Ask HN: Should I give up on a career in tech? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Should I give up on a career in tech?

12 pointsdaaan11 comments

About me: Me and my friends grew up programming games in the 90s on a Mac SE. Went to college, still loved programming, majored in CS. Did well in CS, impressed professors. But now that I'm job hunting and interviewing with Harvard and Stanford grads, I'm a little embarrassed by the state school on my resume.

After school, joined Teach for America because it was competitive and I got accepted. I figured it couldn't hurt to have on my resume. Ended up teaching for 4 years so I could get a clear credential (doesn't expire), never really liked it that much, quit. Now I'm unemployed and I've been looking for a career in technology, my real passion.

No success and I'm about to give up and go back to teaching. I've applied for software dev positions at many companies and gotten 1 response. Bombed the interview. I applied for a few dev support positions and had strong initial interest, but everything fizzled out.

I don't interview well. I've practiced a lot but when it comes down to it, I'm not a fast thinker and don't like being judged. Never have. I've worked on many hobby projects over the years and my "breakthrough ideas" always come when I'm in the shower or walking the dog or laying in bed at night. Relaxed situations. I also used to think I was smart because I was always able to overcome problems in my own dev projects, but after my interview experiences I'm now filled with self-doubt. In the days and weeks leading up to interviews, I don't sleep and have constant butterflies in my stomach -- I just obsessively study data structures and algorithms all day. And then when I bomb the interview, I get depressed for days. I just got an email from Apple to interview for a software dev role. Should I save myself the grief and turn it down? Should I go back to teaching?

tl;dr: love programming, really bad at interviews, considering turning down interview invite from Apple and going back to old career I didn't like.

TL;DR

Create github profile, fill with projects you make in your spare time, create linked in, link github profile. Job offers will flow in like you've never seen and many times you won't even have to do a technical interview because your profile proves your worth.

This means:

- Write tests for your repositories

- Have repositories that display your expertise (whether in one language or many)

- Keep up on trends depending on what area you want to be in (devops, backend, frontend, full-stack, data science, growth, etc.)

- Show some marketing initiative, small number of stars / forks, by sending to various blogs.

It may seem like a lot, but it takes maybe an hour a day.

No man, definitely don't give up like this. Try going on CrunchBase/AngelList and looking for companies that recently got big funding rounds and apply to work there. The bar of admission will be lower because they're eager to spend. Try new job boards like Hired/White Truffle that aren't as flooded.

Have you asked your friends/college classmates/college professors/alumni relations department for leads? If you haven't, start doing that YESTERDAY.

Also see if you can talk to some recruiters: They can meet you, see your personality, and then socially massage the hiring manager in your favor before/after your interview.

Finally, worst case scenario, suck up the cash/time hit and hire a career/interviewing coach or go back to school and get a M.S. to punt this stressful situation into the future.

If you love programming and have a C.S. degree, you can have a job soon. Maybe if you're bad at interviewing you won't get the most prestigious one, but you'll get one.

My experience is similar to yours. I have an SE sitting right here (still works!).

Being good at interviews comes with work experience. You get better at evaluating/profiling employers, and responding accordingly.

What I've come to believe is that at many of the big names, unless you're very highly specialized or have a very valuable, unique skill-set (I don't) - then you can expect to be treated like a cog (tested for strength, then run around on rote tasks until you're replaced). I no longer move forward with technical interviews, unless it's a very special opportunity (cool, fun, meaningful). That said - I'm sure working at Apple you'd have to chance to learn from some really talented people.

My guess is a startup might be a better fit for you at this point. Pick one where you be working with good senior engineers (key that they're nice people, who'll make good mentors). Work there a year or so, then find something better. Repeat.

Are you actively coding? You should be. Get on Github and either find a project or start one.

Interviewing is as much a matter of practice as innate skill or knowledge. There's some good advice in the responses here—try for some smaller companies, work on your own projects and build a github with some substance to it—but also, keep practicing interviews. It doesn't matter if you don't think you're qualified or will get the job. You'll be surprised one day at the contacts that come out of it.

Also, hit up meetups for your platform of choice. There's usually lots of willing help in those groups...

No, you shouldn't teach, but Apple doesn't necessarily sound like the right fit either. The issue with larger companies is mainly using the interview as an efficient screening mechanism, but it's always going to miss talent, such as interviewees in your situation. Have you thought about possibly a smaller / company? If technology is your passion and you have the skills, I would do everything in your power to show that you can work well with others, but just don't necessarily interview well.

There are lots of people applying for a job right now and employers cannot review every single resume and try and contact everyone. That said your Cover letter and Resume should be tailored for every contact (obviously, you likely do this already).

If you are being Interviewed the interview is pretty much over; you have to Interviewer now. As you said you are bad at interviews this is likely the your problem.

Apply for other positions that are not in the Fortune 500 list. Keep trying and change the companies you apply for and try and have fun.

Hardest part.

Where are you located and are you willing to relocate? We are looking for a html5 game developer at our agency. We are no Apple! We don't do code tests in the interview but we send you home with assets to build us a simple game to get an idea where you are at how fast you can learn and your general ability to write quality code and solve problems. If you are interested in taking the test let me know.

Do the interview but don't invest yourself emotionally. Approach the interview like you don't want the job (even if you do). If they like you, cool. If not, cool.

One thing you can try is contracting/consulting with an established firm. It got me into a couple of positions I'd have otherwise been screened out of, because I was able to bring what I know and can do to the table without fear of rejection or concern of being screened out.

Also, get out of your head. :)

Shoot me an email (address in my profile). I'm happy to spend 30 minutes to give you some interview pointers / talk about this issue.

recommend opensource contrib & projs as resume. train on interview, practice begets success. failure is a teacher to success, be it building a company or an interview. teaching is worthwhile but rarely fiscally rewarding. choices on what matters to you.

No.

Companies like Apple are the place where you can have the least impact.

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