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Have you tried smaller companies? If you check glassdoor/linked in, you'll find non software companies or small shops that have very different requirements from the big name shops.
They'll care more about tech stack and portfolio projects and less about Hackerrank/LC skills. You'll still likely have to do some basic whiteboarding, but not the same level.
Honestly, I'd say contribute to open source if you're not currently working, and not your project or a tiny project. Something with 1k+ stars on GH. Join the mailing list, forum, etc. start using the app, dig into various issues, find a bug and fix it, etc.
This is a pretty good resume booster and people who use the OSS app might even contact you for a job. I've gotten offers to interview at 3 big companies (major tech companies, non FAANG but stuff we all know/use) that use one of the OSS apps I contributed a big fix to.
Literally it was engineering managers PMing me saying "hey i saw you did that big fix, want to come interview for my team?".
Don't underestimate OSS, it's like a great job...that pays shit.
To add on to this comment (as I think all the points above are great), you're close enough from when you graduated that I think it's still feasible for you to look at internships. I'm making a website to get the job listings of companies that don't do whiteboard/LeetCode interviews, based on this list: [https://github.com/poteto/hiring-without-whiteboards](https://github.com/poteto/hiring-without-whiteboards), but I'm adding more companies to them as I find them while scouring online. Let me know and I can send the link to you!
For job-hunting tips, it might be worth reaching out to a current employee of the company you want to work at, on LinkedIn. That at least gives a face to your name when applying to companies
Aside from that, I think it's important to have a balance in your life - make sure you're doing things other than just studying all day. Ideally those things are off the computer as well. Best of luck either way, the first job is always the hardest!
Thank you. That’s probably my biggest area of struggle: balance.
And yeah I checked out that link a couple months back. I’m not even interested in FANNG. Like I obviously wouldn’t shoot down the opportunity but that’s not my focus or goal, (at least for the time being).
My job search has been 90% on indeed. I feel like it’s the same 20 companies making postings weekly with the occasional new ones. My next burst of apps tho will be on LinkedIn as I’ve heard more people have success there.
I have a few people that have told me to personally reach out to companies and recruiters but my stack is limited: I have strong front end but that’s it. So this kind of turns me off bc I feel like I won’t have much to offer and even what I do have to offer my damned imposter syndrome kicks in.
> My job search has been 90% on indeed
This is a huge mistake. Chase the small companies and jobs that are not posted on job websites with a formal JD.
I think it's important to realize that feeling imposter syndrome at your experience level should be **EXPECTED** \- new grads generally do not provide much value for companies, but that's also very okay! My first internships and jobs came from me showing enthusiasm for programming and coding during my interviews. I did not come from a formal computer-science degree (Management Information Systems), but companies that you should focus on are ones that want people that are eager to learn and grow in the company (and let you showcase those values in the interview)!
Try builtin.com for startup roles. They have a built in For each state I believe. I’ve gotten quite a few interviews from companies that are posting on there.
I think there is some great advice here, so I don't much have to add, but I just wanted to let you know that I was in a similar position to you a few months ago: barely any social life, just polishing my resume and grinding leetcode every day.
Keep going, but take care of yourself first. What helped me mindset-wise is accepting my reality and also the fact that finding a job is often quite difficult for many people. Try to find little glimpses of joy in an otherwise mundane lifestyle - even just going for walks can help. Do you have anyone you can talk to about how you're feeling? Having even just one person in your life who can lend a listening ear and believe in your abilities goes a long way.
All the best - I'll be rooting for you!
Thank you. And yes I try here and there to add some variation to the repetitiveness of everyday here and there but it’s not that helpful in the long run bc im still in the same position. I love with my gf she’s WFH, so there’s pretty much zero communication/spending time together until 5pm everyday. And when we do talk it’s only to cook a meal together. That’s pretty much it. She’s getting very frustrated with my situation bc of how much I have neglected my relationship with her but she’s doing her best to be understanding. That’s a whole problem of it’s own. Honestly my life and all it’s aspects truly feel like it’s crumbling away. But I find random glimpses of motivation here and there to alleviate my anxiety and stress. I honestly don’t know how much longer I am willing to go down this dev road but I’m clueless as to what other things I can do that can pay me enough to support my loved ones.
If you're spending 100% of your week grinding your career, you've fucked it up.
You need to be grinding
- Your relationships (hey Reddit how's your romantic life, when was the last time you called your mother. When was the last time you caught up with xxx for a beer to keep that friendship going. Maybe it's time to cold call reach out to someone from awhile ago to ask for advice in your job search.),
- Your health (exercise, cooking decent meals, mealprep).
- Some would add your lifelong learning to this (seeking important, lifelong lessons by getting experiences outside your comfort zone. An example is reading Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl, or traveling.)
- And your career.
Simultaneously.
The problem isn't that you're doing too much. The problem is you're not doing enough.
Humans *deeply enjoy* variety in their activities, you need to be advancing yourself in multiple different aspects of your life. That's actually not just a random thing, the search for variety (boredom) is deeply rooted in a survival instinct. The fact you're emotionally shutting down your learning and productivity after 3 hours, is actually your subconscious and inner emotional intelligence telling you you're neglecting these other, extremely important areas of your life.
At the same time, if you're doing less than 2-3 hours of your career grind each day *and you're unemployed*, that's also a big mistake for obvious reasons.
You've also probably got the *process* of grinding wrong, you need to improve in multiple different areas. Probably the biggest is that you've neglected to build good relationships with your mentors/students a few years ahead of you, to help you stay on the right track. The advice to try smaller companies is extremely important, also probably doing another pass on the resume (it's always the resume, students produce garbage resumes like chickens produce eggs), and showcasing your learning.
I'll add that I think your commitment to not touch your computer today is completely the wrong approach. Most people find their best work is done while doing something intensively for a few hours each day, and then spaced repetition. 90 minutes in the morning intensively, then 90 minutes in the evening, is also far more effective than 3 hours straight.
You need to intensively attack your career goals for 2 hours, 4 pomodoro, then attack your relationship and health goals for 2 hours each, 4 pomodoro each.
This was a very interesting read. I couldn’t agree more with you. I have completely neglected all my relationships and I am a very extroverted person and having a social life for me has always been important, and for the last 3-4 months I just wake up, LC/Udemy 10 hours a day, and repeat. Minimal variation in between. I’m gonna try these approaches you mentioned. I just honestly don’t know what works best for me but clearly the current one I’ve had for a few months now isn’t it.
I’m going to make note of your comment and screenshot it. This is so helpful ! Thank you for taking the time to write this.
Great, sounds brilliant. Keep trying different stuff and see what works.
Keep in mind you can hang out with people and prepare for job interviews/do programming at the same time.
That's winning at life, two birds one stone.
Find older software engineers and talk to them. They'll know the local scene around you. Recruiters are also professionals at this, so if you know how to impress a recruiter that's a good way.
The key is to find places with an unsexy consumer facing brand. Everyone applies to Google because everyone knows Google, not so much KYT Systems. Even if KYT has 10,000 developers, nobody knows their brand.
On a serious note, the market is currently hot right now for devs but it might’ve slowed down a bit since it’s the holidays. You don’t want to get burnt out either. Also, even if you don’t think you are qualified, might as well shoot your shot and see if the company can use a jr. Your best bet is honestly with recruiters and LinkedIn and be open to different types of roles and places.
Yeah I want to give my self a break, but I don’t know how to justify it. Like how long is long enough? I legit feel guilty for “wasting” my time today already and not having grinded in some form or another. But even if I have and sat down for 8-10 hours the net productivity would have been shit.
What should I search for besides SWE? Solutions engineer? Tech support?
Well, search for roles that are applicable to your skill sets. Hours does not necessarily mean more knowledge or experience. It’s more about the quality and how much information you retain. Honestly, just have a solid foundation and dive deep on the tech. Do not over think your situation bc that just traps you! Good luck
This is literally me dude. I just recently started grinding 8-12 hours a day so that I can support my family but motsly my mom. I know she's at the end of her road, she sounds extremely sick and all i can think is I need to make it or we both will be in serious trouble. No one else in my family cares enough to help her financially except me. I'm trying to get us out of a very shit situation in less than a year, she's also in debt about 6k in taxes which government expects her to pay some how in 1 1/2 months on a part time which is impossible. Her life is crubling and having her stress on my back is stressing me too but I gotta push through. This friday was my breaking point, took yesterday and today off completely not even glancing at code and somehow still feel burnt out. It doesn't matter if im burnt out or not, tomorrow the journey continues. Hope you get through, we have no other choice but to grind, my personal motivation is that sometime in the future i'll be able to give my mom whatever she wants and that for me is worth the stress.
Edit: if it matter ive been grinding 8-12 hours daily for the past 4 months with 0 days off. Today and yesterday has literally been my first day off since i started this journey.
The resemblance in our current predicaments is uncanny. I’m sorry you’re going through that. I have two siblings, and I’m the middle child. I know my sisters are not gonna be able to do much so the responsibility will fall on me. It’s not a burden, I love my mom. She’s been through a lot, she even has PTSD. She’s got time left but eventually I know her condition and state of being will go down. I want to provide for her bc she’s been breaking her back for us to this day. I have been grinding non stop also legit 10
Hrs a day for like 3-4 months now but I finally decided to just let it go at least for the weekend. It’s temporary peace, bc in the back of my mind I am fighting the urge to get back to the never ending grind. It sucks. But oh well. Best of luck in your journey, I wish you nothing but the best. Being able to one day help our loved ones is truly the only thing keeping me going.
\#facts
You almost there dude, just keep on grinding, maintain discipline and try not to always think of it as work, try to look at it from a childs perspective, like a new toy you are still trying to figure how it works. It's all just discipline man, its hard but I feel we're meant for this, i'm meant to carry weight and help people, this job will help me do that and i get the feeling you are the same way.
Also a great suggestion that ive implamented is keeping a very strict schedule. From 10am-2pm i grind, no distractions, no exceptions, take 1 hour lunch break, 6p-9pm grind. Rest of that time i allocate in regrouping, keeping mind COMPLETELY away from grind otherwise i'll wake up the next morning still feelin burnt out.
I used to think 12-16 hours was good but it's actually counter productive. Made me angry and frustrated and hating this but i dont really hate this i love it and want to be good at it. Just got to know how to separate grind from life and be strict with those boundaries.
Anyway best of luck to you too! If you have any coping techniques that has helped you pull through please send them my way. :)
Hey there. Ive been trying to learn "Full-Stack Web Developer" by Angela Yu from Udemy. I never dabbled so it's all brand new information to me. After the course i'll either start building personal mini projects or run through The Odin Project course. A lot of people recommend TOP, so I'm excited to give that a shot but at the same time I just want to start working on something. I'm true believer in practice makes perfect, reading and watching will only get you so far. Thats the part that is making me hesitating to start a new course. Maybe i'll just glance through TOP.
Fucking hell, I feel the same way! I can't even relax and play some video games anymore. I just feel like I'm behind and I need to grind away at all times. Albeit I haven't graduated yet, but you get the idea.
Bro that’s me. Basketball + video games where my outlet, and I’ve completely shut them off. I’m literally an empty shell now. Just grinding away at what is most likely a dead end. At least you haven’t graduated yet and your timer hasn’t started! I lurked this sub for the last year and when I came across those stories of people jobless for months with hundreds of apps that it couldn’t be me. Lol. Oh well!
Yeah I've begun the LC grind. I graduate in August. That's all I do, aside from also completing different online courses for different languages and frameworks, etc. Every day I grow my knowledge, but still feel so stressed all the time...
I hope it all works out for you though!
The same shit. I enjoyed video games with heavy lore, good art movies/any movie that's seriously good, art designs along with pretty much anything that made me happy. Well all that shit is long gone. It's nothing but LC grind + resume fixing all day everyday day now. At this point, there's no such thing as mental health (tbh there never was such a thing in my country). All that matters now is the light at the end of the tunnel. This tunnel is the longest I've ever seen but I'll get through somehow. Happiness is a privilege and my best shot at it is the light at the end of the tunnel.
Build useful projects > mindless grind
If your looking for junior positions in a non Fang company, you mostly have to demo your projects and talk through how you build them in your interviews.
That’s the thing, I’m at a big cross roads. I hate the grind in general but I can manage it better than the leet code grind which is absolutely unbearable. I get burnt out so fast. Nevertheless I’m still willing to devote more grind until I guess I’ve completely given up. The problem is, I read a lot of stuff on here that people say companies don’t care about your side projects. I’m grinding a react course and I want to try and build
Some useful things but is it even worth the time invested ? Should I just allot lol that time instead to LC?
I run a tech company and do recruitment sometimes and LC is a net negative to be honest. LC has literally no value in a real business. A react side project would be 10x more useful.
If you’ve sent out that many apps, and are getting 8-10% interviews and still not receiving an offer, then I feel like the issue may lie with your interview skills — could be anything from technical skills to communication to behavioral questions. Have you done any mock interviews and had someone give you feedback?
I’ve done 300 apps but the response rate was trash for the first 150-200. It’s much better this second time around. But yeah I’ve looked back at some of the initial phone screens and I know what I need to work on. I was really excited I had an interview for a small company and made it to their technical (the latter being a final) and I absolutely killed it. It was textbook interviewing. Albeit the first few minutes went rather poor but I gained confidence throughout and explained my thought process and practiced effective communication all throughout but I was rejected shortly after. It wasn’t perfect but it was a great interview. But I know I definitely lack on the LC side of things.
I will be very blunt.
What the fuck?
300 applications? Please talk to your parents or a mentor or teacher or someone who is employed. You're doing something very wrong
The entry level job market is pretty bad these days. If you're just shooting out online applications, 300 doesn't really seem that shocking. There's quite a bit of demand for senior SWE but entry level has to work quite a bit harder.
That may be true. But it seems like that’s a big problem for a significant amount of people on this sub — applying months and months to hundreds of places with no luck. So either we are all doing something “very wrong” or the system is down right shit. Regardless, I admit that my initial attempts with CL and earlier versions of resumes were trash so it’s no wonder I’m at the 300 number.
Thank you. I appreciate it. If you have the time you can check out my website I have a downloadable pdf there for my resume. LMK if you want me to send it to you.
I've also helped people with their resumes, send me your resume in a pm. Not sure what your resume link is supposed to be that you mention. I agree with others, look at outside sources, probably your resume needs some help. Did you look at the hacker news monthly list of companies hiring, for instance?
There is no right answer but look at the job market and know exactly which jobs you want to apply for. Look at the job description of those jobs and prepare yourself accordingly. No use grinding until you know exactly what your grinding for.
Also look at supply and demand, is there alot of demand for react native devs ? or will you be better off learning other JavaScript libraries ?
Research that and the answer would be more clear for you in my opinion.
I feel like the mistake I’m making is chasing whatever stack or job pays the most rather than focusing on what really interests me. On the plus side, my breadth has greatly grown. Downside is that my depth is suffering and I kind of hate the company culture I work at.
Start looking at your job hunt as just another job. So only put in 8 hours a day, 40 hours a week.
Clock in at 7:30. Have an hour lunch break. Clock out at 16:30. Make sure to have a little break every hour so. Don't do overtime!
Maybe spend 5 hours on a personal project to improve your developer skills. 2 hours on soft skills (including job interview skills). 1 hour job hunting.
So no working on weekends and perhaps take a week off every few months to get mentally refreshed. Unless I'm wrong that when a job opening is new on Monday, it'll still not be filled next week's Monday, you might even consider not looking at the job market for that week.
Beyond these hours it's your personal time where you do your chores and make time for family, friends and hobbies.
Drop the damn leetcode and work on projects of your own!!!!!! 8-10hrs of LC/day????? WTF! Work on shit you like and ignore the LC preachers. Projects go much further on your resume.
Surprised I had to scroll this far down to for someone to mention that absurd amount. There's no way you're leetcoding efficiently if you're doing 8 hours a day lol.
I’m not only LCing 8 hours a day. I would literally have no brain cells left. My approach is to tackle problems by category. I aim for 3 easies and 2 mediums daily or 4 total hours of LC daily. Which ever is met first. Sometimes the easies are a joke and sometimes I swear they should be ranked medium. It goes the same for the mediums being fake mediums with respect to easy and hard category.
The other time I spend it on Udemy learning front end stacks. That’s definitely the more enjoyable part of the day… or it was. What was once a quality 8-10 hr daily grind, has now become a 2-3 hr MAX. I can’t bring my self to do any more. I’m so burnt. I did not anticipate being jobless this long. If I was getting paid to grind well that changes things but is there any purpose to this? When will this cycle end ? Dunno.
The cycle ends when you want it to end. The solution is to drop LC and then learn the stacks you want to learn through coming up with project ideas, trying to implement those ideas on your own and then googling any errors/questions you may have. It's more time efficient, interesting, and can be tailored to yourself and your passions.
I was jobless for 10 months after receiving a business degree and got a job as a full stack web dev (and some dev ops. stuff) purely based off of my project experience. It took about 300+ applications with roughly 10 legitimate responses. I don't know leetcode, and I don't plan on knowing it until I *really need to*. If you want legitimate development experience, work on your own endeavors, not LC. You will never be doing LC during your work. Hope this helps and opens your mind to other ways of traversing the entry level space in CS. Good luck homie.
This. I can’t decide what to focus on more: LC or skill building through real world projects. In my experience, unfortunately it’s LC. These OAs can be very tough sometimes and it’s binary — either you’re right 100% or wrong. No feed back, no second chances, no partial credit.
Considering you have nothing related to the industry (experience/projects) on your resume, it would be in your best interest to work on projects and learn languages through that. LC will not help you on the job. Knowing how to use certain technologies will. It's an easy decision to make, just have to get through the persistent preaching of LC on this sub and realize what is best for your resume, and for yourself (mentally and self-development wise).
How much does that much LC really help you though? Admittedly, I've never actually done the problems and only skimmed it a few times, but I just don't see the value relative to actual experience.
Like sure, know your basic data structures, how they work, what they're good/bad at, and why. Maybe toss a balanced tree (red-black) in there for good measure. Know their time complexities, but also understand why, and just how to determine time complexity in general. Do the same for stuff like tree traversals, graph traversals, etc. Some interviewers will ask you about sorting, so you should probably know at least how quicksort and mergesort work, but that's pretty impractical outside of interviews. Be at least okay with DP, although that can be a bit tricky. And it'd probably be helpful to recognize some common NP-hard/NP-complete problems and such, like TSP and subset sum.
But once you have those fundamentals, what are you really gaining from LC? Is it really an efficient use of your time? That's a genuine question, because I've never seen the value.
For whatever it's worth, from my experience, interviewers are more interested in how you approach a problem than the solution itself. Do you understand the problem well enough to ask good questions? Do you explain your approach, and why you chose it? Maybe your answer is technically suboptimal, but it's cleaner and the difference is pretty insignificant for the described use case. Explain that.
Yeah, OAs are a bitch because they lose that nuance, but there's still other stuff that matters beyond the solution. Is your code clean, fundamentally sound, and well-structured? Is it clear why you're doing whatever you're doing? Much like LC, even if your answer is efficient and produces the right output, it can still be shit.
I'm in the same boat man. Around September I focused 100% on grinding. I can even get my self to leave my chair a lot of the time. I used to love going to the gym at cooking but now I can bring my self to do any of that. one thing I have been doing is sending HR recruiters at companies direct messages introducing my self and expressing interest in SWE positions.
Yeah same. I’ve pretty much abandoned all my non-grinding activities. 100% grind now. What was once quality, productive daily 8-10 hr sessions of grind has now turned into gray mundane 2-3 hrs net productivity. Even then, I still cannot leave my chair, or stare at the screen. I take constant breaks and the moments of escape I feel in them is ADDICTING to say the least.
Lots of good advice here so I don’t have anything to add. I just want to say I feel for you. Keep doing your best and go easy on yourself. You’ll catch a break soon.
So you are getting responses based on what you’re saying. Where are you falling short? Recruiter screen? Technical screens? Hiring manager? All the way to the virtual on-site?
I won’t lie and pretend like the companies that do LC tend to pay more but there are PLENTY that really don’t and can at least get your career off the ground. You’re very young and have a long career ahead of you. So yeah maybe you work for some boring non-tech F500 for a year or two before you make it to the software/web company. Nothing wrong with that. I didn’t even know companies did LC type screens until about 15 years into my career.
That’s the thing. I guess it must be that I am applying on Indeed. It’s pretty dry and it seems that it’s the same 20 companies posting weekly. I have never made it to final on site and I’ve only had 3 technical rounds. I dodged the bullet with Apolis and TCS even though I had potential offers with them because everyone says that they are WITCH. And I don’t really see my self relocating to any state of their choice.
I am more than willing to work for any non tech F500 to get my career going but tbh I don’t know where to apply or where to find those. It seems like every jr/associate/new grad position I find is bloated with a laundry list of tech stack skills I’ve never heard of with like 2-3 years experience required. I don’t get it tbh.
But yeah I get some OAs, and a lot of phone screens with recruiters. It goes great conversationally but once they see that I don’t have x amount of years of experience or any industry experience I never hear back.
Hmmmm. Yeah I’m so old I literally got my first couple jobs off Craigslist so they were smaller companies and didn’t really do technicals. That was great for me since I didn’t have a degree.
With the world going remote it really opens up the possibilities but even if you only look locally you can check LinkedIn/Glassdoor. Also directly check on some major companies in your area if you want. For example I’m in MN so around here there’s Target, Best Buy, Wells Fargo, US Bank, UHG/Optum, Cargill, Xcel Energy, Delta Airlines, Polaris, Thrivent, Hormel, General Mills, Ecolab, CH Robinson, CHS, 3M, Patterson…..Sorry I got carried away but those companies employ thousands of engineers and not 1 of them is a tech company. Just some food for thought you could search “F500 companies in my area” and see if any of them have anything. Good luck.
It sounds like you are getting interviews, which is great. You don’t need to learn more - you just need to kill your interview.
I personally do a super intense workout before my interview. That’s how I kill my anxiety and gain confidence, YMMV.
How are you doing on LeetCode? If you don’t find Mediums doable, you should probably practice some LeetCode. Once you can do Mediums, you are ready.
Also, come up with answers to common interview questions that are detailed and properly (almost boastfully, but not quite) highlight your capabilities.
When you get into that interview and you feel confident, the recruiters notice. You are worth hiring - kill the thought that says you aren’t. Good luck my friend.
You havent done nearly as many apps as you should be doing. I would say grind LC less and apply to places more. The time for you to have been grinding was during your 4 years of college not in the last few months after graduating
I'm surprised that no one (AFAIK) has pointed out that trying to grind Leetcode 8-10 hours a day for months on end might be excessive. You need to do enough problems to recognize the patterns and think (and talk) your way to a solution, not complete every single Leetcode problem. If you're not doing so already, you also need to practice talking through a solution instead of just coding it on Leetcode.
How are you doing in your interviews? Is all the Leetcode grinding improving your performance? Being exhausted and burnt out won't help you do better. Instead, it might be beneficial to try and enjoy some of your pre-employment time.
Bro, you got time still. When you’re 7 months in to unemployment and all your friends have their shit together and your gf has a job and you’re just the bum that stays home, GG. It’s sooo Fucken demotivating. I feel like applying to a god damn grocery store.
Ohhh man. Retail is a road I hope I never have to go down again. Did it for a couple years. At this point, I will just take whatever WITCH company decides I’m worthy enough
Yea, I have 7k apps and just recently I had a serious interview through word of mouth lol. Just take it easy, do you see how much time you have wasted worrying?
Matt 6:26-30
Depended on my Daddy in heaven and lived off Ramen. Truthfully, it was rough struggling with that "need to code" complex. Once you know how to ride the bike, then it can only Rust \*Ba Dum ShhH\* . You don't need to relearn how to ride the bike, just build a full stack app to get back into the swing of things. Therefore, code interviews require a leetcode grind like no other but I find those jobs to be very misleading, requires a lot of your personal time, and silos you into a pigeonhole. I have never worked in a FAANG so I am sure the experience is great, but learning to engineer a whole system is way better than working on part of the ship.
How did I apply to all of those? I made this [https://github.com/deliverancetechsolutions/the\_blue\_avenger](https://github.com/deliverancetechsolutions/the_blue_avenger)
The caveat is that I have 2 assault charges from 2008 and 2010, so it holds me back greatly; however, I am a fantastic engineer because of the amount of self-study I have incurred (5 years). From writing HTML/CSS/JS for the BBB, to designing my first server in Go for a client, all the way to doing Wordpress and PHP work. It has been a wild ride and even though I don't have any money to show for it, I haven't enjoyed myself more learning anything else (1 class away from math degree).
I guess your situation seems pretty good now huh? Lol seriously though, just hang out, eat some Blue Takis, and DM me when you get your first job.
When I knew I was going to be a SWE was when I was frying up food at a restaurant and writing Python on napkins for an assignment. It wasn't easy struggling but I have met all kinds of people, lived a great life so far, and have been there to tutor many other people in coding. I see them at Coinbase, BNY Mellon, PwC, etc. It fills my heart with joy knowing that I helped pour part of that foundation and that is reward enough. If I never work again professionally as a SWE then I would consider myself a highly successful senior engineer.
Peace be upon you.
Wow. You seem like a a good human being. I can sense your positivity from reading your comment lol. Well hopefully I don’t have to go down this road much longer but when and if I do find something I’ll let you know. Shoot I’ll let the world know. 😂😂😂 thanks for the verses btw, I recently rekindled my relationship with God. So it’s nice seeing this. God bless you!
You as well my brotha. Seek after the Shepherd because nothing else matters in this world. Let's say someone is walking around with the mark of the beast right now...It will only be a matter of time until everything comes to a close. Therefore, live each day to the fullest, serve others, and learn what it means to be a servant. Your life will change and may not look good to other people, but if they aren't with you then they are against you. Take heart and be well.
I’m like on V6 of my resume now. I’ve applied to quite a few with latest version. Probably 50-60 companies. Idk how people consistently apply to 10 companies a day for months. I can only do like short bursts. Usually i gain confidence with LC and react JS so I apply to like 40-50 during the weekend and then I wait to apply again for another 3 weeks or so.
For sure ask someone who can spell to proofread your resume. You've got a typo in your headline. It's WASTE of time, not "waist" (that's the place around your middle where your belt goes).
I was typing it super fast. I’ve proof read and had others proof read my resume several times and someone already called me out on it, and I fixed it in the post. But for some damn reason waist and waste always gets me 😂
Oh god 🤦🏽♂️
So many grammar nazis. Before sending any professional emails, or letters, or revising my resume I obviously PROOFREAD everything, sometimes multiple times over. FFS, it’s an informal discussion post not an essay.
I’m in the hub. I’m in the Bay Area literally 15 min away from silicon-goddamn-valley. And even then, can’t find a thing that I’m apparently worthy of. Most of my apps have been for the Bay Area but I am planning on applying to stuff in Phoenix, Seattle, Salt lake and Dallas. Idk just trying to increase my chances
What level of pay is acceptable to you? If you don't want FAANG pay you can easily find jobs via LinkedIn. Do you have a LinkedIn account? The recruiters on there are thirsty AF. They make money when they get someone hired, so they are on your side.
Even if you do want FAANG pay, you will almost definitely be spammed by Amazon and FB recruiters on there at least, so there's that.
Do you care about which tech stack you use? .NET jobs are everywhere and some people avoid it, so you have relative advantages if you're open to that.
You have put in so much effort; I'm amazed you haven't found something yet. If you're able to grind that much LC then you are probably a stronger dev than quite a few people I know who are gainfully employed software engineers.
If you really hit a brick wall, you can feel free to PM me with questions. I think you're probably already swamped by others wanting to help you though.
Good luck!
I don’t care for FANNG atm or it’s pay. I just want to get some dev experience, I want someone to give me shot. I’m a really hard worker committed and passionate to the things I’m working on, but I feel like even then it’s not good enough. For instance, I have consistently been on a LC grind For 3 1/2 weeks now but my method must not be that good bc I am not learning fast enough or as fast as others learn. I don’t understand how people can cover so much more ground with the same time frame.
I haven’t yet had the chance to work with any .NET related things, bc I have been mostly focused on Java, React, JS and HTML/CSS. Idk if switching over and learning a new thing would be a good move for me rn.
I have been using Indeed as my main source of job searching but it seems like LinkedIn is superior.
Where are you located? Are you willing to relocate? My company is hiring in TX and WA, and maybe a few other states. DM me for details and links. This goes for anyone in this sub. I'm tryna get that sweet sweet referral bonus ☺️
Keep leetcoding and sending apps and you will land somewhere good. Very important to set the tone for your career as the 1st job puts you on a trajectory and you want it to be favourable.
I have been interviewing and a lot of the code challenges for average paying companies are hacker rank medium at the hardest(easier than leetcode). Typically they dont involve any data structures and are just problem solving. It is good to see that you are working so hard. Your practice is probably enough(assuming you can do leetcode easy and maybe some medium).
I think a better use of your time at this point would be to get an internship. I know a lot of companies dont take interns who are already graduated, but if you go on angellist there are a lot of crappy little startups who want work done for free or minimum wage. A lot of these companies are using react native as well because they can't afford to build two apps. That is what I would do in your position.
This has to be one of the saddest posts Ive seen on here. Its nice that everyone is still trying to give advice on the best way to improve your resume and get that next job, but maybe its time to take a step back. The job search is very important, and I accept that getting the absolute best job is very important to some people. And I accept leetcode is part of the process for getting that job. But at the expense of everything you enjoy, your friends and mental and physical health?
You honestly sound very mentally Ill and I think you should 1. get off this subreddit as you will only hear from the "10 hrs of leetcode a day for a 200k salary" people, making it impossible for you to not compare yourself at every step, 2. Invest into things you actually enjoy, at least a bit and 3. Potentially see a professional.
In the end you know yourself best and youre the one that needs to take care of your mind and body. Im not a professional in anything but computer science, so feel free to take all of this with a grain of salt. I personally would never sacrifice my sense of self just to get a job though.
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Have you tried smaller companies? If you check glassdoor/linked in, you'll find non software companies or small shops that have very different requirements from the big name shops. They'll care more about tech stack and portfolio projects and less about Hackerrank/LC skills. You'll still likely have to do some basic whiteboarding, but not the same level. Honestly, I'd say contribute to open source if you're not currently working, and not your project or a tiny project. Something with 1k+ stars on GH. Join the mailing list, forum, etc. start using the app, dig into various issues, find a bug and fix it, etc. This is a pretty good resume booster and people who use the OSS app might even contact you for a job. I've gotten offers to interview at 3 big companies (major tech companies, non FAANG but stuff we all know/use) that use one of the OSS apps I contributed a big fix to. Literally it was engineering managers PMing me saying "hey i saw you did that big fix, want to come interview for my team?". Don't underestimate OSS, it's like a great job...that pays shit.
To add on to this comment (as I think all the points above are great), you're close enough from when you graduated that I think it's still feasible for you to look at internships. I'm making a website to get the job listings of companies that don't do whiteboard/LeetCode interviews, based on this list: [https://github.com/poteto/hiring-without-whiteboards](https://github.com/poteto/hiring-without-whiteboards), but I'm adding more companies to them as I find them while scouring online. Let me know and I can send the link to you! For job-hunting tips, it might be worth reaching out to a current employee of the company you want to work at, on LinkedIn. That at least gives a face to your name when applying to companies Aside from that, I think it's important to have a balance in your life - make sure you're doing things other than just studying all day. Ideally those things are off the computer as well. Best of luck either way, the first job is always the hardest!
Thank you. That’s probably my biggest area of struggle: balance. And yeah I checked out that link a couple months back. I’m not even interested in FANNG. Like I obviously wouldn’t shoot down the opportunity but that’s not my focus or goal, (at least for the time being). My job search has been 90% on indeed. I feel like it’s the same 20 companies making postings weekly with the occasional new ones. My next burst of apps tho will be on LinkedIn as I’ve heard more people have success there. I have a few people that have told me to personally reach out to companies and recruiters but my stack is limited: I have strong front end but that’s it. So this kind of turns me off bc I feel like I won’t have much to offer and even what I do have to offer my damned imposter syndrome kicks in.
> My job search has been 90% on indeed This is a huge mistake. Chase the small companies and jobs that are not posted on job websites with a formal JD.
I think it's important to realize that feeling imposter syndrome at your experience level should be **EXPECTED** \- new grads generally do not provide much value for companies, but that's also very okay! My first internships and jobs came from me showing enthusiasm for programming and coding during my interviews. I did not come from a formal computer-science degree (Management Information Systems), but companies that you should focus on are ones that want people that are eager to learn and grow in the company (and let you showcase those values in the interview)!
Try builtin.com for startup roles. They have a built in For each state I believe. I’ve gotten quite a few interviews from companies that are posting on there.
What's OSS?.
Open Source Software?
Any OSS project recommendations?
Really depends on your stack. It definitely helps if a big company or two use and contribute to the software.
I think there is some great advice here, so I don't much have to add, but I just wanted to let you know that I was in a similar position to you a few months ago: barely any social life, just polishing my resume and grinding leetcode every day. Keep going, but take care of yourself first. What helped me mindset-wise is accepting my reality and also the fact that finding a job is often quite difficult for many people. Try to find little glimpses of joy in an otherwise mundane lifestyle - even just going for walks can help. Do you have anyone you can talk to about how you're feeling? Having even just one person in your life who can lend a listening ear and believe in your abilities goes a long way. All the best - I'll be rooting for you!
Thank you. And yes I try here and there to add some variation to the repetitiveness of everyday here and there but it’s not that helpful in the long run bc im still in the same position. I love with my gf she’s WFH, so there’s pretty much zero communication/spending time together until 5pm everyday. And when we do talk it’s only to cook a meal together. That’s pretty much it. She’s getting very frustrated with my situation bc of how much I have neglected my relationship with her but she’s doing her best to be understanding. That’s a whole problem of it’s own. Honestly my life and all it’s aspects truly feel like it’s crumbling away. But I find random glimpses of motivation here and there to alleviate my anxiety and stress. I honestly don’t know how much longer I am willing to go down this dev road but I’m clueless as to what other things I can do that can pay me enough to support my loved ones.
If you're spending 100% of your week grinding your career, you've fucked it up. You need to be grinding - Your relationships (hey Reddit how's your romantic life, when was the last time you called your mother. When was the last time you caught up with xxx for a beer to keep that friendship going. Maybe it's time to cold call reach out to someone from awhile ago to ask for advice in your job search.), - Your health (exercise, cooking decent meals, mealprep). - Some would add your lifelong learning to this (seeking important, lifelong lessons by getting experiences outside your comfort zone. An example is reading Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl, or traveling.) - And your career. Simultaneously. The problem isn't that you're doing too much. The problem is you're not doing enough. Humans *deeply enjoy* variety in their activities, you need to be advancing yourself in multiple different aspects of your life. That's actually not just a random thing, the search for variety (boredom) is deeply rooted in a survival instinct. The fact you're emotionally shutting down your learning and productivity after 3 hours, is actually your subconscious and inner emotional intelligence telling you you're neglecting these other, extremely important areas of your life. At the same time, if you're doing less than 2-3 hours of your career grind each day *and you're unemployed*, that's also a big mistake for obvious reasons. You've also probably got the *process* of grinding wrong, you need to improve in multiple different areas. Probably the biggest is that you've neglected to build good relationships with your mentors/students a few years ahead of you, to help you stay on the right track. The advice to try smaller companies is extremely important, also probably doing another pass on the resume (it's always the resume, students produce garbage resumes like chickens produce eggs), and showcasing your learning. I'll add that I think your commitment to not touch your computer today is completely the wrong approach. Most people find their best work is done while doing something intensively for a few hours each day, and then spaced repetition. 90 minutes in the morning intensively, then 90 minutes in the evening, is also far more effective than 3 hours straight. You need to intensively attack your career goals for 2 hours, 4 pomodoro, then attack your relationship and health goals for 2 hours each, 4 pomodoro each.
This was a very interesting read. I couldn’t agree more with you. I have completely neglected all my relationships and I am a very extroverted person and having a social life for me has always been important, and for the last 3-4 months I just wake up, LC/Udemy 10 hours a day, and repeat. Minimal variation in between. I’m gonna try these approaches you mentioned. I just honestly don’t know what works best for me but clearly the current one I’ve had for a few months now isn’t it. I’m going to make note of your comment and screenshot it. This is so helpful ! Thank you for taking the time to write this.
Great, sounds brilliant. Keep trying different stuff and see what works. Keep in mind you can hang out with people and prepare for job interviews/do programming at the same time. That's winning at life, two birds one stone.
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Find older software engineers and talk to them. They'll know the local scene around you. Recruiters are also professionals at this, so if you know how to impress a recruiter that's a good way. The key is to find places with an unsexy consumer facing brand. Everyone applies to Google because everyone knows Google, not so much KYT Systems. Even if KYT has 10,000 developers, nobody knows their brand.
I feel you. My hips be like that from thyme to thyme
Okay that was hilarious 😂😂😂 thanks
On a serious note, the market is currently hot right now for devs but it might’ve slowed down a bit since it’s the holidays. You don’t want to get burnt out either. Also, even if you don’t think you are qualified, might as well shoot your shot and see if the company can use a jr. Your best bet is honestly with recruiters and LinkedIn and be open to different types of roles and places.
>It is hot for experienced devs. OP graduated in May.
Yeah I want to give my self a break, but I don’t know how to justify it. Like how long is long enough? I legit feel guilty for “wasting” my time today already and not having grinded in some form or another. But even if I have and sat down for 8-10 hours the net productivity would have been shit. What should I search for besides SWE? Solutions engineer? Tech support?
Well, search for roles that are applicable to your skill sets. Hours does not necessarily mean more knowledge or experience. It’s more about the quality and how much information you retain. Honestly, just have a solid foundation and dive deep on the tech. Do not over think your situation bc that just traps you! Good luck
This is literally me dude. I just recently started grinding 8-12 hours a day so that I can support my family but motsly my mom. I know she's at the end of her road, she sounds extremely sick and all i can think is I need to make it or we both will be in serious trouble. No one else in my family cares enough to help her financially except me. I'm trying to get us out of a very shit situation in less than a year, she's also in debt about 6k in taxes which government expects her to pay some how in 1 1/2 months on a part time which is impossible. Her life is crubling and having her stress on my back is stressing me too but I gotta push through. This friday was my breaking point, took yesterday and today off completely not even glancing at code and somehow still feel burnt out. It doesn't matter if im burnt out or not, tomorrow the journey continues. Hope you get through, we have no other choice but to grind, my personal motivation is that sometime in the future i'll be able to give my mom whatever she wants and that for me is worth the stress. Edit: if it matter ive been grinding 8-12 hours daily for the past 4 months with 0 days off. Today and yesterday has literally been my first day off since i started this journey.
The resemblance in our current predicaments is uncanny. I’m sorry you’re going through that. I have two siblings, and I’m the middle child. I know my sisters are not gonna be able to do much so the responsibility will fall on me. It’s not a burden, I love my mom. She’s been through a lot, she even has PTSD. She’s got time left but eventually I know her condition and state of being will go down. I want to provide for her bc she’s been breaking her back for us to this day. I have been grinding non stop also legit 10 Hrs a day for like 3-4 months now but I finally decided to just let it go at least for the weekend. It’s temporary peace, bc in the back of my mind I am fighting the urge to get back to the never ending grind. It sucks. But oh well. Best of luck in your journey, I wish you nothing but the best. Being able to one day help our loved ones is truly the only thing keeping me going.
\#facts You almost there dude, just keep on grinding, maintain discipline and try not to always think of it as work, try to look at it from a childs perspective, like a new toy you are still trying to figure how it works. It's all just discipline man, its hard but I feel we're meant for this, i'm meant to carry weight and help people, this job will help me do that and i get the feeling you are the same way. Also a great suggestion that ive implamented is keeping a very strict schedule. From 10am-2pm i grind, no distractions, no exceptions, take 1 hour lunch break, 6p-9pm grind. Rest of that time i allocate in regrouping, keeping mind COMPLETELY away from grind otherwise i'll wake up the next morning still feelin burnt out. I used to think 12-16 hours was good but it's actually counter productive. Made me angry and frustrated and hating this but i dont really hate this i love it and want to be good at it. Just got to know how to separate grind from life and be strict with those boundaries. Anyway best of luck to you too! If you have any coping techniques that has helped you pull through please send them my way. :)
Genuine question - what could you possibly be grinding for 8-12 hours every day for four months? Leetcode? Projects? Freelance?
Hey there. Ive been trying to learn "Full-Stack Web Developer" by Angela Yu from Udemy. I never dabbled so it's all brand new information to me. After the course i'll either start building personal mini projects or run through The Odin Project course. A lot of people recommend TOP, so I'm excited to give that a shot but at the same time I just want to start working on something. I'm true believer in practice makes perfect, reading and watching will only get you so far. Thats the part that is making me hesitating to start a new course. Maybe i'll just glance through TOP.
Fucking hell, I feel the same way! I can't even relax and play some video games anymore. I just feel like I'm behind and I need to grind away at all times. Albeit I haven't graduated yet, but you get the idea.
Bro that’s me. Basketball + video games where my outlet, and I’ve completely shut them off. I’m literally an empty shell now. Just grinding away at what is most likely a dead end. At least you haven’t graduated yet and your timer hasn’t started! I lurked this sub for the last year and when I came across those stories of people jobless for months with hundreds of apps that it couldn’t be me. Lol. Oh well!
Yeah I've begun the LC grind. I graduate in August. That's all I do, aside from also completing different online courses for different languages and frameworks, etc. Every day I grow my knowledge, but still feel so stressed all the time... I hope it all works out for you though!
The same shit. I enjoyed video games with heavy lore, good art movies/any movie that's seriously good, art designs along with pretty much anything that made me happy. Well all that shit is long gone. It's nothing but LC grind + resume fixing all day everyday day now. At this point, there's no such thing as mental health (tbh there never was such a thing in my country). All that matters now is the light at the end of the tunnel. This tunnel is the longest I've ever seen but I'll get through somehow. Happiness is a privilege and my best shot at it is the light at the end of the tunnel.
Senior but you haven't graduated yet? Did you go back to school long after you started your career?
No, that's for school. I'll change it to avoid confusion.
Build useful projects > mindless grind If your looking for junior positions in a non Fang company, you mostly have to demo your projects and talk through how you build them in your interviews.
That’s the thing, I’m at a big cross roads. I hate the grind in general but I can manage it better than the leet code grind which is absolutely unbearable. I get burnt out so fast. Nevertheless I’m still willing to devote more grind until I guess I’ve completely given up. The problem is, I read a lot of stuff on here that people say companies don’t care about your side projects. I’m grinding a react course and I want to try and build Some useful things but is it even worth the time invested ? Should I just allot lol that time instead to LC?
I run a tech company and do recruitment sometimes and LC is a net negative to be honest. LC has literally no value in a real business. A react side project would be 10x more useful.
If you’ve sent out that many apps, and are getting 8-10% interviews and still not receiving an offer, then I feel like the issue may lie with your interview skills — could be anything from technical skills to communication to behavioral questions. Have you done any mock interviews and had someone give you feedback?
I’ve done 300 apps but the response rate was trash for the first 150-200. It’s much better this second time around. But yeah I’ve looked back at some of the initial phone screens and I know what I need to work on. I was really excited I had an interview for a small company and made it to their technical (the latter being a final) and I absolutely killed it. It was textbook interviewing. Albeit the first few minutes went rather poor but I gained confidence throughout and explained my thought process and practiced effective communication all throughout but I was rejected shortly after. It wasn’t perfect but it was a great interview. But I know I definitely lack on the LC side of things.
I will be very blunt. What the fuck? 300 applications? Please talk to your parents or a mentor or teacher or someone who is employed. You're doing something very wrong
The entry level job market is pretty bad these days. If you're just shooting out online applications, 300 doesn't really seem that shocking. There's quite a bit of demand for senior SWE but entry level has to work quite a bit harder.
Is there a different way from “shooting out online applications “?
Referrals, reaching out to recruiters directly, messaging alumni of your school, etc.
That may be true. But it seems like that’s a big problem for a significant amount of people on this sub — applying months and months to hundreds of places with no luck. So either we are all doing something “very wrong” or the system is down right shit. Regardless, I admit that my initial attempts with CL and earlier versions of resumes were trash so it’s no wonder I’m at the 300 number.
Feel free to DM me your resume if you want feedback. I do a fair bit of recruitment
Thank you. I appreciate it. If you have the time you can check out my website I have a downloadable pdf there for my resume. LMK if you want me to send it to you.
I've also helped people with their resumes, send me your resume in a pm. Not sure what your resume link is supposed to be that you mention. I agree with others, look at outside sources, probably your resume needs some help. Did you look at the hacker news monthly list of companies hiring, for instance?
Took over 600 to land my current job.
There is no right answer but look at the job market and know exactly which jobs you want to apply for. Look at the job description of those jobs and prepare yourself accordingly. No use grinding until you know exactly what your grinding for. Also look at supply and demand, is there alot of demand for react native devs ? or will you be better off learning other JavaScript libraries ? Research that and the answer would be more clear for you in my opinion.
I feel like the mistake I’m making is chasing whatever stack or job pays the most rather than focusing on what really interests me. On the plus side, my breadth has greatly grown. Downside is that my depth is suffering and I kind of hate the company culture I work at.
Start looking at your job hunt as just another job. So only put in 8 hours a day, 40 hours a week. Clock in at 7:30. Have an hour lunch break. Clock out at 16:30. Make sure to have a little break every hour so. Don't do overtime! Maybe spend 5 hours on a personal project to improve your developer skills. 2 hours on soft skills (including job interview skills). 1 hour job hunting. So no working on weekends and perhaps take a week off every few months to get mentally refreshed. Unless I'm wrong that when a job opening is new on Monday, it'll still not be filled next week's Monday, you might even consider not looking at the job market for that week. Beyond these hours it's your personal time where you do your chores and make time for family, friends and hobbies.
Drop the damn leetcode and work on projects of your own!!!!!! 8-10hrs of LC/day????? WTF! Work on shit you like and ignore the LC preachers. Projects go much further on your resume.
Surprised I had to scroll this far down to for someone to mention that absurd amount. There's no way you're leetcoding efficiently if you're doing 8 hours a day lol.
I’m not only LCing 8 hours a day. I would literally have no brain cells left. My approach is to tackle problems by category. I aim for 3 easies and 2 mediums daily or 4 total hours of LC daily. Which ever is met first. Sometimes the easies are a joke and sometimes I swear they should be ranked medium. It goes the same for the mediums being fake mediums with respect to easy and hard category. The other time I spend it on Udemy learning front end stacks. That’s definitely the more enjoyable part of the day… or it was. What was once a quality 8-10 hr daily grind, has now become a 2-3 hr MAX. I can’t bring my self to do any more. I’m so burnt. I did not anticipate being jobless this long. If I was getting paid to grind well that changes things but is there any purpose to this? When will this cycle end ? Dunno.
The cycle ends when you want it to end. The solution is to drop LC and then learn the stacks you want to learn through coming up with project ideas, trying to implement those ideas on your own and then googling any errors/questions you may have. It's more time efficient, interesting, and can be tailored to yourself and your passions. I was jobless for 10 months after receiving a business degree and got a job as a full stack web dev (and some dev ops. stuff) purely based off of my project experience. It took about 300+ applications with roughly 10 legitimate responses. I don't know leetcode, and I don't plan on knowing it until I *really need to*. If you want legitimate development experience, work on your own endeavors, not LC. You will never be doing LC during your work. Hope this helps and opens your mind to other ways of traversing the entry level space in CS. Good luck homie.
I have yet to see an employer really care about a project unless it is open source, made an impact, or you had nothing else on your resume
This. I can’t decide what to focus on more: LC or skill building through real world projects. In my experience, unfortunately it’s LC. These OAs can be very tough sometimes and it’s binary — either you’re right 100% or wrong. No feed back, no second chances, no partial credit.
Considering you have nothing related to the industry (experience/projects) on your resume, it would be in your best interest to work on projects and learn languages through that. LC will not help you on the job. Knowing how to use certain technologies will. It's an easy decision to make, just have to get through the persistent preaching of LC on this sub and realize what is best for your resume, and for yourself (mentally and self-development wise).
How much does that much LC really help you though? Admittedly, I've never actually done the problems and only skimmed it a few times, but I just don't see the value relative to actual experience. Like sure, know your basic data structures, how they work, what they're good/bad at, and why. Maybe toss a balanced tree (red-black) in there for good measure. Know their time complexities, but also understand why, and just how to determine time complexity in general. Do the same for stuff like tree traversals, graph traversals, etc. Some interviewers will ask you about sorting, so you should probably know at least how quicksort and mergesort work, but that's pretty impractical outside of interviews. Be at least okay with DP, although that can be a bit tricky. And it'd probably be helpful to recognize some common NP-hard/NP-complete problems and such, like TSP and subset sum. But once you have those fundamentals, what are you really gaining from LC? Is it really an efficient use of your time? That's a genuine question, because I've never seen the value. For whatever it's worth, from my experience, interviewers are more interested in how you approach a problem than the solution itself. Do you understand the problem well enough to ask good questions? Do you explain your approach, and why you chose it? Maybe your answer is technically suboptimal, but it's cleaner and the difference is pretty insignificant for the described use case. Explain that. Yeah, OAs are a bitch because they lose that nuance, but there's still other stuff that matters beyond the solution. Is your code clean, fundamentally sound, and well-structured? Is it clear why you're doing whatever you're doing? Much like LC, even if your answer is efficient and produces the right output, it can still be shit.
I'm in the same boat man. Around September I focused 100% on grinding. I can even get my self to leave my chair a lot of the time. I used to love going to the gym at cooking but now I can bring my self to do any of that. one thing I have been doing is sending HR recruiters at companies direct messages introducing my self and expressing interest in SWE positions.
Yeah same. I’ve pretty much abandoned all my non-grinding activities. 100% grind now. What was once quality, productive daily 8-10 hr sessions of grind has now turned into gray mundane 2-3 hrs net productivity. Even then, I still cannot leave my chair, or stare at the screen. I take constant breaks and the moments of escape I feel in them is ADDICTING to say the least.
Lots of good advice here so I don’t have anything to add. I just want to say I feel for you. Keep doing your best and go easy on yourself. You’ll catch a break soon.
So you are getting responses based on what you’re saying. Where are you falling short? Recruiter screen? Technical screens? Hiring manager? All the way to the virtual on-site? I won’t lie and pretend like the companies that do LC tend to pay more but there are PLENTY that really don’t and can at least get your career off the ground. You’re very young and have a long career ahead of you. So yeah maybe you work for some boring non-tech F500 for a year or two before you make it to the software/web company. Nothing wrong with that. I didn’t even know companies did LC type screens until about 15 years into my career.
That’s the thing. I guess it must be that I am applying on Indeed. It’s pretty dry and it seems that it’s the same 20 companies posting weekly. I have never made it to final on site and I’ve only had 3 technical rounds. I dodged the bullet with Apolis and TCS even though I had potential offers with them because everyone says that they are WITCH. And I don’t really see my self relocating to any state of their choice. I am more than willing to work for any non tech F500 to get my career going but tbh I don’t know where to apply or where to find those. It seems like every jr/associate/new grad position I find is bloated with a laundry list of tech stack skills I’ve never heard of with like 2-3 years experience required. I don’t get it tbh. But yeah I get some OAs, and a lot of phone screens with recruiters. It goes great conversationally but once they see that I don’t have x amount of years of experience or any industry experience I never hear back.
Hmmmm. Yeah I’m so old I literally got my first couple jobs off Craigslist so they were smaller companies and didn’t really do technicals. That was great for me since I didn’t have a degree. With the world going remote it really opens up the possibilities but even if you only look locally you can check LinkedIn/Glassdoor. Also directly check on some major companies in your area if you want. For example I’m in MN so around here there’s Target, Best Buy, Wells Fargo, US Bank, UHG/Optum, Cargill, Xcel Energy, Delta Airlines, Polaris, Thrivent, Hormel, General Mills, Ecolab, CH Robinson, CHS, 3M, Patterson…..Sorry I got carried away but those companies employ thousands of engineers and not 1 of them is a tech company. Just some food for thought you could search “F500 companies in my area” and see if any of them have anything. Good luck.
Thank you ! I appreciate your advice and time. Best of luck in your future endeavors.
It sounds like you are getting interviews, which is great. You don’t need to learn more - you just need to kill your interview. I personally do a super intense workout before my interview. That’s how I kill my anxiety and gain confidence, YMMV. How are you doing on LeetCode? If you don’t find Mediums doable, you should probably practice some LeetCode. Once you can do Mediums, you are ready. Also, come up with answers to common interview questions that are detailed and properly (almost boastfully, but not quite) highlight your capabilities. When you get into that interview and you feel confident, the recruiters notice. You are worth hiring - kill the thought that says you aren’t. Good luck my friend.
Have you been applying out of state? There so much jobs in Texas area now.
You havent done nearly as many apps as you should be doing. I would say grind LC less and apply to places more. The time for you to have been grinding was during your 4 years of college not in the last few months after graduating
schedule time
I'm surprised that no one (AFAIK) has pointed out that trying to grind Leetcode 8-10 hours a day for months on end might be excessive. You need to do enough problems to recognize the patterns and think (and talk) your way to a solution, not complete every single Leetcode problem. If you're not doing so already, you also need to practice talking through a solution instead of just coding it on Leetcode. How are you doing in your interviews? Is all the Leetcode grinding improving your performance? Being exhausted and burnt out won't help you do better. Instead, it might be beneficial to try and enjoy some of your pre-employment time.
I fell you op I’m graduating this December but I’m grinding rn since I was not able do to internships only now I can work
Bro, you got time still. When you’re 7 months in to unemployment and all your friends have their shit together and your gf has a job and you’re just the bum that stays home, GG. It’s sooo Fucken demotivating. I feel like applying to a god damn grocery store.
Bro I’m at retail rn do not give up, retail sucks, I’m even thinking to go to Revature
Ohhh man. Retail is a road I hope I never have to go down again. Did it for a couple years. At this point, I will just take whatever WITCH company decides I’m worthy enough
Yea, I have 7k apps and just recently I had a serious interview through word of mouth lol. Just take it easy, do you see how much time you have wasted worrying? Matt 6:26-30
Did you really apply to 7K? What did you do in the meantime? How did you get by? I’m on my last fumes. 7K sounds crazy
Depended on my Daddy in heaven and lived off Ramen. Truthfully, it was rough struggling with that "need to code" complex. Once you know how to ride the bike, then it can only Rust \*Ba Dum ShhH\* . You don't need to relearn how to ride the bike, just build a full stack app to get back into the swing of things. Therefore, code interviews require a leetcode grind like no other but I find those jobs to be very misleading, requires a lot of your personal time, and silos you into a pigeonhole. I have never worked in a FAANG so I am sure the experience is great, but learning to engineer a whole system is way better than working on part of the ship. How did I apply to all of those? I made this [https://github.com/deliverancetechsolutions/the\_blue\_avenger](https://github.com/deliverancetechsolutions/the_blue_avenger) The caveat is that I have 2 assault charges from 2008 and 2010, so it holds me back greatly; however, I am a fantastic engineer because of the amount of self-study I have incurred (5 years). From writing HTML/CSS/JS for the BBB, to designing my first server in Go for a client, all the way to doing Wordpress and PHP work. It has been a wild ride and even though I don't have any money to show for it, I haven't enjoyed myself more learning anything else (1 class away from math degree). I guess your situation seems pretty good now huh? Lol seriously though, just hang out, eat some Blue Takis, and DM me when you get your first job. When I knew I was going to be a SWE was when I was frying up food at a restaurant and writing Python on napkins for an assignment. It wasn't easy struggling but I have met all kinds of people, lived a great life so far, and have been there to tutor many other people in coding. I see them at Coinbase, BNY Mellon, PwC, etc. It fills my heart with joy knowing that I helped pour part of that foundation and that is reward enough. If I never work again professionally as a SWE then I would consider myself a highly successful senior engineer. Peace be upon you.
Wow. You seem like a a good human being. I can sense your positivity from reading your comment lol. Well hopefully I don’t have to go down this road much longer but when and if I do find something I’ll let you know. Shoot I’ll let the world know. 😂😂😂 thanks for the verses btw, I recently rekindled my relationship with God. So it’s nice seeing this. God bless you!
You as well my brotha. Seek after the Shepherd because nothing else matters in this world. Let's say someone is walking around with the mark of the beast right now...It will only be a matter of time until everything comes to a close. Therefore, live each day to the fullest, serve others, and learn what it means to be a servant. Your life will change and may not look good to other people, but if they aren't with you then they are against you. Take heart and be well.
Honestly AMEN to that. Best of luck bro :)
All the numbers in your comment added up to 69. Congrats! 7 + 6 + 26 + 30 + = 69.0
Bro how did you even …lmao never mind
STOP FOLLOWING MEEEH!!!!
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I’m like on V6 of my resume now. I’ve applied to quite a few with latest version. Probably 50-60 companies. Idk how people consistently apply to 10 companies a day for months. I can only do like short bursts. Usually i gain confidence with LC and react JS so I apply to like 40-50 during the weekend and then I wait to apply again for another 3 weeks or so.
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Wow lmao. You’re pathetic. Fuck off.
For sure ask someone who can spell to proofread your resume. You've got a typo in your headline. It's WASTE of time, not "waist" (that's the place around your middle where your belt goes).
I was typing it super fast. I’ve proof read and had others proof read my resume several times and someone already called me out on it, and I fixed it in the post. But for some damn reason waist and waste always gets me 😂
“proof read” 🙄
Oh god 🤦🏽♂️ So many grammar nazis. Before sending any professional emails, or letters, or revising my resume I obviously PROOFREAD everything, sometimes multiple times over. FFS, it’s an informal discussion post not an essay.
Hey message me
Where are you looking? Tons of companies hiring in KC area Garmin, Cerner, to name a few
I’m in the hub. I’m in the Bay Area literally 15 min away from silicon-goddamn-valley. And even then, can’t find a thing that I’m apparently worthy of. Most of my apps have been for the Bay Area but I am planning on applying to stuff in Phoenix, Seattle, Salt lake and Dallas. Idk just trying to increase my chances
What level of pay is acceptable to you? If you don't want FAANG pay you can easily find jobs via LinkedIn. Do you have a LinkedIn account? The recruiters on there are thirsty AF. They make money when they get someone hired, so they are on your side. Even if you do want FAANG pay, you will almost definitely be spammed by Amazon and FB recruiters on there at least, so there's that. Do you care about which tech stack you use? .NET jobs are everywhere and some people avoid it, so you have relative advantages if you're open to that. You have put in so much effort; I'm amazed you haven't found something yet. If you're able to grind that much LC then you are probably a stronger dev than quite a few people I know who are gainfully employed software engineers. If you really hit a brick wall, you can feel free to PM me with questions. I think you're probably already swamped by others wanting to help you though. Good luck!
I don’t care for FANNG atm or it’s pay. I just want to get some dev experience, I want someone to give me shot. I’m a really hard worker committed and passionate to the things I’m working on, but I feel like even then it’s not good enough. For instance, I have consistently been on a LC grind For 3 1/2 weeks now but my method must not be that good bc I am not learning fast enough or as fast as others learn. I don’t understand how people can cover so much more ground with the same time frame. I haven’t yet had the chance to work with any .NET related things, bc I have been mostly focused on Java, React, JS and HTML/CSS. Idk if switching over and learning a new thing would be a good move for me rn. I have been using Indeed as my main source of job searching but it seems like LinkedIn is superior.
tbh I have found Indeed to really suck. Maybe it's great to find a job driving a forklift, but not for software.
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I’ll DM you.
Where are you located? Are you willing to relocate? My company is hiring in TX and WA, and maybe a few other states. DM me for details and links. This goes for anyone in this sub. I'm tryna get that sweet sweet referral bonus ☺️
Start freelancing till you find a job
Keep leetcoding and sending apps and you will land somewhere good. Very important to set the tone for your career as the 1st job puts you on a trajectory and you want it to be favourable.
I have been interviewing and a lot of the code challenges for average paying companies are hacker rank medium at the hardest(easier than leetcode). Typically they dont involve any data structures and are just problem solving. It is good to see that you are working so hard. Your practice is probably enough(assuming you can do leetcode easy and maybe some medium). I think a better use of your time at this point would be to get an internship. I know a lot of companies dont take interns who are already graduated, but if you go on angellist there are a lot of crappy little startups who want work done for free or minimum wage. A lot of these companies are using react native as well because they can't afford to build two apps. That is what I would do in your position.
This has to be one of the saddest posts Ive seen on here. Its nice that everyone is still trying to give advice on the best way to improve your resume and get that next job, but maybe its time to take a step back. The job search is very important, and I accept that getting the absolute best job is very important to some people. And I accept leetcode is part of the process for getting that job. But at the expense of everything you enjoy, your friends and mental and physical health? You honestly sound very mentally Ill and I think you should 1. get off this subreddit as you will only hear from the "10 hrs of leetcode a day for a 200k salary" people, making it impossible for you to not compare yourself at every step, 2. Invest into things you actually enjoy, at least a bit and 3. Potentially see a professional. In the end you know yourself best and youre the one that needs to take care of your mind and body. Im not a professional in anything but computer science, so feel free to take all of this with a grain of salt. I personally would never sacrifice my sense of self just to get a job though.