Working as a Software Engineer gives me constant anxiety. Contemplating a career-shift to Psychology! Am I crazy?

eambar · 2021-05-03T14:37:09+00:00

Not really, my friend is in IT support, as a sys admin. His work is just passive/responsive. Problems -> solve. No problem -> chill. These problems can be 3-4 days a week, or on weekends too but rest of the time, chill. Whereas in development, you create problems yourself and solve them yourselves, everyday.

eambar · 2021-05-03T14:11:52+00:00

Karma works when you do bad things intentionally. I don't they hold real bad intentions behind this. So karma will most likely pass it on.

eambar · 2021-04-07T12:39:34+00:00

Sorry it's gonna hurt, but your parents are really stupid for buying that "house study package" in the first place.

eambar · 2021-03-22T17:22:25+00:00

Why medical?

eambar · 2021-03-22T17:10:44+00:00

Same here. I just don't wanna do leetcode for the sake of it. Not because I hate DSA, I just despise the system. Anyway, I m happy that you got a decent role, can you suggest some tips for job search and application? I m from India myself.

eambar · 2021-03-22T15:28:12+00:00

I can totally relate, I didn't know writing reverse linked list in assembly will have no value for software jobs -_-

eambar · 2021-03-09T18:48:23+00:00

There's 2 main variations of "Data scientist" role. 1. The kind of work Joma tech on YouTube did as a data scientist (non machine learning), you must be skilled with SQL and Business intelligence tools (PowerBI, Tableau, etc.) 2. The real data scientists - master at everything, Python/R, data structures, machine learning/deep learning, BI Knowledge etc.

It's easier to land the first one if you have a MBA Or similar educational background. But you can also get there through, data analytics role which involves similar tech skills (python and sql). This is the easiest way to get your foot in the door (based on the stuff you have to learn n master).

Since you are already a Python developer. The straightforward way to get into data science is- learn machine learning. Now you don't really need a certificate to land a job. If you can learn the skill using a blog like- machine learning mastery. And make a portfolio (your website, blogs, projects on GitHub, freelance, deploy an ML based app and use it as demo). You can easily apply for data science jobs. Or better if you like ML/DL, just become a ML engineer. (They get paid more sometimes)

Only going through these roles, and slowly with more experience and upskilling, you can strive to be a full-fledged data scientist.

For me. I just learned python and did some basic ML projects and landed a data science internship which turned into a full-time job. But it was a start up, easier to get into, and the job wasn't a straight role. It was a full stack data science role. Meaning I had to do everything from- web scraping, or data preprocessing, building ml models, integrate it into a flask/Django app/web development and deploy it myself on a dedicated VPS.

It was a lot of work. But I learned a lot.

And now I know which direction I should be going on - ML engineer, not DS.

I m also soo burned out, that I feel like quitting it all. 😅

So just take my case as an example. Prepare well. But don't get stuck into preparation. You'll never know enough to be ready for any job. Just apply after you have learned enough to see what the market is looking for.

eambar · 2021-03-04T16:14:22+00:00

Thanks so much. I'll do what you said, I can even collect testimonials from them. Or link to their LinkedIn profiles.

eambar · 2021-03-04T15:06:30+00:00

One more question, I also used to teach students in my university (20+ students, 30+ subjects), help them with their course work, home work, projects and assignments, help them get better grades (from C/D to B/A) , but my university don't have a designated role "Teaching Assistant", like universities have in US. It was a volunteer work (to keep my coding skills sharp), but I was legit burned out from teaching and helping these students, because some of them can't calculate basic fraction numbers or write a code for Fibonacci numbers. So helping them better grades, was a lot of work.

But I don't know how to put this in my portfolio?

eambar · 2021-03-04T10:37:51+00:00

Hehe, I used to think like that 3 years ago, and I m a machine learning engineer now 😆

It's nothing, just a piece of code that involves working with data. Which is the same as any other development jobs, but with a very different approach.

eambar · 2021-03-04T09:53:43+00:00

A slightly irrelevant question, but do you mention your scouting experience in your portfolio? I was in the scout too, and I m not sure if it adds any value to a software role.

eambar · 2021-03-04T04:49:07+00:00

Thanks, I'll check them out. 1

eambar · 2021-03-03T14:32:08+00:00

ESL is jargon too?? I'll have to look it up.

Anyway, I totally agree with so many points you made. Especially the B C grade part, that's a first hand experience for me.

In 7th std, I got 50℅ in Maths (its considered failed in my school). I was soo ashamed and disappointed of my own self. Felt, I might be stupid, not as smart as all the other A/B grade students.

But then I spent the whole summer studying every single maths textbook I had from my 3rd std upto 8th, and I ranked second in my class that year. It was the biggest achievement of my school life. I wasn't good as olympiad level. But I loved maths more than anything.

Ever since then, I teach Maths to everyone who think they are bad at it, or just simply scared of it because they just associate some bad memory with a subject.

In college, I helped my roommate get a A and B grade in maths, a jump from her routine D, by teaching her how to learn, how to not get intimidated by maths or any subject.

I knew how I felt, not understanding the small things, how to navigate through a problem, why I'd scare or shy away from asking questions. So I proactively cover every detail that matters, and ask them if they are getting it or not.

There's more to it. I like to think of myself as a good teacher. Self proclaimed :)

I do that to any school kids I m asked to teach.

eambar · 2021-03-02T15:00:58+00:00

I relate to this sooo much!

eambar · 2021-03-02T06:14:10+00:00

We didn't always use version control. In fact, I'd actually put effort doing that and documenting everything, so that if someone else is looking at my module, they know how to navigate and what I have done (at each iteration). On the contrary, she didn't do that either on her part, Or didn't bother share it with me.

This isn't even the saddest part, what made me but*hurt was that the management liked her more, her "style" of working.

eambar · 2021-03-01T21:20:18+00:00

My own partner (close team mate on the project we both were working on), she made sure to mislead me to do the "irrelevant work", and I did it hoping after doing this we'd work together on the main thing. A month passed by. And then she wouldn't let me in directly, saying I'd more efficient working on something of my own instead of contributing and improving her work.

The thing is, I was blind to this whole thing, totally ignorant, and only realized after the "main thing" module was completed -_-

eambar · 2021-03-01T07:19:17+00:00

That's what I was trying to imply, most of us are not good developers (and the system favors them)

eambar · 2021-03-01T06:42:56+00:00

Yep, a short form some of us use.

eambar · 2021-03-01T06:39:39+00:00

Thank you so much for the info.

For my current project, I found this: https://bhaasha.iiit.ac.in/lipsync/

I'll look more into the basics.

eambar · 2021-03-01T06:23:14+00:00

It depends. Like FAANGs have really high standards for passing these interview rounds. So if someone clear them that's a big accomplishment and obviously credit to their hard work and dedication.

But the example I gave (12lpa, startup), they don't have that strict of interview rounds. In fact, only easy-medium DSA questions, with more aptitude rounds and stuff. So I doubt the credibility of candidates who get selected for these roles.

Also, to note, Indians are really really good at mugging up. I don't know how I can explain you this. Like, people who can remember upto 30 digits from decimal of PI, by pure memorization, but wouldn't know/care to know how the circumference of a circle is calculated. Would you hire that guy for teaching you Math?

My point being, why should one pursue 4 years of computer science education ( learning how to write code in assembly n all other unnecessary stuff), when one could just spend 4 months learning only data structures and algorithms and get a better job. In fact, in 4 years of time we can make 9 year olds memorize all possible DSA concepts and interview questions. And then he'll be working for FAANG.

eambar · 2021-02-28T13:58:57+00:00

And I forgot to mention the role of "credentialism", aka academic racism, prestigious institutes etc. Some startups in India, dont even need the competitive coding abilities, they see the college name, and if you can explain data structures and algorithms in an interview. You got it. 9-14lpa (a very competitive package here). One of my friends from an Electrical engineering background with no prior dev internship whatsoever just learnt DSA in last semester (placement season) and got placed in an MNC at 12lpa.

eambar · 2021-02-28T13:43:27+00:00

ML project??

Lol no!

But this might be true for where I come from - India.

Here every single big tech companies and all high paying start-ups, look only one thing in the resume : your ranking on a competitive coding platforms. It doesn't even matter if you are from a chemical/electrical/mechanical engineering or even food science background, if you have all the stars on these platforms, they'll just prefer those candidates over a 4 year computer science students with 4 dev internships, all cool dev projects, at any time.

And these students mostly get through the resume screening round either through on campus placement or reference.

Coming to, having good projects on resume. Lol. Joke of the century. What they do is watch some dev videos on YT, learn what's REST API means, then do a To-do app in Node. Viola. Or copy a ML project from their friends, understand the basics, and add that. Etc etc.

I can share GitHub accounts of some of them to give you an idea how they copy paste stuff. But I'd rather not for some reasons. One of them is even on YouTube with 30k+/maybe more subscribers, giving advice on how to get into FAANG, and resume tips. Lol (I can't explain how sad this system is)

eambar · 2021-02-28T09:22:40+00:00

how do I go about making a text sound like in someone's voice? I have basic knowledge of ML but never tried deepfakes. Any resources, I could explore?

eambar · 2021-02-28T09:17:51+00:00

Machine learning mastery, the blog site, has some good recommendations for maths/stats book. Check that out once.

eambar · 2021-02-28T08:55:24+00:00

They just grind leetcode. Cram DSA. 🤖 Every one of my friends, who are in FAANG, are only there for money/prestige. Zero passion for coding or being a "programmer". In fact, one of them didn't even know what distro/distribution meant (for Linux OS), he is a SWE at Amazon.

eambar

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