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im unemployed gonna look for a job in june, hope to find one by august i think i should use some of the time to learn new skills. assembly language seems promising. what else is cool? hdl? i don’t want to touch web or business database stuff ever in my life if I can help it. I’ll keep you updated on my unemployment status. getting goodbye happy hour tacos and margaritas with the firmware team in 13 hours. having a totally unknown future career is the happiest and most exciting I’ve felt in the last two years btw. I hope I can maintain self discipline and keep slacking off under control.
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Jan 17, 2018 10:03
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| # ¿ Nov 7, 2025 19:00 |
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feedmegin posted:Hi how are things in 1995 man, life in 1995 is great --my savings account has a 5.5% apy, my parents arent divorced, all my grandparents are alive, and i saw the view from the top of the world trade center last fall when my family took a totally-average-for-1995 annual vacation to nyc. in all honesty I probably won't get *that good* at assembly --intel or people at llvm won't be knocking down my door any time soon. also, assembly language isn't going to be a thing that makes me stand out when i apply to jobs, especially when most new CS grads will gracelessly throw assembly on their resumes because they took a quarter-long intro to programming class that used the LC-3 to do an integer factorization assignment. asm is a piece of the computing stack i haven't really explored before and it seems interesting. I like doing things involving real hardware and i also like learning about computer security so assembly kind of fits into those themes. it's not really about the job search. EnergizerFellow posted:That's a plan for fail. Recruiter activity ramps up hard in mid-December to get people interviewing/hired by Jan 1st and steadily builds through March. After March things fall off rapidly for the rest of the year until next December rolls around. interesting take. I bet the recruiting cycle thing applies more to larger companies with cyclic financial plans than smaller ones without that structure, but what do I know? Regardless, I don't know what companies I will be applying to in six months so I'll remember your advice when nobody replies to my resume.
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Jan 17, 2018 19:46
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Shinku ABOOKEN posted:if you are set on using assembly why don't you try applying to be a reverse engineer at an infosec company? i hear there is good money to be made there and there is a talent shortage\ ^^^ reverse engineering is definitely on my mind, I'm just not sure if I'll like it as a ~*~career~*~ so I'm dipping my toes in first.
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Jan 17, 2018 20:26
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The Management posted:no one should be allowed to program a computer professionally without a basic understanding of assembly language. ehhh, i don't know if I agree --maybe, but it depends on the definition of basic understanding I like to think I have a "basic understanding" of assembly, at the level of: there is a stack, there are some registers, here are some opcodes but gently caress if I know which registers are used for what, what the calling convention is, or any opcodes besides mov, add, or jmp. But I'm a bad programmer lol. I'm trying to get a "working understanding" so I can write something beyond a hello world without needing to consult a reference manual for every opcode. edit: I should start posting in the spare time projects thread instead of this one
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Jan 17, 2018 20:43
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Congratulations!
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Jan 17, 2018 23:04
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quit job update: I’ve been working on my car, hiking, playing video games and exploring my town in the middle of the day since I quit Wednesday last week. feels loving great. I also just got a few weeks of more well-paid and easy embedded contract work! I’m not so unemployed after all... I hope I can get some more of it when I’m in Taiwan. thankfully their dev board is like the size of a raspberry pi and not a motherboard so I can bring it easily.
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Jan 23, 2018 20:14
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Schadenboner posted:I have some sort of 2.5hr "non-technical" webcam-based skills test tomorrow. 
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Jan 30, 2018 15:43
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qhat posted:If a recruiter comes up to you on LinkedIn, does anyone else right off the bat ask what the compensation range is? Most of these guys just want to speak to me for half an hour on the phone or at coffee or whatever, half an hour that I don't got to just realise they want to pay less than what I already earn. don’t talk to recruiters unless you absolutely need a job and you won’t have this problem
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Jan 31, 2018 07:50
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I’m unemployed by choice for the last month, and the next four (doing a language immersion course starting Wednesday), my life has literally never been better. my advice to all is don’t compromise your principles in work. don’t work for idiots, don’t make idiotic products. best case is you’ll regret it. worst case is you’ll become an idiot.
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Feb 20, 2018 00:47
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Gazpacho posted:this week i'll probably get an offer from a company that would allow me to leave the sinking ship i'm at now, otoh i really want some downtime (spent my last substantial "vacation" looking for a job) and there's other goals that this job wouldn't allow me to realize and gee whiz i'm getting old ask them for a start date beginning sometime after you’ve left your current job. if you’re in the US remember that if you leave at the beginning of the month your health insurance is still good for the entire month.
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Feb 20, 2018 04:02
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TimWinter posted:I clicked the 'NICE!' button on this post. NICE 
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Feb 20, 2018 04:03
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Pollyanna posted:im not good enough to work for non-idiots not with that attitude!!
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Feb 20, 2018 04:03
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hope you like working on a taiwanese fishing boat, you won’t see land for two years
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May 7, 2018 16:29
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just lol if you’ve ever worked somewhere that has automated testing or CI
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May 16, 2018 01:40
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Space Whale posted:Well since UI takes a while to come back if you take a job, even if it's 4 days, uhh, this could get me a bit evicted can you apply for a line of credit or a personal loan to pay your necessary expenses while you wait for your UI check/find a job?
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May 18, 2018 04:10
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TheFluff posted:what do you say when the interviewer asks what you're an expert at? i'm not a loving expert at anything, i just know enough about a lot of things to not shoot myself in the foot, and i'm good at learning to understand what i'm doing before i do it so keep not shooting myself in the foot. i can write purely functional code if i try but i'm certainly not some kind of haskell nerd. i can write object oriented code with abstract classes and interfaces and virtual methods if i try but most of the time i don't. i can write c and c++ without shooting myself in the foot too much but i'm not too familiar with the new c++11 stuff. i've worked a lot with web stuff and databases (relational and no) and i know a vast catalog of common pitfalls, but i learn new things all the time. i have seven years of experience during which i've tried a whole lot of different poo poo, so i'm definitely the generalist kind of guy, not an expert at any particular thing. if you polish this up just a little bit it sounds like a good answer to that question (to my unemployed rear end)
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Jun 20, 2018 11:12
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just got back on Saturday from my four-month self-arranged “sabbatical” studying Chinese in Taiwan and a job might already be in the works. my team leader from my last job referred me to a nearby industrial design shop that’s desperately looking for firmware developers to replace their only one who is retiring. I don’t think they’re planning on doing a technical interview (thank god) since they know my old team leader well and trust his referral. they want me to come in tomorrow to hear about their project. if they give a good offer and the work is interesting I’ll probably take the job. is it a dumb idea to jump for the first place that seems interested? I’m feeling happy/guilty/lucky that I might not have to search very hard. also, it sounds like I might be doing the firmware all on my own with no mentoring (and i never got any at my first job either. i could use some mentoring because I have little exposure doing stuff like automated testing, more advanced version control, and build automation) but job hunting sucks and the people seem nice. i think I can teach myself a lot but there are limits, obviously, and I won’t learn idiomatic uses as easily on my own. I’ll post again when I learn more thanks for reading, I’ll gladly take any feedback and I’ll to remember to ask the questions in the op when I see them tomorrow.
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Jul 10, 2018 01:02
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meatpotato posted:just got back on Saturday from my four-month self-arranged “sabbatical” studying Chinese in Taiwan and a job might already be in the works. i met with the industrial design shop yesterday. they need somebody to replace their main firmware contractor since he’s retiring. they’re not looking for a full-time employee because they don’t have enough continuous firmware work to justify one. they also said they have two options for getting paid: part-time with hours varying according to the project, or as an independent contractor. pros: * I want to do independent contracting and this is a chance to do that. * Seems like they have their poo poo together regarding project planning and management (ie. they actually do some project planning and use estimates to set deliverable dates, not the other way around). they also have a history of successfully completing projects. * Long-established team (but I will not be part of it) and a stable network of independent contractors they shop work out to. not a place with crazy turnaround. * the project they want to hire me for sounds sane and something I could succeed at. * the EE is extremely experienced and I could probably learn a few things from him. * convenient commute. cons: * not a software shop so probably doesn’t pay great, but I don’t actually know yet. hours won’t be full-time level either. * development environment sounds crufty, but not sure how bad. not sure if they use version control and they almost certainly don’t do automated software testing. I might be able to effect change but I also admit I don’t know much about modern development practices (besides using version control). * nobody to offer mentorship in software development. may learn other skills, however. not sure: * the project is a low-volume product with a high cost and a sensitive schedule so they’re just going to throw expensive and powerful pre-made modules at it. this might be a pro for some people because it makes development easier, but it’s the opposite experience of my last job and I feel a little uneasy because it sounds sloppy. * most people are in their late 50s or 60s. this could mean they are wise and can teach me or this could mean they’re coasting to retirement and are running on autopilot. * they interviewed three others (all much older than me) but decided their skills weren’t in-line with the project. sounds like most others were EEs by trade and they need somebody a little more skilled in software. not sure what this says about caliber of applicant. they said that they’ll have more info on Friday. I charged $130 an hour with my last client, but that was short-term, about 100 hours total. not sure if I should expect the same here since they’re not a a silicon valley startup and the project here sounds longer. I’m currently jobless and typically hopeless at technical interviews so I’m leaning towards taking the job if they pay more than $50 an hour. if it’s over $100 I think I’ll almost certainly take it. thoughts?
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Jul 12, 2018 06:49
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TheFluff posted:a real turbosperg don’t sign
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Jul 16, 2018 15:21
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A few pages ago I mentioned a contract shop wanted me for a firmware project but they couldn't guarantee full-time hours. They also said they pay contractors about $50/hour up to $100/hour for an expert, which is not super great, I think. It's also been two weeks and they haven't gotten back, so I'm considering that lead dead-ish. I applied to a cool sounding software job at Apple last week but heard nothing back. I should apply to more jobs. the terrible programmers thread made me realize I need to expand my skills and horizons a little bit beyond writing drivers so I've been trying to read some algorithm books, but it's hard going. Other than practicing and studying computer things, I've been organizing the house, working on my project car, studying Chinese, and working out to pass time. Three weeks have passed since I got back to the US and started looking for a job. I still feel pretty good, but I'd like to find a job soon. Thanks for reading.
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Jul 25, 2018 20:18
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I haven't gotten any calls back from jobs I've applied to yet so I went to a casting call for techie-looking people for a TV show if I can't be a programmer at least I might play one one TV now
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Aug 1, 2018 19:30
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looking for jobs sucks
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Aug 3, 2018 00:18
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this might be a good time to ask this question then I just made a linkedin to look for a job (currently have none). Are these messages worthwhile to pursue, or am I likely to be wasting my time? I haven't tuned my linkedin spam sense yet. quote:How are you? quote:Vivid Resourcing are a technical staffing agency based in Los Angeles, I head up our team here that places experts in the field of embedded software engineering. I am handling an opportunity at the moment that I think would be a very good match for your experience, particularly in robotics. The company is a well-funded robotics company operating in the agriculture field. They are based in the bay area. Are you open to exploring new positions? If so, is there a convenient number to reach you on to discuss further? quote:I wanted to reach out in regards to your current work situation. We specialize in staffing senior level hardware and software engineers nationwide. I have a couple of job openings that you may be interested in based on your background. Please let me know if you’re available and I’ll run them by you.
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Aug 8, 2018 01:43
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lol i used my friend's paid recruiter linkedin account to try to find myself and i don't show up in a search for my skills if search for my exact name in my geographic area I'm number #7 in results after a bunch of people outside of the area hmm
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Aug 8, 2018 23:22
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god dammit i'm trying to use leetcode to practice for technical interviews and i feel like its such garbage these are two of the top solutions for a 'medium' problem so verbose it's nearly unreadable or 'Challenge me , thx' with absolutely no comments or explanation, half the comments are '666666'
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Aug 9, 2018 22:47
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or am i the stupid one? that verbose explanation seems super explicit but my eyes just glaze over after a few minutes of reading it.
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Aug 9, 2018 22:53
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then it seems like asking people to solve these kinds of problems in a phone screen or interview is a good way to find 'clever' programmers 
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Aug 9, 2018 23:04
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9/10 of the technical interviews I've had have been stuff that seems straight out of leetcode though  the only one I enjoyed was the guy who handed me a sheet of paper with ~20 lines of C printed on it and told me to find as many bugs as I could, that was fun.
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Aug 9, 2018 23:08
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dammit I've been applying to jobs for a month now (12 applications sent so far) and haven't gotten a call back yet
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Aug 9, 2018 23:09
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meatpotato posted:god dammit ok, geez, I get it now but it took hours
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Aug 10, 2018 06:47
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I had my resume critiqued recently by somebody who hires people (but not in tech) and revised it accordingly i'll take a look at the resume thread, thanks for the suggestion
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Aug 10, 2018 21:54
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also, i have been replying to all the linkedin recruiters even though none of their jobs are relevant to my experience or skills yet (lots of HIGH GROWTH STARTUP seeking founding member of technical staff FIRMWARE ARCHITECT, etc.)
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Aug 10, 2018 21:57
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to be clear, I'm seeking mentoring, decent pay, and opportunity to learn new technical skills outside of firmware, my current pigeonhole
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Aug 10, 2018 22:00
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Mao Zedong Thot posted:anybody have any success stories picking up part-time short-term contract work? i haven't reached out to my network yet, but i assume that's probably my best lead. any other good places to look that wont give me lovely elance jobs for 10bux/hr or osmething I have one. An old friend worked at a toy robot startup and she told me they needed somebody to write firmware. They wanted to hire full-time, but I didn't want to quit my job, mostly because the commute to the toy robot place would be awful i offered to contract as-needed instead of being full-time and after a few months of silence they asked if I was available for a few projects. I asked for $130/hour (multiplied my annual salary by 100 after inflating it a bit) and they said yes without hesitating, so I probably should have asked for more. Anyway, they let me work remotely and I had a pretty consistent 10-20 hours of work a week on top of my regular job, which was a little stressful for a while until I quit my full-time job and did a month of just contracting, then it was really nice.
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Aug 13, 2018 02:10
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lol
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Aug 13, 2018 02:37
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ahem, divided by 100
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Aug 13, 2018 02:38
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that's it folks, i'm out
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Aug 13, 2018 03:29
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time to look for a job far away from numbers
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Aug 13, 2018 03:31
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Notorious b.s.d. posted:if he were good at math he'd have a better job than this
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Aug 13, 2018 03:44
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| # ¿ Nov 7, 2025 19:00 |
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q to those of you who sought out a new job recently: how long / how many applications before you got a call back?
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Aug 22, 2018 17:51
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