>Places like DRW, which by the way never replied back and I sent in my application two months ago.

DRW is a prop shop with a workload comparable to any FAANG. Most certainty not a place you would be able to coast.

Duly noted, I am just surrounded myself with so much fintech and prop shop business in my city that I've mixed it up with banking.

I interviewed with DRW in Chicago in 2017. I had an interesting experience. They started with a take home programming problem, which they said I could do in any language. The problem was to take a list of tetris moves and give the resulting playfield height. I coded it in ruby because I knew I could write it very quickly. I wrote it using OO style programming, included a full test suite, and added visualization of the board during play. I turned it in early. Their initial feedback was irritation that I had used Ruby. After a day I heard back that they liked my code and would be scheduling further interviews. After a few days they reached out and said that my code "didn't work at all and had mistakes" that had decided to pass.

I don't know why they changed their mind but I'm certain there was nothing wrong with the solution I submitted. I even had a friend check it for me. I suspect they just decided to move forward with a different applicant. Dunno but that was my experience with DRW.

In most cases I would be fine with Hacker Rank tests, but including a full test suite sounds too much for a coding assessment. Also I guess they don't have many Ruby experts at DRW so it took them longer to dissect your code. "Languages don't matter because a tool is just a tool" says the developer... until it's not. Oh well.

Despite my inclination to coast, when it comes to finding work, I've found out that I do better in "trial by fire" situations, than the traditional round-after-round of tests method of evaluating a candidate.

Taking a startup job I had, for example, I was contracted for 40 hrs/week work with just my resume and an informal interview at a coffee shop. No code tests- the founder just wanted to know me in person and I got the job in a week. The pay was low, but the pacing was pretty relaxed for a startup. I can't find many places that hire programmers that easily anymore and that's what makes this so tough.

Some people have trouble learning how to code. I have trouble learning how to interview better.

You can use any language you want, as long as it’s Go.

Depending on the state, state jobs usually are unionized gigs with a few entry points. The “happy path” is entry-level. You need to understand the benefits and how they work as it’s a major component of compensation. For example, if you worked for NYC or NYS government, your pension is largely exempt from state and city taxes... but that pension changed during the Great Recession and its value may vary depending on your circumstances.

If you’re mid-career, you need to figure out the “side loading” path. Usually there’s a way to get non-political temp/term appointments, and sometimes if you work as a contractor there can be ways to be converted to an employee.

Z has online education and partnerships with some schools.

https://www.ibm.com/it-infrastructure/z/education/master-the...

There is/will be a lot of old gov’t C/C++/java code out there that will have to be maintained forever. IRS, FAA, DoD, see who owns those support contracts.