CSCareerQuestions

Please mention the number of people in the startup, as it experiences probably vastly differ based on size

I currently work as a Junior Web Developer at a medium-sized company and enjoy my job. However, after taking a Distributed Systems course at university, I developed a growing interest in the infrastructure side of technology.

In my search for infrastructure roles, I’ve noticed that cloud-related positions dominate the listings, especially for someone at my experience level. I’m considering a switch to this field but need some clarity to ensure it’s the right decision.

First, regarding certifications, I’m aware there are many options for different experience levels. However, I find the preparation for these certifications to be a hassle. I prefer learning by building projects at my own pace rather than through lengthy theory texts or video courses. Additionally, exams tend to cause me a lot of anxiety. How essential are certifications in this field? Can I pursue a career without them or with only a few to kick-start my early career?

Second, as I said before, I'm very interested in the infrastructure part and... I don't know if I want to stay my whole life working on Cloud, I'm afraid that if I enter this field I'll get stuck with only a few ecosystems (like AWS or Azure), ideally I'd like to work with actual computers rather than with cloud, so would it be possible to make a switch from Cloud to on-prem infrastructure in the future?

Curious to see as it seems to be a trend lately

I'm a fullstack web dev with 7 years of experience, and been casually searching for the past year or so, but most applications don't go anywhere, when I've had no problems with resumes in the past.

How have your experiences been, anyone having any better luck?

For the last few years I've been working as an hourly part time full stack software engineer remotely, but now that school is done, I'm switching to a full time role. What are some things to keep in mind?

When I was hourly, I knew when to start and stop working because I'd simply clock in and out, but with a salary, it feels less clearly defined. There's also "unlimited" PTO, but when is it acceptable to use it?

The most famous example is probably Gitlab (https://handbook.gitlab.com/handbook/company/culture/all-remote/asynchronous/)

Since their IPO the work environment seems to have deteriorated though (https://old.reddit.com/r/devops/comments/152o4bb/what_the_hell_is_going_on_at_gitlab/)

Curious to see if other people have any experience of real asynchronous work culture?

I'm a software dev/sysadmin mix, ~8 years' experience, looking for work again after some time off. (Based in a capital city in Australia if that's relevant)

I have no idea how to characterise the projects that I've enjoyed the most or would like to do in the future.

The projects that I've found the most enjoyable are not the ones that you see advertised by recruiters and companies; Kubernetes, cutting-edge, greenfield projects, massive cloud accounts... meh.

Some fun stuff I've done or would like to do:

• Upgrading that weird service everyone is accidentally relying on but afraid to touch
• While money pours into LLMs in healthcare, fax machines were still used every day
• Working out the "low-level" part of the system colleagues put off for 2 years because nobody wanted to read through the boring 400-page ISO spec
• Maintaining that abandoned 500K line Java system with most errors being RuntimeException with a null description
• Working in small teams, max 8-10 people

Any tips to characterise this kind of work to focus my job search? I know it's different from working at a software company pumping out features.

Tight deadlines and shoestring resources don't bother me (as long as I get my salary!). Having people who don't take it all super seriously along the way is super important.

How do I look for this? Trial & error? I feel like there must be... consultancies? ... working on these kinds of projcets. Perhaps there's some name or buzzwords that I need to use? Or would I need to talk with one of those mega big consultancies like Accenture?

Of course very open to the possibility that I'm being totally unrealistic and way too picky in a down market.

My bread and butter is working in Go, Python, backend and OS stuff. Networking, Linux, BSDs, that kinda thing.

Thanks all!

I am privacy conscious so I would like to use my proton.me account, but I wanted some advice. Should I use my gmail account for career related purposes or should a proton.me address be fine?

When I come across such infographics with tips, I sometimes wonder, if you follow all these tips, then where will you find the time to program? Of course, all this is useful, but every developer knows how much you want to get done with all public affairs and immerse yourself in the code, especially if it is the code of a project that you love. And on the contrary, if you have to write a rotten project, with a stupid team, while working for a mercantile scumbag, no matter what you do, you will be sick of work. What is the conclusion here? Either you do what you love; or love what you do. And you will have much more free time. What about burnout? We are all phoenixes...

It was an internship for a full-stack developer role. I was given two days - today is the final day, and I did not even start with the project as I was too stressed to complete the task, worrying about designing and modelling the database part, and because I have a really vague idea about system design. The skill requirements for the project are NextJS and MERN stack - which makes little sense. It said nothing about state management library, so I was also really confused about that.

Here are the requirement of the task project:

• make use of NextJS
• create a LinkedIn clone, without the feeds
• must have shareable short-link profile
• should be SEO-optimized
• should provide API for creating and editing profile
• should make use of good UI practices
• explain the reasoning behind the system design decisions
• explain the steps required to run this application
• use of ChatGPT was allowed
• share this on GitHub

I think that I was being fooled - that I was being made to work on a project for free, and that this test is very unreasonable and a big red-flag into the startup's WLB. Just wanted feedback on whether I was being unreasonable?

Edit: Here's what the listing says:

Are you a passionate Full Stack Development intern looking for an exhilarating opportunity? Look no further! , an innovative company, is seeking a talented intern with expertise in Node.js, JavaScript, ReactJS, HTML, CSS, MongoDB, and Next.js. Join our fast-paced team and gain invaluable experience in a dynamic work environment.

Selected intern's day-to-day responsibilities include:

• Collaborate with the development team to design and implement user-friendly web applications using cutting-edge technologies
• Develop and maintain scalable backend systems using Node.js and MongoDB to ensure efficient data management and retrieval
• Create visually stunning and responsive frontend interfaces utilizing ReactJS, HTML, and CSS to deliver an exceptional user experience
• Conduct thorough testing and debugging to ensure optimum performance and seamless functionality across different platforms
• Assist in optimizing website performance by analyzing and refining code, and implementing best practices
• Contribute to the development of RESTful APIs, integrating with third-party services to enhance application capabilities
• Stay updated with the latest industry trends and emerging technologies, sharing insights and participating in team discussions to drive innovation

If you have a hunger for knowledge, a strong work ethic, and a desire to make a meaningful impact, apply now to become a part of the team. Ready to revolutionize the world of web development? We can't wait to meet you!

The reddit cscareerquestions is all doom and gloom 100% of the time so I don't think I'd get a real answer there so I came here.

I am feeling pretty lost right now. I started at a local company in 2017 initially just as a shipper. They were like 5 dudes in the middle of nowhere running an online retail store and so after shipping was done I had a lot of downtime. They were doing a lot of stuff really inefficiently because of some tech debt they had accumulated, and a lot of that work was getting pawned off on me because I was the new guy. Well, I didn't wanna do that so I started learning programming, specifically Python, and made a bunch of applications over a few years that automated/worked around/replaced that old broken stuff. This ended up becoming a really important part of everyone's work day and my software has saved them 1000s of man-hours annually and honestly I think that is a conservative estimate. My work in part helped them grow their product offerings significantly because they weren't having to do a bunch of stuff manually anymore. (Inventory updates, Customer order and tracking updates, Updating/pulling stuff from databases, eventually integrated my stuff with some vendor APIs who offered them, web scraping to get info on hundreds of thousands of products and more!)

In 2019 I decided I really enjoyed doing this and wanted to get paid to do it for real, so I went back to school for computer science. December 2023 I graduated with a 3.42 GPA. And I've had almost no interviews. I was really close to landing one position through a hiring manager I knew personally working with .NET, but right before I was hired the CEO closed the team and shifted priorities. Since then, I've had absolutely nothing and I've exhausted all my other connections in the industry with similar results.

I've been applying constantly. I know the market is in a bad spot right now for juniors and entry-level people, but I can't even get anyone to respond to my applications and I'm feeling pretty down about it. I feel like I could make an impression if I got into a room with somebody and could talk about my previous job, but I'm just not getting to that point.

I think I really fucked up prioritizing working at said company making software instead of internships and now I'm feeling screwed. Am I screwed? Am I overreacting? Do I just need to keep at it or do I need to go back for my master's? I really don't want to do that... I'm not sure I can financially do that. I dunno. Give me advice?

I'm a career transitioner looking to get a higher paying job working as a Web Developer. I've been self teaching for a bit over 3.5 years now and am currently working part time at a very small start up while still working on my own personal projects and slowly researching and studying CS topics.

I have been networking, mainly online and some locally. I also have been trying desperately to get away from mainstream social media platforms (left instagram, left reddit). But I find myself being highly encouraged by those within my network to keep my LinkedIn profile maintained and regularly post as a part of appealing to recruiters. I dislike the LinkedIn platform and what I perceive to be toxic positivity that proliferates on there. I also have reservations on hosting all my code on Github, but that seems to be what everyone defaults to for showcasing their portfolio.

I generally want to use alternatives to FAANG products whenever possible, and even though it's not in the acronym, I include Microsoft in this list. I'd like to move away from using Microsoft products (LinkedIn) and their acquired platforms (Github) without nuking my potential career prospects.

This is more asking about long term advice as I believe as a new developer, this may not be possible (?).

Nevertheless, I'm seeking any advice on how to still advance my career in tech while staying off of these major platforms.

Thanks in advance for any advice.

TLDR; New web developer wants advice on how to continue to advance career without use of major media platforms, specifically LinkedIn, but also Github.

Curious to see the answers, as I know some people just work a few hours per day

If you look up my username on LinkedIn, you can get a good summary of my career. Most of my jobs have been go in, fix things, then on to the next thing; though the immediate COVID period was pretty bumpy in that regard (shorter-term gigs). I'm pretty sure I need another cert or two at this point, but have had some family issues distracting me the past few months from studying/focusing on what's next. I'm also working three different things right now (1 5-10hr/wk PT job + 2 intermittent gigs). I can't remember the job market being this bad or picky in my life; and I actively wonder how I'd be able to leave the field entirely. It feels like everyone wants a unicorn on the cheap these days.

Something with a "solid" 10-15/hrs a week would be an improvement over what I have going on right now; let alone full-time work. How do I even find such a thing on LinkedIn/Indeed/whatnot? Reddit's gotten me at least two jobs in the past, but the state of things there seems to be less promising these days. I figured I'd ask here to see if anyone else is in a similar situation, and how they're managing.

Thank you.

I just graduated with a B.S. in CS in May 2023. I've been working at a big non tech company in a data engineering type of role with AWS and Terraform. My team's culture, team members, and PTO hours are great. The work is easy, but I also don't learn much from it.

I've only been at the job for three months, but I was just headhunted by a recruiter for a tech company similar to iRobot ( they don't sell robot vacuums, but they sell hardware with similar levels of tech behind it and are in the same stage of growth and have also been recently bought out by a magma company). They are offering about 25% higher base than my current total comp. Both jobs are remote btw.

However, I am wary of the notorious culture of the magma company that bought it and how often that new parent company fires its devs. I am also wary of how a 3 month job would look like on my resume.

Edit: yes, this is in the US