Yesterday, there was a fascinating discussion sparked by this post about self taught developers (primarily the ones trying to matriculate into the industry after completing short courses). Most of these courses may have been courses recommended by tech influencers who achieved success by using these courses as a supplement.
As someone who currently works with developers without a college degree nor bootcamp experience at a large company, I'd like to further discuss this phenomenon. I'd love to analyze the effect specific public influencers had in the self-taught movement, how to cite some critical omissions in their anecdotes, and share additional resources and realistic tips for career changers or developers without a CS degree, or college degree. -- Lydia Hallie Lydia Hallie is a popular technical content creator who gained prominence in 2017 from an article titled Advice from a 19 Year Old Girl and Software Developer, along with her Instagram account, where she shares photos of herself with her laptop, followed by a learning outcome or a short project description. She marketed herself as a self taught/bootcamp JavaScript developer, which sparked the interest of millions of people, including aspiring developers who have not obtained a CS degree. In this article, she claims she started programming on her own at 15 years old:

This is when I started creating my own responsive layouts with the regular HTML, CSS and jQuery.

Lydia decided to enroll in a bootcamp to build her credibility and network. Moreover, Lydia proliferated the laptop selfie phenomenon on Instagram, where she posts selfies of her text editor describing her code snippets along with personal updates. Not only did her posts receive thousands upon thousands of likes and comments, this also inspired a developer community on Instagram, filled with developers eager to amass a following, and garner support from recruiters. Lydia's methodical approach to social media marketing for developers postured her as a friendly face who represents developers without a college degree. Because she appeared to acquire all this knowledge in what appears to be a short amount of time, and is able to travel around the world due to the flexibility independent contracting offers, people often cite her as inspiration for their career change, yearning for a similar lifestyle to her. What Lydia has not revealed publicly are when she really started programming, and where her interest in programming actually came from. In an interview with Dev Journey, she mentions she was introduced to programming at 9 years old. Her father, who works as a professional programmer had introduced her to it and helped her cultivate that skill. It was also mentioned in her HoneyPot documentary that her father is a professional programmer.
These points were left out of Lydia's platforms for years. Most of Lydia's followers do not have the resources she had to pursue programming through an alternative route. Her father was likely a major resource for her programming journey.
Clément Mihailescu Clément Mihailescu is a YouTuber and CEO of AlgoExport, who earned a software engineering position at Google after completing a coding bootcamp. He came to prominence as a YouTuber shortly after publishing his video "How I Learned to Code in 6 Months - And Got Into Google". While its true he earned his job without a CS degree, he earned a math degree from an Ivy League institution (UPenn). This was another fact that was left out of the video and the description in an attempt to appeal to a wider audience:

If you're wondering how to learn to code with zero experience, then my story will be enlightening. In May 2016, when I graduated from college, I had never written a line of code in my life. Roughly 6 months later, I got a job at Google as a Software Engineer. In this video, I dive into how exactly I learned to code in 6 months and then got into Google (what coding bootcamp I attended, what projects I did, etc.).

To Clement’s credit, he does elaborate more on his math background in a later video, which was a fantastic watch as a math enthusiast! His channel also includes more interesting content with career advice, and studying tips.
Since his time at Google, he founded AlgoExpert--a platform for learning computer science and system design fundamentals. The AlgoExpert team is staffed with programmers from some of the world's most prestigious and selective universities. This means he understands the value of a prestigious university background when hiring qualified developers, as does Google who most definitely took that into consideration when hiring him.
Bukola Bukola is another popular creator who is now a software engineer without a bootcamp nor CS degree.. In her video titled "How I Became A Software Engineer Without a Computer Science Degree or Bootcamp", she omits her alma mater where she earned her political science degree: Columbia University--another Ivy League institution. The info she links are resources I'd recommend for self taught developers, so I still recommend watching her video. Please understand that for applicants without a prestigious university attached to their resume, it will be far more arduous to ascend as quickly as Bukola did with her pedigree.
I still recommend watching Bukola's content since she also shares some fun Python automation projects, and shares personal financial advice. ---
Look out for videos or articles titled "without a bootcamp/cs degree." Ask the creator if they had any other university background. More often than not, large creators tend to have prestigious university backgrounds attached to their name. While it is possible for no names to make it, it is truly a rarity due to current hiring practices. It is still widely believed that candidates from prestigious universities have the intrinsic intellect to excel in any endeavor. I think there's a lot we all can learn from this phenomenon to instill realistic expectations, and produce stronger candidates. ---
Practical Advice: Now that we've analyzed a few content creators, here are some practical tips I've learned from some of my colleagues: 1. 6 week courses a decent introduction to a topic of interest. However, it's important to develop a deeper understanding of computer science fundamentals and engineering principles. Check out open course content from universities with strong computer science curriculums like MIT, UC Berkeley, Stanford, the list goes on. Here are some additional resources I recommend: * Head First Java Learning * Python O’Reilly 5th ed * Automate the Boring Stuff with Python * Algorithms 4th ed Sedgwick * The Algorithm Design Manual by Skiena * Clean Code by Robert C Martin. 2. There's a lot that the creators I've listed are doing right. Bukola publishes videos of her Python projects. Lydia publishes free technical content, and Clement created a company dedicated to helping other developers! Take note of their marketing strategies and how they discuss their work online. Think about how to reach a non technical audience, which includes most recruiters. There's a lot we can learn from Ivy League students about their work ethic!

1. Build a strong online presence. Share what you've learned. Blog about your projects on different platforms. If you're on LeetCode or CodeWars, write about your approach to your solutions.

If there are any self taught developers or boot camp graduates reading this, I'd love to hear your input as well. What are some additional tips you recommend? Thank you for reading.

Hey everyone!
Boone Software is looking for a Full Stack Engineer to join our lean remote team of software development professionals. We specialize in automation and efficiency, building customized software, web, and mobile app solutions for clients in a variety of industries.
The position is categorized as a 1099 contractor starting at $30-$45/hour depending on experience and available as either part- or full-time.
We are looking for developers experienced in:

• Vue.js, React.js, or other similar frontend frameworks
• TypeScript
• Node.js
• PostgreSQL
• CSS and styling experience
• Docker, containerization, and Sequelize.js a plus

The ideal candidate has the self-discipline to work remotely, attention to detail, excellent written and verbal communication skills, and a passion for problem-solving. EDIT: Because we're based in the United States, we prefer applicants to have a few hours timezone overlap with Central (-6 UTC) time.
If you're interested, please fill out an application here and submit your resume (and, optionally, your GitHub or StackOverflow links) to [[email protected]](mailto:[email protected]).
PLEASE DO NOT MESSAGE ME ON REDDIT TO APPLY.

I recently added a few pages at the end of my résumé to detail some big wins or forays into areas that are important to an employer.

Why?

Sometimes there just isn’t enough room on the to describe the full breadth of your accomplishments for a particular role (presumably your current one). Instead of completely reworking my résumé to overweight my current role, I think it’s best to add that to the end of the document and simply reference it as a bullet under your current role.

My Résumé

I use a bit of a different format for my résumé that seems to work well. Let’s walk through it.
Header – same across all pages. I don’t really like reading résumés that include the candidates full address, but if you want to be deliberate about noting your locale (for a non-local opportunity), I’d recommend simply City, State or City, Country. People reading your résumé do not need to know precisely where you live and they can potentially infer other things about your home address (long commute, may not be immediately available for hands-on for datacenter, etc.). Mine is simply Name, phone number, email address.
Relevant Skills Summary – this should be a listing of all of your relevant skills to a particular role. It is not necessarily very helpful to know that a candidate has years of Cisco experience and proficiency when applying for a web development role. This section should be very deliberately populated. I recommend having a template résumé where you have all of your skills and proficiencies available and trim it down for each role. This is way easier than writing it from scratch each time.
A non-technical person should be able to match up the requested skills/experience in a job description to a line or item on your résumé. Remember: a (typically) non-technical recruiter will need to be able to match things on your résumé to the job description to consider you for a role. Make it easy for them. (I’ve referred recruiters back to this section before because it answered some of the exact questions they were asking me.)
Format:
Category – Technology – Proficiency Level – Years Experience (last used)
Pic: https://imgur.com/a/t7m8UxQ (Skills matrix from my résumé)
Professional Experience / Accomplishments – this is where you list what you did. This should not read like a job description but more like an annual review: a list of accomplishments, time/money saved, collaboration efforts, etc. In general, do not just list things that you were responsible for.
Also, you should generally shorten the list of accomplishments for past roles the farther back in your work history you go. For example, I list seven items for my current job and for my first job, I only list four. You can even consider generalizing the position if it was early in your career (in direct contrast to my “do not just list things you were responsible for” rule above). You most likely will not be sized up for candidacy based on your earliest job duties or accomplishments.
I’m a strong believer in the bullets for each role being of the form: Action word + thing ( + reason/end goal) e.g. Secured remote access via iptables to prevent brute force or rogue ssh connection attempts.
Education – if you have a degree, you should usually list it since it can only help you. Hiring managers like folks from diverse backgrounds and even if your degree is in a non-relevant field, it shows that you have interest outside of the subject area for the job. That’s a good thing.
If you are early in your career, it should probably be early on in your résumé, but if you have more than, say, ten years of experience, I’d recommend moving it after your professional experience section. It is not nearly as important as your experience and accomplishments the farther you are in your career. An exception here would be a graduate degree in a relevant field.
Coursework – list any coursework or training you’ve completed (unless wildly irrelevant to your current field) and include any professional certificates, even if only tangentially relevant.
Other – I’m a fan of having a list of personal accomplishments that may make you more interesting of a candidate. For example, if you play a musical instrument, you can note that here (bonus if you have a cool performance you can reference e.g. Accomplished violinist – performed at local “Solo and Ensemble” competition 2012). Participated in any sort of physical endurance test or race? List that. This is also a great place to highlight any community involvement you may have.

The Boost

Talk to any car enthusiast who owns a vehicle with a turbo and they’ll gladly talk to you about boost. It refers to the increase in pressure to the engine which enables it produce a lot more power.
The boost here is adding a page or two of your other accomplishments either for your current role or a more recent role that you want to highlight, but not listed under those roles in the professional experience section. It is a great place to use buzzwords but you will need to describe what those mean with regards to what you did. Here are some suggestions.
Cloud - highlight something that you’ve done in a cloud environment that wasn’t simply clicking boxes or following a guide. If you spun up an EC2 instance or group of instances? What else did you do? This needs to read like a checklist of things you buttoned up, not like a free-form paragraph.
Automations – if you created any automations, list those and what they do. Extremely well though-out automations are great conversation pieces in an interview and can demonstrate a ton of understanding beyond the technical requirements for a particular thing. Automations can tie into business needs, and ultimately, if you can solve problems for the business, you are a huge asset to an organization.
Custom scripts/frameworks – did you patch together something from scratch to do something cool or useful? Detail it here and describe the use-case and how it worked. (Note: you don’t need to be a self-described scripting god or goddess to be able to talk about something you did here; it could even be copied and pasted from other scripts you found online).
APIs – if you have used the command-line to parse information from an API or used an API to perform bulk actions, you definitely want to describe it in your résumé. In my world, APIs exist to allow me to do things that I know I want to do that may be beyond the scope of what the actual website or application offers. In nearly all cases, I had to use an API to solve a problem that would have been largely untenable or impossible to do through the application or web interface.
---------------------
Just adding those last two pages has been a boon for callbacks recently. At worst, it allows hiring managers to see much more of what you are able to do in a particular role (and doesn’t make your professional experience section too wordy and long. I think this will greatly help someone with a decent amount of experience stand out from a crowd, especially if you can directly link it to some of the technologies and issues that the company lists in the job post. And bonus points if you can tie it to something that will help the company at that stage of growth (assuming they are growing).
Permalink: https://beyondthequeue.com/resume-boost-when-you-have-a-lot-to-say/

Hi,
I'm currently an engineer for a private cloud hosting company based out of the UK. My day to day tasks include helping to manage SANS, Virtual Hosts, Network equipment(firewalls, switches, etc), IAC tools such as ansible, and much more (your general infrastructe admin). As a linux guy - my long term passion and career ambitions are to focus in strictly automation/devops/CI/CD Pipeline areas. While I still get to do alot of that in my current role, I'm scared ive shot myself in the foot a little bit by showing skills in networking.
There was an immediate need for someone who could architect a good network solution for a new colo standup and i stepped in to help fill that need. Since then, I have been pushed more and more towards the network side of things and thats where most of my day to day is focused. Now as i stated before - network admin is not where i'd like to go long term but I do enjoy it. I am also being rewarded with raises and promotions as i help our team implement more up to date SDN technologies. A new offer has popped up within the company that would be beneficial to me financially but would again push me further into the network side of things
My fear is that as my day to day continues to focus more on networking that it is going to handicap my resume long term (aka in a few years when I go to look for that new job as an automation engineer they're going to say "this is the resume of a network admin").
​
What are you all's thoughts about being pidgeonholed like this even though it is benefitting me short term. Like i said i do not dislike networking but a network admin is not where i want to be long term. Have any of you ever been in a similiar situation? If so how did it work out.
This is also coming from someone who is really only 3 years into their IT career in the "real" it world. Prior to taking this job 3 years ago all my previous jobs were helpdesk.
​
TLDR; I'm scared my resume will show me more as a network admin than a devops guy.
​
Thoughts? Advice?

I am working with a Boston based DevOps consulting company that focuses on helping companies adopt the infrastructure as code mentality. They partner up with different clients for cloud buildouts and help them build velocity with their release cycles.
They are looking for a couple of DevOps engineers to help their customers build CI/CD pipelines that scale and allow their developers to focus on writing good code instead of troubleshooting deployment issues.
They have an office in Back Bay, but the role is 100% remote for now.
Requires Skills:

• 1 year of experience working with public clouds (AWS/Azure/GCP)
• Experience working with monitorings tools such as ServiceNow and Datadog
• Ability to write automation scripts

Interested in getting more DevOps experience under your belt, while working with different companies around the country? Send me a message or shoot me your resume to [email protected]

So a little back story, but not much: I was 100% a guitar player and music industry worker until I was 30, and I moved from NYC to Virginia at that point. There's no music industry in the suburbs of Washington, DC, so I did temp work.
Long story short, the guy who came to install my cable modem was impressed by my computer skills, and offered me a job. this was around 2000, when computer literate workers were hard to find, and I made a lot of money. But I've been parlaying that for the past 20 years and now I'm a highly respected engineer in the electronic security industry making 6 figures, which is a far cry from the $13 / hr I was making as a temp because I knew how to use excel.
Salient points: There are a lot of industries where the people who thrive have two skill sets: a) the ability to work hard as a laborer and b) technical ability. I'll list a few for your reference so you can look into them yourself, but I can tell you that talented people are in very short supply - mainly because people who know how to use computers are arrogant, and basic laborers are easy to find.
HVAC: requires engineering skill, but also requires a bit of welding, and working with your hands (this is something I'm going to repeat, a lot.) The workers who will rise to the top are the ones who can not only do the work but also program the automation systems.
Fire/Life Safety: Similar to HVAC but has a lot more conduit work and blends over into electrician (which is also a good trade.) You need to be detail oriented because lives are literally at stake when you're dealing with fire alarms and sprinklers. A lot to learn but a lot of opportunity.
Physical Security (my trade): This one is very interesting because it combines electrician, computenetworking, and basic labor (cable pulling, drilling, hardware installation) and locksmithing. I feel this has a very low barrier of entry and a very quick possibility of career advancement. Every single company that I know is desperate for new talent, and willing to train - including my company.
Telecommunication and structured cabling: This is the true entry level craft / data career. You're basically going to spend all your time pulling cable and terminating RJ-45, keystone jacks and punch panels. If you're efficient you can make good money, but there's not a lot of room fro growth unless you're a real go-getter who can make fast friends and worm your way into an IT gig. The good thing is that every project puts you in contact with an IT manager, so you have a lot of opportunities to do that. If you have a high CHA role, this might be your gig.
Cable/Telephone plant work: This is different than structured cabling which is generally contract construction work. This is more along the lines of getting a job as a cable guy or telephone guy. Most large systems hire contracting companies who hire out 1099 subcontractors. That's how I got started, see above! if you can find a company that will front you the money for the tools and let you do a ride-along for a couple weeks, you're basically getting free training and a decent job. and I can tell you, it's a hell of a lot better than 7-11.
but if you do end up 1099, LPT #2: PUT THAT TAX MONEY ASIDE! YOU WILL HAVE TO PAY IT!!!
TL:DR: There are IT/smarts based careers with very low barrier of entry, high demand, decent pay, and room to grow... if you're willing to get your hands dirty and put on a hard hat.
*EDIT Because so many of the comments are negative: We accept walk-ins. Every company I work with is open to new hires. You don't need a good resume to start at the bottom. and to the person who said I got lucky 20 years ago, it was a long story short. All he offered was a 2 week ride along for $300 bucks a week, and if I could manage it, I'd have to run routes my own as a subcontractor. All risk was on me, and all the pay was based on the work I got done. Zero hourly or salary. I've just spent the last 20 years busting my ass, worked my way up. There were a lot of hard times and long days. For a time I was working from 7am until 10pm 6 days a week. Nothing I said in this post is a get rich quick scheme. I'm just trying to make people aware that there are trades which encourage people with drive and some ability to start at the bottom and work their way up - and are actively looking for workers.
But hey, to each their own.

The University of Vermont (UVM) is looking for an experienced Linux systems engineer / administrator who can design and build reliable and secure Linux systems to solve complex problems; someone with the expertise and creativity to help improve IT at UVM. You'll be working within the Systems Architecture & Administration team, a community of highly skilled and energetic IT professionals working with the latest in server and storage technologies across multiple datacenters. We work collaboratively to understand and solve tough problems, to develop effective relationships with our clients, and to improve IT at UVM, positively affecting thousands of students, faculty, and staff.
The successful applicant will provide senior-level support for multiple large-scale physical and virtual server environments, operating continuously. We run a large VMware ESX infrastructure with petabytes of NVMe storage. Our systems support most aspects of server computing at UVM, including research, on-line learning, and administrative functions. We run much of our central infrastructure on Linux. We take pride in our ability to dive deep into the Linux stack. Experience with git, config management, and scripting in a Linux environment are required.
The University of Vermont, established in 1791, is located 90 miles south of Montreal between the Adirondack and Green Mountains on the shores of Lake Champlain. Burlington, Vermont, a city of 50,000, is consistently recognized for its quality of life, from four season outdoor recreation to cultural events.
UVM is a comprehensive research university comprising eight schools and colleges, and offers its employees competitive salaries, outstanding benefits including tuition remission, and a superior academic workplace.
Required Qualifications:

• Bachelor's degree in technology related field such as Computer Science, or equivalent level of knowledge, training, and experience is required.
• Expertise with Linux required.
• A thorough knowledge of operating systems and network architecture and expertise with at least one systems programming language (C, Python, Perl, Rust, etc...) and software version control. Experience with automation.
• Proven track record of building resilient services for large organizations.
• Excellent troubleshooting skills, including system and network debugging experience.
• Effective written and verbal communication skills and ability to work collaboratively.

Any of the following qualifications would strengthen your candidacy:

• At least 5 years of experience as a Linux Systems EngineeAdministrator working on diverse, large scale, complex systems.
• Configuration management experience.
• Experience running web single sign on solutions such as Shibboleth.
• Experience with vulnerability management tools.
• Expertise with large-scale filesystem and storage environments.
• VMware vSphere management expertise.
• Experience with security event correlation and reporting solutions, such as Splunk.
• Expertise managing multi-factor authentication services.
• Experience working at an academic institution.

We may hire at either a senior-level position or a mid-level position. For further information, or to apply with electronic application, resume, and cover letter, visit our website:
https://www.uvmjobs.com/postings/41107
Salary pay band is $61k - 115k. Position is budgeted at mid to high end of the pay band.
The University of Vermont is an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action Employer. Applications from women, veterans, individuals with disabilities and people from diverse racial, ethnic, and cultural backgrounds are encouraged.

For the past five years, I have been working as a cost engineer in a medium scale mechanical engineering organization in India. Most of such organizations, and even multinational companies, are usually based on the outskirts, or a little far from big cities, and that has been the case with this job as well. About an year ago, I decided that I need to move away from this job and find a new one, but upon some research and my own search for jobs, during the pandemic and also when the things started to open up, I felt that this is not a career I would like to continue in.
With some help and understanding what kind of a career I could go for, given my technical skills in engineering, I realized that data science and machine learning are careers I should excel at and eventually introduce and implement in the engineering industrh since automation is already on its way. This January, I started on my journey to learn data science fundamentals, build projects and eventually take a break to find internships and jobs.
I received a call from a job consultant today regarding an opportunity in a small town. The organization is big, a multinational company and I have the opportunity to improve my resume by leaps and bounds, and possibly find better opportunities in the same career in the future.
But I'm confused. My heart is set on data science, but I also need the money that this new job might pay considering that I eventually want to take a break. My current job woould do that for me as well but it would take me a longer time. I don't feel like committing myself to the same career though, even after realizing that the monetary benefit and the perks are going to be huge.
Need some help to reach a decision on this front.

I'm trying to tailor my resume for a specific job opening.
Resume: https://imgur.com/a/dX2Tzuu
Job Description:
Senior Manufacturing Engineer for a Medical Device Company
The Manufacturing Engineer is a key Operations representative within the Surgical Innovations team. As the Manufacturing Engineer, you will be required to drive projects including the purchase and installation of new equipment, implementing new tooling at suppliers, transferring products, and providing day to day support for production. You will be required to coordinate cross functional meetings, drive action items, create budgets, track capital spending, provide timelines, create validation plans, write reports, and submit Engineering Change request in Agile.
Day in the Life

• Contribute to continuous improvements in overall product cost and quality
• Participate in DFM / DFA activities assuring that production processes and equipment is taken into consideration
• Maintain documentation associated with manufacturing processes
• Provide technical support for production tools including applied automation
• Follow established guidelines and management direction with regards to engineering decisions
• Advise leadership of developments which may affect profit, schedule and costs
• Participate on projects to concurrently develop assembly methods, tooling, equipment and processes for new and existing products
• Partner with Manufacturing to develop lean principals to implement solutions for product assembly
• Develop and implement cost savings projects
• Provide and create validation strategies. IQ, OQ and PQ
• Create standardized work charts, work combination tables and process maps that result in an optimized production system and extended value stream
• Support project team members in achieving business including attainment of Safety, Quality, Service, project schedule and cost goals
• Follow established procedures to perform detailed, accurate, and compliant engineering documentation for Master Validation Plans, PFMEA, Equipment Installation, Characterization, Qualification and Validation activities
• Daily interaction with manufacturing providing hands-on support and responsibility for metrics such as labor time, lead-time, capability, and yield
• Provide detailed engineering analysis and documentation in the management of material disposition, process updates, ECR's and CAPA
• Support manufacturing implementation and facility transfer while providing technical support to receiving facility
• Complete on time project updates, project hours, development plans, self-assessments, and successful completion of all training requirements

Must Haves

• Bachelor's Degree and 4+ years of Engineering experience OR Advanced Degree and 2+ years of Engineering experience

Nice to Haves

• MS Engineering
• Strong Leadership and Project Management skills
• Strong communication and presentation skills
• Strong manufacturing process knowledge
• Strong understanding of finances for capital projects
• Knowledge of Lean and/or 6 Sigma
• Knowledge of Change Development Processes
• Knowledge of DFMEA and PFMEA
• Experience with PPAPs
• Knowledge of Cell Operating Systems (COS)
• Experience with AGILE
• Excellent organization, Planning, Computer skills, Technical writing, Communication and Presentation skills.
• Strong Interpersonal Skills
• Strong Computer skills (MS Office)

I’ve had a funky career path to becoming a Data Scientist, so I thought I’d share in case it was helpful to someone else.
My highest (and only) degree is a B.S. in Chemical Engineering. Using this degree, I was able to get a “technician” level job in a chemistry lab doing R&D and Process Engineering for a plastics startup. I worked this job for around 4 years, but the culture of the company was never going to allow me to get a promotion or work on projects I really enjoyed. The culture of the company also heavily emphasized things like Design of Experiments, Statistics, and Statistical Process Control, which I really enjoyed.
In general, I didn’t like working in a chemistry lab, and spent some time researching adjacent fields using the skills that I had. This is where I came across Data Science as an option. After going through dozens of job postings trying to determine the skills that I needed that I didn’t quite have, the only dealbreaker skill I was missing was Python (I had been using JMP for lab R&D stuff, but I’d recommend looking into it for any Data Science project, it’s the first piece of paid software I ask for not called Excel at a new job now). I spent several months on LinkedIn Learning (very affordable) consuming any Python and Data Science course I could.
Great, I have the requisite skills at this point and several years of experience on my resume. After months of searching while still working for the plastics startup, I land a job as a Research Scientist at a lithium-ion battery startup because of my cross-skills handling data and my laboratory experience. Originally, I was going to work 50/50 data/laboratory, but I spoiled my boss with access to insights he was never able to obtain before and it became 90/10 data/laboratory, and a lot of the lab stuff was I know how to operate an FTIR, run a pressurized gas line, or troubleshoot lab equipment that the fresh Master’s Degree employees did not.
Working for the battery startup as the only “data guy,” it was a mixed bag of Data Science, Data Engineering, Analytics, and some days Data Entry. There was no data (or IT) infrastructure, and I built out automated pipelines, generated reports in jupyter notebooks (and powerpoint), and answered some very interesting battery questions. I worked this job for almost 1 ½ years until Covid hit. A startup can’t afford to pay employees who can’t show up to a lab to work, New York State banned all “non-essential” work (a rant for another day) and I got laid off. My job could be done remotely, but the lab scientists’ responsibilities could not, and I supported their work.
So, in the midst of a pandemic and living in upstate NY (not exactly a Data Science boom area) I needed to find my second Data Science job. After 450 job applications in 6 months, targeting only remote jobs, I got around a dozen phone screens, 5 job interviews (including one where the CEO took the zoom session from her couch), and 1 job offer. For the past several months I have been a remote Data Scientist at a retailer on their Business Intelligence team. I don’t make six figures, but I’m doing very well for the cost of living in my city.
While I do have some interest in pursing a Master’s or PhD, I’m not sure the cost-benefit analysis really pans out at this point.
The tl;dr is that I broke into Data Science with a B.S. in Chemical Engineering by first learning statistics through a job, then teaching myself Python and finding the right company that needed my unique set of skills.

So I come from an IT background working in the legal field for the state and I have been invested in tech-related hobbies for as long as I can remember. In the past, I have done freelance work in graphic design and web design, but more on the WordPress side of web design. I have been looking for a way to transition from my current job into something in the software development field and at the beginning of quarantine, I started doing a lot of self-taught work with Javascript which I hadn't ever picked up despite having known HTML and CSS since I was much younger. I found myself getting easily overwhelmed the first time around because of all the information out there which ironically ended up making me feel like I would not be able to get to the level everyone else was at. I've been getting back into it hard again this time taking a look at python because it seems to be in just as much demand and it more friendly than js it seems. I'm wondering what steps would you take if you wanted to get a job as a QA engineetester and use that to get experience and hopefully aid in the learning process. Are there any specific courses or site that I can reference that will help me tailor my skills and my resume to land something entry-level. I know this was a long post so thank you in advance for any and all help.
​
Edit: I guess I should supplement this by saying that in my current position I do serve in a somewhat QA capacity by coordinating with both our attornies and support staff and working through the use of both our in-house case management system and the cloud evidence management system that we use and reporting and resolving issues with those developers. I didn't originally reference it because no part of my job involves automation or even writing a bug report, but I still felt that I should mention it just in case it could have some value.

Founded in 2015 this Boston-based cybersecurity start-up is looking for a Senior Site Reliability Engineer to join their team.
They created a platform that can replicate virtualized environments so that the internal security team can practice security tactics and hacking without interfering with their production environment. With their platform, companies can measure how their security systems respond under an actual, sustained attack.
Right now, they are looking to hire an engineer to manage their platform infrastructure and applications. They have their own private cloud and need someone with extensive experience with CI/CD pipelines, automation scripting, and distributed storage technologies.

Required Skills & Experience

· Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science
· Experience writing code (Java, Go, Shell, Python)
· Experience with VMWare
· Experience with distributed storage technologies like NFS and S3
· Strong understanding of infrastructure components (routers, load balancers, container systems, networks, and storage)
· Knowledge of Information Security or Cyber Security
· Experience with configuration management tools (Ansible, Chef, Puppet)
· Experience with Docker containers

Desired Skills & Experience

· Experience with AWS
· Experience with infrastructure as code (Terraform/Cloudformation)

The Offer

· Competitive Salary: Up to $165K/year, DOE
You will receive the following benefits:
· Medical Insurance & Health Savings Account (HSA)
· 401(k)
· Paid Sick Time Leave
· Pre-tax Commuter Benefit
· Equity options
· Paid Time Off
Applicants must be currently authorized to work in the United States on a full-time basis now and in the future.
Interested? Send me your resume to [[email protected]](mailto:[email protected])

Dear Mr. --------
I am excited to be applying for the Senior Systems Engineer position at XYZ Inc. As an engineer with 2 years of experience combined in quality and research engineering, I believe my experience in leading risk management activities and contributing to product requirements on complex instrumentation will allow me to contribute greatly to XYZ Inc as a systems engineer.
I am recognized for my ability to learn quickly, and for my intrinsic motivation to deliver high quality work. I have a proven track record of effective communication between varied functions including research and development, marketing, operations, and OEMs. By combining the strong carryover from my experience in quality to systems engineering and my learnings from the INCOSE Requirements training and Leading Scaled Agile Framework training, I will be able to perform highly effectively as a systems engineer.
I was originally drawn to XYZ Inc before my research engineering internship in 2018 by the exciting new research opportunities and market space unlocked by the innovative technology. Moreover, I was eager to apply my knowledge from so many of my interests like automation, imaging, and biology combined in one product. During my two years at XYZ Inc, my excitement in the company and products has only grown stronger.
Please find my resume attached, which further details my skills, experience, and qualifications. I look forward to further discussing with you how I can contribute to XYZ Inc’s goals as a systems engineer. Please contact me at your earliest convenience via email at [[email protected]]or by phone at (123)-456-7890.
Sincerely,
Billybob1138

The bar was a bit of a dump. Old, slightly dusty with dark wallpaper that clung halfheartedly to the walls where it had probably been plastered for the last 70 years or so. A few patches of paper had torn away, the result of beer or vodka or some other drink being spilt there; exposing the old durasteel wall behind it. The booth he sat in was old, the dull maroon colored vinyl fabric was laced with cracks and grooves of countless years. The table was worn, it's fake finish mostly worn away save for a few places not usually touched by customers while they ate one of four items on a menu that hadn't changed in 50 years. The Shining Light Bar, so named for a single chorded unshaded light that hung from the ceiling, the only real source of light in the bar besides an old jukebox in the corner and the dimly flickering neon of old signs. it was advertised as a place of respite from the hustle and bustle of the city. A place where everyone knew your name and your favorite spot was always open. If he was being honest that description made him want to laugh. The bars as a shitty hole in the wall, the kind of place you went to because you were too poor or too drunk to go anywhere else, just the kind of place he needed for his job.
He'd been here for over an hour, sitting in the corner nursing a now half filled glass of beer and appearing to read a book. To anyfur else he was just another one of the patrons, a tired fennec fox who was trying to get his drink on after a long day of work. Of course to someone who wasn't 'anyfur' he'd stick out like a sore thumb. For one he wasn't dressed quite like the others. The few other patrons in the bar (mostly foxes, weasels and an old otter) were clearly used to a harder walk of life than others in the city, their clothes and jackets were old patched and worn. His wasn't pristine by any stretch of the imagination, but compared to the others it was much nicer. Then there was his drink, unlike the other patrons who drained their glasses and quickly ordered another he'd had the same glass since he sat down. He made sure to sip from it on occasion, keeping up the appearance that he was just another patron when in reality it was just another layer to his cover. Besides, one drink for pretty piss poor beer wouldn't ruin his concentration, he'd surfed much tougher networks while drinking much stronger drinks. Lastly anyfur who gave him a hard enough look would be bound to notice his eyes. The book helped to mask his true intentions, just another layer to his disguise. But if anyone actually took the time to watch him they'd notice his eyes darting back and forth, much more often and much quicker than was needed to read a simple printed book.
He paused for a moment, his eyes coming To a stop as he brought the glass of, by now, warm beer to his muzzle for a drink. He didn't mind it's musty flavor, or the fact that it wasn't cold anymore. It was all a way to keep him grounded, a way to keep himself from slipping down the rabbit hole he was already toeing. Setting the glass back down on the table he resumed his efforts, numbers and symbols appearing in front of his vision as a kind of overlay to the world around him. Truth be told this place was perfect, quite, out of the way, the kind of place everyone knew about but only a few people went to. Just the kind of place he could set up and wait. That was something most freelancers in the city did wrong. They tended to think most problems could be solved by kicking in some door, shouting or waving a gun around and when necessary an old fashioned shootout. Shootouts made for good news stories on tv but lousy business. It was too easy for some banger to pull out a plasan rifle and shoot you through a wall, or else a smart targeting gun or implant that could simply tell him where to shoot to cause a ricochet that would kill you. And if you had someone unskilled with you then things just became downright impossible or as good as, making a shootout one of the worst things a freelancer could do in an unknown situation. Not to mention the rise in concealed and personal weapon implants meant that pretty much everyone was packing something nowadays.
That didn't mean he avoided guns, the P67 submachine pistol sitting in it's shoulder holster under his jacket was proof enough of that. But his method was slower, more methodical. Instead of kicking down physical doors he preferred to kick down virtual ones first. That's why he was here, in this lousy bar at 11:45pm on a thursday night, he was working. Taking another sip of beer he narrowed his eyes slightly. Getting into the bars' Old broadband network had been laughably easy. It had barely any security on it and still used the default passwords for the decade old router and model, meaning it was simply a matter of dropping a brute force bug into the system and waiting for it to churn through the 500 or so default passwords until it found the right one. When it had the wall of numbers of symbols that had filled his vision shattered and broke away, rearranging itself into patterns that allowed him to see what was connected to the network and if it could be manipulated in any way. He'd ignored most of the devices on the network, smart TVs, smart phones, smart appliances, ect. A few personal computers from the apartment building above the bar had piqued his interest, but he's resisted the urge to break into those. He had more important things to do. He'd combed through the system, looking at each device connected to it finally finding what he'd been looking for after half an hour of searching.
In the basement of the bar someone had set up a signal repeater and connected it to the network, allowing for the signal to be extended further than was usually possible for such a simple setup. That extended network was then through a new router which had been modified to produce a random IP address every 12 hours, making it nearly untraceable. Just the kind of network an up and coming street gang might find useful if they were trying to download and burn illegal bootlegs of the latest movies, pornos and virtual trips. In some ways he was impressed, someone in the gang obviously had a bit of technical know how. Otherwise they would not have been able to set up this shadow network. At the same time, just from the kind of security routines and firewalls they were using he could tell they were amateurs at best, probably less of a street 'gang' and more of a group of friends who fancied themselves 'ruffians' and were just trying to make a little extra money.
Taking another sip of beer he decided he'd been here long enough. He'd spent the last 30 minutes combing the shadow network, finding each device connected to it; three tower computers burning disks, a fourth tower that was doing all the downloading, and a few other random devices. His eyes flickered from side to side as he began his attack. Any freelancer could simply kick the door down, shoot the wannabes and smash the computers. But that would simply leave a trail of destruction right back to the freelancer. Instead he scanned the network, pulling up every connected device before going to work. First the computers that were burning the disks and chips. For those he dropped a spike, disabling the mechanic's component limiters. Each drive was capable of spinning at 10,000 RPMs, a few hacks to the code later and the speed increased ramping up to 100,000 in the span of a few seconds; each motor frying and burning out inside the computer casings. Next came the computer that was doing the downloads, for that he overclocked the CPU while at the same time disabling the temperature monitor, causing the computer to grow hotter and hotter until it's plastic components started to melt and turn to useless slag. Lastly came the router the entire shadow network ran off of, no need to do anything fancy with it. A quick executable later and a surge of power blew out it's circuitry, overloading the model and shutting it down for good.
He followed his pathway back, returning the part of his mind that had been doing the hacking to his body. In the bar no one was any the wiser to what he'd done, just as he liked it. Smiling to himself he picked up the half full glass of beer and drained it. Dropping a few chits on the table he stood up, stuffing the book he'd been using into his bag before slinging it over his shoulder and heading towards the exit. The wolf from behind the counter smiled at him, "come again anytime." He smiled at her, nodding even though he had no intention of ever returning. No need to be rude. Exiting the bar he paused for a moment, zipping up his jacket to protect himself against the cool night air. To others it was probably only mildly chilly, but to a fennec like him it may as well have been an extra 10 degrees colder. As he began to walk his ears twitched involuntarily, piquing and flicking to pick up on the ambient noise around him.
He kept his ears at attention, the acoustic analysis implant in his head scanning through the storm of sounds; searching for any signs of danger. It was unlikely true, but not impossible for someone to figure out it had been him that had wrecked their little operation. Afterall at least one of them had had some kind of technical experience, enough to set up the shadow network and link all the computers together in the first place. Walking down the sidewalk he did his best to blend into the crowd, a feat that wasn't easy since his ears stuck up a few inches above everyone he passed by. He'd learned this over the years. As odd as it sounded, after a job was done it was a good idea to stick around for a little while. Whenever something went wrong bad guys tended to spring into action, looking for anything suspicious or out of the ordinary. A fennec fox no one had seen before trying to flee the area would certainly count as such. So he bid his time, wandering the street and scanning the crowd, occasionally stopping at a window to look at the shop inside. As he paused to examine a handmade bag his implant tweaked, automatically adjusting his hearing so as to better hear a conversation that was happening between a weasel and a rabbit across the street behind him.
"Johnny says the computers are broke." "What happened?" "Don't know. Could be a power surge." "I told you we shoulda set up somewhere more stable."
I smiled to himself. So they'd found his handy work already, good. Indeed a moment or two later he watched in the glass as the weasel and rabbit took off, heading in the opposite direction he'd been headed. Good a time as any.
Straightening up he moved, making his way through the streets towards the parking garage he'd left his car in when he'd arrived. Dropping into the driverseat he started the engine, doing his best to look as if he was just another person on their way out to buy groceries or get some smokes and not like a freelancer driving away from the latest job. The further he got from the neighborhood the better he felt. No one was following him, or trying to stop him and a quick ping hack from his car's wireless receiver told him no drones or hacks had tailed him either. He was in the clear. Smiling to himself he tapped his phone, pulling up the number of the contact who had given him the contract.
Coming to a stop at a red light he waited, his eyes flickering upwards for a moment as a SWAT heavy response craft hovering above his car making it shake under the large craft's repulsors. After several seconds though the craft drifted up and away, giving him a view of the neon laced silver and glass skyscrapers that lined either sides of the street. He'd lived in Star City most of his life, only leaving it's limits a handful of times in recent memory. The last time-
But he was pulled from whatever thoughts he might have had when his phone connected the call and a stern but kind female voice spoke to him. "This is Deputy Aloe. Who is this?"
He chuckled. "Always so business like Aloe. Someday you'll answer with a nice pleasant 'Hi. how are you,'.
She chuckled at that, a dry but genuine sound. "Don't hold your breath Tesla. Jobs done?"
He nodded, more for himself than her before responding. "Computers are slagged, network is down and the Shining Light Bar can still serve crappy booze to its guests once again. No shootouts, no explosions, no dead bodies in the streets; just as requested."
Again Aloe chuckled. "You don't disappoint Tesla, sending the bits to your account. Pleasure doing business."
As the light turned green he spoke up, sensing the call nearing its end. "I don't suppose Star City PD has any other little jobs they want dealt with? Maybe bust up some smugglers like last week? Or plant some bugs like the week before?"
There was a pause for several seconds before Aloe spoke. "Nothing right now. Might have something next week. We're getting ready to raid some places, we'll need help with sweeps afterwards."
He nodded again to himself. He'd helped in a few after raid sweeps before, they were boring, usually pretty tedious too and just involved scanning former gang hideouts and strongholds for hidden networks or routers that standard PD procedures usually missed. "Maybe. I'm not that desperate for work though." He got no response from that. After several seconds he raised an eyebrow. "Something on your mind detective?"
When Aloe spoke next her voice was hesitant and uncertain. "You know… you get shit done. Your work is always clean. You never haggle or hit us up for more bits."
He shrugged. "We both know the PD is stretched thin. Call it a public service."
"You could do more, you know. Put those talents to use inside the law rather than in the legal grey. Y-"
This time it was his turn to laugh, seeing where the conversation was going. "Lemme stop you there detective. You can save the recruitment speech, I'm not interested."
Without missing a beat Aloe spoke over him. "Why not? You could do some real good in this city, instead of skulking around in the shadows and cleaning up dregs you could bust some real criminals."
Again he chuckled, half rolling his eyes. "Do you think I don't bust criminals with what I do?"
Aloe's voice became disapproving. "Killing them is not busting them."
He shrugged at her words. "That's for lawyers to decide afterwards. Look, I appreciate your appreciation but we both know I'm of more use to you like this. Besides, if I joined the PD I'd have to disclose my identity and my past. I may not have an entire rogue gallery like some of the more famous freelancers and crawlers, but I'm sure there are more than a few people who'd like to splice open my brain and watch me suffer. It's just better this way. Sides, I have a feeling the pay is better on this side of the law." As he spoke he glanced at his phone, noting a flashing indicator that his account had received the payment and was now 500 bits richer than it had been this morning. Not by a lot, but enough to make rent this month.
Pulling into his parking space and shutting off the engine he listened to Aloe sigh. "Alright, but if you change your mind I'll personally vouch for you."
He said his goodbye, ending the call before dropping his phone into his pocket and getting out of the car. He really could appreciate the deputy's efforts, she'd been after him for a little while now. Ever since he'd helped bust a drug ring selling Chrome on the streets spiked with a virus. But in the end three main factors kept him from joining. 1, the pay was lousy. 2, if he joined the PD he'd have to play by their rules and no matter how skilled he was, there were simply some things he could do as a freelancer that they as police officers couldn't do. And lastly, number 3, if he joined the PD he'd have to register his real name along with his past. He wasn't a famous freelancer, nowhere near the skill of some of the legends that lived in the city; Spyder, Sintex, P0G, or even Gam3guy. He was known however in smaller circles, in the groups of up and coming freelancers; all of whom were looking for a way to get a leg up. If he registered that info he'd spend the rest of his life looking over his shoulder, waiting for a scav or some ganger to sneak up behind to shank him, or some ganger to try and off him in the streets.
Climbing out of his car he paused, making sure he was alone in the lot before crossing it and moving inside his apartment building. Most freelancers wanted flashy places, places with polished synth-marble and fancy robotic butlers who opened the doors for you, not him. Those kinds of places were luxurious sure, but they also cost a level of privacy. If you lived there you did so partially for who you called neighbor; be they movie stars, billionaire Corporate CEOs or politicians. The Westbrook Deluxe apartments were much more his tastes. Officially the apartments offered all the modern conveniences an anthro could want; species accommodating beds and bathrooms, ample living spaces, high speed connectivity to the net and a happy and wholesome atmosphere. In reality only the last bit was true.
The species accommodating beds and bathrooms were practically a joke, he was pretty sure his unity had been built for equine or draco species; definitely one of the larger species. Although if he was being honest that just meant the bed he slept on was three times as big as he needed and his shower was the size of a walk-in closet. The 'ample living space' was also subjective at best. The apartments were more often than not on the smaller side, usually having only a bedroom, living room/dining room, a small corner that barely qualified as a kitchen, a bathroom and in his case an extra room that was probably meant as an extra large closet but that he used as an office. 'High speed connectivity' was secretly code for, 'we have one high-speed router that all 56 tenants will share'. The atmosphere was rather pleasant though, even as he walked up the front steps and pulled open one of the double doors someone called out to him, welcoming him back and asking how he was doing. He smiled, waving at the 20 something male racoon who waved back. Most of the tenants were teenagers or young adults attending the local university, or living on their own for the first time. A few of them were like him, people who dealt with the less savory side of the city and simply wished to keep a low profile. And some were older, having lived in this part of the city since it had been built in the late 120s.
This kind of a community suited him just fine. Those around him we're young and eager, each of them no doubt hoping to be the next big CEO or inventory of Web Crawler. Living here had even provided him with a few business opportunities, one reason why he always checked the building's bulletin board to see if anyone was having any kind of issues he could help resolve. The old board was a mess of the usual postings, notes asking if others wanted to come over for a party, or else advertising some lost or found item. One posting was for a moving sale, and still another asking if anyone would be willing to help the poster paint their apartment. He'd grown up in buildings like this, although the ones he'd been in had been much less friendly. Making his way to the elevator he smiled as the occupants of the vehicle began to file out, most of whom recognized and greeted him with a smile or a small "hey." He was grateful when he found that he was the only one riding the elevator up. Tapping the 11 button he sighed, leaning back against one of the elevator walls as it began to lift him to his floor. It was almost nine at night, meaning once he got home he had no intention of leaving until the next day. Mentally he picked his way through his fridge, deciding to have the leftover pasta and chicken he'd gotten from a street vendor two days ago. It was probably still good… probably. Maybe add a little hot sauce to it, it would be a decent enough dinner. Then he could relax with some TV, maybe take a hot shower and then actually get a decent nice sleep.
As the elevator came to a stop he stepped out, making his way down the familiar hallway and to the door marked by a glowing set of numbers, 27. He pressed his paw to the biopad, waiting for a moment as it scanned him before approving his entry and opening the door with a soft woosh. Stepping into his apartment, he watched as the lights flickered on automatically. He'd never been much of a decorator, preferring extreme function over astetical taste. As such, his apartment was a hodgepodge collection of furniture. A black vinyl couch that was big enough to double as a second bed, something the old tenant had left behind which he'd kept for its size and comfort. A tv stand made out of cheap synthetic wood that he'd fished out of a dumpster and sprayed liberally with disinfectant. His tv was 120 inches, not exactly something he'd brag about but the fact he'd gotten it for free; definitely. A coffee table from a thrift store and a few other odds and ends made up his living/dining room. Taking off his jacket he dropped it onto it's hook, making his way to the couch which he dropped into with a sigh. It felt good to be home, even better when he'd kicked off his shoes and holster, setting the latter down on the coffee table.
It felt good to have solved the problem without needing to pull his gun. Sinking back into the soft embrace of the couch he sighed again. Turning on the TV he groaned as the news kicked on, the familiar anchor a young and slim Boa Constrictor named James Garder was busy explaining how some kind of technical glitch in the city's Civilian Aug-Net had caused several public incidents when it had falsely reported a dozen or so civilian augments as failing around the city; causing emergency medical teams to be dispatched to the area to try and assist. He rolled his eyes at the report. The civilian Aug-Net was far from reliable, not surprising since the VI's monitoring it were decade out of date and the network itself was easily handling twice the capacity it was designed too.
Originally the system had been built as a kind of life alert for the budding augmented community. Anyone with any kind of augmentation; no matter how small or minor was implanted with a Biomonitoring chip which monitored their vitals as well as the interface between the organic and inorganic parts of their body. If something happened, causing a big enough spoke in the person's vitals then an emergency medical team was dispatched, with the system broadcasting the person's location, health and other important information having already been provided to the team. When it had first been brought on line it had been held up as a tool for good, a way for doctors to monitor their patients and keep them safe. Now though, 30+ years later the system was showing its age, with glitches and crashes being commonplace nearly everyday occurrences. Worse than that though, script slingers and web crawlers had breached the system security a few years back. Now anyone with decent enough skills or access to those with said skills could use the system to find anyone they were looking for; provided they knew the person's 17 character biosignature.
He'd disabled his connection to the network of course, more precisely he'd paid a script slingers the mask his signature. Most freelancers and grifters did so, the act actually being a small right of passage into the freelancer community. It removed a level of protection, but afforded them greater secrecy and anonymity; just another reason why their services were in such high demand. Officially they still existed in the network, their numbers still came up as active until they were reported as dead, but if anyone were to take a closer look they'd find that the biometric data never changed, always reporting as healthy with a moderate amount of physical activity but no other outlying markers; nondescript in practically every way.
He turned his attention away from the news, getting up from the couch and stretching for a second as he did so. He was tired, though it was more mental than physical; a side effect of the hacking he'd done earlier. Speaking of which, he should probably get in contact with his scriptslinger tomorrow and thank him for the viruses he'd used on this job. They'd made things much MUCH easier than they could have been. He'd never been the most skilled hacker in the world. He knew enough to breach security networks and systems. Sometimes he was even skilled enough to snag drones or other automated bots and take control of them for a time; but that was about it, and script writing had always been out of his league. Most security networks, at least higher tier security ones; used AI or VI integration. Meaning that an AI or VI monitored the system for any intrusions or unauthorized activity and once it detected something it would begin to learn and formulate ways of stopping it. Because of that the same hacks rarely worked twice so anyone looking to do some serious hacking had to have an array of hacks, cracks, viruses and deployable glitches up their sleeve, something he just didn't have the skill to make on his own. Pretty much anything more complex than modest systems and he needed a scriptslinger's help. Luckily he'd found one he liked after having been without a regular one for almost a year.
Groaning to himself he moved, stepping into the small space that passed for a kitchen and pulling open his fridge to browse the contents inside. Originally he'd planned to have the rest of the Chinese food he'd gotten last week, but now standing here the half eaten breakfast burrito he'd made yesterday seemed the better choice. Grabbing the breakfast burrito he dropped it onto a plate, tossing it in the microwave for a few seconds and watching as the obligatory 'please stand two steps back, unshielded augments may be damaged by microwaves' message played before the appliance kicked on and began to heat his food. In truth he wasn't really that hungry, but he needed to eat something or else his stomach would grumble and growl at him all night. As his food finished cooking he pulled it out, taking a bite and enjoying the pleasant albeit slightly dulled flavors; egg, chicken and potatoes, his favorite.
Soon enough the burrito was gone, giving him a nice warm feeling in his stomach as he yawned and stretched. Bed sounded like heaven right now, and so he turned off the TV with a quick command before heading to his bedroom. Stripping off his shirt he paused as he caught sight of his reflection in the mirror that hung on his wall. He was thin, maybe a tad bit thinner than other fennec foxes in the city. His fur was the standard shades of sand and creme at least along his hips and chest. His left arm was different though, not fur and flesh but instead silvery metal and black rubber in the shape of an arm. When he'd first gotten the cybernetic arm he'd resented it. All the doctors had told him it was a common emotion to feel, especially in those who had been augmented under less than ideal circumstances. At the time he'd wanted to snap the doctor's neck. 'less than ideal circumstances' that's what they called what had happened to him. In time though the feelings of resentment and anger had lessened, although they werent completely gone even now. It wasn't the cybernetic arm's fault, it had even saved his life a few times. Plus the enhanced strength and dexterity had proven useful in several situations.
Most of his body wasn't augmented. He still had his original legs, and internal organs (though his lungs were outfitted with the standard biofilters that everyone was implanted with at birth.) His eyes were still the original shade of blue they'd been when he'd been growing up. Above his right a few flecks of metallic silver glinted through his short fur, the biocircuitry all augmented individuals needed to interface with the machines and equipment necessary to keep their augments synced and in tune with their organic brains. His ears looked normal, or at least what passed for normal amongst fennec foxes, giving very little indications or clues about the augments inside them. Reaching back he ran his paw over his 'hair'. Anyone looking at him saw three thick black colored ponytails that hung down to midway between his shoulder blades, decorated with some kind of silver tipping. If they were to look closer however they'd notice the 'braid' in the strands was an industrial pattern and that the tips were not capped with decorations but instead silvery plugs which allowed him to connect to a much wider range of machinery and equipment than others.
Kicking off his jeans he pondered for a moment removing his briefs too and enjoying a nice sleep in the nude. In the end he decided against that, instead leaving the black and red garment on as he crawled into his usual place on his three sizes too big bed. Wiggling and squirming into place he waved his paw, a sensor in the headboard of his bed recognizing the gesture and turning off the lights in the bedroom as well as any others he'd left on in the apartment, plunging him into near darkness. Finally finding the right position he sighed, allowing the weight and softness of the blankets and the warmth of the bed to wash over him.

There have been a lot of anti-hiring-process rants in the last few weeks. It's true that hiring processes suck in a lot of places. It's also true that the market for inexperienced people is very competitive. But ranting about it isn't going to change anything and isn't going to make your job search easier. So this post is about understanding why some of the annoying, bad, and lazy parts of the hiring process are in place, and what you can do to overcome them.

There is no manual or training about how to make a successful DS hiring process.

Given how broad the term "data scientist" applies to different types of roles, finding the correct hiring components can require a significant amount of work and preparation, from designing or choosing problems, getting your recruiter up-to-speed on the correct filters to apply, and training your team to actually perform the interviews. Most hiring process problems exist because there is no incentive to spend the appropriate amount of time getting ready.
There are lots of ideas about how to do this well out there, but there are also trade-offs to any specific aspect. For example, there is lots of literature suggesting work-samples are the most predictive task a potential hire can do as part of the interview process. However, actually having candidates do these samples and then grading them is hugely expensive, not to mention coming up with good tasks is quite difficult. And it's well known that the filter this applies on candidates willing to do the tasks may bias the hiring pool in ways you might not like. So even building the correct hiring process for a given role has lots of trade-offs and requires lots of work.
On the other hand, it's easy to do things well-known companies are doing. It's pretty well known that leetcode-style tests are not super good indicators for data science skills, and might even be anti-predictive for certain roles. There might even be some goodish reasons why these tests are used at super large companies (i.e. it's easy to train 10k software engineers to give these types of interviews and get standardized results). However, most companies are only doing this because the larger companies are doing it, even if they would get better results from a process that doesn't scale. As they say, "Nobody ever got fired for copying Google." The same logic to applies to "behavioral" interviews that ask the cliche questions like "Tell me your greatest weakness." Somehow these interviews became common practice, even though nobody knows how to interpret the answers.
Also, most places don't train their interviewers at all. I think having people shadow more experienced interviews is a common practice, but formal training, even regarding legal issues, is not very widespread.

There are extreme levels of applicants for most data science roles.

Nearly 2M people graduate with bachelor's degrees in the US every year. (Sorry, this will be a US-centric post). Of those, at least 300k would qualify based on field of study for jobs in the data-science realm, and probably more like 500k. More than 800k receive Master's degrees and at least 150k are in fields relevant to DS. And just because someone doesn't have a degree that would be a stereotypical match for DS doesn't mean they're not qualified. It also doesn't mean they won't apply anyway.
It's not uncommon to get 1000+ applicants for a role. Anywhere from 0 - 500 of them could be qualified, depending on the role. My team just had a job listing that was open for 2 days and got 200 applicants. The listing was closed to keep the level of applications manageable.
Keep in mind that a hiring pipeline can be thought of just like any other funnel analysis with the objective of hiring the best qualified candidate at the lowest cost. This means putting low cost steps earlier in the funnel and focusing on high precision at the cost of recall and accuracy.
People reviewing this load of applications will do anything they can to increase their precision. Filtering on degree, school, GPA, etc. are just easy but defensible ways to throw out applications without reading them. If a recruiter can reduce 1000 down to 50 by requiring PhD or masters, that's still plenty of resumes to read and pass to the next layer.
Doing any form of technical screening is expensive because someone with a technical background needs to do it. That's why many companies are using automated technical screeners or having their recruiters asking questionnaires. Unfortunately, there are many applicants who cannot do even answer the most basic questions or write code to solve extremely problems, making these types of screens highly useful.

What can you do?

• Do your research on the hiring process at any company you are interviewing at. You should explicitly ask your contact what will be covered in the interview.
• Don't be afraid to ask to delay an interview to give you some time to prepare for unusual modules. Most companies aren't going to care if you need to wait a couple weeks. Most large companies aren't going to care if you want to wait a couple months.
• Don't sell yourself short when choosing jobs to apply to. The poor preparation for job listings works both for and against you. You may find yourself interviewed for a job you don't match the listing for and be a perfect fit.
• Don't take it personally if you fail an interview (especially if you thought it went well). Failing an interview doesn't mean you did badly in the interview, that you weren't qualified for the job, or that you're not a strong candidate. There's just too much randomness in most hiring processes to draw much of any conclusion.
• Do protect your own time. If some company asks you to commit your time to some interview tasks, make sure the value is there for you. Doing a data challenge before you've talked to a hiring manager might not be a great idea, because you're committing several hours before they've even done a basic assessment of you. Some companies will ask you to do an automated code challenge before a human has read your resume.
• Do make sure your resume stands out, especially if you only have a bachelor's going for entry-level jobs. In a crowd of hundreds, why is your resume the one that the recruiter is going to pick out?
• Do spend some time preparing for common interview types even if you think they're irrelevant. Yes, leetcode questions aren't that relevant to most people's jobs. But it does unlock a certain class of jobs for you and the return on doing some leetcode questions is pretty good if it helps you get a job.

End

I hope some people will find this helpful. I know that for people who are unemployed or just entering the workforce (especially now), that searching for jobs is especially stressful. But I hope understanding that it's much less of a judgment of you than it feels like will help take away a little bit of the stress of the process.

A hugely exciting artificial intelligence start up are looking to increase the capacity within their IT team with an enthusiastic and highly-skilled Engineer with a mixture of software development (Python) and cloud infrastructure experience (AWS or GCP).
This is the opportunity to work with a platform that combines artificial intelligence, machine learning and automated trading systems, in a role where you can observe your impact and profit directly from it. After recently securing their next round of seed funding, this is the chance to work in an work in an innovative and collaborative environment, as they look to build and develop their team.
At this moment in time, this will be a remote role, however you will ideally be based within a 1 hour commute of Central London, as once normal service is resumed, the role will be based in their vibrant office with beautiful panoramic views over the Thames.
Does this sound like something you'd be interested in? Apply now:
https://www.realtimeconsultants.co.uk/job?JobId=940933
For further information, please contact Kat Hall on 07917 352 705 or [[email protected]](mailto:[email protected]).

README

This post is long! “Entrepreneurs don’t have time…” -Yes, precisely:
I’d rather you have every piece of information at your disposal to skim, pick and choose from.
Less time wasted on the dead-end follow-ups if you’re informed well out of the gate.

SKIM THE REST

​

Background

I’m an ROI focused […] YIKES! My eyes can roll only so far back in their sockets! Platitudes EVERYWHERE! What marketer IS actively AGAINST ROI? - give me a break. So the rundown:

COMPETENCE:

Digital Marketing freelancer since 2017 - full time since 2018
In Marketing since 2014 ( 7+ years industry experience)
Former title: Associate/Mid-level SEO Specialist Digital Marketer.
4 years of employment with 2 raises.
Past clients’ industries include: Travel, Ecommerce, Personal Development ( Media, Events & Publishing), Tech, Fashion, Beauty, Entertainment (list not exhaustive - ask in DMs).
​
Portfolio Highlights: https://spreadfunnel.com/portfolio/
Yes, it’s an agency website - I was in the process of scaling beyond freelance into agency when the ‘Rona came around and put it on hold.
It’s not on my table now and not a potential distraction or conflict for freelance work. If anything: an indicator of a bargain deal potentially - your call though.
Also: I'm still waiting on testimonials from some of my past clients - you'll see some "please fill out" text on those for now - but I can show proof for each in private.
Resume (Linkedin): https://www.linkedin.com/in/rolandlorinczi

LOGISTICS:

Time zone: UTC +2:00 (EET) / UTC +3:00 (EEST) - DST
Working hours: 10AM-6PM - but I accommodate for meetings up to 8PM for overseas calls.
I typically use slack, email, zoom for communication & Asana for project management, but am comfortable with adopting each client's stack, per project/contract.

Skill set highlights

Main Strengths & most experience in SEO, CRO, CTR and Analytics with strong foundations as a well-rounded general practitioner across the board, with the following skillset highlights:
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) - OnPage & OffPage (/site): Advanced Keyword research, Technical SEO, Tracking setup, GA & Webmaster, Structured Data (schema), backlink profile management, Advanced Keyword research, Copy & Creative, extensive SEO tools experience.
Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO) & Click Through Rate optimization (CTR): Both in Copy & Creative across the board as well as UX/UI and technical aspects - utilizing behavior data (e.g. heatmaps), analytics, reputation management, product & offer design A/B & Multivariate testing - at scale.
Social Media Marketing (Organic, Paid Media & PPC): Strategy, Copy & Creative, Communications, analytics, Influencer collaborations
Content Marketing: SEO & Data foundations, Strong Photo, Video & Graphics editing background
Data Analytics: Market research, Data mining, Data Consolidation, Data Visualization, Data Analysis, Insights Presentations, Custom Analytics, UX Interaction design, Ad copy & campaign targeting
Strategy & Planning: Marketing Strategy, Data-driven decision-making & testing, Channel planning, Funnel management, Customer Journey Mapping, Tactics,
Database Marketing: Remarketing campaigns (facebook, google, youtube), Email Marketing, Marketing Automation, Dynamic Ads (for travel / retail)

Tools highlights

Google Analytics, Google Tag Manager, Google Keyword Planner, Screaming Frog, Majestic, SEMRush, MOZ, Ahrefs, Hotjar, Browserstack, ElasticEmail, mailchimp, ActiveCampaign, Drip, FB Ads manager, Zapier, Adobe Suite (Photoshop, Illustrator, Premiere Pro, After After Effects), Microsoft Office (Excel, Word...), VPN, FTP etc.

Languages

HTML, CSS, JavaScript, RegEx, XML, Schema, advanced excel functions, VBA

Objections & FAQs:

! Skim only (nobody reads FAQs…) see if there’s ONE for you.

“You are missing a skill, tool experience, Language I’m looking for”

Reach out regardless if you feel there’s an ~80% fit - I may have just omitted it for the sake of the post’s length or it may be similar enough to something I do have direct experience with to make the learning curve negligible. (In the language section that’s less likely.)And of course there’s always the chance that there are other ways to skin the same cat.
Of course if you KNOW you need someone who knows C++ to fix a bug in your software - or something else, differing from my skill set similarly to that example - obviously, I’m not your guy.

“I’m not sure if I can afford you”

You may be pleasantly surprised!
Since I live in eastern europe, due to the cost of living difference compared to typical western markets, I can price my services fairly competitively. Don’t talk yourself out of reaching out!
HOWEVER: Don’t expect eastern yesman / scammer prices either. This way neither of us waste our time in case you happen to be looking for low-skill work & bargain deals on work volume rather than quality or results.
Ballpark rate: $15-$25/h - typical rates of past projects broken down hourly. I prefer not setting contracts themselves by hourly rates - prone to cause distrust via it's build in incentives against both parties' interests. I still track and report my hours & tasks but rather price on a per Project basis: based on its assessment, required deliverables & results.
Retainer: Starting at $650/mo - for ongoing work contracts of more than a average project's 1-6 months duration, we can set a retainer - also based on the position's needs. Of course we can start with a 1-3 month trial contract to assess if we're a fit.

“Are you a team-player, freelancer?”

Love working with people & teams! And I have extensive experience at it too. Organizing events, creating & introducing new company processes, communicating insights & changes between departments - the whole shebang.
I work well with IT too - and yes, I AM proud of that. They ARE usually notoriously difficult to befriend & communicate with after all. Thankfully I speak their language though. And no: it’s not office pizza…

“I don’t understand your portfolio. Can you walk me through it?”

Certainly! Let’s schedule a call - I’m happy to walk you through my background in more detail & see if there’s more I can show you within your industry / niche, or projects where I gained transferable skills applicable to your project.

“How do you typically measure & communicate results?”

KPI measurements depend on the client’s goals, but typically in the past I have measured both Input & output metrics, effort & results. Main KPI’s for the business being Conversion Rate usually, I like to measure Qualified Leads as a baseline performance metric for marketing, ultimately with conversion rate being the basis for performance bonuses or commissions. (The exception is when there’s a serious bottleneck beyond marketing, being left unaddressed, hindering marketing performance.)
I analyze, report & explain the raw data, the results it constitutes and insights for decision making.
Also: I place a high importance on correct and granular attribution vs acting like any and all growth was due to my actions. It’s non-negotiably unethical in my view what seems quite commonplace in the industry, to embellish results. It’s not nearly as innocent as some marketers try to convince themselves it is.

“What would you do if you missed a deadline?”

Shit. Hey, sometimes life happens. I actually had a couple instances where a family health emergency had to take priority. But what I can tell you - as it’s probably clear from the way this post is structured: I over-communicate, not only around deadlines but indeed around all responsibilities and crucial information - be it good, or bad, openly & honestly so that we can navigate the challenges swiftly & effectively rather than ever letting anything fester, delaying, putting off difficult but necessary updates or changes. I usually make it a point to give accurate estimates with even a bit of buffer to mitigate such unpleasantries though - but I prefer acting with integrity in difficult situations when they inevitably - if rarely - do arise.

“Has a client ever ended a relationship abruptly – if so, why?”

With the exception of a few clients due to COVID-related challenges, beyond the scope & ability of marketing to resolve, not one client or employer ended any work relationships abruptly.
One client I had, I did end our relationship pretty abruptly with. I had ethical concerns. I don’t shy away from a little bit of semi-controversial grey-hat tactic utilization. But full on black-hat practices or indeed beyond marketing itself: unethical treatment of humans is something I do not tolerate. Happy to lose work and profit over staying away from such conduct (let alone aid their growth).

“What tools do you use (non-marketing; for freelance & admin)?”

I currently organize my meetings in my google calendar, projects in asana, messages on slack & email, meetings on Zoom (with alternatives as backup), contracts in Zoho Sign & accounting on Zoho Invoice. Payments via wire transfer (preferably), Stripe or PayPal.
I have used a variety of stacks for collaboration and project management though, so if your company has something up and running: chances are I can adapt and use your channels to seamlessly integrate with the team.

“What else are you passionate about outside work?”

I love to cook, play video games and binge-watch the latest & greatest with my SO. And the odd couple-workout is fun too (though with gyms closed, it’s been a while. And tabletop games with friends - miss that too).Then comes Marketing. Yes marketing. I’m passionate about my field outside of work just as much as during work.
I just about got around to start seriously executing on properly setting up and starting a youtube channel where I’m making content around marketing. I’ll be pouring most of my free time into that in 2021 (and likely beyond).
And the odd Counter-Strike match has been a constant since the 1.6 times in the 90s.

+ FINALLY: If you're seeing this...

and you're talking yourself out of reaching out thinking you may not be able to afford me, or I may lack experience in your specific micro-niche or [...] - STOP.Reach out. Let's talk. Got this far - shoot that shot.If we're not a match, I'm always happy to refer & give some advice.
For example: A guy was franchising mojito stands as a business opportunity and wanted SEO from me once. I told him nobody googles "mojito stand franchise equipment rental" & pointed him in the right direction. Gotta know when to say no.
If you skimmed / read ALL THIS and can't find something: REACH OUT for God's sake! Don't be a masochist...

Warning: this is a LONG read with no TL;DR footnote.
A little backstory for context. I spent five years at a retail company working in management after graduating from high school. This company was my life and I loved what I did. I wanted to dedicate my entire career to climbing as far as I could.
I'm heavily on the introverted side. When I associate in groups, I quickly get drained and find myself slipping off into the daydreaming realm while the rest of the group is engaged and there in the moment. To remedy this, I often have to slip away to the bathroom or a private place to snap myself out of it and come back to the present. It doesn't change me feeling exhausted, however. It's been like this since I could remember. When I am alone and in peace, my mind is refreshed and I feel like I can accomplish anything. But the moment I have to group up with more than 3-4 people, my energy depletes rapidly.
I am a very performance-driven person. I did delegate at my job, but I loved juggling as many tasks as I could, for it kept me busy and made me feel like I was adding real value to my organization. I would look for leaders on my team and allow them to take on extra tasks if they so chose - especially if my schedule was packed. I would also try to help them move up and find avenues for growth, so I was definitely focused on my team's performance and success, along with mine.
While trying to climb at said retail company, I was pulled aside by somebody two bosses above mine and told that "it's all about the people." He implied this is in a manner that was disapproving of me. I didn't understand what he meant at the time; I knew it wasn't good, but today, 6 years later, I know he didn't like that I was so driven and not a kiss-ass like most of his underlings were. I know he didn't like that I would dodge having casual conversation and instead focus on handling operations.
I was denied being moved up to a district level after years of backbreaking effort. At the time, I didn't understand how corporate politics worked, as I was just a young dumb kid hell-bent on busting through any obstacles that came across my way. The real world doesn't work like that, unfortunately, but what did I know? So I decided, in my anger and spite, to go back to school. I informed my boss that I was going to college, and he got angry and told me I'd have to step down, as management requires a wide-open schedule. So I did, and I resigned. Happily.
While spending some time in my courses, I decided I'd need to pick up a gig on the side to keep the bills paid. It was there, I believe, that I made the biggest mistake of my working career. I went to Indeed. A friend had told me about it, that it was the future of finding jobs and that going from business to business with tailored C.V.s and cover letters was a thing of the past.
"Just click the posting, upload your C.V., and repeat that with every listing you find until someone bites!," he said. So I did just that. I applied to everything I thought would interest me. And I got bites. A lot of bites. But they weren't high-quality bites. You see, I didn't have a degree. I didn't have any specialized experience other than retail customer service and management. From this, I got offers from a wide ranging of temp agencies in a varied amount of industries. I'd never worked with a temp before and I shouldn't have started.
At the beginning, I took the first offer that was given. It was a temp-to-hire assembly position in manufacturing (all positions I have worked are temp-to-hire). I thought, "Perfect. An easy gig while I crack down on my studies." But it wasn't easy. It was a very political environment. I kept my head down and focused on pumping out parts. My coworkers hated me. They claimed I was taking all the work and doing too much. They said if I kept working at an overload pace, we'd all run out of work and get sent home. I didn't listen.
I just wanted to do my job and go home. The owners loved me because I was getting product out the door and helping them bring in the $$, but I didn't work with them regularly. Of course they enjoyed that, but the people working around me didn't. It wasn't until they threatened to stab my tires in the parking lot, followed by my supervisor coming up and asking me why I was distant, I proceeded to get up, punch out and go home, never to come back.
I said to myself, "Okay. It must've just been a bad gig. They just needed bodies and brought in some barely-capable people. I'll find something else." So I found another temp job in manufacturing. Same thing. It was a tight-knit workplace. I tried to be friendly, say my hellos. Nobody wanted to give me the time of day. I told a guy "Gee, this place is a tough crowd." He said, "We have so many people come and go through here, nobody really wants to get to know the new guy anymore unless he sticks around for a while."
Well, after six months, I still found myself eating lunch in the cafeteria alone. Sometimes I could find an opportunity to socialize on the job, but nobody ever found my time enjoyable. I just couldn't crack into the friend circle there. So I left, feeling like an outcast.
At this point, I began to get frustrated and question my efforts. I also began to enter a dangerous cycle where I became hypercritical of every job I entered. Whenever I would start a new job, I would leave it as quickly as I began it. Every employer had a red flag that I didn't like: the pay, the schedule, time-off requests and PTO, benefits, the work environment, the attitude of the employees, the attitude of the supervisor, the type of products we were selling (I have a moral dilemma being involved in the production and sale of snake oil products), you name it. I became addicted to simply sending out resumes to 100 different job postings and accepting whatever sounded mildly appealing.
Fast-forward six years later. I have worked at over 30 different companies in production and service positions. Some of them I stayed at for 6 months to a year, a few I stayed at for 3-6 months, and the rest I've been at a week or less. I've only worked with a small handful of people that I've felt like I could connect with, and an even smaller number of them are saved as contacts in my phone, which I don't keep up with. I even had a position where I walked in, looked around, said "Yeah NOPE," and literally walked right back out.
I went to a friend's house for new years and we had some delicious food. Amidst our conversation, his sister asked me what I was doing for work. I told her I was between jobs. She said "Aren't you always between jobs?" The table got silent. I realized this was an elephant in the room that this family had been talking about when I wasn't around. Nobody came to my defense. Everyone - including my best friend, was waiting for me to explain myself. And when I did, his brother told me, "I just don't understand why you can't hold down a job like the rest of us." At this point, I became irate and told him that this conversation was making me feel uncomfortable and that I didn't want to have it anymore. My friend's girlfriend came out of the silence and said "Your people skills suck."
Since that dinner, I was offered a promotion at two different companies. When I would announce the news to my friend, his girlfriend would say the same thing: "I'm surprised they offered that to you, seeing that you don't like people and all." And both times she said it, I would get increasingly hostile toward her. But somewhere in her complaint, I think she had a point. Being so wrapped up in my head, being so fond of solitude, I think that maybe my skills have gotten rusty. But could there be more to it than that? Am I just too picky of my workplace? Am I in the wrong field?
I'm stuck in a dilemma. I always get made fun of when working the jobs that I do. People tell me I should be working in an office - not on the front lines or on a production floor. They say I'm too thin, or too analytical, too professional, or too stuck in my head. But an office gig has steep requirements and certifications, which I still don't meet. I'm too busy bouncing jobs to stay on a steady path toward my academic goals. School is still my top priority, but money gets in the way from time-to-time simply because I am not holding down any job long enough to work a consistent class schedule.
On top of this, one thing I have discovered in my plethora of jobs is that I can't stand repetition. Many of my positions have had me do the same thing all day, every day. And once I've mastered it, I begin to daydream, stagnate and grow frustrated. When I try to learn new things, other employees feel threatened and tell me to stay in my own lane. I have a hard time going to work and turning my brain off. I explain this to people. I tell them I want fulfillment and oftentimes they'll respond by saying, "Dude, it's a paycheck. Don't question what you're doing. Just be glad you're making money, do what they ask you to do and be happy with that."
I don't understand how people work the same job for decades on end, then retire happily. It's never resonated with me. One thing I discovered that I enjoyed about retail was that every day was different enough and offered different challenges that required some critical thinking and unique solutions. When helping a customer, like REALLY helping them, figure out how to finish a project and seeing the smile on their face, that made my day. And I enjoyed it - despite the nuances and daily gripes of the job. I felt fulfillment, but I have never found that fulfillment since trying all these other gigs.
It is becoming harder to find jobs, too. I don't list week-long positions on my C.V. I have had several jobs back-to-back that I've quit shortly after starting, and employers ask me why I have a gap at a certain time-frame from 4 years back. I have to make up spotty excuses like "I was taking classes," or "I did some traveling and took an adult break period." But those excuses can only go on for so long until eventually they throw the papers and ask, "Wtf is it with you, and what do you want out of your professional life?" I've certainly had some places get aggressive with me over my C.V. and drill me to the fine detail of every job, every gap.
I'm studying software engineering, which is not compatible with any of the gigs I've worked. It's more of a personal academic goal, because one day I hope to do some indie development or work for a larger studio. Where I live, we don't have a large industry for entertainment software (which is what I'm leaning toward), we have a massive industry for robotics and automation, which I don't have a large interest in.
My professional experiences, personal goals and future path are all cris-crossing and aren't in tune. I can't find a gig that brings me fulfillment because of my personality and future goals, and I've been burning through jobs faster than a wildfire. I've become an addict to temp positions on online job postings and am stuck in a vicious cycle of revolving door. It's messing with me psychologically. I can't tell you how many times I've been called the new guy. I can't tell you how many times I've started a job and have had to deal with being stuck outside the "friend circle," where nobody trusts me, everyone assumes me to be an idiot or a threat, etc. I just don't know what to do anymore.
If you made it this far, thanks for reading. :-)

Yesterday, there was a fascinating discussion sparked by this post about self taught developers (primarily the ones trying to matriculate into the industry after completing short courses). Most of these courses may have been courses recommended by tech influencers who achieved success by using these courses as a supplement.
As someone who currently works with developers without a college degree nor bootcamp experience at a large company, I'd like to further discuss this phenomenon. I'd love to analyze the effect specific public influencers had in the self-taught movement, how to cite some critical omissions in their anecdotes, and share additional resources and realistic tips for career changers or developers without a CS degree, or college degree. -- Lydia Hallie Lydia Hallie is a popular technical content creator who gained prominence in 2017 from an article titled Advice from a 19 Year Old Girl and Software Developer, along with her Instagram account, where she shares photos of herself with her laptop, followed by a learning outcome or a short project description. She marketed herself as a self taught/bootcamp JavaScript developer, which sparked the interest of millions of people, including aspiring developers who have not obtained a CS degree. In this article, she claims she started programming on her own at 15 years old:

This is when I started creating my own responsive layouts with the regular HTML, CSS and jQuery.

Lydia decided to enroll in a bootcamp to build her credibility and network. Moreover, Lydia proliferated the laptop selfie phenomenon on Instagram, where she posts selfies of her text editor describing her code snippets along with personal updates. Not only did her posts receive thousands upon thousands of likes and comments, this also inspired a developer community on Instagram, filled with developers eager to amass a following, and garner support from recruiters. Lydia's methodical approach to social media marketing for developers postured her as a friendly face who represents developers without a college degree. Because she appeared to acquire all this knowledge in what appears to be a short amount of time, and is able to travel around the world due to the flexibility independent contracting offers, people often cite her as inspiration for their career change, yearning for a similar lifestyle to her. What Lydia has not revealed publicly are when she really started programming, and where her interest in programming actually came from. In an interview with Dev Journey, she mentions she was introduced to programming at 9 years old. Her father, who works as a professional programmer had introduced her to it and helped her cultivate that skill. It was also mentioned in her HoneyPot documentary that her father is a professional programmer.
These points were left out of Lydia's platforms for years. Most of Lydia's followers do not have the resources she had to pursue programming through an alternative route. Her father was likely a major resource for her programming journey.
Clément Mihailescu Clément Mihailescu is a YouTuber and CEO of AlgoExport, who earned a software engineering position at Google after completing a coding bootcamp. He came to prominence as a YouTuber shortly after publishing his video "How I Learned to Code in 6 Months - And Got Into Google". While its true he earned his job without a CS degree, he earned a math degree from an Ivy League institution (UPenn). This was another fact that was left out of the video and the description in an attempt to appeal to a wider audience:

If you're wondering how to learn to code with zero experience, then my story will be enlightening. In May 2016, when I graduated from college, I had never written a line of code in my life. Roughly 6 months later, I got a job at Google as a Software Engineer. In this video, I dive into how exactly I learned to code in 6 months and then got into Google (what coding bootcamp I attended, what projects I did, etc.).

To Clement’s credit, he does elaborate more on his math background in a later video, which was a fantastic watch as a math enthusiast! His channel also includes more interesting content with career advice, and studying tips.
Since his time at Google, he founded AlgoExpert--a platform for learning computer science and system design fundamentals. The AlgoExpert team is staffed with programmers from some of the world's most prestigious and selective universities. This means he understands the value of a prestigious university background when hiring qualified developers, as does Google who most definitely took that into consideration when hiring him.
Bukola Bukola is another popular creator who is now a software engineer without a bootcamp nor CS degree.. In her video titled "How I Became A Software Engineer Without a Computer Science Degree or Bootcamp", she omits her alma mater where she earned her political science degree: Columbia University--another Ivy League institution. The info she links are resources I'd recommend for self taught developers, so I still recommend watching her video. Please understand that for applicants without a prestigious university attached to their resume, it will be far more arduous to ascend as quickly as Bukola did with her pedigree.
I still recommend watching Bukola's content since she also shares some fun Python automation projects, and shares personal financial advice. ---
Look out for videos or articles titled "without a bootcamp/cs degree." Ask the creator if they had any other university background. More often than not, large creators tend to have prestigious university backgrounds attached to their name. While it is possible for no names to make it, it is truly a rarity due to current hiring practices. It is still widely believed that candidates from prestigious universities have the intrinsic intellect to excel in any endeavor. I think there's a lot we all can learn from this phenomenon to instill realistic expectations, and produce stronger candidates. ---
Practical Advice: Now that we've analyzed a few content creators, here are some practical tips I've learned from some of my colleagues: 1. 6 week courses a decent introduction to a topic of interest. However, it's important to develop a deeper understanding of computer science fundamentals and engineering principles. Check out open course content from universities with strong computer science curriculums like MIT, UC Berkeley, Stanford, the list goes on. Here are some additional resources I recommend: * Head First Java Learning * Python O’Reilly 5th ed * Automate the Boring Stuff with Python * Algorithms 4th ed Sedgwick * The Algorithm Design Manual by Skiena * Clean Code by Robert C Martin. 2. There's a lot that the creators I've listed are doing right. Bukola publishes videos of her Python projects. Lydia publishes free technical content, and Clement created a company dedicated to helping other developers! Take note of their marketing strategies and how they discuss their work online. Think about how to reach a non technical audience, which includes most recruiters. There's a lot we can learn from Ivy League students about their work ethic!

1. Build a strong online presence. Share what you've learned. Blog about your projects on different platforms. If you're on LeetCode or CodeWars, write about your approach to your solutions.

If there are any self taught developers or boot camp graduates reading this, I'd love to hear your input as well. What are some additional tips you recommend? Thank you for reading.
Original

I posted this to my website and share it here in it's entirety
There seems to be a misconception about the power of networking and how far it can take you.
With few exceptions, a network connection DOES NOT mean a guaranteed job offer. It's not a magic wand that can be waved and result in you starting your new job on Monday.
Understanding this is important for two reasons:

• First, if you think all that matters is who you know, then you will not spend the time to beef up your educational achievements, hands-on skills, and/or peripheral skills such as writing or public speaking. Instead, you will only focus on meeting the "right" people and getting on their good side.
  
• Second, you will think it's "in the bag" once that connection passes your name along and won't put as much effort into acing the interview side of things and really showing them how you are the best candidate for the role.
  

Let's break this down:
In a vacuum, the better engineer will likely land the job. How each employer decides who is "better" will be a combination of many factors that we are not dealing with specifically in this post. Under these conditions, it is mostly a meritocracy. However, you have to realize it is only a meritocracy at the point that you are getting in front of the right person and putting forth your case to be the best candidate.
This is where networking comes into play.
Do you think . . . ?
. . . the employee knows where to find you? Perhaps if you go to a school where they recruit, but even this is not a solid option on which to depend.
. . . the employer will be proactive and dig into your resume to really see how you're a good fit for the role if that is not obvious from the details? Unlikely. They give your resume a quick look and quickly separate everyone into the maybe pile or the no pile.
. . . the employer cares about the random references you provide or the fact that someone they know put in a good word for you?
So while networking still DOES NOT GUARANTEE A JOB, it does give you a better chance of getting to the interview stage so that you can at least state your case to the employer.
Aside from simply getting in front of the right people and getting that chance, networking can also help you make it to the other side even though you (seemingly) fail to meet the job requirements.
Let's be frank, we all know that the requirements listed for a job are often a wish list of items they're hoping for in a candidate. Seeing this list, some viable candidates may be scared away and not even bother to apply. This is quite understandable as many applicants complain to me that the automated system weeds them out before they even have a chance. Networking can help you bypass the automated systems and have someone give your resume/candidacy some thought without the fear of automatic rejections because of minor "deficiencies" in the requirements because they know which ones are really required and which ones are just cherries on top.
I'm a huge proponent of using networking to get that opportunity and feel it is far superior to online applications. However, it is important to understand its limitations and be realistic in how it can and can not help you in your journey.
Feel free to reach out to me via PM or on LinkedIn to continue your networking journey and I'll help give you guidance where I can.

A /cscareerquestions College Survival Guide

With our final school year beginning, we were reflecting on how lost and confused we were when we first started university. We made a lot of mistakes (still am) along the way, but we’re in a much better place after learning from them and constantly putting ourselves out there. In hopes of shining some light and helping others, we decided to make a comprehensive guide for university students – based on our knowledge/experiences - on how to start your successful CS Career (or gain the wisdom to avoid CS altogether, more on this later).
rishiss Background: I am a 4th year student at UC Irvine majoring in Software Engineering. I am an incoming Software Engineer at a F100 company (received return offer after interning this summer). Before that, I interned at an R & D center for space, a small cloud company, and a small IT company. I have a 3.65 GPA, won a few awards at startup competitions/hackathons, and remain pretty active in my schools CS organizations.
chaitu65c Background: I’m a 4th year student at UC Irvine majoring in Computer Science. I’m currently a SWE Intern at a Unicorn and just wrapped up my 2nd internship at a Live Streaming Company(you can most likely tell who they are if you browse my history LOL). Before this, I interned at my school’s IT department, did research under a professor, and worked on a few small startups that other UCI students were building. I have a 3.3 GPA, won some awards along rishiss and was pretty active in my school’s CS clubs.
Disclaimer: “But rishiss/ and chaitu65c, you don’t work at a Big N, go to a target CS school, why should I take your advice?” You’re absolutely right; we are, by no means, ‘up there’ like some other folks on this sub. And, you don’t have to take our advice! Simply close this tab and do whatever else you want 😊. Our intent is to guide and prepare uni students for a CS career they enjoy, not work at Big N or get the highest TC. Life is much more than a dick-measuring contest, and the earlier you learn that the better.
We have also created a guide with our own personal advice/stories

Please, take this advice with a grain of salt. we’re not Tony Robinson or Tim Apple, we’re just two random reddit users.

Table of Contents:

This guide is divided into the following sections:

• Is CS Right For Me?
• Classes
• Projects
• Hackathons
• Resume
• Friends and Networking
• Freshman Year
• Sophomore Year
• Junior Year
• Senior Year
• Searching for Internships
• Searching for Full Time Jobs
• Final Thoughts

Is CS Right For Me?

The way we see it, there’s 3 types of people pursuing CS.

1. Those who know CS isn’t for them – They’re in it for the money, to appease their parents, for a minorequirement, some external factor. They hated programming while taking the introductory CS course and just try to get done with their class/degree ASAP.

Advice: The majority of people who fall under this usually burn out quickly, as they aren’t motivated enough to learn the material and to apply themselves. This usually leads to them cheating and getting kicked out of their major, minor, or university altogether. Even if you manage to earn a degree, we've seen a large number of these folks endure a 'pre-mature' mid-life crisis or simply get fired from their jobs. Before you even start this major, you should definitely understand that this isn’t going to be easy, and you do have to put in a lot of effort to succeed. If this isn’t your cup of tea, definitely look into switching into another major you like.
Some folks are really passionate about technology, but don't want to pursue an entire Computer Science major or see themselves as Software Engineers. That's completely ok! Try looking into related majors or minors. We know many students who switched from CS to majors like Informatics, Business Information Management, and Economics and are thriving in tech-related roles like Data Analytics, Product Management, UI/UX Design, and Technical Recruiting. CS is not (and should not be) for everyone, and there is no shame in having the wisdom quit and move on.

1. Those who don’t know if CS is for them – Where most of the CS community is IMO. These folks (like me, rishiss) are riddled with something called Imposter Syndrome: “the constant feeling of not being good enough or knowing enough to do your job well.”

Advice: For students, really take the time to learn and be open to anything you go through. Try sticking it out until you've taken a Data Structures course, one of the harder, more important courses out there. If you're not understanding the material or just aren't having fun with it, it’s definitely ok to switch majors/careers. Otherwise, CS just might be the career for you! Give it your best shot!
Admittedly, it's hard to provide stronger insight to overcoming Imposter Syndrome, as I am afflicted by it as well. For me, my IS derives from constantly comparing myself to others and confusing inexperience with incompetency. As such, I continue to work and focus on myself and take baby steps towards smaller goals I set out for myself. Knowing that I've put the effort to improve myself by just 1% everyday has made me a lot more confident.

1. Those who know for a fact CS is for them – The diamonds in the rough. Learning and practicing CS material gives them a euphoric high.

Advice: Broaden your scope and learn new areas of CS! Who knows, you might find another new field that you really want to work in. Other than that, definitely make new friends regardless of whether they’re a CS major or not. Even try pursuing other hobbies like weightlifting, reading, dancing, or even public speaking. Don't limit yourself!

Freshman Year

We recommend not taking more than 3-4 classes in your first quartesemester, as you shouold keep an ample amount of time to go to professional/social events, make new friends and hang out with them, and pursue your interests.
We've seen a lot of freshmen (and upperclassmen) CS folks get cooped up in their dorm rooms playing video games and watching TV. We understand that these two are a passion for many, but please be cautious to not get consumed by them.
You have the privilege of pursuing higher education, making valuable connections/memories, and setting up your CS career in the trajectory you want. This year is the best year to take advantage of all that university has to offer; make the most of it.
One of the best ways to get involved in your school’s/region’s CS community is by joining clubs like ACM and WICS and participating in hackathons (see ‘Hackathon’ section below). Try pursuing internships and positions in these organizations and events as well!
One, major issue we see with freshmen (even upperclassmen) is their ignorance on all the avenues available in the CS Industry. So we’ve tried to narrow it down (not exhaustive).

1. Cyber Security Engineer
2. Front-End Web Developer
3. Backend Web Developer
4. UI/UX Designer
5. DevOps/Cloud/Site-Reliability Engineers
6. Mobile Engineer
7. QA Engineer
8. Product Manager
9. Data Scientist (Machine Learning/AI)
10. Embedded Software Engineer
11. Systems Administrator
12. Database Administrator (The Wizards)
13. Networking Engineer
14. Hardware Engineer
15. OS Developer
16. Video Game Developer
17. Solutions Architect/Sales EngineeTechnical Account Manager

As a freshman, definitely take the time and see if you can picture yourself doing any of the listed fields. You should open yourself to all facets of CS and not just the “hot field” like Data Science and Machine Learning. Choosing a field because it’s “exciting” will usually lead to bad results as usually, other people are thinking just like you and will lead to over-saturation.
Our recommendation is to select the top 5 fields that have piqued your interest and experiment with the field. For example, if you are interested in Mobile App Development, try learning how to build an Android app from the ground up. A simple weather app or alarm clock is completely suitable for a first project/prototype. This lets you understand what skills you would need for this field and can serve as a forecast as to what your career would look like.
You should definitely look for an internship. Ignore the people that tell you to wait until you’re a junior, as it’s going to be very hard to get an internship if you don’t have any experience. Common places that most students don’t realize are available are usually IT departments at your school and even research with professors. Researching is highly recommended as you can definitely learn more about a field you can be interested in and if you’re interested in graduate school, that’s going to be a letter of recommendation that you can ask for.
If you’re considered a minority in Computer Science, look into first and second year internship programs as they’re meant to help you succeed. Here’s some programs that come to mind:
Google STEP
Microsoft Explore
Amazon Future Engineer
Uber STARInternhip
Facebook University
Another way to get internships is to research into smaller companies in your area. If the company is very small (<100 employees), consider reaching out to the CEO on LinkedIn. They might be able to help you! Also, take advantage of university recruiting websites like Handshake to see companies that directly hire from your school. More info on how to get an internship in the ‘Searching for an Internship’ section.

Sophomore Year

Now that you have basic programming knowledge, create your own website or GitHub account and start contributing to them with small personal projects. Nobody expects you to make a full-stack MERN project hosted and scaled on AWS at this stage. Focus instead on clean code, learning a framework or two on a language you like, and creating a small, robust feature. Grow from there!
If you weren’t able to find an internship/research opportunity as a freshman, community involvement, projects, and hackathons become especially important, as they are a great way to make you stand out on your resume and to recruiters when you reapply. As you brush up on your skills, apply again, and try your luck out.

Data Structures and Algorithms

In addition, you are most likely to take a Data Structures and Algorithms course this year. Make sure you are focusing on this class and writing good notes; you will need this knowledge when interviewing for internships and full-time jobs in the near future. Here is a link to our DS and A course (in C++) for reference

Junior Year

As a junior, companies are more willing to hire you for an internship, as they are likely to convert you into a full-time employee after graduating. This transition process is much easier than interviewing, and they'll usually offer you a higher compensation package if they want to convert you to a full-time employee. As you now should have knowledge of Data Structures and Algorithms, we highly recommend looking into coding interview prep sites like LeetCode and HackerRank or purchasing a prep book like CTCI or EPI (advanced).
Continue to attend hackathons, remain active in clubs/organizations, and grow your portfolio.
Classes will be much harder; expect the time for completing projects to double and the content covered to be much more difficult. We recommend taking no more than 2-3 upper-division CS courses and balancing your load with 1-2 GE classes. You should not be taking more than 16 units (assuming 4 units per course).
Start to get an idea of what field in CS you would like to pursue. Research what it takes to be successful in that field. You can do so by looking up job postings with that title on LinkedIn and looking at the requested skill set or take a look at Roadmap.sh. If you want to learn more about a related skill set and your school doesn't offer a course, consider picking up a class on udemy.com.

Senior Year

Focus heavily on your senior capstone, project classes, etc. as they're the last thing you can put on your resume before applying for full time. By now, you should have at least 3 polished, working projects on your GitHub that you can easily talk about with your recruiter. Preferably, they're aligned with the CS field you wish to enter.
If you were able to get a return offer from an internship, congrats! However, don’t immediately sign the offer. Once you have an offer, you should still try to interview at companies that you’re interested in by the deadline of the time to accept the offer. A good way of doing this is to reach out to a University recruiter for that company and explain the deadline you have. Usually, they’re really helpful and can potentially help skip interviews that you were supposed to do!
In addition, if your friends were able to intern at places you’re interested in, definitely ask for a referral or to send your resume to their recruiter. This usually reduces the risk of being ghosted by that company and increases your chances of getting hired!
Once you finally sign, definitely take the time to relax and enjoy. Just make sure you pass your classes and stay out of trouble

Classes:

What Classes should I take?

Should Already be Required:

• Programming in Java/C++/Python (OOP): This is how you’re gonna start coding.
• Boolean Algebra/Discrete Math: Teaches you some background knowledge to CS.
• Data Structures and Algorithms: Teaches you some ways data is stored and retrieved. Very important as you’re going to be using them a lot.
• Low Level Programming /C: Teaches you what coding used to be like in the old days.
• Computer Architecture: You learn what makes a computer a computer including things like logic gates, registers, memory, and more.

Must Take:

• Computer Networks: Highly recommended as it helps you understand Web protocols like HTTP, TCP, UDP, etc.
• Operating Systems/UNIX: Most important class. Teaches you important things such as the kernel, Threads vs Processes and Process Schedulers.
• Databases/SQL: It’s very likely that your job as a software engineer will be to interact with databases. It’s really good to understand what they are before you enter the industry.
• Programming Languages: Teaches you trade offs between languages like C and Python. It definitely helps when you need to pick up brand new languages!

Good to Have

• Full-stack web dev (pref MERN stack, our school offered both LAMP and MERN)
• Very deep understanding of at least one language. (You’ll be surprised to learn how many students who graduate fail to do this)/
• SemesteYear-Long Capstone course (pref working with a company) if your school supports it: an internship where you get school credits instead of money.
• Compilers: Teaches you how programming languages are implemented 'under the hood.'
• Human Computer Interaction: If you weren’t able to learn Full-stack web dev.

How do I succeed in these classes?

rishiss: You’re more than likely coughing up hundreds, if not thousands, to attend university. It makes no sense to not take full advantage of the course and course staff.

• Do the readings beforehand – Dr. K explains how studying before class is an OP mechanic, also highly recommend this video on how to study by him as well
• Attend EVERY lecture, sit at the front of the class – I’ve seen a metric fuck ton of students in the back of the class with their laptops shopping, trading stocks, scrolling through Reddit, even watching lesbian hentai. By sitting in the front of the class, you’re forced to stay engaged (and close your porn tabs).
• Take notes– People have many, different ways of taking notes; stick with what works for you.

The way I take notes: I learn from examples; I want to enter my code into the IDE to see what happens. I do a three way split; Google Docs on the left, IDE on top right and terminal (to compile, see output, make new file, etc) on bottom left. I note down the date and topic of the lecture and write questions I have in the comments on Docs. I make sure to highlight important information and possible test questions. I even share the link with friends!
​

• Make a study guide, even though the professor does not give you one – Using my Google Docs notes, I compile the highlighted information into a summarized study guide. It’s a fantastic review tool. I’ve even shared the study guide with professors/classmates and gotten their feedback and extra information.
• Go to office hours and become close with 1-2 professors – Some jobs and most masters/PHD programs require letters of recommendation. While you could get reccs from your work, its great to get a letter from someone in academia, especially if they’re established in the field you are pursuing. Get your ass to office hours and show professors that you are curious and motivated by asking questions about assignments, career, or even personal interests. They provide a cornucopia of opportunities, including research, letters of recc, or even the opportunity to pursue a PHD under them.
• Make friends! - Classes are a great way to meet new people with similar interests and expand your professional network. They can especially be a saving graves if you miss a class, don't understand a topic, and need motivation to prepare for an exam. Don't be afraid to say hello!
• START EARLY ON ASSIGNMENTS – I can’t count the number of times starting an assignment early saved my ass. Starting early gives you time to deal with the unexpected: the family emergencies, the late night hangout with friends, the memory leak on line 74. Procrastination is like playing Russian Roulette with your CS career, don’t take the chance. A helpful video on procrastination

In the quarters where I followed the steps above, I never got a grade lower than an A-.

Dealing with Bad Professors

During your time in college, you’re likely going to have at least one bad professor that might make it worse if you have to go to class. If that’s the case, it’s definitely fine to not go to class (as long as it’s not mandatory). However, if you do decide not to go, you must make sure you learn the material, so you won’t be behind on the coursework and studying for tests. In addition, you should be doing something productive on the side. If you don’t go to class and spend the time watching Netflix or playing video games, you’re losing time that you can spend on something that might be fun and can help you in the long run.

You can take Graduate Courses!?

chaitu65c: A highly underutilized set of courses you can take would be graduate courses. Graduate courses are usually very specialized in certain fields. If you were able to take all the undergraduate courses you wanted and still have spare classes to fill out, I'd recommend researching into taking Graduate courses! They’re a good way to build out your specialization and learn new, cool stuff! In addition, if you’re looking for classes to reach the required number of CS courses needed, your CS department might allow you to make the course count towards your degree!

Projects

They're super important.

How do I succeed in class projects?

• Reading the Project Requirements: Before starting to code, read the requirements and understand what you need to do in order to finish. Too many students ask for help that can easily be found in the requirements which wastes the student’s time.
• Learn to Debug: Learning how to debug saves you countless hours trying to read through code you might not understand.
• Learn to write Clean Code: With this and being able to debug, you’re going to be able to write very efficient code and to debug issues easily, thus not making you only successful in lab assignments, but also making you a better programmer.
• Plan your work out: This allows you to simplify the logic you are writing and this usually leads to clean code.
• Ask for help: If you ever get stuck on something and no matter how much you Google and you can’t figure it out, ask for help. It’s definitely fine to ask for help and is HIGHLY recommended you do so. Take advantage of the lab tutors and TA’s either through in person or Piazza/Canvas; they’re there to help you.
• Draw Pictures: If your project involves multiple things (AWS, Databases, Servers, etc), it’s definitely a good idea to draw a picture that shows you each thing interacts with and how it comes together. This is important especially when you enter the industry and build software for companies.

Personal Projects and your CS Career

rishiss: Projects are your saving grace, especially if you are lacking work experience. They show technical aptitude, willingness to take initiative, and leadership. I’ve seen people with only projects on their resume get positions at the Big N. Projects are good ways to expand your knowledge of CS as the possibilities are endless! It is best to have a variety of projects dealing with a variety of technologies. As such, you can open yourself up to more positions and have more talking points during the interview.
I tend to edit the ‘Project’ Section of my resume with relevant projects and technologies. For instance, if I made a full stack web application and applied to a DevOps organization, I would highlight my AWS, CI/CD, and Terraform experiences more than my React/Node js work.
It is recommend the project is about something that motivates you and are passionate about e.g. video games, movies, books, sports, etc., as it is very easy to give up half way due to stress or lack of motivation/interest.
Like anything else in Computer Science, projects require you to break it down into smaller pieces. Start with the end in mind and draw out the intended architecture/functionalities. Start with what you know and research on the parts you don't know after that. You will be using these skills often in industry for any project/feature planning.
Spending 15-30 minutes a day is all you need to make a successful personal project. Don't make excuses and get coding!

Open Source Contributions

If you’ve ever noticed popular github repositories such as torvalds/linux, these are repositories where people from all over the world can report issues with it and someone can fix it. If you are able to make a contribution to a huge open source repository, it looks really good on your resume.

Hackathons

What are Hackathons?

Hackathons are large scale coding events, where students from around the area come together and collaborate - usually in teams of 4 (but you can go solo or with a partner!) - to build some software. Companies like Amazon, Northrop Grumman, Google, and Twilio sponsor awards related to best use of their technology. After 24 - 48 hours of intensive coding, participants submit their projects, whether it be an Android video game, Chrome Extension, productivity web app, etc. Submissions are shared with the companies and other hackathon organizers, where they select the best projects and award teams with swag like keyboards, gift cards, and even summer internships at their company.
Participating in hackathons are one of the best ways to hone your coding skills, network with companies and other students, and get free comfy T-shirts. It is also one of the best ways to gain industry knowledge, as representatives from these companies and hackathon organizers create numerous workshops and answer any questions you may have. Winning awards at these hackathons are also great resume boosters and talking points during interviews.
The biggest hackathon organizer is Major League Hacking. Visit their website, and you can see all the hackathons (remote or local) they are partnered with. Make to be on the lookout for application release dates from the hackathons and apply early.
With Covid, you may miss out on the free goodies and the in-person networking with students and professionals. However, most hackathons are accepting many more applicants due to it being virtual/remote this year.

What Should I Do At Hacakathons?

Take advantage of the resources available at hackathons. You’re attending a mini CS conference and should be, besides coding, networking with professionals, learning about the different companies, attending workshops, asking technical/non-technical questions to mentors, and getting as much free shit as you can get. Besides T-Shirts, companies give out vouchers to their services, applications to their internship and full-time positions, pillows, notebooks, water bottles, sweaters, and even backpacks.
If you’re looking to get an award, judges at hackathons care a lot about the pitch and the idea rather than the actual execution of the idea. Having an idea beforehand is also helpful, so you can spend your time focusing on the MVP.

Friends and Networking

chaitu65c: I think it’s definitely useful if you have two different friend groups: One dedicated to career and Non-Career Group.
Career Group - When making a friend group dedicated to career, try to be the dumbest person in the group, you’re definitely going to learn a lot from them as you soak up knowledge! Best ways of meeting friends who are career-driven can be through major specific orientation (actually how I met rishiss), courses, major related clubs, etc.
Non-Career Group - While having a group that motivates you for your career is important, it’s also important to have another friend group that can help you relax and to enjoy your time! A really good way to find these friend groups can be anywhere from your hall to General Education courses, social clubs like Circle K, fraternities/ sororities(if that’s your cup of tea) and others!
This is what has worked for us; no need to follow this exact format.

Resume

rishiss: Here are the few take-aways on writing a resume that gets through the ATS.

• Make your resume accomplishment driven, not just a list of your responsibilities – This guy puts it best TL;DR: Your bullets should be in the format -> Accomplished X by doing Y as measured by Z.
• Don’t put school projects that every other CS student in your school has completed. Recruiters are able to figure it out and will look down upon this a lot, as it shows you’re not doing anything outside the classroom to forward your career. Capstone projects are perfectly okay.
• Make it a simple, one-column that recruiters can easily read through. There’s no need for pictures, graphics, colors, fonts, etc; the ATS can't parse this! Overall, keep it simple; the content should be carrying you.Exceptions: The company you are applying for is small, you’re going to a career fair and you know your resume will be hand-read, you’re a UI/UX person or a Graphic Designer.
• Have at least 3 minimum (I aim for 4-5) per work experience/project; it makes no sense when you have such amazing experience and only put two bullets.
• If you have a GPA lower than a 3.0, do not bother keeping it on the resume. If you have a 3.5 +, make sure to keep it.
• Make formatting consistent. This should be a no brainer, but I still see folks’ resume with different fonts, spacing, etc. It’s annoying; don’t do it.
• Focus on individual contributions and leadership, not the team. Recruiters are looking for self-starters and leaders that can see a project throughout the life-cycle, not just another code monkey.
• Expect to be tested on anything you put on your resume. If you don’t think you can answer questions about a skill, tech, or experience on your resume, don’t bother putting it in.
• Make sure to add these items in your resume: Name, School, GPA (unless its less than 3.0), Work Experience, Projects, Skills (one line for languages, one line for tools/platforms are what I’ve seen the most), relevant links (GitHub, Website, Portfolio).
• Take out any old or irrelevant experience. Nobody cares about that Tic Tac Toe game you made in high school.
• Get your resume reviewed multiple times by experienced people in tech. /csMajors and /cscareerquestions also has a weekly resume roast thread that you can take advantage of.

Searching for Internships

Searching for internships in CS is really different and harder from searching for internships in other professions. CS internship interview processes are often longer and much more technical on what you have learned as a CS major. We've prepped 2-3 months beforehand on CS concepts, whiteboarding, etc.

Timeline

This timeline primarily focuses on large, non-government/defense companies or competitive startups. This also assume you are applying for a summer internship.
August - September: Applications are opened to the public. Make sure to look out for positions and apply early, as most companies admit students on a rolling basis. A site that we used often is Apply.fyi. After applying, you may receive an automated (< 48 hours) invitation to complete an Online Assessment, consisting of multiple choice and/or coding questions about Data Structures, Algorithms, and Run Time Complexity. You will have usually 1-2 weeks to complete the assessment. Please that you may be rejected if you are not able to pass 90% of the questions on the assessment: Please also note that you may be instantly rejected due to things out of your control like years of experience, cancellation of internship, internal corporate issues, and more. Don't take rejections too seriously; just keep applying!
October - November: After passing the resume screen and the OA, you will be contacted by the company's recruiter for a phone screen. During the screen, you will probably be asked a few confirmation questions about your resume, sponsorship, years of experience with X, etc. and minor behavioral questions like what made you apply for this position, what are you pursuing outside of class, etc. You may also receive questions about your CS fundamentals e.g. what is a hashtable, whats the difference between a process and a thread, what is the runtime complexity of sorting a string, etc. As long as you're cool and confident (and not cringe/edgy), this part should be a breeze.
November - Mid January: If you made it through the two Thanos snaps, you will be invited to an onsite “Power-Day,” where interviewees attend 2-4 whiteboard interviews while being grilled on their technical skills and projects. Some companies make applicants go through a panel interview, where a team of 2-5 Software Engineers grill you on technical questions and your resume. You are often pampered with free travel, food, stipends, etc.
December - February: If you were deemed a good fit by the hiring committee, you will be extended an offer to intern at the company during the upcoming summer for 10-12 weeks. Remember, nothing is final until you receive an offer letter in your inbox. Some companies may also place you on a wait-list and offer you a spot if someone were to reject their offer letter.
For government orgs, defense companies, and smaller organizations, the recruiting season starts in February/March and usually ends in April and May. After applying online and passing the resume screen, you will usually be immediately pushed to an on-site interview. Most likely, you will be interviewing with your future boss/co-worker.
Please note that internships are not only offered in the summer, they are provided in the Fall, Winter, and Spring (rare) as well. The competition for these internships is usually lower, and the process usually starts 3-4 months beforehand.

How to get the Interview

Besides following resume tips, make sure to apply to as many places as you can. To get our first internships, we recall applying to approximately 250-300 places before we secured our internship plans for that summer. Also, if you do get ghosted, don’t take it personally, usually, university recruiters often spend so much time reviewing a lot of applications.
Other precautions to take to get noticed are to try attending career fairs if you can, you might be able to get an interview(worst case, free swag!). Other than that, try reaching out to upperclassmen or friends you know that interned and ask for referrals. It’s one of the best ways to get noticed!

What to expect

As part of the interview process, there’s 4 types of interviews that you should make sure you know.
Behavioral Interview: These interviews ask you questions about culture fit such as “Why are you a good candidate” and “Tell me about a time when you ...”
Coding/Technical Interview: These interviews ask you questions similar to what you see on Leetcode and Hackerrank. These interviews are designed to test your Data Structures and Algorithms knowledge.
System Design: System Design involves the interviewer testing your building to design a service/software and test your knowledge of understanding what things to use for the task and how you will integrate them together. You’re definitely not expected to know this and it’s not likely you’re gonna get asked this. Places that could ask you this are Unicorns, Trading Companies and Hedge Funds, and Big Established Companies.
Concurrency/Low Level Interviews: If the company’s biggest product involves low level principles such as networking principles and kernel stuff, there’s a possibility you can get asked this. Places that come to mind are hardware companies and trading firms.
Some companies may adopt only one of these interviews and some may adopt all.

How to Ace the Interview

It’s highly recommended that you look up the interview experiences that other students have faced so that you can potentially filter out companies with red flags and know what questions to expect. Common sources to search up on this would be Reddit (csMajors and cscareerquestions), Jumpstart (Relatively new portal for students), Glassdoor and maybe Blind (Aside from the toxic TC or GTFO culture, they do give good advice on interviews). With that said, here’s some advice we have when you approach each kind of interview we’ve seen.

Advice on Behavioral Interviews

Use the STAR method when describing your experiences. Being quantifiable with the impact of your actions will impress the interviewer.

Advice on Technical Interviews

Begin by reviewing your notes from the Data Structures and Algorithms class. Do not proceed further until you know how to implement these DS and As from scratch with the language of your choice(If you do know python, it’s recommended as there’s a lot of builtin features!). After doing so, we highly recommend a book like CTCI and EPI to gain a review on programming language details and your DS and As. Then, visit sites like LeetCode to practice real questions from major companies. A Facebook Engineer completed 600 LC problems and compiled the most important ones into a list here. During the interview, make sure to talk out loud about possible approaches and tradeoffs before whiteboarding. It is perfectly acceptable (often recommended) to ask the interviewer to ask questions about the problem and get clarification. Once you have an idea in mind and have talked about it with your interviewer, begin whiteboarding. While you talk about the final idea you want to use, write out pseudo code and comments about all the steps you need to implement in order to finish coding your solution. After that, start coding. Make sure to have proper function headers, syntax, spacing, classes/structs, imports, etc. After coding your solution, give a brief explanation and attempt to make it run with less space and in less time (if your solution is not as efficient as you think it can be).

Advice on System Design

These are somewhat hard to approach if you don’t have experience ever doing it. If you do have experience designing and building services in your spare time and as part of your work experience, definitely rely on your experience. An important thing is to definitely ask clarifying questions. There might be hidden requirements you didn’t think about that could drastically change the way you approach the solution.

Advice on Concurrency/Low level

Understand basic principles such as Processes vs Threads (A lot of people don’t know the difference!)TCP vs UDP and how to make an application thread safe. Other than that, it’s recommended that you familiarize yourself with basic OS concepts such as Deadlocks, locks that you can utilize to make an application thread safe, etc.

Searching for Full Time Jobs:

The big bucks.
The process for finding a Full-Time Job is usually very similar to finding an Internship. There’s three main differences are:

1. Harder Questions. Ex: Google usually asks Leetcode Mediums to Hards + the special Leetcode Hard question that Google asks it’s applicants (they create a new one every year).
2. More Rounds of Interviewing: For example, Microsoft makes interns do 2 rounds while New Grads do 4 rounds during the onsite part of the process.
3. Compensation: Interns usually get an hourly rate and, possibly, a housing stipend. New grads, however, are given a yearly salary and, possibly, a sign-on bonus, stocks, and benefits e.g. health insurance, vacation days, etc.

The process for finding a Full-time Job won’t really change as much as finding an internship, but keep in mind that the bar is higher. This is probably the biggest reason why you should look into interning early; by getting an offer at the place you like, you don’t need to go through the daunting process of finding a full-time role.
Get as many offers as you can this time around, so you can negotiate and select the position, company, compensation, and location that works best for you.

Negotiation

Negotiation is a really powerful tool that you can use in the interview process, even as an intern. There’s a lot of guides to negotiation and we recommend Nick Singh’s guide (Look at his LinkedIn and newsletters) for more.

Final Thoughts

University is a probably the most important time of your life and a foundational block of your CS Career. Like any foundation, it must be sturdy and takes a tremendous amount and energy of time to develop. Take advantage of all the resources (like this one) you can get your hands on. Definitely learn from the mistakes people have made and make sure you don’t repeat the same mistakes.
‘Stay hungry. Stay foolish’ - Steve Jobs