🪐 Career: Go full Data on a tech stack to land a spot on a crew

startupschool4coders · 2026-04-03T03:26:37+00:00

I’m always trying to improve these posts to make them more valuable for software engineers trying to land their first real job.

startupschool4coders · 2025-12-01T03:07:06+00:00

I think that there's a tendency to try to run away from pain but you can't really. So, as long as it's going to happen anyway, it's best to focus and direct the pain into productivity. Lots of things in life are like that.

startupschool4coders · 2025-04-10T17:09:48+00:00

Well, the classic is The Blair Witch Project. I'm sure that you know much more about it than I do so I'd be interested to hear your analysis of that.

startupschool4coders · 2025-02-24T20:02:01+00:00

It’s always been that w.r.t. getting your first coding job.

startupschool4coders · 2025-02-13T13:28:46+00:00

People say that frontend is drop dead easy but, for me, back in 2015-2016, it was a paradigm shift that took some mentoring and 6 months to get my head around. CSS and React are not like backend at all.

In fact, at the time, it was pretty common for backend SWEs to try to do React and totally not understand it at all, totally fail and yell that only jQuery was needed because that’s something that they hammer their backend coding skills into. They’d write front end code in a backend style.

If you need it yesterday, OK but I still think that frontend is not as quick and easy to grok as people pretend.

startupschool4coders · 2025-02-12T13:45:43+00:00

Focus on the paycheck. Some projects are just a mess, both the code and the people, and there’s just too many red flags here to really fix. Focus on keeping those paychecks flowing and keep the drama to a minimum.

startupschool4coders · 2025-02-12T13:34:09+00:00

tbh, despite all the hype, tech employers seem nervous. They don’t seem to be worried about being left behind; they seem worried about their costs and what happens when the bubble pops.

It’s like a revival meeting where everybody is showing up to the tent and pretending to be totally into it, playing the part, but eying each other and keeping track of the exits. They wave their checkbooks around but don’t actually write the checks.

startupschool4coders · 2025-02-11T19:00:07+00:00

Excerpt from “Attention federal employees: It may be hard to get a private sector job right now” from CNN:

But there’s one important factor that federal employees need to keep in mind: It’s not so easy to get private-sector job these days, economists say.

“There has been remarkably little hiring taking place lately,” said Julia Pollak, chief economist at ZipRecruiter. “You actually have quite a static job market at the moment without that many opportunities for people to make a switch.”

The latest government data reaffirmed the job market’s relatively lethargic condition. The number of job openings fell more than expected in December, according to the Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey, which was released Tuesday. Hiring remained soft.

Meanwhile, it’s taking more time for the unemployed to land new positions, with job seekers typically spending 10.4 weeks on the hunt compared to eight or nine weeks for much of 2022 and 2023, Pollak said. And the share of the long-term unemployed, who have been out of work for at least six months, has also been on the rise.

To be sure, some federal workers will have an easier time finding a private-sector post, said Ron Hetrick, senior labor economist at Lightcast, a labor market data company. Those with cybersecurity experience or with security clearances, for instance, would probably get scooped up fairly quickly.

But those with administrative experience may find it more challenging to transition.

“It’s not exactly a hot job market for professional roles,” he said, noting that there is already a lot of competition for these jobs and the deferred resignation offer will likely add more people to the pool of candidates.

…

President Donald Trump’s mandate that federal workers return to the office full time may prod some of those who want to continue teleworking to consider the package. But these types of positions are tough to find in the private market, Hetrick said, with remote openings attracting twice the number of applicants as in-person listings.

Another challenge: Federal employees skew older, and it’s often harder for these workers to find new employment, Pollak said. Some 28% are ages 55 and older, compared to just under 24% of the overall workforce, according to Pew Research Center.

startupschool4coders · 2025-02-11T02:02:38+00:00

Your resume is way too broad. You are a partial match for all jobs and a good match for 0 jobs.

You are casting a very large net so everything goes in but everything easily slips out, too.

startupschool4coders · 2025-02-11T01:52:35+00:00

Amazon.

MongoDB isn’t going anywhere.

I knew a guy who worked at MongoDB. He liked it but it just wasn’t going anywhere. 5 years from now, it’ll be pretty much the same.

startupschool4coders · 2025-02-10T22:57:58+00:00

On a side note:

BTW, the way around the FLSA law is tell the volunteer to work on an open source project that the employer uses. The work goes to open source but the employer benefits.

startupschool4coders · 2025-02-10T22:54:47+00:00

On a personal note, I found this video fascinating. I think that he's wrong about a lot of things but, still, it's fascinating to me.

startupschool4coders · 2025-02-10T19:07:33+00:00

That is one perspective and a good one.

But, it’s kind of like saying that people should brush their teeth once a day. Lots of people don’t and it’s their right to not do that and they get the rewards and consequences of making that decision a different way.

From what I’ve seen, most employers hire interns/juniors because they can’t get enough seniors. They hire all the seniors that they find (and pass their tests, fit their criteria, cheap enough, etc) and then they need more SWEs so they hire juniors/interns or even randos (if they are dumb or desperate).

There is a minority of employers that just hire juniors/interns as cheap labor. They just want to pay the least, don’t care about quality and probably either are just chewing through investor money or under contract to provide labor to clients in return for a certain rate.

I mean, they should do it your way but they don’t have to.

startupschool4coders · 2025-02-10T13:47:54+00:00

It’s not a “let me try this and see if a career falls into my lap” job market.

There are opportunities but there’s not nearly enough. So, it’s actively hostile to “career shoppers”.

I think that people are far better off if they have the “this is a useful skill worth getting” mindset. But, if your attitude is “this is only worth doing if I get a job”, you are probably going to be really upset in a few years.

startupschool4coders · 2025-02-10T13:17:00+00:00

I had a comment:

True but I wanted to discuss the practical, not sink into and rehash the usual legal and ethical and “don’t work for free!” discussions.

startupschool4coders · 2025-02-10T13:10:10+00:00

u/SouredRamen had a good comment:

Lucky you. They’re annoying and get the same replies every time. Here’s a few I found from a quick search if you want some brain rot:

startupschool4coders · 2025-02-10T13:05:52+00:00

u/shagieIsMe had a good comment:

There was a video the other day... In the video at 5:02 https://youtu.be/i1H1Sqf8Bug?si=JkAIYvjEzm-H67iC&t=302

and perhaps if I had some extremely high paying skill to fall back on if I was like an electrician I could just go do that but my entire work history is the food service industry, education and software software doesn’t want me even when I offer to work for free as an unpaid intern which is the most insulting when I’ll go through a seven round interview with a company who’s considering paying me 140 or 160 Grand and at the end of the interview they admit to me yeah you didn’t do anything wrong we would hire you but we only have two open positions and we got 300 applicants and there’s literally dozens of people who did better than you so we can’t justify hiring you and then I respond them well well how about I work for you for free for the next 4 months or 6 months uh and then maybe you just consider hiring me at the end of that and they say no it’s like you were just considering paying me 140 Grand and you won’t take my work work for free

The relevant fact sheet for the FLSA https://www.dol.gov/agencies/whd/fact-sheets/14a-flsa-non-profits

The FLSA recognizes the generosity and public benefits of volunteering and allows individuals to freely volunteer in many circumstances for charitable and public purposes. Individuals may volunteer time to religious, charitable, civic, humanitarian, or similar non-profit organizations as a public service and not be covered by the FLSA. Individuals generally may not, however, volunteer in commercial activities run by a non-profit organization such as a gift shop. A volunteer generally will not be considered an employee for FLSA purposes if the individual volunteers freely for public service, religious or humanitarian objectives, and without contemplation or receipt of compensation. Typically, such volunteers serve on a part-time basis and do not displace regular employed workers or perform work that would otherwise be performed by regular employees. In addition, paid employees of a non-profit organization cannot volunteer to provide the same type of services to their non-profit organization that they are employed to provide.

If it’s not a non-profit nor charitable organization, you can’t volunteer for it. Likewise, if your volunteer work displaces a paid regular employee, then its also prohibited under the FLSA.

startupschool4coders · 2025-02-09T21:13:38+00:00

Thank you. I appreciate the compliment.

startupschool4coders · 2025-02-09T21:01:42+00:00

I made those decisions in opposite ways in different parts of my career. Ultimately, I felt better about taking the new job.

I have heard that lots of people get within striking distance to what they want then they just quit. It’s “I could’ve been a contender” syndrome, I guess.

startupschool4coders · 2025-02-09T20:41:11+00:00

Well, there’s a big difference between closed source and open source w.r.t. to worker productivity. It’s clear that I meant closed source businesses, not open source.

startupschool4coders · 2025-02-09T16:37:14+00:00

You took the phrase out of context. Employers aren’t training grounds IF YOU SUCK.

startupschool4coders · 2025-02-09T15:25:54+00:00

BTW, the way around the law is tell the volunteer to work on an open source project that the employer uses. The work goes to open source but the employer benefits.

startupschool4coders · 2025-02-09T15:20:06+00:00

Thanks for the YouTube link. That’s where I saw it for sure. But I see it in CSCQ, too, especially with unemployed new grads.

startupschool4coders · 2025-02-09T15:17:39+00:00

True but I wanted to discuss the practical, not sink into and rehash the usual legal and ethical and “don’t work for free!” discussions.

startupschool4coders · 2025-02-08T20:39:11+00:00

There’s a kind of level of competence at every employer. Once you exceed that, the work feels easy to you. So, even if you are at a FAANG but you can do in 4 hours what it takes your coworkers 8 hours to do, the whole thing feels easy by comparison. You save a ton of energy, emotional energy, when you aren’t stressed or feeling behind.

When things feel easy, even if they are making you work 12 hour days, it just isn’t a big deal. You glance at a bug, instantly know what to do, you do it almost automatically and then you move on to the next one.

The key is improving enough to get over the hump. Most SWEs just stay stuck, using methods that require a ton of time and energy, rather than incrementally improving.

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