

Ask HN: As a recent CS grad, what am I doing wrong?  - opensourcebegin

Hello everyone,<p>I recently graduated with my Bachelors. I have been going through the interview process.<p>Yesterday, I had an interview with one of the big software companies. (Not going to name) The interviewer asked me one of the regular programming questions which I completely blanked out on. At the end of the interview, I felt that he was very insulting to me (I am unsure if this is normal). He told me that he could not figure out where to place me and that I should go get a Masters. He also said that my skill set was too broad and not focused enough. Granted my GPA has suffered last year to lower than the average. I have been very involved in projects ever since I can remember. I even founded a research project which I wrote a proposal for and got academic funding towards.<p>I did mess up his question. But what else did I do that was wrong?<p>I will take one of his advice. To find something to focus towards. I want to start contributing to open source projects in the hopes of finding something I can be passionate about. Could I get suggestions on how to begin? I am very new to this.<p>Thank you for reading my rant. I have been reading articles from here for a while now. You people are truly amazing.<p>Thank you! 
I am lost in transition
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isuraed
Don't be discouraged by the comment. It is not normal but I have heard the big
5 software companies tend to be arrogant during interviewing.

It sounds like you simply weren't technically prepared and qualified for the
position. That is correctable!

1) Interview prep. Here are the 4 standard books to prepare for programming
interviews at big companies like Apple, Google, Microsoft, Facebook, Amazon.

\- Programming Interviews Exposed \- Cracking the Coding Interview \- Elements
of Programming Interviews \- Ace the Programming Interview

2) Open Source - Get involved today! Pick a big open source project like
Mozilla. Big projects have great resources and programs to get new people
involved. For example Mozilla has mentored bugs where the mentor helps you
along from environment setup to submitting the code.

3) Hobby Projects - Pick a technology/platform/framework that interests you.
Read up on basic tutorials and setup the development environment. Get the
server running. Get the code to compile. Take small steps. Ask for help. You
can find answers to basic questions on stackoverflow etc.

~~~
opensourcebegin
Thank you so much!

I am looking through Mozilla's mentored bugs. THIS IS AMAZING!

Thank you!!!

------
joe_inferno
Keep interviewing. You'll run into jerks everywhere, even after you land the
job. Key is to never, ever give up.

~~~
ericthegoodking
I second this, Never ever give up. Not today, tomorrow or ever. Its the moment
you give up you lose. Keep on pushing.

~~~
opensourcebegin
Thank you! The both of you!

I will never give up.

