy but kind of in disbelief and the nerves still won't go away aaaaah  It sounds like I won't be jumping away from .NET quite yet if this happens. I vaguely remember someone offering help with .NET interviews . . . If you're still doing that I'd appreciate any help you could offer.
|
|
#
?
Oct 29, 2013 01:22
|
|
|
bonds0097 posted:Yeah, definitely. I was a god drat U.S. Marine, not some pot-smoking shithead who can't get a job at a company that drug tests. Pretty low personal dignity standards. So you have low personal dignity both in willingness to have your pee measured and in willingness to join organizations with insane self-destructive policies? That is not what I recommend to people in this thread looking to get jobs and advance their career.
|
|
#
?
Oct 29, 2013 01:23
|
|
|
this was a stupid post
Deus Rex fucked around with this message at 02:23 on Feb 1, 2015 |
|
#
?
Oct 29, 2013 01:54
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 8, 2024 06:41 |
|
|
bonds0097 posted:Yeah, definitely. I was a god drat U.S. Marine, not some pot-smoking shithead who can't get a job at a company that drug tests. Pretty low personal dignity standards. Whoa whoa whoa, nobody said he couldn't get a job at a company that drug tests. There are plenty of ways for an enterprising pot-smoking shithead to pass a drug screen.
|
|
#
?
Oct 29, 2013 02:09
|
|