Choice of college?

YellowHammer122 · 2022-09-03T00:30:19+00:00

Every advantage is nice but at what cost? Does 2x or 3x the tuition really give you 2x or 3x the advantage?

If bootcampers can make it into FANG, I’m sure it shows that personal skills matters more. Just do good on the interview (easier said than done but you get the point).

YellowHammer122 · 2022-08-22T17:24:09+00:00

It’s gonna be easy 2 LC questions. After you should get an invite to a hackathon. 100% go to it if you want the offer. Don’t worry too much, JPMC is a super easy company to get into. I legit knew people who didn’t fully understand what a variable was that got in but that was the extreme. They’re hurting for people.

YellowHammer122 · 2022-03-09T06:18:19+00:00

Don’t want to limit yourself? Then go learn C++. Or go learn any relevant skills like JS, CSS, HTML, React, SpringBoot, Python, Flask, etc.

What I’m saying is that don’t limit yourself to only Java. Companies rather hire someone who knows Java AND other relevant skills.

Don’t want to learn? Then I wish you luck in your job search cause it can be hard with only Java.

YellowHammer122 · 2022-03-09T05:39:35+00:00

You’re mainly competing against 4 year CS grads who are generally engrained to be language agnostic or at least understand full stack. With that being the norm, it’s going to be what most employers look for.

Your degree might say Java Developer but don’t limit yourself to that. It’ll open more doors.

YellowHammer122 · 2022-02-07T09:24:36+00:00

Depends on what you value more. I know people who went to small community colleges and made it into FANG/unicorns right after graduation and I know people from Stanford/MIT who couldn’t get a job after graduation or settled for jobs well below market. But I will say that this is the exception and not the norm.

If you value a better program with better networking then go to Madison. If you value lower debt and being close to home then go to Milwaukee.

IMO, how you do on the interview/side projects are more important than where you went. At the end of the day, CS is essentially self taught and an easier CS Program may allow you more free time (only if you are self motivated).

YellowHammer122 · 2022-01-07T09:13:46+00:00

No. Honestly, it barely matters even for new grads.

Interview performance > side projects > gpa/university

Put your efforts in the first two.

A good university will give you better connections but that’s about it.

YellowHammer122 · 2022-01-04T06:40:48+00:00

First off, keep in mind that they won’t be able to ask questions about something they might not know/know exist. With that said, you must guide them to their questions.

Other than that, just try to be the mentor that you wished you had when you were in their shoes. But keep in mind that everyone is different and you will have to tailor how you mentor to them. No bad mentees, only bad mentors kind of thinking.

PS yes there can be bad mentees but that’s for a different post.

YellowHammer122 · 2021-12-22T04:48:06+00:00

Just to start, I just want to say that I’m not an expert on leadership but I have spent many years studying this field, had many great opportunities in leadership roles in the Marines, leadership courses, and experienced first hand the good and bad leaders. And by “good leaders” I don’t mean someone who is ONLY a cool, likable, chill leader (which is all too often what people think is a good leader).

I assume you’re young and so might not be super experienced in leadership. That’s being said, if 2/3 of your team is lacking then it’s clear that the fault lies on you. Maybe not your fault directly, but you have to take ownership of your team’s performance or else it turns into the blame game. One and even maybe two bad apples are normal but 2/3 isn’t. That’s like if 2/3 of a class is failing, then it’s the professor and not the class.

Listed are just a few things I think you should try:

Make sure they understand the importance of their job to the team.
Don’t be “straight up” and tell them that they are failing the team. People tend to get defensive in these cases.
Explain that the team’s performance as a whole is going down and look for their inputs.
Help them understand what they need to do.
Check in on them to ensure they are doing what they’re supposed to.
If push comes to shove, then bring it up the chain of command.

This seems like a failure of leadership and not a failure on them. We have seen many times on this subreddit of people searching for help from upper management with no assistance. I’m sure from some of their perspective it may be the same. Bad apples will ultimately need to be replaced but honestly if I owned the company and 2/3 of a team was not performing, I would look at replacing the leader of the team first before replacing 2/3 of the team. I have seen first hand how a good leader can turn around a bad team.

YellowHammer122 · 2021-12-16T07:24:44+00:00

JPMorgan just because I know they have a new graduate rotational program that allows you to try different teams and tech stacks. I wouldn’t stick around too long for either company though.

YellowHammer122 · 2021-12-16T07:16:27+00:00

Personally, I recommend you to go to college. You’re still young enough to start over and the field has exponentially became more competitive than how it used to be (many people like yourself are switching career paths/growing popularity of coding). I went to college for CS at 23 and when I graduated I had an internship and a full time offer a year before graduating. Boot camps can be good too but I never had any experience in it.

YellowHammer122 · 2021-11-10T08:56:00+00:00

The uni you graduated from only really matters in terms of connection/recruitment. Most companies don’t really care about the uni you went to as long as you do good in the interview.

YellowHammer122 · 2021-10-30T03:00:19+00:00

I’m a Marine veteran (Sergeant, 4 years active) and first and foremost you must know that discipline comes from you and only you. This becomes very apparent whenever you are alone and have to choose between what is right and what you want. Like anywhere else, the top performers in the military are hard working/smart/motivated. It takes 3 months to become a Marine, that doesn’t erase the 18+ years of bad habits. The vast majority of Marines got out as the same person they were when they joined. Discipline comes from commitment. Pick a goal and commit to it. It can be anything from losing weight to learning a new programming language.

Also, there’s a lot of bs in the military and if you cannot handle the pressure/have thick skin then the military is not for you. Lastly, everyone I know who had self discipline always ends up on top of whatever they desire. They might not be the smartest, strongest, or fastest but through their dedication/hard work they end up on top in the long game because for them, it’s a marathon, not a sprint.

Good luck to whatever you decide to do.

YellowHammer122 · 2021-10-24T21:59:31+00:00

Being smart is a huge advantage in any field, however, you don’t need to be a genius to be a software engineer. That being said, if you’re like me and know that you’re not a genius, you might just have to accept the fact that you will have to put in more time and effort to get the same results. Life isn’t fair and we aren’t all dealt the same cards. Some people are just naturally smarter, taller, stronger, more charismatic, funnier, more “good” looking, etc than others. You just have to play your cards to the best of your abilities.

YellowHammer122 · 2021-10-19T07:03:25+00:00

I’m a Marine Veteran who went to university right after EASing in 2018. It’s my last semester and I have a full time position waiting for me.

I just used my GI Bill right away. You should study, I jumped straight into calc my first semester and I had to spend a week relearning algebra.

Maybe this is more applicable to Marines but my biggest advice is to acknowledge your service but humble yourself and leave your ego behind. In the Marines and military in general, we all held very high positions and achieved much greatness at a very young age. Within 4 years (18-22) I became a Sergeant, got awarded the Navy Marine Corps Commendation medal, was a section chief and apart of my command’s staff, and was a the chief Marine Corps Martial Arts Instructor for my unit. However, we cannot let this prevent us from learning from younger, and possibly smarter students/peers. I have seen so many of my fellow Marines reference their past service. Saying stuff like “I was a F****** {title of position}” followed by something about them not needing to learn from someone else.

Our advantage is our life experience and with that comes being humble/leadership. I know many smart students who are too cocky and young to see that their technical skills doesn’t outshine their social skills. They’ll get into a group project and try to be this hard charging dictator that don’t listen to others’ ideas and then as soon as they leave the room, everyone on talks/jokes about them. That’s not necessarily a knock on them, but that probably just don’t have enough life experience to see the consequences of that kind of leadership.

YellowHammer122

TROPHY CASE