Resume Questions Thread

>>1563032

depends, but probably computer science.

computer science because it can deal with programming in a more abstract sense, which is important, because programming paradigms are becoming more and more abstract.

a computer engineer may be more useful for embedded IOT type applications, which a computer scientist might have to do more reading-up to do about.

>>1563040
Yeah, that's what my intuition says as a computer scientist
I also consider that having the title of Engineer on your resume makes some hiring managers believe that Computer Engineers are more qualified than Computer Scientists.

There are some government contracting companies that hire from our school and I've had electrical engineers get software positions over me in the same job.

I don't want to be pessimistic but its happened more than once now where hiring decisions for software positions are given to engineers instead of computer scientists

>>1563032
If you're going for software development, your best friend is Google. Don't waste money on a degree. Get enough experience at home to get by, get an entry level job, and work your way up. Nobody in the field cares about the degree anymore. You won't get into debt and you'll get paid to learn.

>>1563053

try writing "Software Engineer" in big bold sans on your résumé. Not sure if it'll work, but maybe worth a shot.

>>1563056
Not to mention a 4 year jump start on your career. You'll start off entry level anyway.

>>1563056

that is the biggest bullshit lie people tell themselves these days.

>>1563065
Sure pal. Working for a Fortune 400 company making $125k on a high school education, with 12 years of experience. Enjoy your debt.

>>1563056
I'm about to graduate so I might as well finish up my degree

It just makes me feel a certain way when I live, breath, and dream in programming and data. Maybe I'm not conveying my skills efficiently on my resume.

I'm a little disconcerted with hard to follow and often unfair hiring practices. I opted for Udacity's Nanodegree Plus program (a coding bootcamp) that guarantees a job.

I just cringe every time I get excited about a job and apply and get rejected while some of my engineering friends would apply to similar jobs with no thought and have an offer only to turn it down.

>implying HR knows there is a difference
>implying HR doesn't hire based on their feelings at the moment
>implying anyone here can guess when women will be pissed off for no reason

>>1563068
If you're almost done you might as well go all the way. It really depends on what kind of industry you go into, but I've found having a good understanding of business, and IT's role in it(why you're not a waste of money) is the best thing you can do. Don't make it all about your technical skills. Demonstrating how you will be effective in the company such as soft skills, problem solving, deep understanding of the end goal, etc. will make you stand out far more than an average geek.

>>1563066

*YAWN*

Like the other day, one of the losers without a degree (muh loans, muh debt) had to stay home meanwhile the rest of us go to China for a year. Reason? China doesn't give work visas to non-degree candidates.

Let's not even mention the social proof, the plus with women, etc.

Non-degreed cucks just hang yourselves already

>>1563079
33, married, own a home, don't really give a shit about going to China. Doing fine, but thanks for the advice.

>>1563061
Calling yourself any kind of engineer on a resume without a PE can get you arrested, depending on the state

>>1563079
>he had to take a business trip to China
>he thinks this is a good thing

>>1563100
lol exactly. My office is about 40 minutes away and I go in maybe once or twice a week. Poor argument.

>>1563088

so you got into the game in 2001

maybe you made a name for yourself in c/c++ back in the day.

however the landscape has since shifted dramatically. cloud computing. PAAS. machine learning. I don't think a DIY programmer can compete with India in the modern theatre.

>>1563172
Nah. Actually started off as a shitty VB developer before I knew what was up. I'm mostly a product of the .NET era, but I do work in C/C++/JS and even embedded(C/C++ and ASM if I don't have the space) on the side. Even though I work for a Fortune 500 we're just getting into cloud computing and SAAS now.

Also I did say he'd have to start off entry level(like I did making $32k a year). If he can get better than that out of college, that's awesome.

I taught my brother-in-law .NET back in.. I think around 2009, while he was working support at a company I was with. We pulled him out of stocking shelves at a grocery store. Also high school and much younger than me. I think he's making about $92k where he's at now.

Some people prefer college. I'm just saying it's not impossible to do without in this field. OP is almost done, it'd be stupid to drop out now.

College recruiter here for a big bank hiring mostly software engineers and data engineers. Just came back from a week of college career fairs including a bunch of resume workshops. Ask me anything I'm gonna be here for an hour or so.

>>1563204
Well he did ask about what someone like you would want to see on a resume. Got any pointers other than what was already said?

>>1563172
Also I work as a technical lead, and the majority of my development force(besides who I'm training onshore) is Indian. They are pretty good but they are not that good. In particular, the fact that they aren't here on the ground to be a part of everyday development and design decisions, and work overnight while I sleep, is a big challenge. Our company just started getting into this SAFe crap, and having "agility" across separate development teams with only a few hours of overlap is pretty disastrous right now. Offshore takes care of the bitch work you don't want to do, I don't see any sign of them replacing GOOD developers anytime soon. The business can try if they'd like, but they'll come back crying.

>>1563193

I just had some bad experiences. Maybe it works under a good mentorship.

A team of autodidacts had been assigned to me, and I had to manage them, but no time to train them. always produced shitty code. copy paste instead of loops. inline hard-codes. deprecated builtins. poor man's cronjobs. direct sql queries in a layered framework. etc, etc, etc.

I've seen some shit.

>>1563233
Man for every guy you've worked with that didn't go to college that was shit, I've had just as many that went to college. Working with one now. It's all about drive and hunger for doing well. I've seen shit everywhere man.

I talked to one of my managers from years ago about it. There are these kids who's grandmother heard on the radio that "you should get into computers". Told their grandkid to go to college for it. Like Ron White says, you can't fix stupid. You either have it or you don't, period.

>>1563219

I get kids all the time who ask me "What languages do I need to know? Java? C++? Go? {insert language here} and I always say the same thing, we don't really care what language you know specifically but if you can think like an engineer. Can you think in data structures, stacks, queues, and if not, can you learn it? Can you learn a new language in a month or so? Would you be ok being on a project for 2-3 months and then switching to something completely unrelated?

When I started working for my company, I walked in knowing Java and my first project was learning Ruby on Rails to make a full stack web app.

We want people who can adapt, who know that they can;t know everything but can learn it if need be.

>>1563251
Great add-on to what I said. Shouldn't matter what platform you're developing on. Once you have a few under your belt, adaption should be easy, although I'm not sure how much you're going to get out of that right out of college.

>>1563251
>>1563267
I can guarantee you that the ones you DO find like that out of college have been doing a lot of work (personal or not) outside of their education. They have that drive.

>>1563246
>I've had just as many that went to college. Working with one now.

It's true, it's all true. I wanna cry right now.

During university I hands-on individually tutored nearly 100 kids for their data structures projects who would have failed without me. The shit I've seen there...

so much stupid. I guess I was up my own ass repressing that.

>>1563267
>although I'm not sure how much you're going to get out of that right out of college.

in theory you learn how to use everything from brainfuck to prolog.

although you'll probably be hard pressed to find many grads who can effectively work with either.

>>1563053
I'm an electrical engineer working on software. We take a bunch of credits that are from the computer science department. I also work with a guy that did computer science and for his electives, he took electrical engineering classes. The 2 are very related, it just matters what you market your degree as.

>>1563282
One of my co-workers(who I was actually friends with since 6th grade) went to college for this shit. I think I'm a little more in depth than he is with certain stuff(gave him some embedded guidance but he's definitely smart enough to figure it out on his own). Back when we started working together at another company(where I started to develop), he was struggling a little bit because he didn't really learn how to debug in school. That's what turned me off to the idea.

Had another guy in the same company that we hired(briefly), college educated, had YEARS under his belt(so he said). I was training him on the ins and outs. Called me over, had a breakpoint and hovered over a variable and asked me why it was null. I wanted to tear his fucking skull off right then and there. He only lasted a few more weeks.

I guess I shouldn't shit on college. I've probably worked with as many bad apples as you have. I don't mind, makes me look good :D

>>1563285
I didn't mention I went to a technical high school, and it was for electrical engineering. That may be where I got my edge, because I've worked with both sides. I stuck with software because it is much more forgiving. I still go through a couple prototype boards that are fucked up before I get it right. Thank god it's cheap now.

>>1563289
>college educated, had YEARS under his belt(so he said). I was training him on the ins and outs. Called me over, had a breakpoint and hovered over a variable and asked me why it was null. I wanted to tear his fucking skull off right then and there.

I can absolutely relate to that feel. especially as a tutor.

I think one of the big problems is that in CS, you spend maybe 30% of your time on programming, 30% of your time on math, and 30% of your time on design (modeling, architecture, etc.) (10% on other useful and useless shit)

Many companies that hire CS don't actually leverage 60-65% of what a CS went to school for.

I think the idea of the curriculum is that a CS isn't supposed to worry about why a value is null, or do debugging.

It almost seems to me like the idea is that a CS is rather supposed to draw boxes in Visual Paradigm all day long.

>>1563289
>I've probably worked with as many bad apples as you have.

probably more. I'm only 24 lol.

>>1563306
I'm not sure you can totally relate to it, since this guy went to college, was about 28 years old at the time. I'd be a lot more patient with someone if they weren't getting paid $70k, which was more than twice what I was making. There's no excuse.

Right now I spend a good amount of my time in meetings, design, code reviewing offshore, and in between I get to code something fun when the shit hits the fan. I think my biggest value is being able to bridge IT and business. I work on both sides closely. It's not about being awesome at coding(unless that's all you want to do), but realizing why they are paying you what they do and continuing to feed that need.

My view is that college is supposed to prepare you for the workforce, but that's where I find it unrealistic. You're going to get most of your experience by doing it and learning on your own, which is why I said Google was your friend(although I was viciously attacked for that earlier :P ).

Maybe you're right, maybe it is far harder than it was 10 years ago, but I don't think it changed that much. Not enough where you can't get your foot in the door and be ambitious. That's the only chance I had.

Also you've tutored a lot more than I've trained, might be equal on the bad apples. That's what scares me for the people who go for CS and they just don't have what it takes, what a waste. Then people like you and me have to deal with these assholes.

>>1563322
>be ambitious.

that's the key word right here. I don't think many millennials are ambitious in the classical sense of the word. yeah they have dreams, but they expect these dreams to fulfil themselves.

>Then people like you and me have to deal with these assholes.

not anymore haha. I'm a mechatronics engineer now and have full control of the hiring process. At least until I drive this business into the sand again lol.

>>1563056
I've interned at Microsoft, Twilio and worked at FourSquare.

I've never met or seen a software developer who didn't go to any university at all.

The only places that would consider and accept people without a college degree are low-tier companies that pay shit money.

But if you do it right, you can fudge your financial aid numbers, apply to tons of scholarships, and work part-time freelancing, and graduate within 3 years, you graduate debt free quite easily

>>1563499
Yeah, not true. Same person that you replied to here. I don't think a company with a >$30B market cap who pays me well into the $100ks qualifies for a "low-tier company that pays shit money". You're wrong on all counts.

>>1563032
they will hire you based on experience

>t. software engineer college dropout who works for a company doing quantum research

So I landed a grad software development position a few months ago, just wondering if you nice anons have any advice about how I should go about working remotely?

I guess what I'm asking is what would convince you that an applicant is able to work remotely competently, whether it may be a couple years of experience under the belt or whatever

>>1563941
This really has to do with the attitude of the employer. First of all, you should be there at least a year to prove yourself and show that you are a self-starter. If they think you need handholding, then not a chance. Even then, the company might frown upon it. Do you have co-workers that do it on the regular?

>>1563066
>lying on the internet

>>1563945
I think the company is potentially very open to it. In our team: three in location A, two in location B (one working from home seemingly permanently) and the other five in a different country. We all communicate using Slack, Google Hangouts etc. so it's already a pretty distributed team.

My current probation supervisor wasn't allowed to work from home though, his superiors cited a requirement to be co-located with the product owner as he is the tech lead. Guess I'll bring it up if I pass probation.

Thanks for your input, guess I'll have to strive towards independence!

>>1563965
K bud. Have nothing to prove to you. Move along.

>>1563974
The way I got into it was starting to work from home maybe once in a while. Then it moved to 1 day a week. By now it's just the norm. They make jokes about spotting me when I actually go in.

>>1563065
If you can program and have something to show for it I don't think it matters if you've done a degree or not, at least if you want a simple programming job.

>>1563980
Sounds great. I'd consider doing that but would probably be pushing it doing that during my probation period

Don't get me wrong the office is in a sweet location and nice co-workers and all, it's just that 70% of my regular expenses are just travelling to work so it would be a huge cut. I don't particularly enjoy spending 2hr30min a day commuting either even if it is a nice location. I like to think I'd be able to work a little harder from home if I didn't spend so long commuting but I don't know if I really would.

>>1564003
Yeah same, except not so much the money for me(costs me about $125 a month for transportation to work). I don't like taking that much time out of the day for commuting either.

>>1564008
Yeah my parents are being absolutely amazing and letting me live at theirs while I commute into London for a minimal amount (I offered to pay them more)

The train works out to about £280 a month for me, at least it's not one of the train companies who are striking every other day recently. Commuting is awful. One day maybe I'd like to live somewhere cheap in the countryside and work completely remotely if possible

If the company's HR is so influential to the hiring process and so far removed from the engineering department that they don't know the difference between CE and CS, it's probably not somewhere you want to work.