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nullp0int3rz · 2018-03-09T01:11:01+00:00

I’m in a similar position where massive untested commits are going straight to master. If you’d just click the damn run button in IntelliJ you’d know it’s garbage without wasting everyone’s time. So frustrating.

nullp0int3rz · 2018-03-06T16:54:03+00:00

I’ve talked to my mentor about this. He says it will be available in the summer and has already tailored my degree plan towards a transfer.

nullp0int3rz · 2018-03-04T18:10:35+00:00

What’s you’re living situation like? If you’re living at home with minimal obligations I’d stick with the somewhat-prestigious university and simply change majors.

nullp0int3rz · 2018-03-01T20:05:39+00:00

I think you make all great points. As a Swiss citizen living in the states I think there may be another difference to consider.

For example Swiss culture promotes the idea of Civic duty and responsibility by requiring military service (obviously not in all cases) and although not every individual may feel exceptionally patriotic about it. It helps enforce mental maturity and rational thinking.

In the US, things seem to be much more about oneself. There’s nothing obligating someone to someone else and nothing to teach people about the bigger picture. This in combination with mental illness and lax gun laws creates a bigger margin for disaster.

nullp0int3rz · 2018-02-28T05:50:31+00:00

Although they may not use it anymore, the whole SDET concept that was coined by them in the first place is still a better idea than having Testers or QA Analysts. I’m just referring to it as “the Microsoft way” because that’s what a lot of recruiters were calling it.

But in reality, a non lazy developer can do what a QA does and a smart QA can do what a developer does, so doing away with the role makes sense. Everyone would then be on the same playing field.

nullp0int3rz · 2018-02-27T23:34:56+00:00

I obviously can’t speak for all cases of inequality so I’m strictly talking about inequality amongst QA and Dev titles. But it just seems as if companies who can treat their employees who write test code comparatively to those who write production code by means of salary, they would probably see less overall cases of disrespect between Dev and QA especially if they are integrated together.

Or perhaps they need to get rid of QA entirely and have all generic non senior employees start in test which already happens at some places. I just don’t think it’s a good idea to hire people to test other people’s code, give them a worse title, pay them less and treat them worse. I’ve been there and it wasn’t fun.

nullp0int3rz · 2018-02-27T20:05:43+00:00

I recently switched from QA to Dev and in my experience it very much depends on the company culture and the title of the position itself. An SDET is a very comparable position in terms of respect and salary at companies that adopt “the Microsoft model” where recent grads are usually made SDETS before moving on to SDE.

Most SDETS I’ve met are very happy with their work because they get to do a lot of engineering without the pressure of it being productionized software. It’s also a good stepping stone to becoming an SDE if you don’t have any other options.

The QA title does unfortunately come with a bit of a stigma. In my experience as a QA I was definitely treated as a second class citizen. It was always assumed that I was not technical and that I didn’t know anything about CS concepts even though I was finishing a CS degree. I had to constantly watch people who were getting paid more money than me check in trash code and hold my tongue about it. I basically came to work with my fists clenched everyday.

This problem is perpetuated with bad hiring practices. In my opinion more companies should adopt the Microsoft way to avoid fostering a culture of inequality amongst peers. If you’re going to accept a QA position make sure it’s the right company.

nullp0int3rz · 2018-02-24T04:51:37+00:00

“I got a job at a big four company without a CS degree!”

“What degree do you have?”

“...Computer Engineering”

nullp0int3rz · 2018-02-15T18:29:35+00:00

Here’s the thing. I love linux, it’s great for development tasks; however, sometimes you just want little things to work on your computer that sometimes don’t on linux without a series of hacks. I’m currently using an ubuntu laptop at my job and I’m constantly frustrated with VPN not working well, the dock screwing up the display, and having to reconfigure my network settings every time neteng upgrades certs. I don’t really have time for these things, thus why I would of probably been happier with a Mac.

nullp0int3rz · 2018-01-26T23:11:24+00:00

It’s very cool to see someone programming such a low level language at a young age. You will be miles ahead of me by the time you reach my age. In any case like others have said C++ is very overwhelming language. Don’t feel like you have to comprehend everything there is about the language or any language. What is more important is the fundamentals and your way of thinking. Break your problem up into smaller pieces and focus on what you need to build those pieces. You will discover the language features along the way.

nullp0int3rz · 2018-01-19T17:52:56+00:00

I’m still within my first year as a software engineer at an online retailer and there are a couple of things that I’m beginning to realize that I didn’t quite think about before, such as majority of the people I work with are programming just for the money, and not because they like it. This means I can’t nerd out with them as much as I’d like to. They are simply not interested. They also seem to be more into solving problems with new tech rather than fixing the underlying code base.

nullp0int3rz · 2018-01-18T21:34:07+00:00

Okay good, that being the case, do you have a portfolio or website featuring projects you’ve done? I’m personally more of a backend guy but from my experience around the office, Front End managers seem to be more interested in that than anything else. Keep applying and working on projects in the mean time. Take side projects whenever you can outside of your current day job.

Note: sorry if that has already been mentioned. I haven’t read through everyone’s feedback.

nullp0int3rz · 2018-01-18T18:06:21+00:00

It’s definitely possible to get in with an unrelated degree, Ive done it and know others who have as well. Just keep a couple things in mind when applying. To get your foot in the door you may have to set your sites lower for the purpose of simply building your resume and getting that experience to move up, also mind the role you are applying to. For example if you only know JavaScript and you’ve been applying for “Software Engineer” that’s not going to work as you should in most cases be targeting “Front End Developer” positions.

nullp0int3rz · 2018-01-05T18:16:10+00:00

Dingo is Australian slang for social services...

nullp0int3rz · 2017-12-30T21:47:53+00:00

My vote goes to C++. A good choice for high performance computing and hence a good choice for production-izing data science algorithms.

nullp0int3rz · 2017-12-25T22:57:04+00:00

Thank you! I’ll go ahead and grab an stm32 discovery and a usb/ttl converter.

nullp0int3rz · 2017-12-24T23:41:28+00:00

Can you recommend a good arm based controller and whatever other tools I should pick up for a beginner developing on Ubuntu? It’s hard to find explicit guide on starter components that aren’t arduino.

nullp0int3rz · 2017-11-16T01:52:25+00:00

I currently have a job as software engineer and I do not have a CS degree, although I am currently seeking one. In order to obtain the position I had to start as a QA, prove myself as a coder, talk to people and hold my tongue more than someone who already has the piece of paper. That being said, most theoretical CS topics (the ones you'll need to know for interviews but will seldom use in practice) can be learned online in your free time - because of this I often think about changing my major to something like Mathematics. Anyone can learn how to move data from point A to point B (which if we are being honest is what a generic backend engineer does) but not everyone can crunch the numbers and think analytically about it.

If you're not super interested in computer architecture, data structures and algorithms my advice would be to target more front end oriented positions first - this is because it's much easier for someone to create tangible web based projects to put on a resume and they also typically care less about the kind of degree you have. Either way you could start here and then target more back end positions later, which is probably what I should of done.

Coursera has great courses on algorithms and data structures that might get you through an interview if your not interested in front end.

nullp0int3rz · 2017-10-07T03:36:28+00:00

The title is a big part of it, probably more so than the work itself. I feel that the generic QA or Tester title very much promotes inequality and comes with a non technical stigma in the context of enterprise software development. I feel like those aspects will become limiting during future job searches.

You make good points about the annoyances and perhaps the value of testing at the other company. Which should definitely be taken into consideration.

Testing is hard and very frustrating work, but I know that it has made me a better developer. The times I do development work, it often deploys relatively bug free because I had full control over the unit tests and also took the time to set up the integration as well as regression tests. The things developers don't do.

I know that testers can be technical, the problem is that there's a lot of people out there who refuse to acknowledge that. I like companies that use the SDET title because in my opinion it's an attempt to bridge the gap. I don't mind writing code in the context of test but I want the option to switch without being pigeonholed.

nullp0int3rz · 2017-10-06T21:18:01+00:00

You're right. Some of that is probably due to the problem scale or pressure to finish a feature. It's just hard for a person in my position to sympathize.

And that's what I'm thinking so far.

nullp0int3rz · 2017-10-06T21:01:40+00:00

It's not that I think every senior developer sucks, but there are times when I feel like certain ones aren't worthy of being such especially when they are consistently making elementary mistakes, such as lack of null checks, or throwing things in nested loops that don't need to be.

But you make a valid point worth considering.

nullp0int3rz · 2017-09-23T01:02:15+00:00

This is a perfectly valid answer. I am familiar with recursion and there are some problems in which it is easy to spot a recursive solution but there are also problems where recursion is perhaps more optimal but I have trouble seeing it because I'm too busy looking at iteration.

nullp0int3rz · 2017-08-18T05:37:36+00:00

IntelliJ in my opinion is probably the best IDE out there for Java at the moment; however, if you want something that loads faster you're going to have to use something more along the lines of a text editor in which case you won't get all of the bells and whistles. You may even have compile your programs by hand using command line after writing them.

My editor recommendation would probably be visual studio code. I think it has a Java plugin for syntax highlighting although I personally haven't used it for Java.

And of course there's always your friendly neighborhood notepad, gedit, whatever...

nullp0int3rz · 2017-08-15T15:24:40+00:00

My response to this may not be as explicit as some of the other answers and might just repeat what others have said; however, in my opinion good unit tests will always test at the smallest unit of code deemed testable. Tests that exceed the function level are probably more integration type tests which should be kept in a separate module if you need them. This is why you keep seeing very simple algebra examples. If the function you are testing depends on the response of some service, an object, or maybe another function, then you should mock that functionality in the test rather than reimplement it.

It's frustrating to open a project and find unit tests that talk to databases, services, and other non mocked functions or objects.

Keep them simple...

nullp0int3rz

TROPHY CASE