ThirdFoundation

Would you mind giving some information about what makes a junior engineer stick out in those threads? I'm currently looking for that type of work and any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

Location: Philadelphia, USA

Remote: Yes (but on-site is okay too!)

Willing to relocate: For the right opportunity

Technologies: Python, Flask, C/C++, React, Node.js, SQL, React, Visual Basic

Currently learning: Redux (to pair with my React knowledge), Clojure

Résumé/CV: Upon request

Email: [email protected]

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My background is a bit unusual. I originally got a bachelor's degree in Finance and slowly migrated to more technical roles. I then went back to school to get a second bachelor's degree in CS, which I will be done with by this fall. I did the second degree while working full-time in my current role.

I'm looking for SWE opportunities -- particularly, ones with some mentorship and development. I'm more experienced than many interns (I actually train them at my current job) but not nearly experienced enough for a senior role. I think I'd be a great hire as a junior engineer as I'd be coming in with a diverse set of technical, professional, and developmental experiences behind me.

Thanks -- I got in my head a bit today after being passed over for two jobs. I appreciate the positive words, even in this anonymous internet form.

I'm attempting to currently move into a junior SWE role after completing a second BS in Computer Science (I'll be done this fall). I'm 31 and my first degree is in finance. This is a major fear of mine.

In the US this is unlikely to happen because the big 4 sports all want to control their own distribution, TV rights, and streaming. I think they believe there's more money in that method.

My CS degree was largely taught in C and C++. I couldn't agree more.

Moving to Python was incredibly simple from C++. I can't imagine that the reverse would be equally true.

Finance, accounting, engineering, and many other careers have been around longer, have been commoditized to varying degrees, yet still enjoy good pay.

I think developers will still make good money for decades. I could, however, see an issue with junior developers finding less opportunities in the coming decade. I think there will be less need for juniors and the entry level jobs will be harder to come by. Some of those skills are more easily "commoditized."

To add to your point, I think this reinforces the value of spaced repetition learning. It's been show to been one of the best ways to actually retain information. So, as you said, just doing the exercises only gets one so far. You'll need to either use what you learned or at least do refresher exercises to better put what you learned into memory. The benefit is that you may be able to do these refreshers and greater intervals over time, effectively retaining the information longer.

For me personally, there does seem to be a tipping point where what I learned really sticks in my brain and degrades much slower. However, I can't seem to pinpoint where that point happens or if it is even consistent. There are some coding concepts I never forget, and some that seem to leave me within a month.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spaced_repetition

https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED427772

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2016/jan/23/spaced-rep...

Good point, I guess the comment to which I responded could be read two different ways also.

No one likes to be forced to do anything, and any perception of unfairness could easily elicit a stronger response of resentment or resistance.

I personally think when it comes to protecting rights it may be warranted, but I definitely see how the situation you explained could also be true. It's a tough thing to balance.

The government (the Supreme Court in this case) wasn't speaking for everyone, they were merely protecting the rights of a certain segment of the population. It's an important distinction to make. There was no constitutional basis for denying same-sex marriage.

Sorry, but these examples aren't properly analogous.

A driving equivalent would something like automatic breaking technology. If it was proven that people driving with this were 50% less likely to cause accidents and the technology was available in all cars, then it would make sense to fine people that opted to manually turn it off.

Abortion isn't the same situation at all. That is a loaded topic involving religion, body autonomy, the concept of a "soul", person-hood, and science. It is not a binary issue.

Vaccines are black and white. There is sound science proving they don't cause autism and by not getting them the rest of the population is in danger. I would think heavy fines would be appropriate throughout society for these type of circumstances (or some other types of behavioral push).

They also __legally__ unload a large amount of tax burden by working with APs[1] on special custom ETF redemption orders.

For example, an AP will place a redemption order for an equity ETF. Typically, they will either receive cash value of the ETF or a basket of equities that are selected by the Front Office that are part of the underlying index represented by the ETF (the selection for a given standard basket is its own topic of portfolio management). However, in the case of the aforementioned custom orders, Vanguard and the AP will negotiate a special basket of equities to be given in return for the redeemed ETF. Sometimes this basket will just contain a large number of shares of simply one security. It's even possible that both parties make money off of this transaction due to the tax code. This transaction allows Vanguard to unload a large number of securities without paying taxes on them, and allows the AP to obtain these securities a negotiated, cheaper price.

Essentially, the transaction could like something like this:

->Vanguard has 1,000 shares of CompanyX they want to unload. This company can be found in Index Z.

->AP has 1 share of the Vanguard ETF that tracks Index Z. They want to redeem it

->AP gives their 1 share of the ETF to Vanguard

->Vanguard gives them n shares of CompanyX, at say a 5% discount so that: .95 * $CompanyXPrice * Shares = 1 share of Index Z value

->Vanguard is spared the capital gains tax on these shares. AP gets these shares at a discount. They both (on paper) make or save money.

This is legal in the current tax code. The above example is simplified, but it should illustrate the situation (hopefully) well enough.

A brief blurb about it here too: https://www.pennstatelawreview.org/print-issues/articles/the...

[1] https://www.etf.com/etf-education-center/21021-who-are-autho...

It's almost a creative writing contest in some threads. The problem is that just enough situations are verifiable that it blurs into the well written fictional accounts. I spend time on r/BestOfLegalAdvice sub and I have no doubt that upwards of ~25% of posts are fake.

It's quite weird, I'm not sure why you are being downvoted. I appreciated your sentiment.

I'm in a similar situation. My first degree was in Finance and I'm currently getting a second degree in CS.

I'll be finishing my degree this fall and will be 31. I work in Finance now in a sort of 'tech-adjacent' systems analyst and business intelligence position.

If I remember, I'll follow up this post in a few months with how my job search is going. I'll begin searching around June in the Philadelphia area.

I had a few interviews last year and have gone to one or two tech meet-ups, and I'm reasonably optimistic that my age won't be much of a deterrent. Most people I've spoken with like the diversity of my background and the obvious passion I have for CS. In a sense, going back to school while working full time is an "actions speak louder than words" situation. It takes a lot of effort to get through a second degree while working full-time, and I think that speaks for itself in terms of work ethic and interest in the topic (though it doesn't hurt to highlight as well).

That being said, I still have the nagging fear of ageism affecting my job prospects. I think my work experience will lend itself well, but I'm going about this without ego. I know I'm trying to break into a field competing with many other people, so it's probably going to be a numbers game in terms of applying. I'm also a little concerned about the Philadelphia tech scene as it's not as robust as one would expect for a city this size.

I know this isn't advice, as I can't offer much, but I can commiserate in having similar feelings and concerns. My guess is that your background will ultimately assist your search (though obviously not everywhere). The one piece of advice I can offer is to start applying early, if only to get interviewing experience and knock off the rust. You said you've been in your current role for 10 years -- has it also been 10 years since you've had a proper job interview?

If you want to chat further or even just bounce ideas around, I'm happy to chat further. What city are you based out of?

If you don't mind me asking, what city?

Fair point.

Do you mean in terms of spending?

I agree in regards to health care that incremental changes may be the only to achieve universal coverage.

However, the gutting of the policies by another administration is what scares me in regards to MMT. I'm not sure that incremental changes work with monetary policy. MMT in particular seems like it needs some big, systematic levers in order to actually function properly.

That being said, I'm happy to be wrong about this. MMT being viable would open a more clear path to something like universal health care.

A fear of mine is that MMT gains enough traction to be implemented, but only partially. Similar to what has happened with the ACA. For argument's sake, let's just assume MMT is a sound theory. Regardless, if it's only half-implemented -- without all components for regulating taxes, inflation, and spending -- it could be an absolute disaster.

Additionally, there are concerns about having the government itself involved with regulating inflation and business cycles. An independent Fed, at least in theory, allows for the fed to take a longer view of the economy even if politicians have incentives to care only about the next election cycle. All it would take is one conservative majority congress to semi-dismantle any MMT mechanism and completely mess up any "controls" put in place by MMT proponents.

That being said, it is refreshing to have different ideas being taken seriously enough to enough mainstream conversation. I don't think the field of economics is "solved" (probably far from it) so I think good ideas that challenge the status quo are generally good.

And I think he's useful at least as a voice that challenges some conventional mental models for looking at things in math, finance, and decision making.

He's not an infallible visionary and should not be taken as gospel, but I don't think we should disqualify all of his ideas and opinions. I've enjoyed reading a lot of his books.

However, as you said, he's not a good introduction into the economy and probably isn't accessible for many beginners.

I don't think that's the point though. If I understand correctly, the point is that it's okay to charge by usage -- just not specifically giving different rates to different things.

Net neutrality says that the ISPs can't throttle Netflix's speed while giving priority to another streaming platform. It's okay if users are charged by usage (even, perhaps, non-linearly) -- but it's not okay in the eyes pro-NN people if the ISP charges more for Netflix than, say, their own streaming platform. A byte should cost the same regardless of its use (much like a kW of electricity costs the same for a toaster as it does your refrigerator or another brand of toaster).

Will do, thanks. I'm hoping I can find time to pop by Cooperage in the next month or so. I'll definitely shoot a message over when I do.

I'll check out the Discord server today.

Thanks!

I appreciate the information, thanks! Maybe we'll get enough Philly people here responding that we can slap something together.

I've been a longtime lurker on the /r/philadelphia sub and have thought many times about going to one of the meetups. I think I may need to stop by one of them.

I'd love to have something like this in Philly. Our tech community is not as strong as it should be for a city this size.

I think Oakland would be a better example of a city not caving in to giving to Raiders money to build a stadium...

So Las Vegas gave them a lot of money.

It's confusing and depends on the industry. Sometimes they're used interchangeably. In some disciplines consultants literally just 'consult' and don't fill a role.

In the accounting world we have employees that we call 'contractors' but they aren't self-employed. Rather, they are employed by a specific accounting staffing agency that contracts with our firm to fill positions temporarily.

Sometimes contractors are employed by the company they are working with directly but the position isn't guaranteed to last before

Basically, like much of the English language, there isn't a hard rule. I imagine there are country, regional, and industry specific uses for the terms. There may have once been a hard distinction, but misuse of terms eventually permeates into local parlance, which gives way to a new accepted use of the term.

I'm having trouble finding a more recent source, but as of 2012 that wasn't close to true. It's actually a larger gap than I expected. I'm going to keep researching to see if I can find more recent numbers. Do you happen to have a more recent source?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_net_migra...

__EU__

Total net migration: 2,324,066

Net migration per 1000 inhabitants: 4.60

__US__

Total net migration: 5,007,887

Net migration per 1000 inhabitants: 15.94

I personally had a great experience at Warby Parker. I probably saved $200-300 and didn't feel pressured to buy anything.

Wow, 20-25 cups?! Did you go cold turkey off of that peak or did you taper down? I'm just curious how bad the caffeine withdrawal would be from that level.