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/r/cscareerquestions
Looking for some career advice around if you think I can advance further as a dev or if i should pivot to something else. The backstory is I’m a self taught dev who has never worked on an “engineering” team, I’ve mostly worked either on teams or by myself that are focused on solving a business problem. Maybe that’s building a web app for mortgage application processing, or an etl that aggregates data from numerous sources and spits out a report.
The work is difficult in its own way in that it takes a lot of creativity and resilience to get anything done in a highly regulated environment, but it’s not building systems that are being pounded by millions of users.
I just wanted to ask because it doesn’t seem like that skill set translates directly to a FAANG, but at the same time it’s kind of at the heart of what most tech companies say they do, they write code to solve problems.
So idk. I just wanted to hear some other opinions, is my work experience valuable enough to get a job at a major tech company or would i be better off using my coding experience and just become a super technical pm?
Experience: 6 years
About Me:
Career Goals:
I aim to land a position at a big tech company. I feel undervalued and underpaid in my current role and am ready to move on.
Questions:
Looking for insights to improve my prospects and boost my confidence. At the moment I feel my time is just being wasted in this job as if it is considered a "no-name" company then I should really be moving onto a company that is more well-known internationally.
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[profile review] University shortlist
I need help to shorten my shortlist- Profile- 8.04/10 VIT, 315 GRE(168quant), 8.5 ielts, 3.5 yoe at Motorola solutions, no research papers. Ambitious- Umass amherst, upenn, UCSD, UIC,Uwisconsin(prof MSCS,All non thesis MSCS if possible) Moderate- SBU, NCSU, Virginia tech, NEU, CU Boulder Not planning to apply to any safe schools, instead, im planning to apply to- CMU (MS Software Engineering), UCBerkeley(MIS), UMD(MS SE), USC(MS SE), UT Austin( MS SE),Santa clara(MS SE), CMU(MIS)
Main goal is to work as a software developer after graduation. Please help me shorten this list to 10-12 applications max. I was hoping for 4-5 moderate-ambi MSCS, and the rest in slightly ambitious MSSE or MIS programs. Cost is a factor unless it’s a really really good university.
I am 3 years into being a contractor on a team at a FAANG company. I would much rather be an employee.
So far I have done well in the role but not perfect. Part of that is my compensation and actual authority is low and so most important decisions I have to defer up a level. I also don't always have complete information. The team is overworked and is currently not in a great state.
Should I apply?
I'm worried they might think I am not equipped for it or that they want a fresh person on the team. Could this harm my current role?
Title, I'm a sophomore rn and looking for which of my offers to choose from.
Expedia (SDE intern - Austin TX) is 45$/hr and 6k housing and runs for about 9 weeks
Wells Fargo (technology swe intern - Charlotte NC) is 48$/hr and 2500 housing and runs for 10 weeks.
Garda Capital Investment (swe intern - NYC) is 50$/hr and not sure about housing yet.
Please let me know in comments why you voted for a certain company over others, thanks everyone
I got a job offer with a 20% pay bump. I've been job hopping for a couple years - each job I've spent 1-1.5 years at. I'm not sure if this job is somewhere where I can actually grow my career - is it worth taking if I'm just going to job hop again in a year or so or should I wait until something better potentially comes along?
The culture seems good but the company is an acquisition of a larger company which doesn't have amazing reviews on Glassdoor unfortunately.
The content of this and many sub-reddits has been overwhelmingly negative.
I have my reddit home page set to only CS sub-reddits. My goal was to absorb some info while browsing.
This has been very emotionally draining.
I would like to take the time to validate everyone's issues. Your feelings are real, and your perspective is valid. None of what I am trying to say is taking away from that.
Large multi-national corporations suck. They value shareholders over stakeholders. Teams of brilliant hardworking people creating amazing products are cut because they don't contribute positively to the bottom line. These are all the realities of our world. These are the realities of most job positions not CS alone unfortunately.
I finished a bachelor in finance. I wanted to help people. What did I come to learn? People are viewed as dollar signs. I had internships staring at excel sheets for 8 hours a day all week. I came back the next year to find the same managers making the same annual reports like clockwork. This pushed me back to CS. There was no art, no love for the craft in finance.
Studying computer science gives you the most elegant modern day paintbrush. You can breath life into machines with words on a page. Almost anything you can imagine can be created. Doesn't that sound beautiful? Want to improve or automate a part of your life? You have the very skills to do that thing.
I see so many negative sentiments, that it gets hard to remember why so many of us find this field fun and interesting.
I got into tech as a kid. I used to sit around for hours watching unboxing videos of the newest devices. I started building computers, taking CS classes. All of it was out of a love for the subject. Where has that appreciation gone?
There are many days recently where I struggle. I feel the embers of that young kid inside me fading. This gets exacerbated when I come online to find support and read countless negative posts.
Can we share a little positivity here? I want to challenge you to share why you started in this field. What drives you? What would the kid inside you look at in your current life and be amazed by. What projects do you work on that make you feel fulfilled not your resume?
CS COOKED GTFOH
I work in a tech company that is series B and it’s growing giga fast
my co-worker is in sales.
we both work 100h+ a week
i get paid about 25k more than him
my 100h a week gets me a “hurr this button needs to bounce 2 pixels higher durr”
he cleared 770k this quarter
he went on parties and drive cool cars and travelled all paid for either by clients or by company while banging top tier girls 100%
he is happy and i am miserable
if you’re american, get in sales. u have english and the american culture that will get u american clients because it’s easier to relate to. indians will take ur job and churn out code faster and better than u and they enjoy doing it for 200h a week for lesser pay. goodnight
cs is so fucking cooked
I'm 24, graduated with a CS degree in spring 2023. Actually got a job a month out of college, but after being there for a year and a half, I've realized this company just isn't for me. It's a startup and while it's something I thought could be "a dream job", I think the lack of structure has really hindered my growth in a lot of areas. I ended up being the founding software engineer, so I've done a ton of raw programming, but because of this, I received next to no guidance on things someone with 1.5-3 yoe should typically know.
I know I want to leave, but I'm just not sure on next steps. I've been applying to places, and have gotten a couple interviews, but have mostly failed at the technical interview stage (I only recently started grinding leetcode, so it's partially my fault). I'm worried once I quit my job, it'll be even harder for me to land interviews. But I also don't want to stay at my current job because if I gain too many yoe, I won't be considered entry level anymore.
I also have internship experience that was 1.5 years long. I guess just grinding the leetcode is exhausting when it's not even really applicable to my career. And I'm envious of all the other engineering fields or even any fields that don't do any of this for interviews, it's typically way more applicable to the actual job 💀
When I quit I'll probably spend the unemployed time getting an AWS certificate and maybe revamping my portfolio website. Applying for jobs of course.
I guess I'm just lost. I want a Junior role because I feel like I need the guidance to learn the things I missed. But to get into a big company with more mentorship opportunities, I just have to suck it up and get better at leetcode. I like software engineering and have fun doing it, but I'm not the type to do it outside of work or anything (I probably would for fun if I was unemployed, but I just don't want to code more than 40 hours a week). I'm wondering if maybe that aspect of myself is why I'm not enjoying CS? I genuinely think I just don't enjoy CS is because of the company I'm at right now, and if I join a larger more structured place, I'll feel more supported.
I'm just an overthinker, so worried about how everything will go, even though I know everything works out. If I can't find a job by August, I'm debating going back to school for my master's, but I'm not even sure what to go for. My initial instinct is to go for a Data Engineering program cause that'd be enjoyable in CS, but it wouldn't allow me to escape the hellish CS job market if I needed. I debate Mechanical Engineering, but I don't want to work on physical devices or robots, I'd probably just want to work with CAD or some building schematic software or something. So maybe a different engineering masters? Also wonder if Engineering Management could be a good path, cause I'd honestly really love project management, but I feel like that won't get me a role as a project manager, especially since I'm so young/inexperienced. I also know I can get that role without a degree. Even debating going for teaching, but if I did I wouldn't have access to the career fairs I'd want to attend, plus that has it's own hell haha. I really just would get the masters so I can access university job fairs, internships, and new grad positions again. Not really wanting a master's, but it would give me those opportunities.
Anyone else feeling as lost as I am? Any suggestions or words of encouragement? Thanks a bunch.
I came across something that could be a great opportunity, and I’m unsure if I should share it with a friend. Part of me wants to help and see us both succeed, but another part feels like keeping it to myself might give me an advantage. I also wonder, if the roles were reversed, would they share it with me? What would you do?
Received a 1 hour call for a frontend engineer role for Canada after doing the OA, was wondering what to expect?
Hi guys,
I am a software developer with like 3 years of exp and is hoping to make some money as a side gig, I love tutoring and I am considering using Varsity tutor as a place to find tutoring work. But I have a few concern, I will definitely be working off hours (weekends and evenings), should I let my employer know about this instead of risking them finding out, will this make them feel like I am disloyal to the company? Also, do you guys think this is a good idea or am I just wasting my time?
Thanks
I've been working in my first junior SWE role for about 10ish months now. Honestly, I still can't believe I got my foot in the door at all—especially with a remote position. I know I'm highly privileged and lucky in that regard.
The first 4-5 months at my new job were tough but rewarding. I had to learn a new tech stack, a lot of internal tools, and a plethora of company history and context around a lot of our workflow and tooling. It wasn't easy for me, and I made some big mistakes. But I did grow more confident, despite my expectations for myself. I am somehow starting to enjoy CS beyond just "surviving" it as I did in college. I even got interested in giving a master's program a chance and applied to a couple online masters programs. I somehow (again) got in to one of them and planned to start this fall of 2024. I was even working on some ideas for personal passion projects with our tech stack. Overall, I'd say things felt promising for me in life, both in and outside of work.
Then one day, my manager approached me about moving teams to join a high-priority project as the sole junior developer. They thought it aligned well with my skills and prior background and thought I was a good opportunity for me, and my parents and friends encouraged me to take the opportunity for my career growth. I honestly had some hesitation, but I agreed, since there was a small part of me that was also interested in the project. But once I joined, it quickly became clear that the project's scope was massive and the timeline unrealistic. There was so much more history and internal knowledge I didn’t have or gain from my initial first couple of months, which a lot of the seniors on the team do have, not to mention the different tech stack being used. After some discussion as a team, I was assigned some research and design tasks for one aspect of the project. I spent months working on that instead of actual development (which I did come to enjoy, slowly). However, somehow, that morphed into me taking full ownership of the project's most crucial part. That’s when my anxiety and constant dissociation really kicked in.
I started working 1-2 hours overtime on at least 1-2 days a week, deferred my master's to Spring 2025 since I felt super anxious and nervous about delivering the project at work, and got overwhelmed by extra project tasks that were assigned to me because of my background in research and design, despite it being work not directly related to the research I was initially assigned for the project. After almost a month of growing anxiety around the timeline, I voiced my concerns to my tech lead privately, and it almost felt as if they were brushed off so that we could "play it by ear." That made me even more uncomfortable. Eventually, I felt like I had push back during a stand-up—something I hoped senior devs would do since they also expressed that the timeline was unrealistic but also had more social capital to do so. Somehow it worked out, and we managed to extend the timeline, but the pressure hasn't gotten any easier. Honestly, it's gotten worse. Now I'm constantly afraid my initial green-lit research & designs might not work or that I’ll miss something critical only as we hit our new deadline. Not to mention that the seniors are handling much more complex tasks faster than I can handle my more simple tasks by comparison.
Every day it feels like I'm in over my head. Some days I think I’ve got it; most others, I find myself forgetting programming basics or things about our tech stack that are obvious, or I end up making silly mistakes like forgetting to include null checks or how to write a switch statement. I constantly fear I won't deliver on this and get fired. Even asking for help feels daunting now because I worry about judgment or lack of context, since I am the main person who has been taking the lead on this highly critical feature and thus feel like I am the one expected make decisions on it. The constant stress and fear of failing are taking a toll, and I sometimes wish I’d get fired just to escape it.
On top of this, personal stressors are piling up. A close friend moving away has hit me hard, and the possibility of a return-to-office policy and leaving my aging parents is adding to my anxiety and nerves. The online masters program, which I once felt excited about, now feels like another overwhelming weight. My friends and family keep urging me to start it now, worried that I’ll lose my motivation if I wait and put it off to work through my anxieties since it can help my career. But honestly, the thought of balancing this high-stakes project with intense coursework feels impossible. I’m terrified I’ll break down trying to juggle both, failing at work and in my master’s program, and not having time to find personal fulfillment at all. The pressure to make the “right” decision only adds to the constant stress and self-doubt.
I know a lot of this is not directly unrelated to my work stress, but it feels like it is all compounding on me right now. And once this initial work is done, there will be more, and more, and more, and more. and it won't end. I just sit at home forever and do this to pay bills and survive.
Is just what being a software engineer is like for others? I'm genuinely wondering if I am in the wrong field, if any of my anxieties that I have mentioned above are justified, or if this is just normal growing pains and I need to reset my expectations on working life. I’d appreciate any advice or feedback you have, I honestly just feel so alone right now, even though my parents and friends are telling me that this is normal and I am not alone, it doesn’t feel that way.
Hi everyone, I am interviewing for a software engineering internship position (C++ is what they advertise to be important) for autonomous driving (planning) at a big tech company. Now, the problem is I have not done programming interviews for ever. I am a PhD student and research interviews usually takes a different route. What would be my best strategy here. I have a week. What do I expect from the interview + how do I prepare for the interview.
Any help will be much appreciated!
I've been working for an online game startup as a game programmer for three years. I also create data-driven BI reports and build dashboards for this game company, so I suppose that makes me a data analyst as well.
I recently completed my master's degree in Data Science. However, I haven't had the opportunity to work on any 'real' ML models at my current company, the only ML models I’ve worked on were during my studies. I understand that mock projects at university usually have a smaller scope compared to real projects, which might put me at a disadvantage when applying for roles that require more experience.
I want to apply for a Data Scientist role at a different company (because my current company isn't hiring for that position). Which level should I aim for? Should I apply for an entry-level or mid-level role?
Was wondering if someone has found success in using AI to get hired. In what areas in the hiring process can we use AI?
Senior in high school here. I'm working my way through the college application process and am not too optimistic. I've already been accepted to ASU with a near full-ride scholarship but I don't know if I'll be able to get into anything more prestigious beyond that (currently hoping I get into NEU ed but we'll see). For the last couple of months, I've learned a lot about quant and have slowly fallen in love with it since. If I eventually wanted to work as a quant software dev, is it best to go to a cheap undergrad and grind for a prestigious masters program or is it possible to get into a quant firm from just undergrad?
Just received my offer from IBM, and while I'm still going to apply to the occasional job, I think it is highly likely I am going to be at one of these for my first job come Summer '25.
I was at Dell as an intern this Summer, and got a return offer toward the end of August.
Both roles are in Austin, Texas. Both are offering $5K relocation and $8K sign-on, but IBM is slightly higher base at $117K vs Dell's $113K.
While both are technically in Austin, I prefer IBM's office location to Dell's headquarters (Dell is in Round Rock, IBM in The Domain).
If I were to go to IBM, I would need to renege Dell, whereas if I stick with Dell I'm not burning any bridges since I just turn IBM down.
The work at IBM seems more interesting (Linux networking), with Dell I have no idea what I'd be doing since it is a 3-year rotational program where you're project is decided for you. That said, because it is a rotational program and I have been at Dell already, I feel like I know the culture better and I know there will be opportunities to meet other new grad developers.
As far as resume value, and my goal of trying to break into big tech, I feel both are pretty equal (large boomer tech company). If anyone disagrees, let me know.
Both are offering 3-day hybrid schedule, though I don't trust either one fully since Dell has had a lot of drama the past year and IBM has also made some ill-taken moves as of late.
If my goal is to learn a lot, and give myself the best chance of targeting big tech, what do you recommend? Is reneging silly for such a small difference in role? My knee-jerk is IBM.
Income Tax/Return Data
Hello! I have an project idea that popped in my head since it's around tax season(I am a student trying to get into fintech). But it would need people's tax information to train a model on.
Basically I have these questions:
Depending on the answer to question 1
2)Is it possible to get tax return information without any personal info of course! Just the dollar amounts.
Any advice/feedback would be helpful!
I’m currently pursuing a dual degree (BS CS + Masters by research in Comp Linguistics), I’ve mostly worked with syntactic parsing as part of my lab work but I’m slowly pivoting towards mechanistic interpretability of transformers. I plan to publish a paper or two by the end of next year and I’m now at a fork where I need to take a decision, if I want to go for a PhD or take an industry job. I study at one of the best engineering institutes of my country so just getting an industry job wouldn’t be too hard, I’m only scared that I won’t be able to work on core ML work like interpretability once I’m in the industry which makes me feel like I should go for a PhD. Again, this is a complex decision since I’d have to move away from my long term girlfriend (PhDs in my home country are very lowly paid and have shitty working conditions so I’d focus on doing it in the US/Europe), but both of us are ready to live apart if it comes down to it.
I’d appreciate any advice.
Can you please PM or tell me about the interview process below? Thank you.
I can’t believe how many people are angry about this.
Microsoft requires automated coding assessments. So does Amazon. Meta will actually put a person in front of you first.
Many startups also require automated coding assessments.
Everyone seems SO offended by them but what’s the alternative, wash dishes at a fast food chain?
I suck at these too (6 YoE) but don’t understand what people are doing to get around the assessments.
Or maybe there’s a hill somewhere labeled ‘no coding assessments evar’ with a graveyard of dead engineers upon it.
I’ve failed MS and about 2 other companies’ assessments so far but don’t really know what else to do. I’m about to probably fail Amazon’s auto assessment on hackerrank tomorrow. Unless anyone has figured out how to circumvent these.
I've been unemployed 6 months now with 1 yoe and my savings are running out. I have been applying to retail or adjacent blue collar jobs and I still get rejected. I'm pretty sure I'm being rejected for being overqualified? It's so damn rough out here. Idk how you even get these blue collar jobs if you have worked as a swe
I'm a second-year in my computer science degree. For context, I'm a double major as well, so I've been progressing in my other degree this entire time.
I've been thinking about dropping my computer science major, but I'm very unsure about it. The only reason I've been doing cs is essentially because my dad forced me into it. It isn't something I would have ever chosen for myself, and I have been actively resisting it for years.
My dad's logic is that it doesn't matter if I like it or not, the point is that it will allow me to get my foot in the door even if I never necessarily use the degree. He further justifies it with saying there are many subfields within computer science, not all of them being technical.
I do agree that someone doesn't need to like the field they're in, but being in cs genuinely makes me feel depressed. I feel dread everytime at the thought of coding or having to stare at theoretical problems. I have no motivation to do "personal projects," to apply for internships, or to work on related certificates.
Despite doing somewhat extensive research on various niches and careers in computer science, I cannot find a single one that interests me in the slightest. I have no desire to work in this field, nor to do something in a related non-technical field like tech sales.
I personally don't have that much of an issue understanding the concepts, nor do I particularly find courses like calculus or chemistry to be difficult. I am just completely and totally disinterested in everything I learn. I can't really find the motivation to spend extensive amounts of time coding or studying theory, and end up procrastinating on alot of my assignments. I was doing well (or decent) in my classes in previous semesters, but I don’t think I’m doing that well this semester. My other major also requires chemistry, physics, and the other required courses are very time-consuming. I'm usually taking 16-18 credits every semester, additional classes every summer, with multiple courses being known for being difficult/a weed-out course.
Unfortunately, I've started getting anxiety at the thought of dropping the cs major. I guess it's my dad getting to me. I believe he's made comments in the past that I will fail in life if I don't do cs, and he's always been pushing for me to be in cs since I was a child.
It very much feels like a doomed if I do, doomed if I don't situation. Any advice is appreciated.
I’ve been working at my current place for a year and a half now, and have been called a junior by the senior engineer a few times now, as well as most recently - being told by my manager that he suggests I should work on tickets more independently - which I interpreted as him telling me I need to stop asking for help so often.
For context, after 3.5 years at my old place, when I was looking for another job I was a bit in my head, overthinking and worried I’m still a junior (think imposter syndrome, but in regards to levels of experience), and was looking for junior jobs - until one of the seniors I worked with reassured me multiple times that he definitely does not see me as a junior, and that I’ve definitely hit mid level and should not be looking at junior jobs.
I was hired as a mid level at my current place, but once my senior got hired one year later, he’s referred to me as a junior which has hurt my ego a little bit - as the fact he thinks I’m a junior must mean I’m outputting that vibe/quality.
Most recently my manager was giving me feedback and suggested I work more independently, which further supported my thoughts on this.
For extra context, I’m a DevOps engineer, so a lot of what I do requires investigation and previous experience of similar problems - so can be harder to find a black & white “right” answer/way of doing things. For example for any other cloud guys out there, I was most recently put on a project to rebuild our EC2s under different architecture to what they were previously built on, and our current environment is a bit of a mess, where we have no code/IaC to support any of this, so a lot of it is complete darkness to me. My senior told me he had to do a very similar project at his old place, so I’ve been referring to him for support on this - but now I’m starting to think that me leaning on him is what is resulting in me seeing so inexperienced and not independent.
It’s a difficult one as a lot of the work we get in DevOps is super arbitrary stuff, which there isn’t always proven examples of online, hence why I tend to lean on the senior as it is simply stuff he has actually done before.
But I feel like this just an excuse I’m giving myself - as before had joined us, I was put on plenty of projects that I had no prior experience of, yet I still managed to somehow figure out by myself as there was no one to lean on.
My main reasoning for the asking of help is that most times I spend a solid day or 2 on a problem, while I know my senior has done X problem before, so it not only will be a good learning experience but also will not waste and kill anymore time of me going in a circle — but this in essence is what is making me come off like a junior engineer.
Something I wanted to do for my next role was to get a senior level job - and in a way, force myself to become more independent and self governing. When I left my old place after 3.5 years, so did a colleague of mine with very similar experience, but he went for a senior role where he is one of only 2 engineers - he’s told me that in regards to himself, this has improved his confidence as skills as he literally has to rely on everything himself and force himself to understand what to do as there’s literally no other option apart from himself sometimes.
Does anyone have any advice in regards to this and how I can start improving myself? I’ve even tried spending some of my time doing my own DevOps stuff at home to improve my skill set and confidence - but again, the problems in DevOps are sometimes so niche that it’s hard to just come up with them and recreate on your own?
I feel like I’m just wasting more and more time if this is the impression I’m giving off
Hi everyone,
I’ve been working as a software engineer for 4 years. While I’ve been doing my job and delivering on tasks, I wouldn’t describe myself as a top-tier engineer. Coding has been fine, but it hasn’t felt like my strongest suit.
That said, I’ve realized that I enjoy working with people, communicating, and collaborating across teams much more than deep technical problem-solving. I’ve been told I have good communication skills and I find myself naturally drawn to understanding the why behind projects, aligning stakeholders, and brainstorming features.
Recently, I’ve started thinking about transitioning into a Product Manager role. It seems like a better fit for my skills and interests. However, I’m not sure how to make the jump or whether my engineering experience would be enough to convince hiring managers that I’m a good candidate.
I’d love to hear advice from others who’ve made similar transitions or who work as Product Managers:
1. What steps should I take to start moving in this direction?
2. Are there any skills I should build or certifications I should pursue to bridge the gap?
3. How can I leverage my current experience as an engineer to position myself as a strong candidate?
Any guidance, resources, or personal stories would mean a lot. Thanks in advance!
I’m trying to figure out if being a software engineer is mostly about problem solving, like finding ways to solve problems using code, or if it’s a lot about repetitive tasks or maybe more about the technical and infrastructural side, like working with internet protocols, databases and systems architecture?
I like the coding and problem solving aspect but when it deals more with architectures (like distributed architectures, monolithic architectures, managing databases in order to obtain scalability and reliability…) i do not enjoy it anymore.
So do you think i should pursue a career as a software engineer or i would not like it?
I would also like to know what kind of projects to expect as a junior, and how things change as you become more experienced.
Thanks in advance!