I'm not averse to lying or exaggerating on my CV but keep in mind that many employers will ask for proof of your university degree before you start the job (i.e. a scan of your diploma), and if you fake that you would be basically committing fraud which is much more serious than a little white lie on your CV.
Have you tried doing some freelance work through sites like upwork.com? You could try offering a super low rate to compensate your lack of experience, then increase the rate once you get a few projects under your belt.
>Wondering if anyone has any recommendations on what websites to practice on. I'm only a mid level developer with around 5 years experience, so I don't think I am ready for leetcode style tests.
Leetcode problems are designed to be agnostic to years of experience – the main requirements are basic programming knowledge and undergraduate-level data structures and algorithms. You're probably best off just having a go at Leetcode and seeing how you do: try starting with the Easy-level questions in the Blind 75, you may find them surprisingly accessible.
Iterator allows you to iterate over elements without explicit index ie for element in array
as opposed to for i in range(len(array)):
; there are iterator questions on LeetCode too (https://leetcode.com/problems/peeking-iterator/, https://leetcode.com/problems/flatten-nested-list-iterator/)
Try to complete the Blind 75 LC-list (https://leetcode.com/discuss/general-discussion/460599/blind-75-leetcode-questions ) and read "Cracking the Coding Interview".
For which level are you interviewing? I think L3/L4 interviews don't require system design. You should be able to solve LC mediums in 20-30 mins. Every interview involves a bit of luck, if you are unlucky you could also get hard problems. Make sure to communicate with your interviewer. Clarify everything that is not clear to you. Listen/read everything and pay attention to details (for example: sorted array => binary search could be useful).
Rust is seeing more adoption nowadays than it once did, and there are more openings than there used to be, but it's still relatively niche. I understand it has made its way into Facebook at least, but I'm not sure where else it's used at that level. There's a list of companies that use it here: https://www.rust-lang.org/production/users
Edit: there will be a few names on there that you'll probably recognise at least, including NPM, Dropbox, Canonical, Atlassian, Deliveroo, Coursera and Cloudflare, to name a few.
I never took a Java test with Qualified but I can tell you that Qualified is the organization who built Codewars, which is a very popular website to practice algorithms and code tests.
I suggest you to subscribe and take do some "kata" (challanges) just to have a feel of what to expect from the test suit, BUT keep in mind that Qualified is more "real world" focused than Codewars as stated in their website.
Unlike codewars, you could be asked to solve a particolar problem in an existing project set up by interviewers or to build something from scratch.
Basically, you could be asked to come up with a solution for a made up "real world" problem and run it against some unit tests.
For some inspiration https://old.reddit.com/r/cscareerquestions/comments/p2pmvm/how_i_went_from_jobless_to_70k_with_no/
You can do it. Age is just a number https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/stories-from-300-developers-who-got-their-first-tech-job-in-their-30s-40s-and-50s-64306eb6bb27/
Pick a platform / stack and focus on that. The quickest is the frontend webdev because there are sooo many jobs for that with a varying range of companies with a varying hiring bar.
Stick to freecodecamp for webdev.
> I think L3/L4 interviews don't require system design
Not true, L4 has definitely system design. (https://leetcode.com/discuss/interview-experience/942008/google-l4-zurich-sept-nov-2020-reject)
I know! We can set up a spreadsheet, and we have discussed as much internally. However, end-user navigation is horrible. It mostly comes down one-or the other, because it isn't a great idea to have two ways to center your salary. The best compromise is to use spreadsheet and then have a bot post the data to the subreddit.
As you say, there are great benefits by consistent inputs with respect to searchability and processing, quite possibly also with respect to som more user-friendly display. I have looked a bit on AirTable to serve this use case.
At some point it would be useful to compare tax-levels, benefits, and salaries across Europe. Although that's not important right now.
Imho bullet points are just fine for a CV.
If you want to explain more your experience in paragraphs, this is to be done in the cover letter. Not in the CV.
Finally, I find the 'skill' sections needed.
u/EmotionalGod : Overall, not sure what is going wrong with your CV. Perhaps it should be more focused on a specific role (eg. Data Engineer, Backend Engineer, Frontend Engineer, Full-Stack Engineer), and mention this title on top of the page. The content doesn't look that bad to me. Maybe you should consider a fancier CV template, preferably in LaTeX like this one.
You need to completely revamp your CV. Try this template https://www.overleaf.com/latex/templates/jakes-resume/syzfjbzwjncs. Keep it at one page too.
Hmm what do you think your algorithm did wrong? Maybe you messed up for single digits or 0?
Because from what I can tell, this is similar to https://leetcode.com/problems/maximum-69-number/ but in this case, you just place a 5 before the first digit which is smaller than 5 (or do the opposite).
All projects have challenges. If you dont have metrics then describe the project in Situation, Action, Result (SAR) format, with emphasis on results. For example, have a look at this example. You can look at the linkedin profiles of similar people for reference.
As shown in the example, have a small section at top which describes who you are. You can call it your personal value statement. It will set the tone for the reader, otherwise, s/he will keep on guessing who you are. CV is your advertisement not your biography.
So work on the content and dont think too much about CV format, fonts and heading size or the content of cover letters. In my 15 years of working and interviewing, I have never fully read a cover letter.
May be the HR person would like to read it but most people dont.
> the first on python
Learning the basics of the language before you start uni is a good idea--it gives you some breathing room to focus on the higher-level concepts the first week. If you're the a person like me who likes the straightforwardness of working through a book, http://openbookproject.net/thinkcs/python/english3e/ is free and great. I taught myself the basics of Python with it ^(well, an earlier edition. This was in 2008) over two weeks in a cabin up in the woods of Maine followed by a couple days a week over the following two months. https://kapeli.com/dash is good for if you want to download stackoverflow offline and try the same sort of thing.
Have you heard about this book ?
I have two friends who interned at Jane Street 7 years and 5 years ago. One now runs this blog. Both were really into functional programming.
Start off with Learn You a Haskell for Great Good is a decent resource, though Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs might be a better intro.
I can save you the two years, read in order:
You can probably find MOOC's for the Discrete mathematics and the Algorithms course if you want some instruction as well.
I don't think it's expected to have deep thoughts about software from a junior developer. Those thoughts will come with more experience and when you had time to try different things.
Also using Git with just the IDE is fine and sufficient for 95% of all use cases. Though you should at least read the first few chapters (like the first 3 at least) of the Pro Git book to get an idea how Git works.
Actually, getting random certifications may not be useful but if u need some structured learning materials as an entry point to tech, check out udacity. They’re expensive but if u do it in just one month, i think it’s ok. Or coursera and edx. Certificates themselves don’t matter but the content may help you. https://www.udacity.com/enterprise/business
It depends on what your background is. There are two main routes: 1) people from an English/Humanities background with a technical knowledge, 2) people from an engineering background that can write and that have chosen documentation.
Both options are very rare because writers don't tend to have much technical knowledge and engineers aren't usually good writers and could get other, better paid jobs.
In my experience, technical knowledge counts for more when breaking in but, once you're in, your writing is infinitely more important. Because of this, you'll have an easier time getting in if you're already a SWE or a CS student or whatever.
Basically:
Without getting into the weeds of the job, that's my super top-level advice.
Let me know if you want to know anything else!
Read Nassim Taleb he has some great insight, the one I would suggest the most is fooled by randomness
Righto, nice one. Couple more thoughts:
Your cv looks great, and would be super visually impressive if you were to give it direct, ie to a recruiter or via a referal, where you know it's not going to get screened.
Maybe consider something more plain. This is the one I was recommended recently.
mmm I guess some easier mediums.
JP asked me some trig questions + math stuff.
Goldmans asked me a variant of: https://leetcode.com/problems/subsets/ along with like 5 other problems such as some binary weird stuff.
It wasn't too hard though, their math problems were harder and confusing.
In 1 year you can learn more. Have a look at free code camp to see some different technologies. I think it is a good place to start for a beginner. Know that just free code camp won't be enough and you have to make your own projects / research too.
Well with CS you can certainly earn a living, but CS is broad so you may have to select where do you want to focus, frontend, backend, cloud, devops, data engineering, data science.
You can look at freecodeacademy as a starting point.
Have a look at the roadmaps here frontend, backend and devops career path.
My suggestion: go for a professional level cloud certification (AWS, Azure). There is a lot of demand, and offers a well structured learning path.
Trying landing in a big city like Berlin, Munich etc. In these cities, language will be less of a barrier especially at junior positions. As you progress, there is no progression without language skills. Nearly 7 out 10 jobs will expect you speak some German.
Please also keep in mind that career progression is much slower than in US.
You can write here or DM me for any questions.
Good luck.
>https://www.overleaf.com/latex/templates/jakes-resume/syzfjbzwjncs
Well it depends on the company. I think American companies only want this type of resume. But for German companies, they usually want a two pager.
> Algorithms and Data structures
Really appreciate all the advice.
I am currently working on coding challenges in LeetCode. There is a series that specializes in interview questions (the series is separated into sections for Linked List, Trees, Sorting and Searching, Dynamic Coding, etc)
https://leetcode.com/explore/interview/card/top-interview-questions-easy/
Currently, I am spending most of the day applying and doing those coding challenges.
I've been trying to improve my portfolio by trying to work on a project, but...
-I'm quite exhausted after the job searching and doing coding challenges.
-I'm focusing on the coding challenges since I'm rusty and not used to them yet. I've taken online coding interviews from 2 companies that I was applying to and couldn't finish on time and didn't do so well.
-It's hard to motivate myself to do projects when there are no deadlines etc
Perhaps, I might have enough projects. I just need a better way like a website or a more detailed description on github to present past projects as you said.
Sorry for the long text. No need to reply. It's nice to talk to someone who was in a similar situation with me haha
Do you remember if it was possible to do the test with Python?
https://leetcode.com/discuss/interview-question/344650/Amazon-Online-Assessment-Questions
Any of these maybe ;)?
Self taught is totally fine but be prepared for the coding interview questions which have remarkably little to do with what you need to be a web developer. Sites like https://leetcode.com or https://thedailybyte.dev can really help prepare for the interview process.
A few things come to mind:
What do you want to work on? Which fields are you applying for and why?
Have you added your FOSS contributions and other projects (courses, etc.) to your CV? - I'd recommend doing this even if it makes it 2 pages. You can link to significant PRs.
Do you clearly explain your logic during interview problems? i.e. it's more important to explain what you are planning to do (like we can get an O(N) solution to the subarray sum divisible by K problem due to the associativity of the modulo operator), than just rush to implement it.
Overall, your current salary isn't bad for 2 years experience though. I was on 32k at that point, and now work at a FAANG (6 years later) for ~70k TC. Don't be misled by the US salaries.
Use anything that you think is your best work! We appreciate people who’re passionate on their work. Depend which role you want to land on? Usually for gameplay programmers roles having a good knowledge of Unity C# (especially for mobile) and Unreal C++ (highly requested atm, suggest you to try your skill at HackerRank), .js/html/css is very useful if you applying for web development, but showing the basis you know a programming language should be a soft skills that is very valuable, so at the end is just your preference which language you want to show off. For AR is still very niche, but you can definitely have an advantage if you know Game engine integrations with ARKit/ARcore. You should keep in mind to target your portfolio to each company and role, and you need to catch the eye of the decision maker in few seconds, so I recommend to keep the portfolio simple and easy to navigate, also some job roles require you to have a GitHub portfolio :)
FYI there's a free course and overview of what each cert looks for here:
The developer AWS cert is actually harder and more valuable than the associate architect according to that post
My company has an office in Berlin and after corona jobs will resume to being on-site. Datadog seems similar but I don't think they have dev jobs in DE. Gitlab is 100% remote. Devs in Moldova get (good) Moldova level salaries. You can read more about it here: https://about.gitlab.com/handbook/total-rewards/compensation/compensation-calculator/. Spoiler aler: they are not making 6 figures. Neither are German grads, BTW.
Hint: if you want to work for NTT you don't need to apply in Tokio. Plenty of people get hired by NTT in Germany. And Cisco. And Intel. List goes on.
An office chair is your most important purchase. No matter what you buy, ensure it’s is highly adjustable, and well regarded.
I’m a huge Herman Miller fan (I have a Sayl chair at home), but you’ve got a number of options. You can save a tonne of cash by purchasing used off of office supply companies (I bought my chair used).
Gitlab’s employee handbook is an excellent source of information when setting up a home office: https://about.gitlab.com/handbook/spending-company-money/equipment-examples/#office-furniture
I would suggest going for London perm - the salaries are better there and more roles are going fully remote even after the pandemic. You might not be keen on fully remote, but if you are already remote, presumably this makes no odds.
If you get work with a US firm that handles internationally, you probably won't end up on a US salary. For example, I have heard that GitLab pays around 50% of the SV salary in my UK location, which is certainly not too bad. Their salary calculator is worth a look - it is totally open.
> they're adjusted by the market rate paid in that area
Correct. If anyone wants a very good rationale, read here:
https://about.gitlab.com/handbook/total-rewards/compensation/#why-we-pay-local-rates
https://about.gitlab.com/blog/2019/02/28/why-we-pay-local-rates/
These are not references. If I write
"The best developer I've ever worked with" - Bill Gates
on my CV, that doesn't mean I have a reference from Bill Gates.
If you want to pass HR screens (and ATS systems) follow a well established template. For example Awesome CV is a good one.
Stick to the classic sections (Experience, Skills, Education) and follow the STAR method for the bullet points. For the references just write "References available upon request" and maybe ask your references to write a recommendation on LinkedIn.
Consider dropping interests, unless it's something really interesting or related to code (you have a youtube channel, twitch, robotics ...)
I have put in the general interest similar to yours and nobody ever mentioned them. If you want to leave them just really short.
Skills section (Write only skills). Mention in order of proficiency. Write only the name of the language or skills/program. Eg. Python, Java, HTML, CSS, JavaScript, Adobe Photoshop ...
Move technical experience below and work experience on 2nd spot. 3 year gap on work experience it's bad, I know you were still studying, but did you do anything else? Consider adding group projects or filling it somewhat.
IMO find a good latex template and follow that structure, (Obviously keep education on top as new grad) I've suggested this on another thread:
https://www.overleaf.com/latex/templates/keval-morabia-cv-slash-resume-template/crhfqbkmjfvp
I have nothing against the sidebar, and I think it has got a good look! However, the content within it is mostly redundant for the space it occupies. If you think you can fill it up with great content, the sidebar would be awesome!
>I specifically chose this layout as to not have the umpteenth Awesome CV clone :)
I feel that too many people get caught up with differentiating and innovating on their CV format and layout + colors rather than the content. Your overall format looks great ofc, but I think spending more time on writing about your projects/awards would be better. I think a seasoned HR wouldn't be too concerned about the format/sidebar and would straight go to your education/projects.
>I only included the photo because in school it has been drilled into us to always include a photo in our CV.
Wow! I had no idea. At least here in Hong Kong, we're strongly recommended not to add our photo since it just opens the room to unnecessary bias.
Good luck with your applications!
> Your name can be the header. Right under the name, you can have your website, email, Linkedin, and GitHub as a sort of subheading. icons are great, but not too important.
I'm not entirely sure what you mean by this. Do you want me to completely remove the sidebar? I'm asking because I specifically chose this layout as to not have the umpteenth Awesome CV clone :)
​
> You have also written your email twice in the sidebar to fill up space.
If you're referring to the "Student @ *University name*", that's on me. I forgot to replace the @ with the written "at". It's to be read as "Student at TU Dresden".
​
> The photo is completely unnecessary for a CS role.
I only included the photo because in school it has been drilled into us to always include a photo in our CV.
​
> Language ratings are subjective without formal certifications.
I actually do have formal certifications for English and French, so that's fine. Another commenter suggested I remove Russian as it's not on a level that would be useful in day-to-day activities anyways.
​
> Soft skills are space-takers mainly used by college freshmen. [...]
Fair point. That, as well as the point about interests has been brought up by another commenter too and I'll rework that section.
​
Thanks for the detailed breakdown these are a lot of points to consider! :)
I also have a STEM degree and decided it was time for a change due to getting bored and hitting a ceiling in terms of career outlook. I started studying part time whilst working full time with the Open University BSc(Hons) Computing & IT. I was also using all my spare time to do bootcamp courses on Udemy.com. After a year or so I was approached by a recruiter and got a job working as a Junior Software Developer.
I think the main thing is as other posts suggested is being self-driven, show initiative and basically do as much as you can with the time you have. I previously worked in academia with my first STEM degree so maybe that's why I feel like a degree will give me a good foundation/tick a box. I wouldn't go so far as to call it a waste of money depending on what you want out of it. I really enjoy the challenge of studying my second degree, even though I have no social life now.
I'd just keep an eye out on Jobindex.dk, jobfinder.dk and the like.
Your experience (as brief as you mention it) does sound OK to me, but that will of course entirely depend on what field you're interested in (consultancy work, finance, manufactoring or whatever field you could be making e.g. analysis work - which could be just about any place I guess).
You could of course always try to improve, doesn't hurt anyone...
The market is less saturated the more specialized the position gets. I guess data analysis is one of those.
For salary, check out https://mit.ida.dk/loenberegner (if you're a member). I input an estimate of your details and got the following: https://gofile.io/?c=R17uhJ (39.600 DKK mean, 40.700 DKK median).
My portfolio is an angular-based website, hosted with github pages. You'll need to do some small extra steps to accommodate the router, but it's really not hard.
As for styling, I'd recommend you begin with Material Design, as it's very easy to integrate and feature rich. https://material.angular.io/
https://www.topcoder.com/challenges ?
What kind of algorithms do you need for CRUD/UI apps? Your goal is to remember millions of API calls, hundred frameworks to complete tasks in minutes and do not invent anything.
Making idiomatic framework/platform code you archive generic / reusable / scalable software (as platform designer take care of it as long as you don't push beyond platform/framework idelogy).
You can't really prepare for the take home before seeing it. -- But whatever it is make sure you write unit tests for the code!
As for the other interview, your best bet is probably just to know the CV and practice some coding problems (e.g. https://leetcode.com/ )
I presume you have already checked glassdoor?
Saying "I don't know" is usually better than trying to bullshit your way though.
From my experience (also self-taught) companies don't really give you any 'slack' when it comes to interviews: If you are competing against oxbridge comp sci grads then your algo knowledge needs to be as every bit as good as theirs (in order to get the job, that is).
If you don't have the time to study then expect to fail these interviews hard (its still worth going though!). My advice would just be to listen to the problem they give you and try to solve it in anyway you can. Lots of "algo problems" can be solved the slow and the fast way; the slow way is often nested for-loops and is often not that hard to find. The efficient algorithm solution will often require that you have seen/studied some similar problem before. The below puzzle is a decent example of this:
https://leetcode.com/problems/sliding-window-maximum/
A simple solution to it is just to start at i, and then for each i add up the next k numbers and return the largest group you found. This solution is about O(N^2). The reason this puzzle is listed as "hard" is because solving it in O(N) is not easy.
For a junior position you might find that a super-slow (but correct) implementation is good enough to get the job.
Frontend web stuff (React etc) - company is Webflow, I work on various stuff in our "designer", which is basically Photoshop for websites. Just about the most interesting work you could find in frontend-land imo!
I've stopped and started trying to learn to code a few times but I started again in earnest this time last year.
I had seen a free bootcamp that started in October that I wanted to do, so I spent 4 months doing the prerequisites for that (was working full time too) as the application deadline was July. So between April-October I taught myself the foundations and then October-Feb did the course full time.
So for the first 6 months I didn't do that much to be honest, I could have definitely compressed this year down. Also you don't need a bootcamp, you can learn it all yourself!
I feel ready now but I have been told by lots of people to start applying for jobs from the beginning, because it's all good practise and you might surprise yourself and get something.
I think that if you can do something like this FCC project you are at a good point - https://www.freecodecamp.org/challenges/build-a-voting-app
I use ghost api with gatsby. A ghost cms server runs on Heroku. Whenever a change happens to the ghost server, it triggers a build on Netlify for this Gatsby Site that queries the ghost api and rebuilds the static site.
Checkout my blog at https://blog.udaya.me
I also see that https://hashnode.dev is a better way to do things nowadays. It is free, has free domain name alteration and more.
Where are you looking?
Are you not finding any openings (Stepstone finds about 100 positions for the Keyword Network Engineer when you check "Ohne Berufserfahrung" meaning without experience) or do you not get interviews?
While a lot of German companies do advertise their positions on the big job portals, my boyfriend and I actually found our jobs on the website of companies. He found a job as data manager at University hospital and I found a job as Software Test Engineer at a company nearby.
For Germany I can also recommend opening a profile on Xing.com, which is similar to LinkedIn. There are also recruiters active on that page, so you might have some luck this way.
Hello, please have a look here: companies and personal data are fake, all the rest is correct (dates included). I'm 40 years old if this can help
6 week vacations is not really the norm in Europe either.
30 hours is also on the low end in Europe (surprisingly USA working hours are not as bad as you can imagine)
https://clockify.me/working-hours#:~:text=Working%20hours%20in%20EU,the%2048%2Dhour%20limit)..)
Yes, it is possible. In fact you could make much more in technical sales, since their comp is based on the size of the win, plus a lot of other cash incentives to win more.In most organizations, there is a concept of profit center vs cost center. If you are part of the profit center (money making guys) then you enjoy a lot of perks.
Explore roles like Inside Sales Representatives, these guys reach out to prospective customers and generate leads which may develop into a sell. Or start as a junior Account Manager. My personal path was Software Dev > Project Management > IT Consulting > Customer Success.
In short any customer facing role can be a door opener for you.
Lastly, dont try to be too "sales-y". The era of "car sales" man style pushy sales is over. Read the The Challenger Sale to get an idea of the modern sales.
Back in the day (e.g. Jan 2020) when I worked in an office I used to sit on a Haworth Zody 89. It seemed suitable. Ergonomically, it's adjustable in the right ways. For about 10 years I have suffered (every 2 years or so) with nerve pain in my arms, caused by upper-torso inflexibility and exacerbated by sitting coding for long periods. Also around the office I see a lot of chairs with split coverings on the arm rests. So maybe the materials on the Zody are not that great.
When the pandemic caused everybody in my shop to have to work from home, I realised that continuing to use my £25 Office Depot typist's chair (similar to this one) would be a bad plan. So I actually did buy an Aeron.
Relatedly or not, I haven't had nerve pain since, despite actually sitting in that chair for more hours per day than I would have done in the office (because I no longer get up and walk around to get to meetings, or have meetings in a different chair).