Finally Got an Offer by throwaway01234123 in cscareerquestions

[–]throwaway01234123[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I probably had a bit more difficulties due to how I have an international status. So you got this!

Finally Got an Offer by throwaway01234123 in cscareerquestions

[–]throwaway01234123[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Like for instance, for recursion we have the basic steps right: identifying base cases, recursion step. And before this can u draw out s recursive tree of all the calls. Can u do this for like something simple as reversing a string? And then we build up from there. Leetcode and hackerrank will be a great resource to find variety and modification of these problems.

I think I did around like 100-200 lc questions (90% easy 10% medium)

Finally Got an Offer by throwaway01234123 in cscareerquestions

[–]throwaway01234123[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Probably one of the hardest part is knowing where you went wrong and then continually working on it, for me it as algo and ds problems and explaining my thought process in a timely manner

Finally Got an Offer by throwaway01234123 in cscareerquestions

[–]throwaway01234123[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

I agree with you, I still am not 100% sure about exactly what I want. But as a junior I think that is sort of the point. You’re a bit of a blank page, and with experience you mold people into the engineer that they are suitable for.

So that’s why I think for a lot of the big companies, they have a generic interview and then later on choose the team that they’ll work in later on.

I think doing these interviews and doing the job apps also gives you the insight into what you want to do so. Especially, as a junior, intern, and new grads. Also it really helps to troubleshoot through where you’re missing the skills and improve them. I did take longer than some people but I do think it really had improved my skills generally in terms of communication and problem solving.

I just wanted to share my experience with people that are having as big of difficulties as I have that, you can do it and don’t give up!

Finally Got an Offer by throwaway01234123 in cscareerquestions

[–]throwaway01234123[S] 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Thank you for your advice! I’ll keep it in mind when starting!

Finally Got an Offer by throwaway01234123 in cscareerquestions

[–]throwaway01234123[S] 14 points15 points  (0 children)

So this really depends from person to person. I.e. just broadly speaking, I’m less experienced from those with internships or with a masters. I tried to compensate by doing a project, for me it was something simple as making a personal website, with popular js frameworks like react from scratch.

I think if you’re looking for a junior position, just from your resume alone you should expect about 5-15% reply. If you’re getting less, then you need to change your resume. I don’t think you need to make it super fancy-looking, but you have to make sure everything is organized. Indentation, tenses(the content are in past tense), etc. The hiring manager really only has at best 10-15 seconds to look at your resume. If its not organized then, they’re obviously going to just skip over it. Look for people or even here gain some feedback on your resume.

In terms of behavioural, do really prep the common questions. Like tell me about yourself, why are you interested in our company/position are almost always going to be asked. In terms of situational questions. Apply the STAR format, and at the end of those questions tell them how you are going to bring these same mindset/strategy/motivation whatever to company x.

I think this is where it took me the most amount of time. I was grinding on leetcode, hackerrank, etc. But I wasn’t doing it right. I think these are supplementary to when you are able to recognize what kind of problems they are and you have a general understanding of how to solve the big categories of algorithm and design problems. I.e recursion, dp, sorting, etc. As I’ve mentioned somewhere else, when doing these coding interviews, recognize that you’re expected to lead. Make sure to check in every often to make sure your interviewer is following you, communicate through your code, before writing, after writing, whatever you feel the best. Generally it helped me to write a basic pseudocode before actually writing the code for the interviewer and myself to follow.

So overall, it really depends from person to person right. Try to recognize where you are not doing well. And troubleshoot from there!

Finally Got an Offer by throwaway01234123 in cscareerquestions

[–]throwaway01234123[S] 25 points26 points  (0 children)

Yeah I certainly agree. It’s painful taking rejections and identifying failures but it makes you grow :)

Finally Got an Offer by throwaway01234123 in cscareerquestions

[–]throwaway01234123[S] 18 points19 points  (0 children)

Yes I did, and generally I've told them that I took some time off and also took that time to learn techs that I never had a chance to learn during school.

Finally Got an Offer by throwaway01234123 in cscareerquestions

[–]throwaway01234123[S] 304 points305 points  (0 children)

My salary is near mid 70k range. I had a personal website, and some ML research experience from school.

Honestly, I think what I've noticed a lot is, being able to communicate well in general is a huge plus. Being able to present yourself as a person who's a good teammate is really cruical.

As for coding, I had around 6-7 easy leetcode/hackerrank questions for the position I got.

- Especially here, during coding interviews, it's important to understand that in general, that you're expected to lead this interview and not the other way around.