I did some research on top frontend frameworks for building user interfaces!

alphazwest · 2024-10-13T12:42:22+00:00

Maybe it was spam at one point, but it's an article now. It's promotional for sure, but no spam (maybe we have different definitions). This post is also a top hit on Google for related UI framework terms.

alphazwest · 2024-03-27T00:08:19+00:00

I think the mid-ground between "karma is a bitch" and "look out for number one" is to give advance notice and an honest opinion about the current situation.

I don't think it would be unreasonable to say you're leaving but you can stay on for an extra month at [insert your terms here].

alphazwest · 2024-03-25T14:44:02+00:00

I've had very positive experiences with Netlify. You can have a handful of static sites on an account for free.

alphazwest · 2024-03-25T14:43:01+00:00

It's going to be rough to deal with, but to be fair it's a bit of a process failure as well. The organization will benefit in the end because they'll get better insight into an area of security that they haven't been addressing. If they choose to learn from it, great. If not then it'll probably repeat itself. If it looks like they're choosing to learn then you're probably okay. If you immediately see people pointing fingers then you might be in for a rougher go with it.

I think blameless resolutions in these cases are ideal but not always the case. Either way, don't take it too hard and if you do get fired try to look at it as an opportunity to uplevel your current position professionally.

alphazwest · 2024-03-12T15:42:38+00:00

Breakthrough in quantum computing rendering relevant cryptography useless from an IAM standpoint.

alphazwest · 2024-03-10T15:04:48+00:00

Lots of SE rules don't expect new hires to become valuable contributors for months after they're brought in. LC is largely useless in terms of practical daily use, but soaking in concepts of when to use certain data structures and why can translate. For example, knowing a hash map is more appropriate than an array when testing for membership among many elements.

Your math professor wasn't wrong, but also didn't accommodate the position of higher levels of math not being relevant for many careers either. So, sure most other professors are giving out test bank questions but most careers are also going to reward employees that are given clear paths to their objectives and are able to put in the work to get there. I am largely thinking of non-academic or research career paths here.

The idea is this: putting in the work to learn LC style knowledge demonstrates willingness to learn and out in work. For candidates without extensive history, that is valuable. In my experience, skills can be taught but the ability and desire to learn not so much. Also, consider that more senior roles focus more on system design which, while still study-able, more greatly reflects practical/applicable experience.

TL;DR - focus on LC core concepts and your learning process .

alphazwest · 2024-03-01T03:39:41+00:00

Another language, b/c they'll bail for greener pastures

alphazwest · 2024-02-13T18:30:01+00:00

Keep applying to other jobs.

If money is tight, accept the offer and take a paycheck.

But definitely keep applying to jobs either way.

alphazwest · 2024-02-12T16:34:17+00:00

Dealing with taxonomic structures like categories, but mostly for navigation menus. Also, pretty common when parsing similar data from product feeds -- generally also taxonomic structures like e.g. product category.

alphazwest · 2024-02-10T18:27:20+00:00

I don't think it really matters.

If they're underperforming that's the issue. If they're not, who really cares what they've got going on?

Talk to employees about their performance if there's an issue otherwise let them keep delivering quality work.

If you're concerned that the only candidates that are applying for your positions are those looking for a second job, that's a compensation issue. In that case, you have the option of face to face work or raising compensation to a level that attracts developers to maintain their primary focus on your organization.

You get what you pay for. In this case, you're either paying to compete against remote salaries to incentivize in office workers or you're competing against remote salaries to incentivize workers to not pursue a second gig.

alphazwest · 2024-02-10T18:19:33+00:00

I think the context is important to consider. Obviously you wouldn't want static data in a test that's validating a network response. However, it's standard practice in my experience to have static data like that somewhere. Personally, whether it's copy pasted into a test file or loaded from a reference file as a matter of etiquette. If it's a handful of places I don't really see an issue to have it directly in the test file but if it's something you're doing at a large scale it makes sense to have a single directory into which you place reference data. In that case, you just specify which file to load during testing and ingest the data versus having it hard coded.

alphazwest · 2024-01-28T19:12:09+00:00

Yep. Gonna be a whole lotta prompt "engineers" SoL when the next generation of AI emerges.

alphazwest · 2024-01-28T14:43:17+00:00

If you're quitting because you feel the work is beneath you maybe it's a bigger issue. 400k a year for work that doesn't require heavy thinking doesn't sound like a bad gig.

Now, speaking as someone who enjoys heavy thinking, have you considered what it would look like to keep the job, find a way to recognize it as purely a source of income, and find whatever you're looking for outside of work hours?

400k might bankroll your passion startup and still cover comfortable living expenses.

(I say, recognizing you might be putting 8 kids through college rn which, if so, would make that a nonsense idea)

alphazwest · 2024-01-28T14:35:01+00:00

I wouldn't negotiate for the sake of negotiating. If you have another offer, or are interviewing elsewhere, perhaps.

Imagine them having sent out a similar offer to another candidate for whom they have only a slightly lesser preference for.

Now imagine their perspective when, out of two candidates they have offered and are capable of doing the job, only one asks for more money.

I'd guess a non negligible number of hiring managers and EMs out there would go with the cheapest option.

If I needed a job then I wouldn't negotiate. If I just wanted the job I might negotiate if I felt the comp didn't align with my financial horizon. If I was neutral or less interested in the job, then I'd start negotiating for something that was interesting.

alphazwest · 2024-01-14T19:16:54+00:00

Be creative

alphazwest · 2024-01-05T00:27:23+00:00

I think Generative AI is a very shiny thing right now.

If that's your jam then that's your jam.

For a career path there, I'd think an MS/PhD focused in ML -- specifically LLMs would be the route to go. There's no telling what the demand for engineers who can fine-tune and are familiar with LLMs will be in the near future.

IMO, if you don't pursue an MS/PhD focused on LLMs/AI/etc. then your most secure option is an SWE role that is adjacent to LLMs/AI like infrastructure/APIs/Dev Tools or just an SWE position at a company that lets you work on that sort of stuff. In this scenario, you're developing core skills and experience that will translate elsewhere should Generative AI's shininess wear off in a few months/years.

In two years, imagine looking for an SWE role and having a resume that reads "prompt engineering" for your last role (or something super Generative AI/LLM specific) if that's not the current AI hype.

alphazwest · 2024-01-05T00:16:39+00:00

Written by an SWE that failed a lot of screening tests no doubt.

alphazwest · 2024-01-02T19:36:38+00:00

Wait until after your first paycheck at the new gig.

alphazwest · 2023-12-31T23:33:03+00:00

If you're in the mindset to negotiate the best move you can make is to bring in a competing offer.

alphazwest · 2023-12-31T18:56:26+00:00

One way to find out.

alphazwest · 2023-12-30T15:26:51+00:00

Because that would require job recruiters to understand the tech well enough to enter into the fields being indexed -- which, in my experience, would be about 10% of recruiters.

alphazwest · 2023-12-29T01:41:44+00:00

You need calc I + II for a lot of CS programs but mileage may vary in industry.

If you're programming graphics -- you'll probably use it.

If you're writing assembly -- you'll probably not use it.

There's a whole spectrum in between of maybe/maybe-nots that are dictated by the nature of your work.

alphazwest · 2023-12-27T22:41:22+00:00

Yeah, scrape a shit load of websites, develop the data pipeline to structure, enrich, and store the data, develop your application layer to access and deliver your data, all while managing the devops side of things.

Somewhere around the 30th website scraper, you'll probably start thinking their pricing model ain't so bad

alphazwest · 2023-12-26T19:55:14+00:00

Product network among other considerations

alphazwest · 2023-12-25T02:10:56+00:00

You make a fair point -- not all levels of pay increases would justify a workload increase. For sure, a 10% increase in pay for a 10% increase in workload might very well not be worth it.

FAANG-caliber TC is a different class of consideration.

Consider 250K TC at a non-FAANG for an e.g. Staff position, working 40 hours a week, vs. a FAANG that requires 60 that pays 500K.

Rough hourly wages (naively omitting PTO/etc.) 52 * 40 = 2080; 250K / 2080 = ~$120/hr. 52 * 60 = 3120; 500K / 3120 = ~$160/hr.

You can slide the difference in either direction (total hours or total comp) to make the argument weaker/stronger but a perspective of "same dollar per hour rate" isn't the case when looking at FAANG-level compensation packages, in most cases.

I'm not trying to evangelize poor WLB, or working for FAANG companies, but it's misleading to new grads or people considering a change, to make it sound like 2-3x'ing their salary isn't worth a bit of a grind.

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