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I'm soon to be applying for developer roles after finishing a one year MSc in CompSci, and whilst we covered sorts etc in algorithms, all this talk of algorithms is making me I'd call myself quite a competent Java developer, but ask me to implement a sorting algorithm off the top of my head in an interview and I'll probably just break down there and then
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# ¿ Aug 22, 2011 22:42 |
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# ¿ Mar 29, 2024 09:21 |
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My undergrad was in Computer Networks, so other than a worthles Java course that we did during that, the first CS theory I've been introduced to was in the algorithms module this year. Dare I say it, 'bare-bones' algorithms don't really interest me, developing solutions/systems does, maybe that's bad For example, I'm comfortable with: - OOP principles - I was raised by Josh Bloch and a healthy regimen of Effective Java - JUnit unit testing - Efficient logging mechanisms using log4j etc - Scheduling - Concurrency - JPA and other parts of J2EE etc etc etc And have a good number of projects under my belt, a couple commercial, a couple academic, and a good few 'hobby projects', that demonstrate the above - but as I say, quicksort, mergesort - in an interview That's not to say I couldn't knock up a palindrome algorithm, a linked list, or a basic sorting mechanism for an int array - but talking about the merits in terms of O complexity of one algo from another... Maybe it's time to pick up a book and brush up iam fucked around with this message at 23:55 on Aug 22, 2011 |
# ¿ Aug 22, 2011 23:44 |
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Well when I say comfortable I mean I just make every class extend Thread and main just kicks everything off at once in an orgy of computation
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# ¿ Aug 23, 2011 00:17 |
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Cheers for the feedback - on that basis, what sort of job titles would I be looking at for the former? And am I ever likely to get a job in IBM/Google/MS/'interesting' big corporate doing the more high-level stuff as I described?
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# ¿ Aug 23, 2011 00:56 |
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I'd guess that was the distinction I was looking for - i.e. a software engineer at Google and a software engineer at IBM are going to be doing very different things. (As far as I know Google always advertises its positions as 'Software Engineer'?). For example, a friend is an extremely good software engineer, knows Java inside out, and is on nearly £100k final salary for doing what he does. Ask him to knock up a Quicksort algorithm, or what its time complexity is, and I think it's safe to say he wouldn't have a clue. I guess the answer is don't apply for jobs at Google; but then surely they must have a need for application/solution/system builders and not just algorithm gods.
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# ¿ Aug 23, 2011 16:22 |
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Maybe I'm being naive, but an engineer engineers solutions to problems, typically technical ones? Regardless, take for example a software engineering course, you learn principles, skills and techniques that can be implemented in any language and cross domains (admittedly I'm generalising) - I don't see how that differs too much from other engineering disciplines?
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# ¿ Aug 23, 2011 22:08 |
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Similarly, my brother is a 'Drainage Engineer', and designs and fits drainage systems for residential/commercial/industrial customers - he isn't certificated, nor is it a requirement that he is.
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# ¿ Aug 23, 2011 22:41 |
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# ¿ Mar 29, 2024 09:21 |
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Trevor Train, Trainee Train Trainer AMIDOINGITRITE? iam fucked around with this message at 13:19 on Aug 27, 2011 |
# ¿ Aug 27, 2011 13:12 |