Software Development and Programming Careers (Official Discussion Thread)

[Apollo Creed]

Had a call about a consultant position. I basically confirmed that consulting isn't for me.
"What do you know about consulting?"
Nothing a$$hole, you're supposed to fill me in on that.
"What makes you interested in our company?"
A job, the fukk else for?

Consulting is literally you trolling companies on being an expert on something yet you literally know as much as they do on the subject lol

 

[whyanother]

Sorry for long post. TLDR: I am an idiot.

Not sure if this is the right place to put this, but I had a phone interview yesterday and failed it completely. I will start by saying that I haven't had to interview in almost 9 years. I looked up things about common questions they ask and how to answer. The recruiter told me there would be some technical questions about Unix and SQL, which I thought I would be ok with. I haven't done any real Unix work in 8 years, but I've been doing SQL all the while. I reviewed some of my old Unix notes and common commands and still wasn't prepared for what they hit me with.

I really thought I was prepared. I'm really mad at myself because I knew all of these damn answers when I was really using Unix a lot. I felt like an idiot. I'll list the questions below, but I could feel the interview was over early...I knew it was def over when the guy asked me if I knew the command to list IP addresses in Windows. I felt like he was being kinda condescending...Probably not, but it felt that way. I was more prepared to talk about the programs/scripts that I created and then throw in some commands that I used a lot.

Questions:
- command to list all processes (it's fukking PS! PS!!!) - I didn't even think to look over this
- command to terminate a process (kill) - I said that I thought it was kill, but wasn't sure and I was right.
- connecting to a database in Unix - I looked this up and I did it differently at my old job
- port to connect to SQL - I thought this was random as hell
- SQL questions I did well on. Basically had to talk out a SQL statement

Questions weren't hard if you use Unix everyday, which I fukking haven't...Sadly. I'm thinking about finding some Unix course to take and apply again if the position is still listed cause they were hiring multiple people. I'm so removed from using real IT tools since working in the oil industry that I feel like I won't get too many opportunities in IT. I was doing application support for packaged software and created Microsoft based programs with VBA. Nothing really fancy. Ugh. Rant over.

 

[KritNC]

Sorry for long post. TLDR: I am an idiot.

Not sure if this is the right place to put this, but I had a phone interview yesterday and failed it completely. I will start by saying that I haven't had to interview in almost 9 years. I looked up things about common questions they ask and how to answer. The recruiter told me there would be some technical questions about Unix and SQL, which I thought I would be ok with. I haven't done any real Unix work in 8 years, but I've been doing SQL all the while. I reviewed some of my old Unix notes and common commands and still wasn't prepared for what they hit me with.

I really thought I was prepared. I'm really mad at myself because I knew all of these damn answers when I was really using Unix a lot. I felt like an idiot. I'll list the questions below, but I could feel the interview was over early...I knew it was def over when the guy asked me if I knew the command to list IP addresses in Windows. I felt like he was being kinda condescending...Probably not, but it felt that way. I was more prepared to talk about the programs/scripts that I created and then throw in some commands that I used a lot.

Questions:
- command to list all processes (it's fukking PS! PS!!!) - I didn't even think to look over this
- command to terminate a process (kill) - I said that I thought it was kill, but wasn't sure and I was right.
- connecting to a database in Unix - I looked this up and I did it differently at my old job
- port to connect to SQL - I thought this was random as hell
- SQL questions I did well on. Basically had to talk out a SQL statement

Questions weren't hard if you use Unix everyday, which I fukking haven't...Sadly. I'm thinking about finding some Unix course to take and apply again if the position is still listed cause they were hiring multiple people. I'm so removed from using real IT tools since working in the oil industry that I feel like I won't get too many opportunities in IT. I was doing application support for packaged software and created Microsoft based programs with VBA. Nothing really fancy. Ugh. Rant over.

That is a weird group of questions. Was it a DBA position? None of those questions show that you could think through a problem they are all just random things you have memorized. I have a million alias's in bash so I don't know alot of the UNIX commands but it does not really matter. It is a takes two seconds to look up in google. I agree it is nice to have proficiency in UNIX but I feel like they should worry more about your history and code you have written then some random trivia questions.

Also can't you set the port you use to connect to SQL to anything you want?

 

[whyanother]

That is a weird group of questions. Was it a DBA position? None of those questions show that you could think through a problem they are all just random things you have memorized. I have a million alias's in bash so I don't know alot of the UNIX commands but it does not really matter. It is a takes two seconds to look up in google. I agree it is nice to have proficiency in UNIX but I feel like they should worry more about your history and code you have written then some random trivia questions.

Also can't you set the port you use to connect to SQL to anything you want?

Agreed so much with the bolded. This interview was for an application support position, which is essentially what I have been doing since college. And yeah, I used so many aliases (ksh) when I was using Unix too.

Man, I don't know anything about ports in SQL. If I connected to a port in code or a script, it was because I copied and pasted it from something that I had that was working. What developer\scripter do you know that completely starts things from scratch? That's what makes the random questions even lamer.

 

[PikaDaDon]

Impressive

 

[levitate]

An excellent app-based code learning suite:

SoloLearn: Learn to Code

Can't recommend this enough.

 

[semtex]

That is a weird group of questions. Was it a DBA position? None of those questions show that you could think through a problem they are all just random things you have memorized. I have a million alias's in bash so I don't know alot of the UNIX commands but it does not really matter. It is a takes two seconds to look up in google. I agree it is nice to have proficiency in UNIX but I feel like they should worry more about your history and code you have written then some random trivia questions.

Also can't you set the port you use to connect to SQL to anything you want?

See...shyt like that you would just google on the job. We all do. Anyone who doesn't is a damn fool. I hardly memorize anything because it's a waste of mental bandwidth for the most part. It's your approach to a problem that matters. I'm ALWAYS forgetting syntax in sql for inner joins and such. I'm a full stack dev and there's a lot of ebb and flow as far as which end of the stack I'm working on because it depends on the nature of the feature. I flow pretty seamlessly between technologies though.

 

[semtex]

An excellent app-based code learning suite:

SoloLearn: Learn to Code

Can't recommend this enough.

No matter how good I get I will always jump on stuff like this. To be a software dev means to always be learning new shyt. You have to learn how to learn so your career will never stagnate. You don't preserve your career by focusing on any one magical technology, you do it by keeping your brain elastic and being able to learn new shyt quickly

 

[Matt504]

Also, occasionally browse medium.com, I have the app and it's awesome for reading blogs written by developers with varying levels of experience.

 

[Spatial Paradox]

An excellent app-based code learning suite:

SoloLearn: Learn to Code

Can't recommend this enough.

I definitely have to check this out

No matter how good I get I will always jump on stuff like this. To be a software dev means to always be learning new shyt. You have to learn how to learn so your career will never stagnate. You don't preserve your career by focusing on any one magical technology, you do it by keeping your brain elastic and being able to learn new shyt quickly

Agreed. I'm an iOS engineer now, but I've been learning more about backend development and thinking about any side projects I can work on that involve backend work. I want to be able to work anywhere in the stack and not be pigeonholed into doing iOS development for my entire career.

 

[levitate]

I definitely have to check this out



Agreed. I'm an iOS engineer now, but I've been learning more about backend development and thinking about any side projects I can work on that involve backend work. I want to be able to work anywhere in the stack and not be pigeonholed into doing iOS development for my entire career.

I'm looking to get into iOS eventually. Currently learning Python now.

I'd like to transition to iOS development so that I can make small iPad apps for my son and daughter. E.g. educational apps exploring numbers, colors, shapes, basic math etc...

Question: would you recommend learning Swift? Is that the go-to language for iOS programming? Or can other programs (such as Python) be used to code in iOS?

 

[Spatial Paradox]

I'm looking to get into iOS eventually. Currently learning Python now.

I'd like to transition to iOS development so that I can make small iPad apps for my son and daughter. E.g. educational apps exploring numbers, colors, shapes, basic math etc...

Question: would you recommend learning Swift? Is that the go-to language for iOS programming? Or can other programs (such as Python) be used to code in iOS?

Yeah, if you're planning to make iOS apps, I would recommend learning Swift. Objective-C is the other standard language for iOS development, but it's the older of the two and at this point, you don't need to learn it to begin making iOS apps. There are other libraries and software platforms that allow you to make iOS apps in languages other than Swift/Objective-C, such C# and JavaScript, but the major benefit of those platforms is easily making cross-platform apps. If you're looking to make solely iOS apps, I'd recommend sticking with learning Swift.

Swift isn't a difficult language to pick up on, especially if you're already familiar with Python or other programming languages. Learning the iOS SDK will be the more challenging part of making an iOS app

 

[b_low_brown]

No matter how good I get I will always jump on stuff like this. To be a software dev means to always be learning new shyt. You have to learn how to learn so your career will never stagnate. You don't preserve your career by focusing on any one magical technology, you do it by keeping your brain elastic and being able to learn new shyt quickly

How long you been in the field? How much u making

 

[semtex]

How long you been in the field? How much u making

2 years. $75k

 

[b_low_brown]

2 years. $75k

Is an associates in software development a good bet?