Software Development and Programming Careers (Official Discussion Thread)

[Renkz]

I've been on Glassdoor tonight reading all of Google's interview process stuff. It seems that whether you're going for a SRE role or a developer role the interviewers will hit you hard on algorithms and data structures which is advanced math shyt. Much of my calculus/linear algebra knowledge is out of the door since I haven't been to college in about 9 years.

This shyt makes me want to go back to college and take Calc 1/2/3 & Differential Equations just so I can fukking grasp algorithmic concepts and interview. I'd like to interview to Google/Facebook/Dropbox once just to see how I do since they seem to be the hardest in the industry.

Were majority of the questions heavily-math focused, because damn my math skills calculus and above sucks. The algorithms I been working on weren't very focused on math, I thought I could get by on that.

I already have that

pm. I'm learning android now, might be able help to you out

 

[ViShawn]

Were majority of the questions heavily-math focused, because damn my math skills calculus and above sucks. The algorithms I been working on weren't very focused on math, I thought I could get by on that.


pm. I'm learning android now, might be able help to you out

Well, a lot of people who interviewed at Google note that Algorithms and Data Structures are critical to learn. Some of the stuff I read last night

Recruitment process for a Google job (SRE, Site Reliability Engineer) – lambda-startup.com

GitHub - andreis/interview: Everything you need to kick ass on your coding interview

And I bookmarked a bunch of stuff from Stack Overflow. But that's the gist of it.

 

[ViShawn]

Brain dumping some Python stuff..

5. Data Structures — Python 3.5.1 documentation

What is the difference between curly brace and square bracket in Python?

2. Built-in Functions — Python 2.7.11 documentation

Python __init__ and self what do they do?

Improve Your Python: 'yield' and Generators Explained

 

[ViShawn]

Added a book to my arsenal per recommendation. My former colleague let me fiddle through it too.

 

[kevm3]

We might as well start posting information about different data structures in here just for educational purposes. When I get time, I'll take a crack at it.

 

[Voice of Reason]

Added a book to my arsenal per recommendation. My former colleague let me fiddle through it too.

Do you plan on developing operating systems?

 

[ViShawn]

Do you plan on developing operating systems?

Not at all, but I skimmed this book and it discusses a lot about the underlying Linux Operating System.

Not always useful for day to day but to understand how to effectively program anything it seems it'd be good. It's written by a Software Engineer at Google.

 

[Voice of Reason]

Not at all, but I skimmed this book and it discusses a lot about the underlying Linux Operating System.

Not always useful for day to day but to understand how to effectively program anything it seems it'd be good. It's written by a Software Engineer at Google.

Cool.



Check out this book

ISBN-13: 978-0134092669
ISBN-10: 013409266X




Even though it's a textbook it gives a great overview of computers in an accessible way.

It really covers everything.

 

[GhostMan]

I'm happy I found this thread because I'm at a crossroads in my career and I'm highly interested in learning as many languages as possible and applying that knowledge. Should I pursue a Bachelor's in CS? I already have a Bachelor's in Information Systems. I've done desktop, application, and a little network support and I can say I'm honestly not interested in doing this anymore. I dread going to work everyday. Any suggestions you guys may have is greatly appreciated.

 

[Data-Hawk]

I've been on Glassdoor tonight reading all of Google's interview process stuff. It seems that whether you're going for a SRE role or a developer role the interviewers will hit you hard on algorithms and data structures which is advanced math shyt. Much of my calculus/linear algebra knowledge is out of the door since I haven't been to college in about 9 years.

This shyt makes me want to go back to college and take Calc 1/2/3 & Differential Equations just so I can fukking grasp algorithmic concepts and interview. I'd like to interview to Google/Facebook/Dropbox once just to see how I do since they seem to be the hardest in the industry.

Exactly why I'm going back to school for Math myself. One thing I've noticed about people who work at companies like Google/Microsoft/Facebook etc..alot of them just switch between those companies. I don't know how many times I've seen

- Currently working at Microsoft , use to work at Google ( or the other way around )
- Now working at Facebook , use to work at Yahoo.
I would love to work at a place like Nvidia, some of their positions require a PhD or work in Microsoft research center , working on Hololens





I just cannot see myself doing business apps for the rest of my life.

 

[kevm3]

If you're a top tier programmer, you pretty much have your pick because programmers can bring so much value to a company... This is especially so if you are skilled in another field as well. The real question ultimately comes down to, since you have all of these skills, why waste them on making another corporation billions of dollars when you can take a swing and build your own empire?

 

[Data-Hawk]

If you're a top tier programmer, you pretty much have your pick because programmers can bring so much value to a company... This is especially so if you are skilled in another field as well. The real question ultimately comes down to, since you have all of these skills, why waste them on making another corporation billions of dollars when you can take a swing and build your own empire?

Breh, if it was that easy, every top tier programmer out here would have their own company. Alot of it has to do with luck and running into the right people. Plus you will find that most top programmers don't want to deal with the business side of things and just want to work on projects they love doing.

Take John Carmack for example, you'd be hard pressed to find a better 3D programmer in the world , yet he's an employee at Oculus. He can literally work anywhere he wants to, he's been a millionaire since the early 90's so he has the funds. But has stated several times he doesn't want to deal with the business side of things and just focus on making things.

Look up Michael Abrash, one of the best optimization programmers, yet he's also an employee at Oculus.

Linus Torvalds, this guy should really be a billionaire to tell you the truth, But he only wants to focus on the Linux kernel

Corrinne Yu - ( Corrinne Yu - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia ) (Halo 4's former principal engineer is now helping with Amazon's drone fleet ), all those skills and she's just an employee at Amazon.

Most of these people are top programmers because that's all they focus on. Nothing else. If I told you , you had to work on coding for 12 - 14 hours a day to get the project out the door, where would you find the time to manage the business side?

and not to go down this road again LOL. But top tier programmers aren't the guys building websites or doing database programming, they are the ones that build the tools to give you the ability to do it, they are the ones that work on projects so complex it takes years to build and teams of programmers, at the end of the day, they only care about programming. It's what makes them top tier programmers to begin with. It's like asking why doesn't a Math professor at MIT venture out and do his own thing.

It's extremely rare to find somebody who is a top tier programmer and want to do the business side of things( think Elon Musk , Bill Gates , Larry Page/Sergy Brin ).

 

[kevm3]

I'm happy I found this thread because I'm at a crossroads in my career and I'm highly interested in learning as many languages as possible and applying that knowledge. Should I pursue a Bachelor's in CS? I already have a Bachelor's in Information Systems. I've done desktop, application, and a little network support and I can say I'm honestly not interested in doing this anymore. I dread going to work everyday. Any suggestions you guys may have is greatly appreciated.

My main suggestion? Portfolio, portfolio, portfolio. You can pursue a bachelors in CS, but you don't need one to get a job in the industry. How do I know? My degree is in accounting. All of my programming skills are essentially self-taught. The key is to keep on putting portfolio pieces up and applying to companies nonstop. Eventually one of these companies will bite. Get a general idea of the kind of things you want to program and then experiment, and from there, you'll get an idea of what you want to pursue. Try out codecademy.com

 

[kevm3]

If the MIT math professor had some idea using his mathematical knowledge that could generate him millions of dollars but he's staying put at the university for $90,000 or whatever his salary is because it's comfortable and stable, then I absolutely would also say he's missing out on a lot of his potential.

It's understandable that a lot of guys don't want to deal with the business aspect, but then again, not taking an entrepreneurial risk is what allows corporations to keep such talented people underpaid. Carmack co-founded his own company, and even at Oculus, he's CTO. I highly doubt he would work for them if he didn't have the level of control he does or if he wasn't being compensated extremely generously as well as already having a lot of money in the bank. At this point in his career, he has enough money to where he doesn't have to think about money and is free to work on the projects he absolutely wants to work on.

One of the best aspects of programming to me is the world of entrepreneurship it opens up to you. You can work a normal day-job for stable income and then in the evening, get to cracking on your own project. You don't even necessarily have to start your own 'business' to touch the entrepreneurial aspect. You just have to go home and get to work on your own project that you will eventually release to the public ala Notch with Minecraft. In that way you can still 'program all day' without having to deal with all of the problems that come with running a business with a ton of employees.

 

[kevm3]

Something I've found when being around people who've started their own businesses or the such, you never really know what product will take off. It might be that one idea that you think is the least viable... With programming, you have all of this ability to connect with people and to get your ideas seen, so don't worry about how successful YOU think it will be. Create it and get it out there and one of these ideas may take off a lot faster than you think.

Everybody, let's work hard and get things done this year.