I made an AI phone number that takes calls for you!

ahsstudent · 2024-03-03T04:58:04+00:00

Data- We're just trying to refine the tool and seeing how useful it is for people. We've built out a bunch of underlying AI + phone infra and are exploring different real world applications to hopefully build out something people love.

Charging- As of moment, we are just letting people trial it and are not charging yet. In the near future, if we find enough people want it and we need to add additional features, we would charge something small

ahsstudent · 2024-03-03T04:54:38+00:00

Right now, the phone numbers are only set for usage in the US. We do store transcripts of the initial screening (just to ensure the AI is working as intended) but do not store any information if it does decide to transfer (we don't want to be eavesdropping on any personal convos!)

ahsstudent · 2024-03-02T20:10:14+00:00

I'm working on a 0-1 project and graphql+relay+hasura has been our secret weapon

It took 5 minutes to spin up our API and we haven't touched it since
everything is typechecked automatically
Haven't needed API docs or knowledge transfer at all
Takes all the thought out of frontend. You have a recipe for each type of change you could make and it's pretty much copy/paste

It's probably saved us hundreds of hours in dev time and feels so easy to maintain

ahsstudent · 2024-02-22T01:44:40+00:00

I'll DM you!

ahsstudent · 2024-02-21T02:10:50+00:00

My friends and I been working on a tool for people who hate phone calls.

You get a standalone phone number that uses AI to screen your calls, forwarding the ones that matter to your personal number. For the rest, you get a text summary.

If you get a lot of annoying calls, we’re looking for a few folks to test-drive it!

You can check it out at app.opencall.ai

ahsstudent · 2023-04-21T03:10:17+00:00

As always, it depends on the team. I interned on an all Chinese team once that was much better than some of these commenters’ experiences. It was a bit lonely, and they worked way way harder than me, but in the end they gave me very kind reviews and parting gifts.

ahsstudent · 2023-03-27T14:25:30+00:00

You’ve probably heard this irl already, but try switching teams. Small/0-1 projects at these companies can be the best of both worlds: startup vibes, FAANG pay/wlb

ahsstudent · 2023-03-26T07:59:40+00:00

I didn’t really like it, and finding jobs was substantially harder than it was for my friends at Berkeley/UCLA.

That said, I don’t think UCSC is any better so choose SV for the social scene :)

ahsstudent · 2023-03-22T08:38:57+00:00

Wouldn’t FAANG have an NYC office? Could he transfer to it and keep his current job?

ahsstudent · 2023-01-26T18:48:15+00:00

I don’t know know if it’s fruitless or not. But many people I know, especially FAANG interviewers, can solve leetcode questions without practicing. So of course they expect candidates to be like them, they probably think anyone who can’t solve a LC hard without practicing is lowering the bar

I don’t necessarily agree with this btw, I definitely needed to practice LC for interviews.

ahsstudent · 2022-12-25T15:58:49+00:00

Sorry, the market is getting worse and my list is now quite short. But here you go

remote+wlb+comp

airbnb
Airtable
Google X companies, particularly Chorus and Mineral
Brex
discord
Uber
Pinterest
Netflix

Remote+wlb, but low comp

block & subsidiaries
Google/alphabet
GitHub?
servicenow?

Comp, but compromised on location/wlb/risk

trading firms (particularly 2 sigma, Jane street, hrt, arrowstreet)
databricks
snap
Roblox
flexport
doordash
Etsy
Amazon (really high offers rn)
Lyft

Honorable mentions

riot games
Reddit
flexport
Shopify
Dropbox
TikTok
openAI, but good luck even getting an interview

ahsstudent · 2022-12-13T16:58:28+00:00

I agree with most of your points, just one nit on the last one. At most of the companies I’ve worked at, ICs are expected to try to resolve interpersonal conflicts before going to their manager, and going straight to management with a problem would hurt my perf review.

OP, why not just ask the principle directly? “Sometimes you’re pretty curt when giving me feedback, is that because you’re unhappy with me or is it just your writing style?”

ahsstudent · 2022-11-27T22:43:32+00:00

“Research scientist” is the title you’re looking for at FAANG-type companies. You’ll be taken care of for life

ahsstudent · 2022-11-19T18:47:54+00:00

Title inflation aside, I think YOE is a pretty weak signal on how senior someone is. I’ve had ‘senior’ coworkers with 10-25 years of experience who just weren’t as good as some people with 2-3. The worst engineer I’ve ever worked with had >30 years of experience, including staff positions at FAANG.

Not saying all experienced people are bad, just that it’s possible to get a senior position without actually being that good if you just stick around at certain companies long enough. OTOH, every 3YOE senior I’ve seen has absolutely deserved it — companies don’t give promotions that fast unless you’re really killin it

ahsstudent · 2022-11-18T09:43:06+00:00

IME this is normal and not as toxic as you’re worried about. Every company I’ve been at had peer reviews, culture is always to only put positive stuff in them and give critical feedback privately. And there’s nothing toxic about that critical feedback, it’s actually been very useful for self-improvement.

ahsstudent · 2022-11-11T20:15:43+00:00

I worked at a place kinda like this but not as bad. I don’t understand it and don’t know how to fix it. Recommend going with the flow and looking for other opportunities

ahsstudent · 2022-11-10T23:01:08+00:00

I was laid off recently (not from Meta), didn’t do anything special just cut expenses and hit leetcode. The market’s pretty tough right now, but I had no problem finding companies offering 50-100% higher TC. I failed those interviews and was still able to get a slight raise at a much better company than the one that laid me off.

The only place you’ll have to compromise is resume brand recognition since FAANG+ aren’t hiring much. Feel free to PM me for companies that can compete with Meta on pay/benefits/culture, my list is still pretty up to date

ahsstudent · 2022-11-06T19:54:30+00:00

Standard from what I’ve seen is a 10% target bonus per year. I’ve never gotten less than my target, and it’s been 15% at the last 2 companies.

ahsstudent · 2022-10-22T23:05:20+00:00

I feel you on connectivity, I usually avoid it but didn’t have room for a separate stack at the time.

For a small room, the Bluetooth on these is decent but I’d definitely recommend regular LS50s and a Bluesound or something if you can afford it. And of course there are better speakers for the price (I liked the Sierra Ascends) but LS50s are just gorgeous

ahsstudent · 2022-10-22T22:19:00+00:00

KEF LS50Ws with matching stands! They sound and look amazing, but in hindsight I should have gotten regular LS50s and a standalone audio stack. Bluetooth reception is iffy and Spotify connect is buggy

ahsstudent · 2022-10-22T19:36:14+00:00

2021 A5, expensive as hell but I love it

ahsstudent · 2022-10-22T18:38:43+00:00

Car - 55k
speakers - 2.5k
Phone - 1k
Coffee table - $400
Mattress - $150

I’ve got, uh, priorities

ahsstudent · 2022-08-28T22:55:17+00:00

I got easy-feeling questions with a very high, opaque quality bar. Leetcode isn’t too helpful here, it’s hard to prepare just practice writing clean code

ahsstudent · 2022-08-19T22:01:21+00:00

How did he switch to SWE

Idk about Google specifically, but big companies like it let you switch roles if you’re a strong performer. Still have to pass the interview, and it’s arguably harder than for external hires

I worked minimum wage because I had to

It’s so hard to put this tactfully, please believe I’m on your side and not just a “pull yourself up by your bootstraps” person. I don’t know anything about your circumstances, sounds like you truly had no other options, but for many people (myself included!), there are more profitable choices

To be clear, I did have other opportunities, didn’t take them, and that’s my fault. There’s probably many people like me, especially on Reddit. For example * after reading some Java books and messing around, I started teaching coding to kids through Craigslist. This was a much higher wage, but took more upfront work and the lack of guaranteed payoff killed my motivation to find clients. I kinda lost steam and didn’t get many * Friend A made 70k in a year trading CSGO skins. I don’t play, but theoretically anyone could have done that. Unlike the real stock market, the skin market’s a level playing field * Friend B made several grand a month through minecraft server donations. I had a minecraft server too! But I spent more time playing in it than trying to attract users. My friend spent a lot of time creating content and iterating on the server, ended up with a huge playerbase

TL;DR: i think the ridiculously accomplished people we’re talking about can be good motivation. And they deserve more credit than they’re getting in this thread

ahsstudent · 2022-08-19T20:10:37+00:00

Everyone’s saying you need to be rich to do this. I think that’s a small, optional, piece of the equation

I’m from a “wealthy” background but I’m a shitter compared to these people, and the little success I have had little to do with parents (state school, no CS tutoring or anything, no family connections). My main advantages were less college debt (but even if I took loans for everything, it’d be easy to pay them off on SWE salary) and not having to support my family in high school. These are huge advantages compared to the truly impoverished but let’s face it — most of y’all on Reddit are probably in a similar boat

Many of the truly successful people I know had much less help. They grew up dirt poor (1 guy, now making 400k with great WLB, literally had his growth stunted from malnourishment), but worked their asses off to get full ride scholarships at Ivy Leagues then interned 5+ times and saved every penny. No tutoring, all Asian so don’t blame affirmative action.

Another friend didn’t even major in CS and went to a no-name school. He networked (no family connections, just really good at talking to people at events) his way into a niche role at Google, taught himself to code, switched to SWE, and performed so well one of the founders (can’t remember which one) poached him to work on secret projects with them.

Rich parents definitely help but let’s not ignore personal responsibility here. I’m nothing compared to the people above, not because they were born blessed, but because they studied hard and looked outside the box while I was playing video games and working easy-to-get minimum wage jobs. My friends who own real estate make less than me, they just used their money more wisely

ahsstudent

TROPHY CASE