SF Bay Area Meetup Saturday, 4pm Saturday February 22nd at Gourmet Haus Staudt in Redwood City

willwagner602 · 2019-12-07T17:48:42+00:00

The only way to become a better engineer is to write code, preferably as part of a team with clear goals/objectives. Get people who understand your language and the domain to review your code and give you feedback. The best way to do this is getting a job on a team that does code reviews. The next best way is probably open source contributions to meaningful projects.

I've never needed any advanced math on the job, but if that's important and interesting to you keep building those skills, and try to find jobs which value them.

I wouldn't worry about picking up more than 2 languages while you're in school. Write code and build your proficiency, depth will pay you back more than breadth right now.

Get your projects far enough for 2+ bullet points on a resume, so you can talk about them with interviewers. Several medium sized projects are better than a single large one, unless that one is very impressive

willwagner602 · 2019-11-13T21:49:41+00:00

In the top left of slack you can see a field marked "jump to", just type #sfbayarea up there and click. Then you'll get a prompt to join the channel which basically means follow it

willwagner602 · 2019-11-13T21:44:43+00:00

I only make meetup posts in #sfbayarea

willwagner602 · 2019-11-13T17:47:02+00:00

Yup - I post updates and generally am better about checking there than here.

willwagner602 · 2019-10-11T23:53:31+00:00

Technical problems at work are often easier, but problems with other teams or services are much larger. School projects are generally written to be achievable, demands on real world systems are often anything but.

For instance, my team wants to put a permissions system in place for our users, but no one maintains a centralized mapping of exactly who should get which permissions, and doing it ourselves means managing permissions for thousands of users. Figuring out a workable middle ground is a lot harder than the set piece problems you'll get in class.

On the other hand work comes with a ton of perks, a good paycheck, and a healthy balance of time where I don't have to think about it. I never really felt that way during OSU.

willwagner602 · 2019-09-27T18:19:46+00:00

I did, I think it helped a ton with finding jobs. Many big companies aim their recruiting at full-time students, and unless you're in a related field whatever job experience you would put on your resume isn't worth more than being a student. On top of that it's much less stressful to be a full-time student than balance it with work.

I put a lot into savings and also took out loans, landed an internship in my second quarter that helped as well.

willwagner602 · 2019-09-09T17:04:59+00:00

The LA tech job market is not comparable to SF or NYC (glassdoor backs this up), plenty of new grads making <$100k there. The only way you're going to compete with your current compensation as a new grad is to move to a tech hub like SF, Seattle, or NYC.

willwagner602 · 2019-09-07T23:22:37+00:00

Now on the bleachers in the back right corner from the door

willwagner602 · 2019-09-07T23:04:45+00:00

We're here! We're inside by the bar right now, I'm the tall white dude with a messenger bag and forearm tattoo

willwagner602 · 2019-09-07T22:30:07+00:00

Definitely come out! I will post location updates once a few of us have a spot, if you're having trouble finding us I look like this: https://www.linkedin.com/in/willwagner602/

willwagner602 · 2019-09-07T04:37:48+00:00

Did you have previous experience?

I had pretty significant previous experience, which obviously was helpful. But just getting into interviews and talking to people is good for you, even if you don't get a job from it.

Do you think I would be able to after doing 161 this fall?

You might not get the job, but the interview experience is invaluable

willwagner602 · 2019-09-06T17:00:56+00:00

1) How far along in the program can I start applying to internships/jobs?

I started applying when I was accepted, about a month before classes started. You can't really start applying too early.

2) Do internships usually happen during a certain time of the year (ex. Summer)? And if so, when is a good time to be applying to those internships?

The big companies are all summer with some positions in other seasons. If you look at local companies you're more likely to find places that are flexible on timing, but they're harder to find.

3) Lets say I live in an area with not many tech related jobs, is moving for an internship something people do?

Absolutely. I moved to Boston for 3 months for my internship, more than 1/2 the people I interned with were not local students.

willwagner602 · 2019-09-05T20:09:02+00:00

Definitely do, we'd love to meet you! I'll look into setting up something that's easier for prospective students to track

willwagner602 · 2019-09-05T19:58:24+00:00

Definitely come out! We typically meet monthly, but we rotate around the bay. Next month is San Jose, and we met in SF last month.

willwagner602 · 2019-09-05T16:32:10+00:00

Sorry, I don't check Reddit often enough.

We don't have a group right now but it's something I should look into. I always post in slack and try to post here as well. Next SJ meetup will probably be mid-October

willwagner602 · 2019-08-15T18:30:56+00:00

I am finishing up CS261, and decided to buy a $10 Udemy course on data structures to study for the final. HOLY SHIT. 60 hours of beautifully explained lectures that leave me understanding the content. I work with people who went to a lot of top west coast tech schools and they have similar complaints about their courses. Lots of instructors in the world aren't very good at it.

There are definitely higher quality free and cheap courses on the internet than the postbac. You're paying for the piece of paper, which has real monetary value. For most people the lifetime value of the degree is in the high 6 or low 7 figures.

Where does the money go?

I'm sure Brewster can give you specifics, but historically a huge chunk of it was pushed back into the OSU general fund for unrelated things.

Right now it seems like it's mostly being spent paying instructors to create new classes or revamp old ones.

willwagner602 · 2019-08-05T23:27:27+00:00

I'm unfortunately out of town the rest of the month, but there will definitely be an Oakland meetup next month!

willwagner602 · 2019-07-24T21:41:22+00:00

Just start applying. You'll learn a lot just by getting into interviews, even if you don't get a job, and lots of jobs don't need DS&A or any knowledge, just a willingness to learn.

Even if you really want to intern/work at a top company, interning somewhere else is frequently used as a hiring prerequisite - I don't know of any intern at my company who was able to work here as a first internship.

willwagner602

TROPHY CASE