

How to Land a Six-Figure Software Developer Job - r11t
http://www.pcworld.com/article/164192/how_to_land_a_six_figure_software_developer_job.html?tk=rss_news

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lacker
So what is wrong with

    
    
      {
      object* p=NULL;
      p = new object();
      p->foo()
      delete p;
      }
    

Do they just mean the missing semicolon? If so that's a pretty lame interview
question.

~~~
neilc
foo() might throw an exception, leaking "p". Stack allocation should probably
be used instead of heap allocation here, anyway.

~~~
brl
Thanks for reminding me why I'm never going anywhere near C++ ever again in my
life.

Good answer though, I was stumped.

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r11t
Has anyone read "Programming Interviews Exposed: Secrets to Landing Your Next
Job"? I have only browsed the table of contents and it looks pretty promising
in terms of figuring out what areas of software development to review/improve
before attempting to interview for a developer position.

~~~
staunch
The best way to find out what skills you need for the kind of job you want is
to look at job descriptions. Some of them have a lot of fluff, but the best
ones are very detailed and the requirements are truly what they want you to be
able to do.

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mattmaroon
Come work for Blue Frog Gaming. (well, close to 6 figs, and def there once we
IPO).

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edw519
I bet this thing gets gamed faster than you could bubble sort all the round
man-hole covers in every gas station in your zip code.

What a bunch of B.S. Do you really think you can "game" your way into a 6
figure job by answering a few brain teasers? And if so, how long would you
last?

Competent hirers look for "demonstrated performance". Technical questions are
sometimes necessary, but hardly sufficient to find that out.

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zackattack
As a soon-to-be college graduate (as of this June), I am especially curious
about this. I majored in Psychology, and did a lot of stuff with abstract
math, but have limited formal CS training - yet it seems that's exactly what
companies want. I don't get it. I've been coding for fun for over 12 years
(e.g., BASIC, C++, perl, PHP), one of my projects even successfully scaled and
got acquired, but it's hard to find employment. And besides doing my own
start-up, I really would love to code for a living!

Should I go get a Master's in CS? Spend time this summer working through SICP,
and then an algorithms book (I took Discrete for fun, as an elective), and
then something else?

Any advice would be much, much appreciated.

~~~
jmtulloss
It's pretty easy for an HR person to weed you out because of your degree. Talk
to actual engineers you know in the industry. If they think you can cut it,
I'm sure they'll be happy to pass your credentials and a recommendation on to
a hiring manager.

The masters in CS can't hurt either; you just need to decide how you want to
spend your time.

~~~
jmatt
I agree. After you get your first job and get some experience you'll be good.
It's just finding a way to get past HR. They just look at credentials and may
ignore your unconventional interest in programming. Don't worry though, after
that first job you are good. Recent experience and your reputation in the
industry will outweigh your undergrad degree.

The CS degree won't hurt but I would only do it if you already had research in
mind that you wanted to pursue. That seems to be the key to enjoying grad
school - chasing your passion and interests.

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villageidiot
I signed up with GlassDoor.com to see what the Java interview questions were
like. I only found three (nationwide) and they are not exactly illuminating:

"Create a small table driven site to display items from a database table."

"What do you think of Jakarta software?"

"How many people use the websites you've worked on?"

