What should I look for in my first SWE job? | Hacker News Reader

What should I look for in my first SWE job?

2 pointss0rr0wskill11 comments

I'm lucky to have 2 offers in this market as a New Grad, however they are vastly different and both have their pros and cons so I'm having trouble deciding.

They're both in MCOL suburb areas and are decent names within their own industry, but they're not super popular or tech companies. One is notably higher pay ($110k USD vs $90k) but a lot worse WLB (in person 5 days, 45-50hrs a week, almost no vacation/sick days, notably higher rate of turnover) vs the other co. is hybrid, ~30-35 hours/week, slower moving, and a lot more vacation/sick days overall. Both have decent benefits.

The tech stacks for both companies vary a bit but they're both on the legacy side of things with a lot of work done maintaining old crappy code, also it's really team dependent (I don't know what team I will be on). The caveat for the second lower-paying company is that I will have the chance to try out two different teams for 6 months to see which I like.

My goal is either FAANG or a major tech company within a couple years. I would love the extra money but I also value WLB quite a bit so its either between putting my head down and grinding or trying to enjoy life after uni. The learning opportunities at either company seem to be completely variable depending on which team I get put on.

I see a problem in the fact, that you don't know which team you will be in.

In my opinion this is the most important question. The best offer probably is the one where you learn more. Usually, it is the one where the most sophisticated team members are in, given that these members are not occupated 100% of the time and you can participate.

It's a hard decision, but if you have no family I'd probably pick the higher paid one. Working more usually means learning more. However, try to find out if the bad WLB leads to a toxic team. This could be very frustrating and even unhealthy in the long run.

Yeah a lot of the WLB complaints seem to be team based with around half the people I talked to seem to have acceptable WLB (40-45) whereas others are working 50+ hours

Trying out 2 teams for 6 months each means they expect years out of you. A full year to just to pick a team is too slow for a new grad who wants to do FAANG. I would recommend to take the other one, do your best, soak up all the knowledge you can, and shoot for leaving for another higher role in a couple years.

Unless the $90k role has a very clear path for you to reach the next job level, you want to pick the job that pays more. First jobs are mostly throw-away jobs in your overall career. Focus on matching your 401k and the learning the ropes of the real world.

IMO, WLB is least valuable immediately after getting out of school. Now's the time to put your head down, get some work done, and advance your career. The difference is only 15 hours a week, but after a year or two you'll have put in several thousand more hours than the version of yourself with better WLB. Especially if your goal is to get into a major tech company or FAANG.

"Enjoy life after uni" - you've just started, welcome to the real grind. There are real rewards to be had out here, in any way you desire, if you "work" hard. The fun part is, you can define what "work" means if you play your cards right

This is probably one of the few comments you'll get like this, most people will tell you "enjoy life, etc", so just keep this in mind whatever you decide

How does WLB change over time for most people?

At some point if I transition to FAANG/something closer to my ideal, I'd definitely like to grind so I doubt I would have time for much outside of work.

    At some point if I transition to FAANG/something closer to my ideal, I'd definitely like to grind so I doubt I would have time for much outside of work.

If you want to make that transition, you're gonna be competing with people who work hard from day 1, and not just when it's time to make the jump to FAANG. It's really hard to beat people who put in the time for their craft, in the long-run

You don't have to work at a "name-brand" company to have an enjoyable, challenging and rewarding career. Most people don't. Ignore everyone who tells you that the name of the company you work for, or length of your title are what matter in life

    How does WLB change over time for most people?

I think for a lot of people, they tend to have the fewest commitments immediately out of college. Life responsibilities tend to pile up as you get older, which makes it nice to have "banked" a bunch of good will, hard work, and connections from earlier in your career

I have no faith that the extra 15 hours of grind is worth anything. Let's compare for example:

55h/week job because time sucked up by lengthy meetings and status reports.

40h/week job then spend 15h/w spare time learning algorithms and design interviews.

Both are still 55 h/w of grinding. Worrying about WLB and not keeping your head down would be, "I'm off the clock, no more working on anything related to work in any capacity today".

Prepping for interviews outside of work would still very much count as "grinding" in my opinion.

I was going to say this as well. If you haven't done competitive interviews, it's easy to underestimate how much prep / skill is required.

Go with better WLB. Just in case, also ask 10k more. Most likely you will get 5k more.

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