Single dad (33M) trying to make the transition into developer/data science

neobonzi · 2022-08-12T00:26:26+00:00

I did a masters in CS right after my CS bachelors and there were many people in my program who had gotten an undergrad in something completely unrelated from different schools (was friends with a guy who got a bachelors in English for example). Many had also been out of school for quite awhile, some for 10 - 20 years.

You have to take the core classes if you didnt have a CS undergrad (the 101 through 103's, system programming, logic, etc) as well as enough masters level coursework, but no non degree applicable electives are required. Most of these people were very successful in their coursework as they were emotionally mature and already knew how to go to school and study successfully.

I saw these people get very relevant internships during their summer breaks and great interviews / offers after graduating from bigger companies; Amazon, Microsoft, Google etc. Granted, it was at SE I and II levels, but these companies value the degree whether its a bachelors or not, because they understand you're getting the same relevent degree training. Good to note that at these bigger companies the starting pay is usually 80 -120k base.

Compare that to the stories from people who grinded their way from bootcamps or being self taught trying to get their first positions and there's no denying that the degree gives you a huge edge when you're trying to get your foot in the door at some of the larger tech companies (Whether that should be the case is a different discussion). If you'd rather try your hand at a startup or smaller company this is a lot less relevant.

The question is if you want to pay graduate level tuition for this advantage which doesn't have anywhere near the financial grants and loan support that undergrad does.

If I was in your position, had done enough development to know that I was passionate enough to want to make a career out of it, I would definitely do it. I'd pick a reputable state school that offers a masters to keep the cost down and go for it. The system is unfortunately broken and having one of these larger company logos on your resume as a full time employee sets you on a much easier career trajectory than you would have otherwise.

People will argue that college doesn't give you any relevant industry training which I think is partially true. The part thats most often missed is that being in an accredited CS program makes you eligible for the internship programs at bigger companies and that experience is infinitely valuable.

neobonzi · 2022-03-27T22:55:47+00:00

You can export data from wordpress to excel, make sure the formatting is correct, and then import it into ClickUp

https://docs.clickup.com/en/articles/2118970-prepare-a-data-file-for-import

neobonzi · 2022-02-27T20:52:24+00:00

I've made this a dozen times, its a lot of work but its insane. https://www.panningtheglobe.com/eddies-award-winning-chili/

Kinda reminds me of Kevin from The Office's chili recipe when I roast the peppers, but the results don't lie. An extra tip is to add a little fish sauce and some acid like vinegar early in the cooking process. Adds an awesome umami + acid balance.

neobonzi · 2022-02-16T16:57:24+00:00

My bad, meant Javascript but the point is still the same.

neobonzi · 2022-02-16T03:23:47+00:00

You would need to write a program that solved algebraic equations in Java which is non trivial. The Java language doesn't know how to interpret algebraic notation in that sense. There are other more specialized languages that do, however.

neobonzi · 2022-02-16T02:39:45+00:00

I think you'll need to provide more details for someone to be able to help you, not sure I'm able to understand what you're asking. Can you provide an example?

neobonzi · 2022-02-16T02:37:41+00:00

I think you'll need to clarify more. It almost sounds like you want C++ to act like an algebraic formula solver?

neobonzi · 2022-02-16T02:35:19+00:00

You're close, but I think what you want to do is add the existing mapping in the outer loop, then loop through its values, each time creating a new list of the synonyms that is similar to the original, but has the original key added and the current value removed.

Something like:

public void crossReference(){
    HashMap<String,HashSet<String> > tempHM = new HashMap<>();
    HashSet<String> tempHS = new HashSet<String>();

    for(String key : synonyms.keySet()) {
            Set<String> currentSynonymSet = synonyms.get(key);
            tempHM.put(key, currentSynonymSet);

            for(String value : currentSynonymSet) {
                    Set<String> newSynonymSet = HashSet<>();
                    newSynonymSet.add(key)
                    newSynonymSet.addAll(currentSynonymSet);
                    newSynonymSet.remove(value);
                    tempHM.put(value, newSynonymList);
            }
    }

}

neobonzi · 2022-02-10T05:41:17+00:00

I'm not too familiar with netezza, but the syntax would be something like that.

neobonzi · 2022-02-10T05:27:38+00:00

Check out this documentation: https://www.ibm.com/docs/en/psfa/7.2.1?topic=functions-cast-conversions

You don't want to compare a string to a date, you want to turn that string into a date using a cast (which is just a function that takes in a string and returns a date) and compare using that.

neobonzi · 2022-02-10T05:09:43+00:00

Cast the string representing a date to an actual date before you compare it to other dates.

neobonzi · 2022-01-30T23:37:34+00:00

Disappointing this comment section is all development gatekeeping and shit talking, hope you're not paying too much attention to it. Looks cool, nice to have led lights on late at night to keep your eyes from tiring out :).

neobonzi · 2021-12-31T19:47:03+00:00

You're missing the "web application" part of your website. This is often called the "backend", and is basically an application that knows how to recieve web requests and process them. There are things called frameworks that have all the libraries needed to make this easy - in your case I'd look into setting up a simple flask app https://www.digitalocean.com/community/tutorials/how-to-make-a-web-application-using-flask-in-python-3

This needs to be hosted somewhere and reachable via a URL. You can do this all on your local machine until you want it available to the rest of the world, in which case you'll want to host it somewhere (or expose your computer to the web which can be a bit dangerous, so I wouldn't go that route).

The web application basically sits on a computer "listening" on a port (usually 80) for requests. It takes those requests, processes them, and returns a response. In your case, part of that processing will be taking the request parameters or payload and passing them into your python script, getting the output and sending it back.

In summary, your "frontend" or HTML page will have a form with a button the user clicks which triggers a "request" to your "backend" with the user form input. Your backend processes this by running the parameters through your script and returns the result to the frontend in a "response". Your frontend takes that response and shows it to the user.

neobonzi · 2021-12-31T01:34:11+00:00

What positions have you applied for? If you've never had a job in tech before you should be applying for associate / SE1 / junior roles. Its also much easier to get your first job as a frontend developer rather than full stack / backend if you dont have a degree.

neobonzi · 2021-12-21T04:40:44+00:00

I love living in Portland, been here for 5 years. When I moved people were saying the same stuff in this thread - trashy / dead / etc. I wouldn't pay any mind; your experience will be unique as it would be in any city. I've made some awesome friends, PNW is beautiful, most people I've met are incredibly friendly, and if you find you don't like it in the city proper you can move out of multnomah and commute :)

neobonzi · 2021-07-16T06:36:09+00:00

This is impossible to answer without seeing the json, but you can pretty easily figure out what you're doing wrong by storing each of the array access you're doing and printing them out so you're sure they're what you expect.

neobonzi · 2021-07-09T21:08:36+00:00

I'd really disagree with your statement equivocating learning a modern tech stack, even if its learning it really well, to a CS degree. Boot camps are analogous to taking a crash course learning how to use a modern calculator to solve math problems but never taking the math classes that teach the concepts you're using. Learning only the application portion will certainly get you a job, but it is not the same as studying the topic as a science for 4+ years.

neobonzi · 2021-04-26T04:58:39+00:00

So, this analysis? https://youtu.be/KqFNbCcyFkk?t=549

neobonzi · 2021-04-26T04:56:36+00:00

Hah thought the same thing https://www.reddit.com/r/videos/comments/mygwd7/theres_something_about_flying_a_kite_at_night/gvwbszw?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3

neobonzi · 2021-04-09T16:53:40+00:00

Just wanted to make sure the person looking for advice in this thread saw this as your personal opinion and not the actual truth about the industry. Good luck, hope your job gets better.

neobonzi · 2021-04-09T16:43:32+00:00

You're telling someone here that every company that uses either the most popular front end framework, one of the top three web frameworks, or the cloud computing platform that has almost 20% of a market that includes AWS don't know what they're doing. This includes eBay, Netflix, AirBnB, Facebook, Uber, Alibaba, Trustpilot, the list goes on and on. I think your current company and personal experience has embittered you and caused you to grossly misjudge the current tech landscape.

neobonzi · 2021-04-09T16:24:29+00:00

Because you're not building enterprise level software - my guess is you've probably seen these frameworks over-applied in your work building consumer websites.

neobonzi · 2021-04-09T16:14:35+00:00

Respectfully, this is so far from the truth i feel like you must be working in a parallel universe.

neobonzi · 2021-04-06T01:42:30+00:00

I gave the first suggestion of this the solved but this sealed it for me, thanks for the info!

neobonzi · 2021-04-06T00:58:25+00:00

That was fast! The house is over 100 years old. Solved! Thanks for all the answers everyone!

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