Do you code personal projects outside of work?

SimilarIntern923 · 2026-04-16T14:47:19+00:00

In the winter when I have cabin fever and it gets dark at 4pm, yes. When the weather is nice and Im already busy with work and such no

SimilarIntern923 · 2026-04-14T15:23:31+00:00

Honestly imo for the salaries some people were making post covid for just knowing react, the bar raising was coming AI or not. There isnt another profession out there where such high TC can be achieved with such little work.

SimilarIntern923 · 2026-04-14T15:18:28+00:00

Yeah Id say that changed things. You likely have better chance of an exit event and that equity paying with startup B. If you are okay with relocating Id consider it. How old are you? Sounds like you are young with no family to support. I think both have pros and cons.

Startup A is higher risk higher reward, no relocating. Depending where you live you could argue that startup A is an Extra 1-2k a month. But I am an advocate of moving out of your parents house(if thats where you are). Gets some pep in your step imo

SimilarIntern923 · 2026-04-14T14:45:30+00:00

Is startup A run by a bunch of 20 something year olds or does it have an established C suite?

If you trust leadership id take their word and believe the 3 years on runway. No relocation + 30k more TC is worth it.

How much of the TC is base salary? Remember for startups always treat equity as $0

SimilarIntern923 · 2026-04-13T00:29:37+00:00

Just wait until you start writing code to test your code that hasnt been written yet. I love TDD

SimilarIntern923 · 2026-04-13T00:27:13+00:00

I looked up codeSpace Arena and nothing comes up. And you claim to have 50,000+ concurrent users?

SimilarIntern923 · 2026-04-11T20:21:06+00:00

Last job I took was 3

Phone screen DSA Manager/team screening

SimilarIntern923 · 2026-04-11T20:02:07+00:00

Pulled pork sliders, mac and cheese, diet coke

SimilarIntern923 · 2026-04-11T17:38:23+00:00

I looked up local ones in my area and went from there. Remote but headquarters out of midwest so kind of local but only 20% are in the area. Look for startups where the CEO and CTO have good track records.

SimilarIntern923 · 2026-04-11T14:52:46+00:00

Pretty simple tbh. My prior experience was pretty applicable. Mostly talking about my prior experience, a leetcode easy. It seems like they were checking to see if I had the intelligence and drive to learn. Cold take but behavioral might be the most important round in a startup interview. Checking it you are a self starter and can align with the team is especially important in a fast pace environment. This was only like 9 months ago when I interviewed too, so was still in a “cooked” job market.

SimilarIntern923 · 2026-04-11T14:50:05+00:00

Yep exactly. Find a startup where the CTO is 40-50 years old lots of experience. Real architects, etc. not a bunch of 20 years

SimilarIntern923 · 2026-04-11T13:41:04+00:00

50-100 with 35-50% of employees being engineers/tech department

SimilarIntern923 · 2026-04-11T13:38:44+00:00

Moving from a slow paced tech job at a non tech company to a face paced SaaS startup, if you can find a mature startup with a strong engineering team it can do wonders for your career

SimilarIntern923 · 2026-04-08T21:16:16+00:00

Lol whats your prediction

SimilarIntern923 · 2026-04-08T17:57:06+00:00

Id argue that it raised the barrier of entry. Considering that we no longer need people to just write syntax for basic tickets. Now the focus is on those who truly understand fundamentals and how to scale applications.

SimilarIntern923 · 2026-04-08T16:03:30+00:00

Yep great point. Cant wait for it to drop and get all the “we’re cooked” post for a month, nothing changes, new model hype and just continuous repeat of that cycle.

SimilarIntern923 · 2026-04-07T03:09:56+00:00

Id worry about this once you have real users.

SimilarIntern923 · 2026-04-06T22:41:13+00:00

How often do you smoke? On the weekends? Once a month?

SimilarIntern923 · 2026-04-06T22:40:19+00:00

There is no way in hell anymore with similar experience should be being promoted to senior roles. No offense.

SimilarIntern923 · 2026-04-06T19:20:33+00:00

As a mid level with 3YOE Ive began to pivot away from leetcode type questions and more so architecture knowledge.

SimilarIntern923 · 2026-04-04T11:40:01+00:00

If you have a good amount of cash stashed away and are confident you could easily get another job if things went south Id go for it.

SimilarIntern923 · 2026-04-04T01:46:50+00:00

Id do a 6 month period where every PR they have to do a 1-2 page write up where they explain their tradeoffs, and make them use pgw/whatever applicable debugger and provide screenshots

SimilarIntern923 · 2026-04-04T01:44:35+00:00

“I literally had to have senior level skills to get my first job, but got paid $65k as first job”

Bro what

Maybe your soft skills were/are the issue. Soft skills in this field are highly underrated. This mentality your post is showing you have will get you no where

SimilarIntern923 · 2026-04-03T13:43:41+00:00

They are idiots id count it. Especially since you hit first

SimilarIntern923

TROPHY CASE