"I studied computer science, not English. I still can’t find a job."

[brianmanahan]

The average was ~60K when i got out of undergrad back in 2006

same here, i am surprised they are not higher now

 

[sze5003]

same here, i am surprised they are not higher now

That's close to what they are now too if so even a little less.

 

[hans007]

he must be like terrible at CS, or not actually passionate about it.

we have trouble hiring people. i probably get like 10 recruiter emails / phone calls week.

CS is a good degree, but you need to have some passion for the craft to be good at it, or marketable. if you are even just mediocre you can get a job these days.

if you are good, you can be turning down 6 figure offers, for every trivial reason you want.

 

[purbeast0]

same here, i am surprised they are not higher now

it's basic supply and demand. there was a boom of CS grads after people started seeing how much money can be made with the degree so everyone wanted to do it.

also, because there are so many now, it's harder to find good ones.

i graduated in 2004 and my starting salary was $48k. i was happy as shit to take that at the time.

 

[tfinch2]

What are some questions you guys would ask someone applying for a junior java developer position? So someone straight out of uni/college.

I'd have them read a couple of coding samples and tell me what they are doing.

 

[sze5003]

I'd have them read a couple of coding samples and tell me what they are doing.

Those are usually my favorite ones. Sometimes I get too nervous writing code on paper or whiteboard. Especially when people are staring at you. Over time with practice you kind of get used to it.

 

[tfinch2]

Those are usually my favorite ones. Sometimes I get too nervous writing code on paper or whiteboard. Especially when people are staring at you. Over time with practice you kind of get used to it.

It sounds simple, but you'd be surprised how many people can't do it, even with many years of experience. One of my favorites is reversing the words in a sentence using a stack:

Look at the dog run -> run dog the at Look

Pretty simple, but touches on conditions, loops, and a basic data structure that is not an array. Some people just stare at it for like 20 minutes and sweat.

 

[Fox5]

it's basic supply and demand. there was a boom of CS grads after people started seeing how much money can be made with the degree so everyone wanted to do it.

also, because there are so many now, it's harder to find good ones.

i graduated in 2004 and my starting salary was $48k. i was happy as shit to take that at the time.

There is high turn over in CS. I see a lot of good paying CS jobs out there, but you actually have to produce (at most of them) or it's bye bye.

 

[jpiniero]

Meanwhile, we've been understaffed for two years and still can't find people.

Yeah, if you are having problems finding people... You're doing it wrong one way or another.

 

[sze5003]

A good book for some interview questions and topics you should be familiar is cracking the coding interviews 5th edition. You can find older ones online free.

It should help if you haven't used some of the technology and have been working in industry for a bit. I'm a bit rusty because my company does everything so obtuse and custom.

Another good book is clean code by Robert Martin. I took a training course in refactoring with him paid for by my company. He usually teaches them every year where I work.

 

[Svnla]

So many platforms, so few developers = http://techcrunch.com/2014/09/06/so-many-platforms-so-few-developers/?utm_campaign=fb&ncid=fb

 

[AyashiKaibutsu]

It sounds simple, but you'd be surprised how many people can't do it, even with many years of experience. One of my favorites is reversing the words in a sentence using a stack:

Look at the dog run -> run dog the at Look

Pretty simple, but touches on conditions, loops, and a basic data structure that is not an array. Some people just stare at it for like 20 minutes and sweat.

Maybe if it was written in assembly you'd be starting to get difficult.

 

[Remobz]

same here, i am surprised they are not higher now

I was never a computer nerd or took computer science but I still own my own businesses and working on a third outlet as well. I am not saying that I make as much as a computer nerd these days but I live comfortable and its STILL MINE OWN BUSINESSES

 

[halik]

It sounds simple, but you'd be surprised how many people can't do it, even with many years of experience. One of my favorites is reversing the words in a sentence using a stack:

Look at the dog run -> run dog the at Look

Pretty simple, but touches on conditions, loops, and a basic data structure that is not an array. Some people just stare at it for like 20 minutes and sweat.

That's up there with that fizz buzz thing http://programmers.stackexchange.com/questions/15623/fizzbuzz-really

Unless your HR is absolutely terrible, you should not need stuff like that to interview candidates with.

 

[Cerb]

So many platforms, so few developers = http://techcrunch.com/2014/09/06/so-many-platforms-so-few-developers/?utm_campaign=fb&ncid=fb

OT, but that's not really a problem of numbers. Build an app on top of Weather Underground, or Evernote? WTF? Of course nobody wants to do that, because that falls into a rung lower than the classes of, "monetize <X>," crap, and offers little to no value to users, while locking the developer into a set of service APIs that typically don't have any long-term availability guarantees, SLAs, etc.. It's a bunch of answers looking for questions.

 

[OverVolt]

inb4 "I studied english not computer science and my rich uncle got me a job by nepotism, the guy who wrote this article is such a dumbass! I make $100k with a bachelors in english that guy must be some kind of retard if he can't make at least $200k with computer science."

 

[darkewaffle]

I hadn't heard of Fizzbuzz before but that's interesting. I got it, mostly!

 

[Insomniator]

inb4 "I studied english not computer science and my rich uncle got me a job by nepotism, the guy who wrote this article is such a dumbass! I make $100k with a bachelors in english that guy must be some kind of retard if he can't make at least $200k with computer science."

Haha I actually do have a friend with an english degree who's uncle got him an IT project manager position out of college with a huge company and now makes over 100k. Literally 100% because of his uncle, without that he'd be a struggling teacher somewhere if he was lucky. Had 0 knowledge of IT before and was babied at the job until he became competent.

He got for free what people in the field work 10 years for.

 

[HumblePie]

I hadn't heard of Fizzbuzz before but that's interesting. I got it, mostly!

Hadn't ever been presented or heard of fizzbuzz either, but took me like 5 seconds to go through the answer in my head. Pretty simple.

Loop operator from 1 to 100 on incrementing variable
Output value of variable every loop iteration
Branch operator to check if variable is modulus by 3 with a remainder of 0. If so output Fizz
Branch operator to check if variable is modulus by 5 with a remainder of 0. If so output Buzz
If required, output carriage return


Wrap that in the syntax of choice based on language and main method starting syntax.

For C# it is basically

using System;
using System.Text;

class Program
{
   static void Main(string[] args)
   {
       for (int i = 1; i <= 100; i++)
       {
           Console.Out.Write("{0} ", i);
           if (i % 3 == 0) Console.Out.Write("Fizz");
           if (i % 5 == 0) Console.Out.Write("Buzz");
           Console.Out.Write("\n");
       }

        Console.Out.Write("Press enter key to close console window.");
        Console.ReadLine();
   }
}

The thought process takes 10 seconds or less for the basics of the loop. Well it should take about 10 seconds for most programmers. The syntax may take a bit more depending upon the language being used, and obviously writing out the syntax could take someone a few minutes.

The only sticking point would possibly be the modulus operator. In which case, if the user can't remember the operator then a lengthier arithmetic operation may end up being done.

 

[smackababy]

I've done Fizzbuzz quite a few times. Another I've done a few times was all letter combinations on a telephone in alphabetical order. Recursion is the only correct answer, as far as I am concerned.

Even had an interview where they had JUnits set up to check these. It was pretty nice.

 

[dave_the_nerd]

The only sticking point would possibly be the modulus operator. In which case, if the user can't remember the operator then a lengthier arithmetic operation may end up being done.

I would think that unless the job was for a specific language skillset, they would allow metacode.

 

[njdevilsfan87]

It sounds simple, but you'd be surprised how many people can't do it, even with many years of experience...

But what if someone knows how to use stackoverflow efficiently? Copy, paste, modify, compile!

 

[sze5003]

But what if someone knows how to use stackoverflow efficiently? Copy, paste, modify, compile!

You can't use that in an interview so you better learn it and the techniques to remember it even if you don't use such things in your day to day job. That's also why I recommend that cracking the code book a few pages back.

 

[AyashiKaibutsu]

But what if someone knows how to use stackoverflow efficiently? Copy, paste, modify, compile!

That only gets you so far when you're trying to write something complex or for getting a project as a whole formed and functional.

 

[xaeniac]

please let this thread end!