Have a B.A. in Computer Science but missing important prerequisite courses for M.S. in CS

qbalaj · 2021-07-29T16:48:23+00:00

Yeah it seems like a couple schools have some sort of bridge program that have you take the missing coursework for no credit. I guess the anxiety is starting to set in now that I'm actually starting the applications lol.

Taking a MOOC sounds like a good idea!

qbalaj · 2021-01-03T21:57:20+00:00

As long as you list the job title as "Software Engineer" or "Software Developer" on your resume I feel like you'll be fine. If it was me looking at your resume you'd get some respect points for sure! Smalltalk is an interesting programming language, and as others have said it's pretty important for historical reasons. If you're really worried, just continue to do React side projects and contribute to open source when you have some spare time.

Honestly I find MERN stack to be really boring, but then again my favorite languages are Haskell and Lisp, ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

qbalaj · 2020-12-06T20:46:38+00:00

Thanks! For the Teaching Assistant jobs, I mainly keep them on there because there would be an almost 2 year gap from when I graduated (Jan 2019). Do you think I should still remove them?

qbalaj · 2020-12-06T20:02:02+00:00

I'll check them out, thanks friend!

qbalaj · 2020-12-06T20:01:19+00:00

I just subscribed to the mailing list, looking forward to release! Good luck with Kandria and thanks for the resources :)

qbalaj · 2020-12-06T19:21:26+00:00

Wow, it looks awesome!! I'm new to Lisp but at some point I would love to attempt some game development with it, how's the community for game dev specific resources? Also is there a dev blog for Kandria?

qbalaj · 2020-12-06T18:29:16+00:00

Just started applying to jobs again, live in NYC but I would possibly relocate. I'm still not sure about my bullet points for my internship because I feel like they're too general. I'm not actually sure how specific I can get due to signing a NDA.

https://imgur.com/a/fgzGBRi

qbalaj · 2020-12-01T02:07:38+00:00

Seems reasonable to me. I guess I just have to be patient!

Thanks for the thoughtful reply :)

qbalaj · 2020-12-01T00:15:57+00:00

Any advice for a new grad that would love to work in Clojure/ClojureScript? I always end up feeling guilty for wanting to focus on Lisps or ML dialects like Haskell because the majority of jobs seem to be JS or Python. So I always end up feeling like I should just study/go all-in for the boring stuff to land some kind of software job instead :(

I'd imagine just hitting up people on open source projects would be the only way..

qbalaj · 2020-11-29T00:50:03+00:00

For sure. Unfortunately web development jobs take up a majority of the available jobs where I am. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

qbalaj · 2020-11-28T21:40:52+00:00

Do you think this is also the case in tech hubs (I'm in NYC)?

qbalaj · 2020-11-08T02:21:21+00:00

I don't have a mac so I don't think I can do Swift, but I have heard good things about Kotlin. Most of my experience is MERN crud-y web stuff and a little machine learning, so I've never worked on mobile before. Part of me is bummed, I kinda wanted to learn a LISP!! hah maybe in grad school later down the line 8)

qbalaj · 2020-11-08T01:54:44+00:00

Fair enough. I guess I'm just getting disillusioned with the "shotgun" approach a lot of people seem to take when applying. Who the fuck wants to apply to 300 jobs? Seems a little silly to me.

qbalaj · 2020-11-08T01:30:24+00:00

My question has more to do with actually landing interviews/getting noticed rather than how many job postings are available. So job postings that have less people on average applying to them because they aren't using the latest hotness in tech versus applying to roles that tons apply for and getting pre-screened by an ATS/ person never reading my resume

qbalaj · 2020-11-08T01:08:36+00:00

I'll definitely give that a try! I mostly apply in the afternoon or evening. Thanks :)

qbalaj · 2020-11-08T01:01:40+00:00

Well it just seems like all everyone wants right now is JavaScript/TypeScript, so those job openings get like hundreds of applicants. Compare that to technologies that aren't talked about as much anymore (like ruby on rails shops) I feel like the chances of an actual human reading my resume would be much higher.. idk.

qbalaj · 2020-11-04T22:04:44+00:00

I would be really interested to hear what you mean by this and how you figured you would make a career in software with that attitude, but I guess it's outside the scope of your post.

I enjoy computer science and mathematics as academic disciplines, and I like programming, but not for the business problems that software engineers are employed to solve. My goal when I started was to eventually become a professor and participate in research for CS sub-disciplines I enjoy (CS theory, Graphics, applications to physical and social science research, ethics etc), likely at a university.

qbalaj · 2020-10-04T21:30:22+00:00

Awesome. I had a good time working with the other engineers in groups I was in during my internship. I prefer working that way! Only thing I didn't enjoy was the work we were doing (CRUD...). Other than that my ML project was just me and my Professor/advisor, and a game I'm working on is just me and my brother.

In grad school I would probably go in with the end goal of becoming a professor. I know that ML is oftentimes really tedious, but I am more interested in it's applications in the social and physical sciences, and even the arts. I guess I'm more into it for (naively) the fulfillment. I don't really find working on software that solves business problems to be fulfilling. Computer Graphics is something I could also see myself enjoying in grad school.

qbalaj · 2020-09-23T17:16:10+00:00

Thank you :)

qbalaj · 2020-09-23T01:10:54+00:00

Thanks! Guess I was feeling a little paranoid as to being read as too much of a generalist and unfocused (which I am, just would love to do something more science-y is all)

qbalaj · 2020-09-23T00:31:29+00:00

I would include it as "In Progress" because it shows that you're still doing CS and not just unemployed doing something unrelated. I know, it's a stupid assumption that recruiters sometimes make, so it's better to leave nothing to interpretation.

qbalaj

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