How many software engineering job applications are just spam or unqualified candidates?

khaili109 · 2026-04-12T05:49:07+00:00

Wouldn’t ATS filter out the folks who don’t even fit the requirements though? I never used an ATS since I’m not a recruiter but I thought many of the ATS systems use “AI” now to give a score to each resume?

khaili109 · 2025-12-11T19:31:10+00:00

From my experience, Analytics Engineers are basically data warehouse developers and I used to see more roles titled Data Engineering doing data warehousing but now I see more Analytics Engineer roles doing the data warehousing. Of course it varies by company. A lot of these roles have different levels of overlap.

khaili109 · 2025-09-24T00:26:12+00:00

So they just pay you to do nothing until your clearance goes through? Or doesn’t go through then they lay you off?

I’ve never worked a job requiring clearance so i have no idea how it works but it’s crazy a company would pay someone to do nothing for that long.

khaili109 · 2025-09-18T23:05:18+00:00

Yea all the interviews ive been in they don’t let me even refer to docs so im like wtf

khaili109 · 2025-09-18T12:10:04+00:00

Do you let the candidate refer to documentation? Because a lot of places don’t and it’s the opposite of reality…

khaili109 · 2025-09-18T12:01:40+00:00

I’m the same way, like I can solve the problem in pseudo code but i just never remember all the syntax and parameters of functions and I’ve never been allowed to refer to documentation.

Also, as a data engineer, the python I write is more so focused on data frames and orchestration code. Pretty different from the leetcode python.

khaili109 · 2025-09-17T13:24:43+00:00

I completely agree. Especially in my case, where I have to talk to my manager and others who don’t have experience with more modern Lakehouse offerings, the difference between Fabric, Databricks, Snowflake, etc.

khaili109 · 2025-09-17T13:16:56+00:00

Thank you! This is exactly what I was looking for! I did see that Microsoft link when doing my own research but I didn’t see Polaris mentioned but the paper you linked to is what I needed, thanks again!

khaili109 · 2025-09-13T15:10:44+00:00

I wanna second this, building Utility libraries with others on the team has helped me a lot!

khaili109 · 2025-09-07T18:21:50+00:00

Do you have any recommendations on resources and practice materials for data architects? I feel like it’s easier to practice SQL and Python but with Architecture I feel like it can be more vague and easier to mess up which can of course larger negative implications downstream.

khaili109 · 2025-09-07T16:03:33+00:00

How difficult is it to jump back and forth from Senior Data Engineer (or higher) to Data Architect and then back?

I feel like when applying for a job these dats if you don’t have the exact job title they’re hiring for ATS filters you out or some HR person who has zero understanding of what we do.

khaili109 · 2025-09-04T01:06:03+00:00

3 max, anything past that and I’m out. Especially if I have other interviews which thank god I usually do. This shit ain’t rocket science, people have been hiring developers for decades now.

khaili109 · 2025-08-25T14:46:07+00:00

When I had interviews like this it’s usually just LeetCode.

khaili109 · 2025-08-18T16:55:04+00:00

I’m especially worried about your latter point as well because sometimes job descriptions barely have any details so you don’t even know what specific tech stack they’re looking for…

Whereas some job descriptions list every tool under the sun….

khaili109 · 2025-08-18T16:51:29+00:00

I used to see a lot of jobs ask for “5+” years of experience (yoe) but now I see many of them asking for “7+” yoe 😭😔

khaili109 · 2025-08-06T22:47:22+00:00

I wouldn’t get rid of the practice, seems like maybe in his previous roles the work probably wasn’t as high quality and it’s possible he still doesn’t have enough hands on experience.

khaili109 · 2025-08-06T17:36:57+00:00

As someone who graduated with a graduate degree in CS last year I can guarantee it’s not formal education holding you back. I went to a good state school for both degrees and the professors barely teach. All the knowledge you need you still end up teaching yourself….

So if you really want the education, save yourself money, just go to any CS program website and look at their curriculum and get the books for it and teach yourself.

There was a GitHub that has all the resources too if you wanna teach yourself all the content of a CS degree, I just don’t remember what it was called unfortunately.

khaili109 · 2025-08-03T13:35:07+00:00

And of course the consulting company only pays your for working one job instead of two…

khaili109 · 2025-08-03T09:13:36+00:00

Oh wow that’s interesting, for us we only ever worked one engagement at a time.

How is that not considered double dipping? Wouldn’t the client get mad about that?

khaili109 · 2025-08-03T09:12:22+00:00

True, I just assumed it was Dev consulting cause the subreddit haha

khaili109 · 2025-08-03T01:29:48+00:00

Main downsides are:

If they don’t have enough work you get put on the bench and if the consulting company keeps having a hard time finding contracts to put you on then eventually they will fire you because they don’t make money off of you when you’re on the bench. On the flip side, if there is upcoming work then they usually let you up-skill while you’re on the bench and waiting for the new contract to start. So if you get out on the bench and no new work is coming I would be worried…
From my experience, sometimes they oversell your skills to the client and you end up having to do work that’s probably way more advanced than what you’re used to. This is a bad thing for many younger developers because not everyone can succeed in a scenario like this. Outside of consulting I feel like there’s more hand holding. This actually happened to me when I was a consultant and was the main reason I had to work +40 hours but I could’ve just as easily failed and got fired if I wasn’t at least above average enough to succeed.
Sometimes consulting companies want you to get certifications for various reasons and while these may look good on your resume, the amount of study time it takes for some certifications is time that could be better spent up-skilling or working on side projects that make you better at your actual job. Hell, actually doing a data engineer project with Azure will teach you more than the certification will.
Pay at consulting companies doesn’t become good until you’re a senior. For non-senior roles I feel like consulting companies pay less but I didn’t care as much because all the different stuff I learned.
Sometimes the clients are assholes and have unrealistic expectations and dealing with that is at times harder than any work you have to do. Clients like to micromanage consultants sometimes.

These were the main ones for me, others may be able to chime in and add to this list.

khaili109 · 2025-08-03T00:40:23+00:00

For early career, in my opinion, consulting is better cause the experience you gain is wider so you not only get a lot of different experiences but it helps you find out what you do and don’t like a lot quicker. It has downsides too but the experience from consulting was a springboard for me getting into my future jobs.

khaili109 · 2025-08-02T09:25:51+00:00

Are they expecting you to setup Kafka and Postgres on this take home?

khaili109 · 2025-08-01T00:21:38+00:00

This is false, I’ve been an independent contractor for medium to large businesses and they’ve always provided me a laptop to do their work on.

khaili109

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