#careeradvice #honesty #cscareerquestions #brutaltruths
👋 Hey there, career seekers! Are you ready to hear some brutally honest things that you might not want to hear? Well, buckle up, because I’m here to dish out some tough love and give you the real deal when it comes to navigating your career in the tech industry. So, let’s dive in and talk about some of the brutally honest things that r/cscareerquestions needs to hear.
## The Importance of Soft Skills
When it comes to pursuing a career in computer science, it’s easy to get caught up in the technical skills and forget about the importance of soft skills. Here’s the hard truth – soft skills are just as crucial, if not more so, than technical skills in the workplace. So, here are a few things you might need to hear about the significance of soft skills:
1. **Communication is Key:** In a field that’s heavily reliant on collaboration and teamwork, being able to effectively communicate with others is essential. This means being able to articulate your thoughts clearly, actively listen to others, and adapt your communication style to different audiences.
2. **Adaptability is Vital:** The tech industry is constantly evolving, and being able to adapt to change is crucial. Employers are looking for candidates who can quickly learn new technologies, pivot when necessary, and thrive in a fast-paced environment.
3. **Emotional Intelligence Matters:** Having a high emotional intelligence can set you apart from other candidates. It involves being self-aware, empathetic, and able to manage your emotions and relationships effectively. These skills are invaluable in building strong, collaborative teams.
## The Reality of Job Searching
Job searching in the tech industry can be tough, and it’s important to be aware of the realities you might face. Here are some hard truths about the job search process:
1. **Competition is Fierce:** With the tech industry growing rapidly, the competition for jobs is fierce. This means that you’ll need to work harder to distinguish yourself from other candidates and make a lasting impression on potential employers.
2. **Networking is Non-Negotiable:** Networking is not just a buzzword – it’s a crucial component of finding job opportunities in the tech industry. Building and maintaining a strong professional network can open doors to new opportunities and help you stay on top of industry trends.
3. **Rejection is Inevitable:** Let’s face it – rejection is a part of the job search process. You’ll likely face numerous rejections before landing your dream job, and it’s important not to take it personally. Instead, use each rejection as an opportunity to learn and grow.
## The Importance of Continuous Learning
In the tech industry, the learning never stops. Here are some brutally honest truths about the importance of continuous learning in your career:
1. **The Tech Industry is Ever-Changing:** Technology is constantly evolving, and staying relevant means continuously updating your skills and knowledge. This might mean taking courses, obtaining certifications, or diving into new technologies.
2. **Upskilling is Non-Negotiable:** Employers are looking for candidates who are proactive about upskilling and staying ahead of industry trends. This means taking ownership of your professional development and seeking out opportunities to learn and grow.
3. **Failure to Adapt Can Hinder Your Progress:** In the tech industry, complacency is not an option. Failing to adapt and grow can hinder your career progression and limit your opportunities for advancement.
In conclusion, the tech industry is a demanding and ever-evolving field, and it’s essential to be aware of the realities and truths that come with pursuing a career in this industry. Embracing these truths and incorporating them into your career strategy can help set you up for success in the long run. So, remember to prioritize your soft skills, brace yourself for the job search process, and embrace continuous learning as a lifelong pursuit. The more prepared you are for the realities of a career in the tech industry, the better equipped you’ll be to thrive in this fast-paced and exciting field.
That the industry is overwhelmingly dominated by the cult of toxic positivity where you’re never allowed to question the negative social impacts or harmfulness of the things you’re developing.
When people make posts about applying to x amount or not getting a job for years despite doing X
The commenters should start asking interview questions related to the job posting. In many cases it will become clear why they have not gotten an offer yet.
Most developers with normal jobs aren’t posting on here about their job searches, it’s people that are desperate for any job, those with no experience, or people looking to brag about making $120k starting
And if you have 500 applications and no callbacks, or keep getting rejected from interviews, it’s probably your resume or your soft skills
A lot of people here need to learn to use google to find answers to simple questions.
A lot of y’all need a lot of therapy, myself included.
Most have absolute shit soft skills and it’s going to cost you.
If you’ve ever seen an incompetent person who makes more than you, they’re liked or nepotism is involved.
People want to work with people that they like. They will gladly take some under-performance in exchange for someone who tries and is liked.
And your lack of corporate schmoozing will cost you some money and promotions too. You may not like it, but you gotta show up to company dinners and meetups sometimes. If all colleagues view you as is a Slack profile picture, you’re going to plateau. Go to a corporate event, have a drink with your skip level, talk to people you normally wouldn’t get to in your day-to-day work.
Most people won’t be able to get into FAANG companies, but they’ll still make good money. Not “I can retire at 29” money, but still good money. In fact, you could quite possibly find a great job working for a midwest, no-name widget factory and be quite comfortable. Some people are happy with that. I know you don’t want to hear that your chances of making $300,000 a year straight out of college are extremely low, but those are the breaks.
Also, some people love doing this work for the sake of the work and not the money. Mindblowing, I know.
The job market isn’t necessarily why you’re not finding a job. Sometimes your resume just sucks, other times its just bad luck.
Not everyone has the skills to land a FAANG job or even anything close.
Your social skills (or lack thereof) will have as big of an impact on your interviews as your knowledge
Nobody is going to refer you just because you sent them one message on LinkedIn. LinkedIn is also a terrible way to network unless you already know the other person.
It’s okay to work for no name companies.
This profession can super unhealthy in the long run, physically and mentally. A bit less so if you WFH (although this also depends on your home situation), but even then you should watch your diet, stay physically active, take vitamins especially D if you don’t see a lot of sun, avoid eye exertion, take mental breaks and don’t “binge work”, use (and get) enough vacation, use sick days when needed, do regular health check ups, use ergonomic equipment etc etc.
I mean sort of a meta thing, but a large amount people here giving advice here are just spewing what their college advisor sells them on and they haven’t graduated yet, sometimes even like first or second years in college.
Their advice is worthless and someone with experience can usually pick them out but it can be harder for someone without a couple corporate YoE to tell.
What I’m trying to say is take everything you hear here with a grain of salt. As is on the internet, you have people who don’t know what they are talking about cosplaying as a SME.
Ooh also, this sub has a common trend of talking up situations as if they were some sort of power player. I remember one guy making a big stink and saying he would never work for a company that doesn’t let him take his laptop internationally to any country without letting them know and was encouraging the person asking to quit as it was unacceptable. That may be what he would say in fantasy land, but here in reality literally any company worth it’s weight would have that restriction, if not just straight up not let you take your laptop at all internationally for obvious Cybersecurity reasons. But here he was encouraging the person to quit their job over it as it was just such an egregious crossing of the line(yeah ok buddy)
Most of y’all got no love for computer science anymore and just salary chasing like mice in a maze.
You can do everything right and still lose – From Star trek.
This has all been said elsewhere, but anyway:
– the economy US/EU is quite strong. Not as strong in tech as during the pandemic boom but still quite good. When unemployment is around 4 percent overall there is no reason to think things are bad at the economy-wide level;
– recruitment is hard because most applications to advertisements are terrible, and almost everyone you want to hire already has a job;
– your life isn’t going to improve hugely after reaching a relatively modest income and more money is not going to solve other issues you might have with insecurities, loneliness, etc;
– you’re not going to be on your deathbed and thinking about the various companies you worked for, and if you are you’ll be thinking how you should’ve given less of yourself to them;
– early retirement, unless you have something else to motivate you and keep you busy, gets old surprisingly quickly;
– CS does not attract the best and brightest students and the courses are not hard compared to many others, be careful of the bubble and group think;
– just because we’re paid very well does not mean we’re better than other people or that we contribute more to society, etc. We’re enjoying a time of high demand for a skill which is relatively niche and unappealing to many people.
I think that’s enough of a lecture for today.
Those memetic “200k starting” jobs were a product of its time, and much more caused by zero interest rates than anything else.
When I see “I’ve applied to 1000 jobs in a week” , all I read is:
– I’m applying to shit I am not even qualified for cause I guarantee there isn’t even 1000 jobs for your exact skill set in your state.
-9/10 times , your resume is trash , I’ve done resume work for these people and I always always go “nooo shit – this is horrible” even if the applicant is actually a high achieving person.
– you are probably equally questionable at interviewing if you cannot even dial in a resume IE you have major blind spots due to ego.
Other brutally honest things:
– the way some of y’all type really lends itself to sociopathy / Patrick Bateman syndrome and some of you juniors are really high on your own supply thinking you are owed 6figs. Granted this runs hard even at senior levels so I can’t fault you guys that hard – but still , be good people dammit.
– The AI train is very funny to watch cause all the people here saying “nah nothings gonna happen – it’s too complex etc etc” are the same people in 5Y when it actually gets decent “idk man – I’ve been knowing it’s been over for years” , what I’m trying to say is most comments are hive mind and filled with insecure people who have blind spots . DO NOT BASE LIFE DECISIONS off of what these people say.
I could go on but I’ll stop there
That your career progression will be slower if you choose to only work remotely. Especially for early-career developers.
Hard skills are important. Everyone wants to be backend and machine learning engineers but don’t know anything about distributed systems and have poor CS fundamentals. Gotta put the work in.
Soft skills are important. You need to show that you work hard, are smart, and can be trusted. Contrary to what college kids on the internet say, this isn’t a chill field. It’s stressful and the people who work harder get ahead more.
I’ll preface this with I have only worked at non-tech companies in non-tech cities. So YMMV if you are applying this to a company like Google
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* Being a SWE means you have to communicate and interact with people on a daily basis. This is especially true as you get promoted and move up the ranks. It’s not a job for people who are “introverted” or don’t want to talk to people and just code in a corner all day every day. 95% of the work place advice questions on here can be resolved by communicating with the appropriate people like an adult.
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* Your job as a SWE is to solve business problems with code. Companies don’t care about clean designs or high quality code to the extent that SWEs care. Companies want to make money with good enough code and are willing to take risks with technical debt.
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* If your boss / manager is happy with your output then you are productive. You don’t need to optimize every second of your day at good companies.
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* Stop being so neurotic and relax as it’s just a job and not your life.
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* Change things that are in your control and stop thinking about things out of your control. When things are out of your control there is nothing you can do so don’t worry about it as you have to deal with the fallout either way. Look towards solutions and the future and stop sulking in the past. You cannot change the past, so learn from it and move on quickly.
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* You may find some people annoying at work and that’s ok, but generally speaking they are not doing it on purpose. That’s just there personality and natural state of being. So be tolerant and don’t take it so personally. For example, Loud Howard just naturally talks loud. He is neither doing it purposely to annoy you nor is thinking about the volume of his voice when he talks.
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* The majority of SWEs don’t job hop every 2 years. They get a job and stay there for as long as they are happy with the company. Job hopping is more of a thing in tech areas where there are a lot of tech jobs because it’s easy to switch companies locally and play them off each other.
There is probably more, but that’s all I can think of right now.
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EDIT: fixed typo necrotic -> neurotic
Companies are not using the take home assignments you do to build their product.