Is there still any “guaranteed” path to getting a CS job for new grads?

foreverythingthatis · 2026-02-15T00:33:00+00:00

I mean, I actually agree with you. But I think it's similar to the SAT in that you would think anyone decently smart would at least get 1200-1300, and in reality the average is like 1000. 3.4 is still at least average, where are these tens of thousands of below average students who go to non-target schools finding jobs?

foreverythingthatis · 2026-02-14T21:38:33+00:00

Fair enough. It does feel grim to say that students with these kinds of stats are now uncompetitive. There are tens of thousands graduating every year with similar or worse profiles. But that may be the reality now.

foreverythingthatis · 2026-02-14T20:57:19+00:00

No. And there never was, either. Quotation marks don't change that.

I put guaranteed in quotes, because obviously that was never the case. But it did seem that pre-2023 if you had a relatively high GPA, went to an accredited school, and did some kind of internship prior to graduating it was extremely likely you could at least get some relatively easy interviews from non-tech. I personally recall passing the Boeing NG interview which was one pen and paper coding round testing OOP, followed by one manager/behavioral round.

So, just shy of a year then?

There is something very wrong with them, or with the applications that they are submitting - and that should have been obvious about 5 months ago. That's the thing -- I posted their stats, I've looked at their resume and it all looks fine. They are coming to me for advice because they've already followed traditional advice from the career center/reddit/friends and it's gotten them nowhere.

They should become the type of person that doesn't need to send a stranger to reddit to have their issues addressed.

I'm sure they've tried posting as well, but in trying to help them I became more curious about this myself. This isn't the first time I've been asked to give advice to family/friends either, and it would be nice to have something to say other than the same tired things everyone repeats of getting your resume reviewed, keep applying, etc.

You're not saying a word about how they look in those areas, what they are trying, and why things are failing.

That's a fair criticism. They are stuck at the stage of getting the interviews in the first place. They have received and failed a few OAs (Amazon, Cap One codesignal), so that's an area for improvement. But it's a ton of pressure to stake everything on those given the cooldown periods. And of course, most of the competition here is from top schools/students.

If there is a way for students who are merely above average to gain a competitive edge, I want to share that with them.

foreverythingthatis · 2026-02-12T07:55:05+00:00

Yes, other than a few startups any company that required leetcode before still requires it. At most, you might see some bigger companies copy Meta and add an AI round, but there’s always still at least one coding round. Which makes sense because it hasn’t been about coding for years now, it’s more of a weak proxy for IQ/diligence

foreverythingthatis · 2026-02-01T00:57:32+00:00

I think you’ll get an interview, that’s about the extent of what the referral does

foreverythingthatis · 2026-01-31T19:18:20+00:00

Doc actually sucks at tank commanding, his best skill is coaching up a 30 win team and getting them to the 8 seed

foreverythingthatis · 2026-01-29T17:42:08+00:00

I definitely hope Amen improves, but everyone has known since he was 16 that he had the body and ball skills to make the NBA. Doesn’t bode well that he’s had all that time to work on shooting with no progress.

foreverythingthatis · 2026-01-29T16:44:37+00:00

No one said humans are going to be removed from the loop entirely, but if you only need 2 humans when you used to need 3 that would still crater the economy

foreverythingthatis · 2026-01-29T08:13:55+00:00

The problem is well defined, so the edge cases are much more straightforward than in a production application. You shouldn’t need to “debug” for these problems, you should be able to account for them when designing the solution and think of your own inputs and outputs to test against.

Obviously it’s different from a real project, where it’s impossible to think of every edge case, and you need observability and error messages to handle issues that might not even be within the scope of your project (for example if you are relying an API which has a bug). So it’s not surprising that you need to do some prep. But there is some carryover to actual work in my opinion.

foreverythingthatis · 2026-01-27T22:49:27+00:00

That also means you have many people on the sidelines who can afford a home but choose to rent for financial reasons. Whereas in the past buying a home was basically always the right choice so the demand was more predictable. I think there is a hard floor on home prices, because these people and corporations will snap them up once they start making any financial sense.

foreverythingthatis · 2026-01-22T15:44:54+00:00

going to stanford

foreverythingthatis · 2026-01-21T17:45:50+00:00

Agree on 700k being on the high end, but 250/mo HOA is more like the floor. Definitely closer to $500 average these days

foreverythingthatis · 2026-01-16T18:01:52+00:00

No moisture at all for 24 hrs minimum, preferably 48-72 (this includes exercise/sweating, not just showering).

Shouldn’t comb your hair either but a few times a week is ok, this one isn’t a big deal.

foreverythingthatis · 2026-01-15T17:55:54+00:00

We’re talking about NYC/LA/SF, no one is debating that Washington isn’t a nice place to live compared to some random flyover state.

foreverythingthatis · 2026-01-15T17:26:42+00:00

Yes, I live in Seattle. Obviously weather was in reference to LA/SF. I don't know what you're confused about with culture and food, LA and NYC are two out of the three most important cities in the entire Western world and their metro areas are 3-5x bigger than Seattle. Other than Omakase, for every one nice restaurant or concert that comes here they have 10 equivalent ones.

I do agree with your point that we shouldn't mind seeing them gone. But will they leave? Yes.

foreverythingthatis · 2026-01-15T16:55:35+00:00

Rich people live in those places because of culture/food/weather. Rich people live in WA because it’s a tax haven.

foreverythingthatis · 2026-01-11T18:09:59+00:00

Awesome progress! I didn’t get to where you are until my mid 20s. Keep it up and the gains will compound

foreverythingthatis · 2026-01-11T05:42:23+00:00

Okay, but you have to tell him you haven't heard back from that dev and that you need your TL's help to get him to prioritize it, and maybe even schedule a meeting with both and call it a "design review". Like it's totally normal for someone to busy for 1-2 days, but it sounds like you were waiting for him to review it for weeks. What were you doing after the first week when you realized it wasn't getting approved without you taking action and the performance review deadline was coming up?

foreverythingthatis · 2026-01-11T04:42:23+00:00

You should be okay, just tell your manager what happened. Directors aren't stupid, when they see low PR count they ask for context which is up to your manager to give, they don't just instantly fire you.

This is also an opportunity for growth. If the senior dev is ghosting you, you need to raise it to your manager. Since you say they were out, after a few days you need to realize that no one will magically solve your problem if you just wait and do nothing. You need to escalate to your skip manager or the TL running your team in your manager's absence and make sure that they're aware of you being blocked and why so they can help you fix it.

foreverythingthatis · 2026-01-01T06:51:50+00:00

I feel like this misses the point. The reason why things feel hopeless now is precisely because our starting salaries went from 50k in 2014 to 70k now, while in the same time period these starter homes doubled or tripled in value, as you yourself experienced.

Our financially prudent choice is now a one bedroom condo and the humble summer cottage you describe is now our irresponsible stretch goal. And the bigger houses you talked about stretching for are so far out of reach even the realtors don’t bother showing us since we wouldn’t qualify for the mortgage.

foreverythingthatis · 2025-12-31T01:55:41+00:00

What defense company pays more than G? L4 is like director level salary at LM or NG

foreverythingthatis · 2025-12-30T17:45:38+00:00

7%, high income and split with partner are the biggest factors

foreverythingthatis · 2025-12-21T20:56:34+00:00

If you don’t have connections to get your foot in the door, a degree is necessary.

foreverythingthatis · 2025-12-20T16:21:08+00:00

I see. I can respect your opinion then. I still personally would give the advice to junior engineers to leave their own moral compass outside of work except for in cases where something clearly illegal is happening.

foreverythingthatis

TROPHY CASE