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vvijay03

236 karma · joined August 27, 2013

cs.wisc.edu/~vijayc
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vvijay03··on Should I work at Tesla/SpaceX or Microsoft/Google?
I think these are all great choices, and you really cannot go wrong with any one of these choices.

Some things to help you decide:

- Look at the team you will be working with. "Tesla" sounds exciting. "Writing device drivers for USB components for cars" does not. The team matters. Which team is most exciting?

- Look at your immediate manager. Does he/she seem like a person you would enjoy working with?

- Look at the other members of the team. People you can learn from? People you can get along with?

Good luck!

vvijay03··on MIT CS faculty candidates got 73 job offers this year
This is very interesting. 7 system hires! The market is predicted to be good for the next year as well.
vvijay03··on Ask HN: Totally depressed with my situation
Hang in there. Things will get better.

I know a lot of people who feel the same way. In computer science, you can make your own path to a job:

1. Do interesting projects in open source 2. Using (1), apply for internships - offer to work unpaid 3. Using (2), get relevant experience on your resume 4. Apply for jobs - there are interesting startups that look more at skill than degrees.

These steps have nothing to do with your degree at all. You are quite lucky to be in CS where the skills matter more than the degree - make use of it!

vvijay03··on Ask HN: Any PhDs from non-CS fields switch into Development?
I've know someone with a Physics PhD who is working at Microsoft in development.
vvijay03··on My Parents Were So Excited About the New CEO of Microsoft
The real purpose of the author was to champion "more humane" leadership, and projecting Sathya as the evil, cold, ruthless leader seems to have their way to do that. The title is link bait more than anything else.
vvijay03··on Drinking a Blue Screen of Death in the back streets of Tokyo
I love the drink names: Blue Screen of Death, and Kernel Panic !
vvijay03··on Why We Use OCaml
Good read. I really liked how the author concretely defined the things they use in OCaml, instead of just saying "functional programming" and waving their hands.
vvijay03··on Show HN: Paul Graham's Essays ordered by Popularity
Very nice! What is the unit of the numbers? K hits?
vvijay03··on Show HN: Suprise50x
This is really sweet :)
vvijay03··on So, you want to study computer science
There are many ways to define computer science. Please keep the target audience (high school kids in India) in mind. I could have defined it as the study and design of abstractions instead, but I don't think it would have made a whole lot of sense to high school kids.

That said, I agree that this may not be optimal way to phrase it. What would be your way to get it across?

vvijay03··on So, you want to study computer science
I partially agree with you: computer science definitely requires math, but the amount of math required is generally over-estimated (at least in the target audience in India).

There are plenty of interesting things you can do in computer science without needing a lot of math. The goal was to motivate high school kids in India, and to tell them you don't need to afraid of the math. Many of these kids will obviously not end up doing research or breakthroughs, and that's entirely OK.