sigh

i’m graduating next may and feeling extremely anxious about the whole job thing. i don’t think i’m necessarily awful at interviews, but i’m fucking terrified of them. i’ve gone through several different rounds for internships and i’m just a sweaty, nervous mess no matter how much prep i do. i hate the fact that every round i meet with someone new and i have to re-pitch myself to them. i wish i could just sit down with an engineer and walk through a real-life problem with them. how did you guys go about getting your first industry-related job? am i just targeting the wrong companies?

  • aexiruch@lemmy.ml
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    3 years ago

    I dropped out of university (I couldn’t stand being one of literally thousands working on the exact same problem, at the same time, that thousands more had solved in prior years, for decades; I wanted to solve new and real problems). I registered as “looking for work” with the appropriate government agency and their first reaction was an exasperated “Oh my! You’ll need a good coach…”. Not the most encouraging reaction… Well, they did send me a bunch of local companies with internships, entry level jobs, etc. I applied for an internship starting next month at a really small shop that did “everything web” and during the interview they asked whether I could start tomorrow 😛 (Obviously they were a coder short for an important project, but they were very happy about my knowledge and skills). I seamlessly transitioned into vocational training with the same company, which was mostly pro-forma given my background (So instead of “university drop-out” I had something to put on my CV). Later I was on loan to another, mid-size, company (which didn’t know I was still, technically, a trainee) and they offered to hire me directly. I came clean about my trainee status, switched companies, finished my training, and was hired by that same company on the spot. Stuck with them a couple of years, until they didn’t promote me from “technical project lead” to “software architect” because they only had one opening and someone else was picked (Looking back I think I would have made the same choice, so I hold no grudge), and given the company’s size that meant there likely wouldn’t be another opportunity for some years, which irked me 😛

    • Helix 🧬@feddit.de
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      3 years ago

      one of literally thousands working on the exact same problem, at the same time, that thousands more had solved in prior years

      Well you first have to repeat shit until you can truly make shit. Uni gave me valuable experience in how to make stuff reproducible and how to reproduce results by others. Not to say it’s the best thing to happen to anyone, but some scientific method training is pretty neat.

      • aexiruch@lemmy.ml
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        3 years ago

        That applies to science, hypotheses, experiments, etc. and there I fully and wholeheartedly agree. But being one of thousands to implement a Bubble Sort has marginal educational value unless you are truly surprised it’s not exactly efficient. It might very well differ between different universities; in mine the “science” in “CS” was mostly absent until you started working on your PhD, and the rest wasn’t even good engineering, just “trying to filter out as many students as possible, as quickly as possible, by all means necessary”. They openly admitted that, and in my case they succeeded, by killing the joy of understanding and burying it under ten feet of “now reimplement this thing that has been proven worthless sixty years ago”.

    • Eli@lemmy.ml
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      3 years ago

      No wonder they dropped you. No wonder persons will drop you. You are a lot more liability than asset. But still can’t follow. I know. For assets like you i got a special friend. Her name is Jennifer. They’ll help. Her emotional iq is like 160. But looking hard? For me you rise trust concerns that even jennifer couldn’t help. She is into linguistics while i just am truthful. Nonetheless we did latin and greek. TOGETHER. So go on. You think there is any purple women without a purple bf? Ever? I mean like if i let you touch her:you think i got problems eliminating you? My best friend is just like i am. The difference then is that spraying water is a lot of fun. Spraying fire ain’t or is it?

      That is the true purple curse. Knowing people and still no burning them. Because they are smart, as am i. They only differ in color. They are mostly green. I still am purple.

      I even like them mostly.