greyostrich's comments

If anyone reads this, I have an update. I ran an in-person mock interview with an HN user. It wasn't anything extensive; just a few simple questions. After it, I really looked at what I've been doing. It made me realize that I'm shit at interviews. Maybe I'm not that bad. Maybe other people do worse and still get jobs. But honestly, there's so much I can improve. I have no idea how I even passed some of my past interviews.

1. Never heard of him before now.

2. Not systematic at all.

3. I'll consider it.

University focused on Java. I mainly use C# with some interest in PHP (personal project), F# (went to several meetups and a workshop), and JavaScript.

"have you ever done any practice interviews?"

Honestly no (I had one a very, very long time ago though), and it would be stupid not to. Maybe it was stupid of me to think that practice from meetups, volunteering, and other interviews would be enough.

"Did you teach yourself most of what you know before going to college?"

No. It was during college. I transferred from community college, then graduated in 1.5 years. Outside of classes, I spent time on improving.

"Go to a company hosted meetup event, mingle with the employees and if your interested let them know."

This has worked twice for me already. The hardest part is usually everyone has 10+ years of experience, so it's tough to connect myself to them.

"Look for events that require participation from those attending and help others when they are stuck."

Good idea.

"Where are you having troubles with the interview process?"

It's random. I pass resume screens, and I fail them. I'm just going to talk about phone screens for now. On-sites are an entirely different story, where a lot of them have been tech trivia or just entirely behavorial.

============== PHONE SCREENS ============== Random unknown, non-tech company -- easily pass.

Jet -- I passed. Easily. Because of my connections. I failed the 2nd phone screen when they saw I lacked professional experience.

Walmart Technology -- failed within 10 minutes. I was referred to it by an HN user, who said they were looking for entry people with no tech requirements. The recruiter randomly called me. She saw I had no experience with Java frameworks (I use mainly C# for projects). She couldn't read the between the lines, so I was rejected.

Wayfair Labs -- failed within 10 minutes. No explanation given. The recruiter didn't even allow me to ask any questions.

Quick Loans -- passed phone screen, but the tech team wasn't interested in me.

I rarely get tech phone screens. I did get one last week, but I have no idea how it went. It involved general questions about how HTML, CSS, JavaScript, frameworks and my projects worked.

"Where are you located? Where do you want to work?"

Like I said, I'm located right by NYC. I want to work anywhere with some sort of public transportation (even if I can only rely on a bicycle), because I have permanent blindness in my left eye (no 3D vision, and get nauseous in cars).

Yes, being more saleslike would help. I have never tried it that way.

I understand what you're suggesting. I do act very confident and unafraid to ask any questions. I don't act "desperate." When I voice my concerns through a forum, I do sound desperate because it's a way for me to voice my emotions; but I never act this way in person.

A) Ok. That's my situation, so I will not disagree with it.

B) I've only had one whiteboard technical interview ever, and I passed it. I've read and practiced Programming Interviews Exposed; and I've practiced up to and including trees in CtCI. Studying coding problems barely helps for the type of companies I get interviews at. My whiteboard consisted of nothing like CtCI; it was simple string parsing with the help of library functions.

"Who is hiring" threads aren't useful for finding entry jobs. There are usually around two companies hiring for entry roles. I have tried applying for every one of them, and have never received a reply.

For anyone else who reads this, I won't post my resume publicly due to privacy reasons (even if the details are garbled), and I like having tangible connections to people whom I receive advice from. So I will be e-mailing it.