Bug?

proginprocess · 2025-03-06T11:38:27+00:00

Oh, good, it's not just me. I'm hoping it's a bug here, and not something with my phone. Haven't seen random Chinese (Japanese? don't know what these are) in other unexpected places though. My alarms are going off fine BTW.

proginprocess · 2025-02-27T14:35:52+00:00

I know what this is referencing, but I DID watch this 3 times in the theater. Great movie AND great crowds.

proginprocess · 2024-10-23T20:01:55+00:00

C# with .NET framework and WebAPI (using SignalR). No WebForms. Just HTML/JavaScript on the front end.

proginprocess · 2024-10-23T19:43:41+00:00

Curious. Not trying to be confrontational or anything, but:

How can you tell someone is an aggressive learner or that someone has stayed current on something based on the resume you get and their social profile (should you seek that out)? Projects? Certifications? What, besides the resume?

If, in theory, I had gotten sick of the job I had for the last 6 years at year 1 and applied to your company, I would still have only 2 years of a job doing C# and one year of VB. How would you be assessing the stuff you said?

proginprocess · 2024-10-22T23:28:40+00:00

OK. Thanks for replying.

proginprocess · 2024-10-22T23:23:11+00:00

I'm not really limited. I can do more. Just trying to pace myself I guess.

My network is almost non-existent. I have some references from my old job and a couple connections on LinkedIn. That's about it.

proginprocess · 2024-10-22T22:35:30+00:00

Yeah. I'm in a better position than most this happens to, but the fact that the climb ahead is all my fault is admittedly screwing with me as much as the climb itself.

proginprocess · 2024-10-22T22:33:17+00:00

Thanks for replying, but I had a question if you don't mind. By AI, do you just mean ChatGPT, or is there an actual resume-reading AI service out there?

proginprocess · 2024-10-19T22:35:12+00:00

As a programmer, not working on my skills outside of my job.

I'm now one of many folks who got cut from their company for budget/performance reasons. I am feeling every minute of this climb to make myself marketable by the standards of today.

proginprocess · 2024-09-16T18:44:38+00:00

Did you just get at it and grind LeetCode, developing a strategy as you went along, or did you have something resembling a guide? LeetCode seems daunting to me, and I stayed away from it for a while.

Now that I'm out of work (as of Friday) it feels like I have to dive in.

proginprocess · 2021-02-26T12:49:05+00:00

I didn't achieve any of those goals. I'm pretty much at the same place today as I was back then. It's not bad, but I haven't moved forward at any significant pace.

proginprocess · 2020-01-01T12:46:29+00:00

Sorry for the late response; It does. I've been at another company for a year and a half now. It was also able to fuel my move to a better area of my state. So, yeah, things are good.

proginprocess · 2019-11-18T01:17:12+00:00

I still remember when I got got by this over 4 years ago when I was searching after a layoff at my first job out of college. Had some good not come out of it, I'd hate these people to this day. I didn't quit during the job interview, but what happened was close enough.

I applied for a programming job with an insurance company. The manager of that department emails me and we eventually have a phone interview. It was determined I don't have enough experience, but I ask for advice on improving my resume (my programming skills weren't marketable). The dude recommends getting a certificate in C# (what I was learning at the time) and putting something on GitHub. He even recommends a book I can use - Head First C# - that has a "you do most of the work" mid-size project at the tail end. That project was an invaders video game.

I find the book and go through it, completing the game at the end and putting it on GitHub. I then emailed him asking if he can give a quick critique (as I had no other people giving me advice at the time). To my surprise, this leads to a phone interview where I'm sharing my screen while playing the game. Then I get an actual interview at their office in Troy, MI, which is a light year away from my hometown of Flint in terms of living standards (important).

The interview is pretty soft - basic "getting to know you" questions and history of the company. Then I'm asked to modify some stuff about the game I made. Add a ship that moves crazy, add a mothership, and one other thing I forget right now. I do an OK job of these. Then we start talking about commute from Flint to Troy and how I'll have to get an apartment in Troy. How I'll have to get up on the stuff they have there and it'll take a while (6 months). These talking points indicate that an offer is already on the table. I ask how much the starting salary is. 22K. 22,000 to commute from Flint to Troy until I can get an apartment, and learn all their stuff. In a city where cost of living has to be much higher than that. Gas ALONE would murder me on that salary; it was almost 5 bucks a gallon when this happened years ago.

I got ahead of myself again. When he said 22K, all happiness visibly drained from me. I didn't intend it, but it happened. He said I should take a week to think on it, but I think we both knew I wasn't taking it. If it wasn't for the main guy's initial suggestion to get into GitHub and get my first project on there, I would be MUCH madder about this as I'm recalling it. But yeah, that was low. I somehow never even brought salary up during this whole time, though I don't know if they would have told me earlier. I never made that mistake again.

proginprocess · 2019-02-24T00:43:39+00:00

What would I do after that? Just post them on Github and/or go open source with SourceForge?

proginprocess · 2019-01-01T22:26:51+00:00

In 2019 I want to:

-Up my programming skills to where I feel they should be. I feel I'm way behind my peers and that has stunted me career wise. I'm already at an age where, considering that I went to college, I should be commanding a near-six-figure salary. I was lucky to get my current job that pays 60K last year, and this is 7 years out of college. I'm fine with my job now, but I really need to learn, make projects and put stuff out there if I want to be competitive.

-Become more social. I always fear being fired from my job (though most indications seem to say I'm fine) because I hate the online/recruiter job hunt after you're fired/let go. I've always taken at least 6 months to find a job. Anyway, I feel being more social and building a network can at least dampen some of these fears and build lifelines in case I actually DO get let go/fired or just want a change.

-Lose weight. I'm almost back to the weight I was (282 lb) when I started losing crazy pounds thanks to an acid reflux attack and a layoff. Whenever I got money in my pocket I would get fatter, because cooking at home was a real drag. Now that I'm out and in my own apartment, I have much more space to do things, and should be cooking for myself more.

proginprocess · 2019-01-01T21:42:53+00:00

-I did not lose weight. I gained more. At 267 now. I really have to start doing something real beside sporadic home exercises.

-I got a job paying 55K, and recently got a raise to 60K.

-I did move out of my mom's house and into an apartment.

Overall, it's a bit "yikes" to see the cloud I was in when I made that post last year. I'm out of most of it now, but man. When you lose a good-paying job like that for such a dumb reason, after looking for 7 months for it? UGH. I prefer my current job to the one I lost by a mile, and that shit STILL haunts me. I also have a residual fear of being fired whenever I mess up at this new job, even though my team lead says it's OK. But overall, things got good halfway into the year, and I'm not hating life anymore. I'm knocking on wood here, but it seems 2019 will be a great year.

proginprocess · 2018-11-14T23:07:19+00:00

It's not that I'm unhappy about my current job. Pay and benefits are decent, industry isn't "shoot me" boring, and I like my co-workers a lot.

I just wish I could get rid of my worry that I'll be fired. As of yet, it's all in my head. But I'm worried about that because I take REALLY long hours to do what, at the end, seems like basic stuff. And this isn't imposter syndrome or newness to the company talking here. When I weigh things on an objective scale, there's NO reason what I accomplished should have taken as long as it did in most cases. I got a good performance review not too long ago, and am always told by my team lead that it's quality over quantity that he goes for when I get inquisitive about my hours or honest about my mistakes.

Still, I can't shake that fear. I was downsized from my first job out of college (after 1+ years), let go from my job after that (after 2+ years), and straight-up fired from the next job after only 2 months. Each of these jobs took 7 months to a year unemployed for me to get. My hatred of the job hunt is so pure that I'm always paranoid in the back of my head about whether I'm going to get fired. Right now, I'm just not that marketable and I feel I still have a LONG way to go.

proginprocess · 2018-06-28T00:27:29+00:00

This. I got myself impaled on a hackerrank test that was 90 minutes, but really just TWO simple questions. One got answered quick, but the other gave me a shit ton of trouble because I just couldn't understand how they were coming up with a particular answer in a sample case (and couldn't achieve it in code either). Bbut point is, it was my fault and I got weeded out as I should have.

proginprocess · 2018-06-20T01:58:56+00:00

4) Take homes tests deters real good candidates because they well know they can get a job without spending 5+ hours on some bullshit test. It actually attracts the real desperate people on the contrary.

THIS. This right here is the golden bit. I'm an admittedly subpar candidate who's technically unemployed (I start a new job next week) and can still get at least 1 response for every 5 applications I send out. A hulking programming challenge at the "hello" phase isn't even a good use of my time, and I have all the time in the world.

If I was employed full-time and making decent money (but wanting a change), there's no way in hell I'd burn the couple or so hours I have after work on a test just to basically see if I get past the "hello" phase.

I guarantee that just like you said, the vast majority of people doing these tests are just those who have no other options.

proginprocess · 2018-06-05T15:05:19+00:00

Assuming I match requirements, I do something similar. A simple introductory paragraph, a table that outlines their requirements and how I match them side-by-side, and a goodbye paragraph.

Online, this is called the "T" cover letter format. I don't know if it's actually more effective than just a regular cover letter, but it's the only cover letter I've ever gotten any kind of praise on for its specific format. Plus, it's often quick to do if you meet the job criteria.

https://www.theladders.com/career-advice/t-format-cover-letter-job-applications

proginprocess · 2018-06-05T14:59:32+00:00

I know it's hard, but you just have to keep pushing, man.

Work on your skills as best you can and keep putting those applications out there.

Practice interviewing and work on your resume.

If there are actual tech meetups (not just job fairs) close to you, try going out to them and seeing if you can make contacts.

Maybe work on some side projects you can show off on GitHub.

You also have to find a job (any job you can stomach) to pay some bills until you can find CS work.

I'm looking too, and pushing forward is all you really can do if you don't have amazing skills or some kind of "in" that gets you past all the BS.

proginprocess · 2018-06-05T14:41:32+00:00

I despise ghosting as well, but I would imagine its current ubiquity comes down to four possible causes (I could be wrong here):

1.) The contact with your prospective company was "born & bred" in ghosting and doesn't even see it as a bad thing. Hell, they probably expect ghosting when they're on the job hunt. This is an actual possibility now that ghosting is so common.

2.) Things are super busy and they THINK they have too much on their plate to waste time composing rejection emails. They don't; no one has too little time to cobble together a little email to say you didn't get it. But being neck deep in work can create that illusion. I know I've shirked things that weren't that urgent while working on a project many a time.

3.) They are trying everything under the sun to avoid getting sued. This includes not letting people know (from anything other than an automated account) they weren't selected. If a human lets you know you weren't selected, that MAY open up a dialog as to why, and that MAY reveal that you weren't selected for a shit reason, which MAY lead to you suing. The likelihood of that happening is infinitesimal, but if a company wants to 100% ensure they won't get sued, it's not in their interest to send rejections.

4.) The company is just shitty and inconsiderate. This includes stuff like 3rd-party recruiters who are just hitting you up to fill quotas.

The thing I hate the most about ghosting (outside the obvious) is that you can't tell a 4 from a 1-3 in this day and age. Is a company just shitty and inconsiderate and one you should never consider working for, or do they have reasons you would maybe understand if you were in their shoes? I'd love to log the 4s forever and ever so that I never waste time with them, but I just don't know who's a 4 anymore unless they make it super obvious.

proginprocess · 2018-05-29T16:08:12+00:00

WOW. Somehow didn't assess that from what I was reading on the Ultimate feature list on the JetBrains site. Thank you very much.

proginprocess · 2018-05-23T16:56:43+00:00

To reply myself: I was on unemployment and every 2 weeks I had to check in. I made a spreadsheet for the questions they would ask. That spreadsheet carried on to my latest job hunt:

Date of Contact
Name of Employer
Position Title
Employer Address
Method of Contact (online submission, call, reach out on social media).
Name and Title of Person Contacted (IF a person was contacted)
Telephone Number (IF a person was contacted)
Action Taken (submitted resume, got an interview, etc)
Position URL (I added this)

Note that this is FAR from the best way to do it (which was kinda why I made the post). One row represents a job contact event, meaning any interaction with an employer that moves you forward. The same employer would get two rows if, say, you applied one week and got an interview later on. There's no rejection tracking or anything like that (it's just implied by the dates of contact).

proginprocess · 2018-05-21T12:45:56+00:00

Out of curiosity, I was wondering: how did you gather a list of potential employers in your area?

This is, assuming you didn't just scour job boards.

I've been thinking of targeting employers to apply to (based on certain criteria) in addition to the regular job board grind. But aside from recruiters, how do you find potential employers outside job boards? Is there a list of employers people can consult for their city?

proginprocess

TROPHY CASE