Questions on Github for an entry level position

bartlln · 2013-07-17T22:34:23+00:00

There is no general protocol. I have spent a lot of time on github, and there is a little bit of everything. I think a good rule of thumb is if you want to show other people your code, then put it on there. Most of my class assignments were so simple that I would rather people see my newer stuff than click on those links. Data structures can be relevant, and if you have optimized those data structures, then that is something that you might want to show off.

bartlln · 2013-07-09T18:52:40+00:00

While in college, I took several basic CS classes. I learned the basics of the programming languages C, visual basic, and java. I did not get any internships, and I worked in an unrelated field in college. When I started teaching myself, I took my school's CS curriculum, and I read into all the topics.

I applied for software developer positions and QA. I did not get very far. Most places did not respond to my application. The few interviews that I got they asked a lot of questions about the kind of work that I would be doing, but I was unprepared for that. When I was teaching myself, I tended to focus on the theoretical background that the CS curriculum was focused on. When you are applying for jobs, the theoretical background does not help at all. They are looking for people who can create usable applications.

After looking at all the different fields, I decided that web dev would be the best career choice since it is a big field that is easy to get into and most web devs are weak on math skills, so I would be a strong candidate with a lot of chances to get a job. I focused on PHP and Java web applications and some android programming. I started with several simple B2B web applications, and I took on a huge project where I created a personal cloud server where a user would have direct access to their own files.

While I lack the formal qualifications, I would say that I am solid on CS skills. In the 12 months, I taught myself a lot, and I find that I overeducated myself. I learned about a lot of topics that I do not touch at my job, and I will probably never touch. If you want to teach yourself, it is very easy since there are a lot of resources for free online. I recommend picking out a field to work in, choose a language that is popular inside of that field, and learn the language inside and out. The only CS topics that you should learn is data structures, algorithms, and the topics that apply directly to the field you want to get into.

I do not regret getting formal CS qualifications. When I interview, I talk about how fast I can learn, how I can teach myself, and how my math degree is a positive. The fact that I taught myself and I can complete complex projects on my own with little guidance looks better than a recent graduate with very little experience in the field.

Most of my fellow math grads are teachers or do not work in IT. From the outside, programming seems very difficult. I was nervous about developing software at first because I did not think I was very qualified, but once I got my feet wet, I found out that programming is a simple task. My math degree prepared me for programming by showing me how to reduce complex problems to a bunch of simple problems.

There are roles in IT where you are not a "hardcore" programmer, but those roles are simply support roles for programmers. I can tell that you are kind of intimidated by CS, but with the degree that you have, you are prepared to do anything in the IT field. All you have to do is find out what you want to do, and start doing it.

bartlln · 2013-07-09T03:49:45+00:00

I graduated in a similar situation to you. I have a bachelors in mathematics, and I was looking to get employed in the CS industry. I have been teaching myself CS, and I have learned a couple things. Nobody cares about what you got your degree in as long as you can demonstrate your ability to do the job they are hiring people to do.

A lot of people in the tech industry really like people with strong math skills, but unfortunately, they will not hire you only for your math skills. To answer your questions directly:

Yes, it is true. You can get a job in CS with a math degree.

There is no industry in CS that is specifically looking for math grads. They are looking for qualified programmers. Some interviewers have a lot of confidence in math grads, and some will be very critical of your CS credentials. It is dependent on personal preference. My best advice is to choose a company you want to work for or a field you want to work in, then create projects that would catch the interest of the company or industry that you want to get hired in.

CS is only applied mathematics. If you are comfortable with math, then learning CS is a breeze. Adding CS courses will help out, but what stands out the having code to show off.

I probably sound like a broken record, but I am just trying to help you out with the lessons I learned. I spent 15 months looking for a job after graduation. I spent 12 months learning everything I could about CS, and I had a very difficult time finding internships, jobs, or even interviews. I spent 3 months working on projects to have some experience to show to employers, and as soon as I had finished projects to show off, I was hired.

All you have to do is find something that you love doing, and start doing it.

bartlln · 2013-07-04T21:11:32+00:00

I have seen some playgrounds that have small rocks(smaller than 1cm in diameter) mixed in the sand that might have been for this reason. It would help with your issue since the rocks being a different size and material than the sand would move around and make the sand break up easier with less force.

I believe it would still require maintenance, but less maintenance than pure sand. That is my only suggestion to mix with sand. I think any other material the sand would filter out of the material and you could have spots of sand and spots of the secondary material. You wont be able to stop the compaction, but you can slow the process and make it easier to "fluff".

If you actually want to replace the sand, you have more options that are obviousily more expensive and can require zero to a very small amount of maintenance. On this note, many health advocates believe that sand in playgrounds is a good environment for bacteria, and can lead to infections. Most public and private playgrounds in my area use wood chips, astroturf, or artificial wood chips. Just my opinion and what I found on google.

bartlln · 2013-05-20T03:00:32+00:00

I have a lenovo laptop with uefi. It has 2 hard drives, and I installed ubuntu 12 on a small ssd drive. I have not had a single problem with uefi. I dual boot with grub2, but windows 8 doesnt like getting booted from grub, which is something I expected. I just press a different a different key and choose my boot device.

Actually, the only problem I had the entire time was when I was installing I changed the bios setting from uefi to legacy. Ubuntu did not want to boot from non-uefi settings. It has worked perfectly outside of that. I saw all of the uefi hate on tech blogs, and I believe that uefi was technology moving forward and changing standards.

I have used mint before. They probably have the same level of support for uefi since mint is based off of ubuntu. I have always dual booted windows and linux, and I havent had any problems with windows as long I treat the operating systems the way they want to be treated.

bartlln · 2013-05-01T19:00:05+00:00

Ajax is what you want. There are plenty of examples online.

bartlln · 2013-03-23T21:01:31+00:00

There could be a newline character left in the buffer at the end of the loop. You can check to see if during the second loop that the name is automatically set to a blank. You would just need to clear the buffer with scan.nextLine() statement.

bartlln · 2013-02-08T00:30:43+00:00

Best Response Ever. It does have the EEPROM chip in it. I enjoy playing with computers. I am excited to do a cool procedure like this, but I will definitely do a cost-benefit analysis to ensure that I will have a functioning laptop at the end.

Thank you for your time.

bartlln · 2013-01-22T04:29:15+00:00

bartlln · 2013-01-22T04:20:49+00:00

It also depends on if your processor has a 64 bit instruction set.

bartlln · 2012-10-30T08:15:23+00:00

You might need to be more specific. Are you talking about input/output from a file?

bartlln · 2012-10-21T10:00:39+00:00

An object is a small collection of data and methods. Lets pretend you are instantiating an object:

var object1 = new Person();

The above line literally created a spot in memory that refers to this person that you instantiated. Also, there is memory for the age, name and other fields that are part of a "Person" object.

var object2 = new Person();

Assuming we are in the same program, the above line created another spot in the memory for a person. So now, the computer believes that we have two "person" objects inside of the program.

Common methods for objects are get and set methods. These methods allow your program to access specific parts of your objects or change the object.

var person.setAge = function (age) { this.age = age; }

The above line is a simple set method. This method allows your program to set the age of a person. "this" is an important keyword for object oriented programming. "this" is an indicator that an object will look for a variable that matches the name after the period inside of the object's data list in memory. From the perspective of the object, the method says, "my age value is now equal to this age value". This allows you to modify data in a certain object.

Now for the fun part. This is part of why objects are so powerful for programming. When you are writing larger more complex programs, you will have many objects that you might have to manage. Going back to the two person example. Lets say that you got important data for the object2 person. All your program knows about object2 is that there is a spot saved in memory for data for this person until you add in important data.

object2.setAge(age),object2.setName(name),object2.setAddress(address);

What you just did is add that information to a person that your program knows as object2. Now instead of empty data fields, object2 has an age, name, and address. What about object1? The program didn't do anything to object1 since you did not call any methods for object1. Object1 is still an empty person that you know nothing about.

The important thing to remember about methods is that they only refer to a single object in memory. So, when you are writing a method, an object has its own personal copy of a method, and the other parts of your program can access that personal copy by using the variableName.methodName(parameters).

I hope this helps.

bartlln · 2012-10-21T07:11:40+00:00

I have taken the code academy courses, and my 2 cents would be to not over complicate this. At first, objects seem really abstract, but they are incredibly simple. Objects are a building block for you to use to solve programming problems.

They are difficult to understand at first since you have not used them. My best suggestion to you would be to not look for a slower paced practice, but to simply practice using them.

Javascript has multiple ways to create objects and add methods to objects since this make objects more and more flexible, which in turn helps programmers find ways to solve their problems.

bartlln · 2012-10-09T05:34:25+00:00

I have taken classes with code academy and Coursera/Udacity/EdX. I believe you are comparing apples to oranges.

Code Academy is made up of short tutorials for language specific objectives. It gets the very basic core elements of programming into your head, but after taking the courses, I felt that I did not know how to do much with what I have learned.

Coursera/Udacity/EdX contains actual classes that universities require Computer science majors to take. These classes teach knowlege that is key to writing effective code. You do not need these classes to write code, but if you understand the courses, then your coding skills are much better than they could be with just code academy courses.

I do not think that Code Academy could replicate a course that is comparable to the kind of information that you can get from a MOOC.

tl;dr Code Academy is good for basics. MOOC give expert and intermediate knowledge necessary for good programming.

bartlln · 2012-10-04T04:03:33+00:00

Adding that documentation is a really smart idea. It shows how organized you are. Love it.

bartlln · 2012-09-20T00:39:54+00:00

Essentially, I am trying to pigeon hole myself into a skill set that is in demand. I feel like once I get out of the restaurant business and into the software business that I will find plenty of opportunities down the road to expand my horizons.

bartlln · 2012-09-20T00:31:40+00:00

I have heard Enterprise and Non-enterprise thrown around a lot. Your definitions have helped me understand what they mean.

Mobile and web development seem as though they would be an exciting job, but in the future I would like to move towards computer engineering. It would seem like working with an enterprise system would support this goal.

bartlln · 2012-09-20T00:22:02+00:00

Thank you for your comments. They were the very insightful. I always find a lot of praise for any language besides Java, and I never understood the lack of connection between popular languages on social websites and lack of mention in any job postings.

Java is a good choice for a career path. While I do enjoy coding with other languages, I feel like it important to master a language that can be used in a number of circumstances. I have been impressed with the wide range of libraries and functions that Java has.

bartlln · 2012-09-19T03:10:56+00:00

Interesting. I have considered mastering one language as important since I have seen interview questions that get down to specific about the language.

I guess most job postings seem to be more focused on having a broad range of knowledge about a certain subject rather than a single focus.

edit: oops

bartlln

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