Howdy! I just started as a junior dev at a smallish startup about a month ago. This is my first corporate and real world coding experience other than college, in which I pulled valuable information, but no real world coding experience. I have worked at this company for a year in a different role.

The issues I have been assigned have been building pages and functionalities from scratch with little to no supervision. There is little guidance as I am the only junior developer, and there is no one else working on the portion of the software that I am working on.

The average day to day work is generally bug fixes and miscellaneous user stories, not building an entire new feature from scratch. In the grand scheme of things there are no other developers doing this work, and I feel this is out of my scope of abilities.

However, I am giving it my all and doing a lot of learning. I just feel I am working at a bit of a slow pace for the expectations of my superiors.

Is this type of work for a brand new junior developer normal? Is pace a big concern for junior developers? What is the normal expectation for amount of time to develop a brand new feature?

I appreciate any responses and any help that can be provided. I am quite stressed about my performance despite giving it my all.

People told me leetcode is just about data structure, so I just kept going through the coding assignment and lectured on it again. But when I told the HR person that I don't do leetcode, they just ghost me. Snapchat hr called me 1 or 2 weeks ago, and I told them that, and they ghosted me.

For start-up, I got a call asking me to do IOS, Android, and Web app. The owner told me he hired some India, philliph, and USC students, and it had a lot of bugs from it. He told me he wants me to fix it and lead and team.

I feel it is a little big fuck up, is it? Snap Chat HR told me I have to go though 4 leetcode rounds after I told them I study data structure, not leetcode.

I landed some tech role w DataAnnotations, not really a software engineering job - after self teaching myself for a year. But I got terminated and I've applied to 400+ jobs since with no luck. I have a solid resume now though with a good portfolio.

I've tried Fiverr, Upwork. Made it look as professional as possible as well - but no luck on there either. I. Am. Tired.... What do I do..?

WSJ article: https://archive.is/wK1tR

Has anyone recently received an offer from a Chinese company? If so, how true is the claim of 3x higher TC compared to roles in the US/EU?

So unfortunately, I did not get a return offer this summer. I am a senior international student and really need a job.

For the companies I applied to this fall, I got lots of rejections either on the resume stage or interview stage. my OA skills are a work in progress.

since I’ll be on break for a little over a month, how do I become a stronger applicant? I’ve tried reaching out to recruiters but never get a response. I also want to do more Leetcode so I can get better. Does anyone have tips?

My issues with Leetcode is that I know the algorithm, and have an idea of how to solve it but then I get confused on writing a fully working solution. OR, I can code it up but I’m too slow in an OA to get it to work before time runs out. My anxiety tends to get the best of me.

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I am a fresh graduate data engineer working at a small company in the oil and drilling industry.

I was hired 6 months ago as a freelance data engineer, and after proving myself through my work quality, I am now essentially functioning as a tech lead, with full responsibility and ownership of designing, implementing, and hiring for the projects I'm assigned.

Our company is not a tech company, so I only have a couple of tech-oriented colleagues, and I barely interact with them. Now I directly report to the director of the company, who in all senses is awesome, with 40+ years of combined experience in some of the biggest oil and drilling companies globally.

However, I have some strong FOMO about not being able to learn much technical stuff from my peers or seniors. I am trying my best to learn and pick things up on my own, learning design principles, getting code reviews from chatGPT, etc. But even then, I'm afraid I am not producing the software to the highest standards of the industry since we don't have any rigorous cross-checking, and might be missing out on a lot of learning.

Can someone who has been in positions similar to these please guide me?

Currently a junior but bc of some of my experience, I have a chance to work as a junior java developer. Is it worth putting the degree on hold, considering today’s tough market?

I've been an individual contributor for over 10 years now, and am feeling burnt out on constantly learning new frameworks, layoffs, and fixing things no one else can figure out. I'd really like to try out management, but every time I talk to managers about it, I get told to "take more leadership opportunities" but there just aren't any available, and no one promotes internally anymore. External jobs all require experience as a manager, and it just feels like the entry job market when I started where you needed 3 years experience for an entry job position. How do I make this transition into management?

Finished uni at the end of April 2023, graduated officially in June 2023. For me, my unemployment period started in May 2023 because I wanted to start working right after uni ended. It's December 2024 now. 19 months of unemployment and counting. Have I gotten first round interviews? Yes. Have I gotten second/final round interviews? Yes. Have I ever gotten an official offer from anyone in that 19 month span? No.

Every time I feel like I get so close to finally ending this bullshit job application process I get thrown right back to where I started. I have the worst luck possible. Recently, I did a final round interview with a company back in mid November. I killed that interview. I didn't even stutter once. Two weeks after the interview I get an email from the recruiter just giving me an update that interviews are being wrapped up for the position I interviewed for and to check in if I'm still interested. A week after, the recruiter sends me another update stating that all new positions are being put on hold as of right now because they have a budget for the following year. Recruiter told me they will let me know if anything changes. No idea when the budget approves for new hires. This is literally the closest I felt to getting an offer. I thought finally this bullshit will end and 2025 will be off to a great start. But instead, 2024 will end exactly like 2023 and 2025 will start exactly like 2024.

Meanwhile the people I met in uni and the interns I met during my 16 month internship from May 2021 - August 2022 (only did one internship when I was in uni): Some of them were lucky enough to return to their old company and went back to working right after they finished uni in 2023. Some of them went onto new companies. Some of them moved across the country or to the States (I live in Toronto). I feel like I'm the only one who has gotten absolutely nothing since graduating. Some of these people I know have always been living life on easy mode. While I still try to get my first job after uni, some of these people have been promoted to intermediate/senior roles now or switched companies. I'm way behind my peers both in career and financially.

Wtf did I do to deserve this? I swear I'm cursed like this shit is not normal. I've literally done everything possible. From creating my own portfolio website, side projects, internship, many revisions to my resume in order to have the best resume you can ask for, killing it in interviews (I did flop in some), networking, thinking eventually I should get something as long as I keep going. I have never felt so lost and confused before in my life. This is a ridiculous amount of hoops to go through to get a job. Keep thinking the universe is trying to tell me something and the whole time I'm like wtf is the universe trying to tell me. Give up tech and switch fields? Switch to what exactly? No one ever seems to answer that question. The hell am I supposed to do with my useless CS degree that's now the equivalent of an arts degree? And that's sad af when you realize that a) CS degree is 1000x harder to get than an arts degree and b) the arts community at uni is usually way more fun and social than the CS community. What the hell am I supposed to look forward to in 2025?

Graduated last semester with my comp sci degree in Canada. Couldn’t find any internships. Are there any fields I can transition to that are less saturated? Feeling really demoralized after all this schooling and debt, not sure what to do now.

At a meetup yesterday a few people spoke about how their current non-tech job role may be affecting their callbacks despite having a few years experience, e.g.:

• part-time teacher
• overnight stockers
• temp office admins

compared to people that don't list their current non-tech job roles, seem to be having a harder time getting a response. I wonder if it's recruiters that are just tossing resumes or what.

I need is DSA questions. So should I learn other specialisations and improve my development skills ?? Or the only thing I need is DSA??

I would like your opinion and a list of things you think will help me get hired as a college student with no prior employment.

I'm really starting to loathe my job. I'm getting a lot of anxiety just thinking about it and am seriously considering quitting. However, the only thing holding me back is that I've heard that it's harder to get employed when I'm not employed. I feel completely drained every day after work (and even moreso during the monthly noisy on calls) that I'm finding it really hard to prep for interviews. Is this actually true? Can/do recruiters and potential future companies look at current employment status and penalize you for it?

Hi guys. I have a bachelor's in Computer Science and about to start my career.
I specialized and put the most time in frontend (HTML, CSS, JS, Sass, Bootstrap). I have put an ungodly amount of time in JS since I heard you need the strongest base in it to do React and Node which I plan to do, in fact already seen a decent amount of React.
A big local bank in my country calls me for an interview I don't even know the role,
they tell me they want a backend dev, apparently banks are different since they're using C#, probably a different version . NET than the modern ones, and Oracle as a database.
forgive my ignorance as I know nothing about this stack, but does it seem like the system is a legacy system and these technologies might be a bit outdated? I'm going by the fact that the tech guy in the interview also asked me if I ever did JQuery and didn't like that I haven't done it before.

my question is gonna basically boil down to : how drastic is a shift in the stack, and will it restrict me and my chances in the future? I know things like React and Node, Java, Spring, ASP, and different databases are sought after all the time, but what about the stack the bank uses? I'd love your counsel on this, as they are giving me the absolute lowest wage and they told me I'd need to work as many hours as needed cause "that's what tech people do", I have been considering them for the past week as I haven't got a job offer in my stack yet, but I did get a training opportunity in a somewhat big tech company in my country and regionally, and it gives me the same salary as the bank with much more perks as the company will be training me and probably remotely for the most time.

Should I negotiate salary with the bank as it'll be a huge change to me and my goals, or should I tell them outright that it's not for me?

Seems like a shitty complaint as I do have a job as a Junior, but I have been hardly getting any code reviews on my code for at least a year now, or any other constructive criticism for that matter.

The company is focused on cranking out features as quickly as possible, and I am writing really primitive and non-complex modules that are nonetheless taking up tens of thousands of lines of code - I am not learning anything here.

How to make sure that I actually know how to do complex things when I find a new job after I am laid off? 1.5 YOE isn’t that much (3 years of part-time experience), but I still have to fulfill certain expectations compared to people who are just starting out with a small internship or no experience at all.

I'm about halfway through a software engineering degree and seeing a lot of the posts on here has become disheartening. I want to finish this degree, but I'm worried I'll finish and not be able to break into a developer role given the current market (hopefully it will improve by the time I graduate). So the question is will an internship, a degree and a portfolio of personal projects be enough to be competitive and considered for a junior dev role?

Context: I'm based in a country where minimum wage is USD 300 / month

Edit 1: Added more information in both offers.

Offer #1: Not actually an offer, but it's to keep my job. USD 23k/yr, job security (they allegedly don't fire anybody unless it's a low performer), full-time employee with all benefits (health insurance, retirement funds). 30 PTOs to take whenever I want and 3 monthly sick leaves.

I'm being trained to become a manager within the company, and that will have a bonus of USD 250 / month for as long as I complete all goals set on me. Everyone likes me, and everything is pretty good. My project as a fullstack dev is quite boring and frustrating at times due to somewhat toxic communication and impossible expectations. 100% remote. There is little to no chance to ask for more money within the next 1.5 years.

Offer #2: USD 41k/yr, contractor with almost no benefits, I would have to cover my health insurance and retirement funds (these two combined take 12% of my salary away) 10 PTOs in a year, possibility to enjoy national holidays (there is a lot!), 10 yearly sick leaves.

I would be a frontend working with React on a CMS. 100% remote. The company has a reputation for having projects that are pretty much a gamble. They can suck badly, or they can be great.

I feel like choosing #2, but the uncertainty can be scary, especially when having a huge debt, and it's my top priority to pay debts ASAP because between rent, general expenses and debts, my current salary is not enough.

Note: both are nearshore companies for US clients and such.

I've seen some people saying that in the end, the attributes of a programmer is innate - either you have it or you don't? What exactly are these attributes? Further question, how much do you think Leetcode is a good test for this?

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So i recently went through power day for a Principal Associate System integrator role at Capital One . I thought I did very well and get an offer but my recruiter called me saying I passed for a Senior Associate role but not for a Principal Associate. They told me they couldn't offer me the position I interviewed for but if I found a Senior Associate System integrator role I can job match for it without a Power Day for 1 year. Has this happened to anyone else????

Hi,

I just posted in another subrebbit before finding this one, and I think it really belongs here... I'll do a quick summary:

I am an American currently living in China teaching English, hoping to come back in 3 or 4 years. During this time I am studying programming hoping to land in that field when I return.

Questions are:

1) Is a Masters degree in CS necessary/helpful and to what degree, in comparison with say, certifications in languages and finished products to display abilities such as websites or apps?

2) If I get one from a University in China, is that frowned upon in any way? if frowned_upon = True, are there certain Universities that are respected that are in China? (This question is more for someone with some real direct experience in the hiring market)

Thank you in advance for your help, I am blind in the field and these are big decisions that I would love to make in an informed state!

The original post is here, this forum would not allow a "crosspost":
https://www.reddit.com/r/csMajors/comments/1h3vdxw/credibility_of_degrees_from_outside_the_us/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button

Sincerely,

Don

I’m a high school senior currently in the process of applying for college. I’ve always wanted to do something with computer since I was a child, and though I am by no means a programming expert, I would like a programming heavy job.

I’m currently torn between two degrees. Computer Science (CS) and Computer and Information Technology (CIT). I know that CS is the more “advanced” degree, and the bare minimum requirement for most software engineering, but I’m terrible at math and don’t know how I’d handle the calculus classes required to earn the degree.

That’s why I’m looking at CIT as an alternative. The classes my local university offers seem specifically tailored to different areas, including web design, video game development, and mobile app development. It seems like a good alternative, but I’m also not entirely sure what programming jobs I can get with it. IT looks temping but I know i wouldn’t be doing a lot of actual programming.

Should I just bite the bullet and major in CS and hope the math classes don’t turn me off, or is CIT still a viable option for someone looking for a programming centric job? Any and all advice will be appreciated.

Title

No clue what the data says, but I'm seeing more "which offer should I take" and "how do I advance in my career" posts, as opposed to the nonstop doomer posts of a year ago.

I am graduating in June 2025 and have been fortunate enough to receive 3 New Grad offers this season. Currently I am trying to decide between Disney vs. Capital One before my Disney offer deadline on Monday. Last summer, I interned at Disney's Entertainment and ESPN division and received a return offer to the same team. I greatly enjoyed my experience there but I am wondering whether Capital One might give me better opportunities down the line.

Disney details: SWE 1 in Glendale, CA (in the LA area); 110k base, 50k one-time new hire stock grant, 25k yearly stock grant, 16k sign-on bonus, 7k yearly performance bonus, 5k relocation bonus, free entry to Disney theme parks (and 9 free guest tickets yearly for friends and family), 35% employee discount on Disney merch, free Disney+ subscription, 21 days PTO

Capital One details: TDP (Technical Development Program) in Richmond, VA; 119k base, 25k sign-on bonus, 5k relocation bonus, 6k yearly performance bonus, 10 days PTO (though according to ppl who work there, PTO isn’t actually tracked so more than 10 days in practice?)

Disney pros:

• My internship was wonderful and my team was a great fit. The work-life balance was perfect. There was no micromanaging; no one cared about how many hours I worked as long as I got my tickets done. I was able to perform quite well and efficiently and became comfortable with the team's tech stack, as I had taken a rigorous class covering parts of the tech stack at my school before the internship. I got great impact and metrics to put on my resume from my time there, and I feel I could definitely excel as a FTE if I return.
• Potentially faster career growth
• Better location
• Move from LA to Glendale would be relatively easy

Disney cons:

• The main one I can think of is that due to the solid relationships I built with my recruiter and team, I would feel awful reneging if I got a better offer. That is definitely not guaranteed in this market but could realistically happen, as last year I got 6 internship offers after my Disney offer. Also, the timeline for New Grad is a bit different so there will probably be even more opportunities after the New Year. Since my resume and Leetcode skills are the best they've ever been, there is a not guaranteed but reasonable chance I could get something better. I don't want to burn this bridge.

• Higher COL

• Disney is not as much of a big tech feeder compared to Capital One

Capital One pros:

• TDP is a solid program for new grads, with a lot of networking and professional development opportunities

• C1 is a feeder for big tech

• C1 salary is higher when adjusted to COL

• I can try out different teams since it's a rotational program (and after 1 year TDP participants can switch locations)

• Wouldn't feel bad reneging if I get something better

Capital One cons:

• No stock options

• PIP culture

• Low PTO

• Would kind of have to uproot my life to move to Richmond from the west coast

I'd greatly appreciate any insights or advice about which offer to choose!

ETA: might it be worth it to try to negotiate Disney to match C1 base?

ETA 2: I reread my offer letters and it turns out I was wrong about the PTO. C1 PTO is 10 days for the first year but 15 after that. Disney is 120 hours (15 days) vacation + 10 “care days”

Hi everyone

I applied to Amazon a few days ago and was sent a OA which I have to submit by the end of the next week. But I will most likely have to complete it this weekend because I would not have time over the week. I was just wondering if I am in a position that I will be able to clear the OA right now.

Just for context. I am a fullstack dev with my time split between frontend (60%) and backend (40%) tasks. With 7 years of experience. I am interviewing for is backend only. I did not ask the level for which I am interviewing but I am assuming the OA is for a equivalent level. I started working on interview prep 2 months ago and have been only solving hard problems on and off throughout that period. I never had problems with understanding the problems and coming with solution but I still not gotten used to working without auto complete. I also want to add that I usually take about an hour to solve the hard problem

I've been working in a help desk/sysadmin role for the past few months since I graduated with a degree in CS last May. I've mostly committed to spending the next year in this role, unless I can find a SWE position in my surrounding area. Assuming that I am unable to do that, what can I do over the next year to increase my chances of finding an entry-level SWE position?

I've started doing LeetCode daily to keep those skills sharp for when I get an interview in the future. Should I just be working on more personal projects in my free time? My concern is that any new projects that I take on will push other relevant projects off my resume, But, this might be more of a problem with how my resume is formatted (currently contains education, 3 work positions, 2 projects, and relevant skills).

I know that it's impossible to know what the job market looks like in a year, but I'm hoping that this less applicable experience will help out some. I'd really appreciate any advice on what I can do to set myself up nicely once I start job hunting again.

I am not currently interviewing - helped out a friend with a mock interview & that kind of discussion really excites me.

Day to day my scope of work is quite specific, so I don’t get to exercise these skills.

What are good resources to keep learning and practice system design thinking in general?

I’m probably around the L5 level, hoping to keep improving get to L6 eventually.

Does anyone pay for bytebytego newsletter subscription, is that worth it?