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• Joining a company to get experience vs. going alone [closed]

  - by daniels

  My goal is to build a successful web startup, say the next Digg or Twitter, and I am in doubt regarding what is the best route to follow as a programmer. I see basically two options: Get an internship/job with an established online company, so that I could get a mentor and learn from more experienced programmers, learn their processes, methodology and so on. I could do this for 1-2 years, and then quit to start working on my own stuff. Start working on my own projects right away, starting with small ones and moving up gradually. This would give me more control on the things I would be working with, but I would lack contact with more experienced people, so I would need to figure basic things on my own. Doing both is not an option in my opinion, cause I would need to put a lot of effort/time into each if I was to learn/improve as a programmer. So is one route definitely better than the other? Is there a third one I am not considering? Background: I already work by myself developing content-based websites and doing SEO, and I am decent at it so money is not a problem. Last year I started learning to program, first by myself and now I enrolled in a CS degree on a good university.

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• How do you get a high paying job programming in finance?

  - by q303

  Hi, I'm interested in eventually programming for a financial company. Unfortunately, I have a degree in linguistics with a minor in CS along with 4 years experience in .NET. I picked .NET because I thought that it would be more used in the financial world. I've heard some horror stories about badly done VBA Excel programming and being way underpaid...but then I've heard great stories about highly skilled C++ programming along with high pay (including some feedback to previous questions). I just get the impression that unless you have a MS in CS from a top 10/20 school, it might not be realistic. For those of you doing programming for bankers/traders, how did you break in?

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• Costs/profit of/when starting an indie company

  - by Jack

  In short, I want to start a game company. I do not have much coding experience (just basic understanding and ability to write basic programs), any graphics design experience, any audio mixing experience, or whatever else technical. However, I do have a lot of ideas, great analytical skills and a very logical approach to life. I do not have any friends who are even remotely technical (or creative in regards to games for that matter). So now that we've cleared that up, my question is this: how much, minimally, would it cost me to start such a company? I know that a game could be developed in under half a year, which means it would have to operate for half a year prior, and that's assuming that the people working on the first project do their jobs good, don't leave game breaking bugs, a bunch of minor bugs, etc.. So how much would it cost me, and what would be the likely profit in half a year? I'm looking at minimal costs here, as to do it, I would have to sell my current apartment and buy a new, smaller one, pay taxes, and likely move to US/CA/UK to be closer to technologically advanced people (and be able to speak the language of course). EDIT: I'm looking at a small project for starters, not a huge AAA title.

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• Is having your own website important?

  - by Josh K

  How necessary or important is it? I try to keep a running list of blogs or sites to follow, but a lot of the time I pull up someone's profile and notice there isn't anything there. Is it really important? I understand are different levels of programming (from C/C++ system programmers to Rails and even Haskell and J) and not everyone works in a language easily worked with for web based applications. Not everything is web-centric, however with the advent of many popular and sometimes free services I don't think it's unreasonable to expect a majority of programmers to have a personal site.

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• Why don't more companies hire remotely?

  - by James

  I keep hearing about the desperate recruiting efforts of companies in tech hubs such as SF and NYC. However, every time I'm contacted by a startup I'm told the position is on-site and working remotely isn't possible. Let me clarify that these are tech startups. They should be very comfortable with the idea of using technology to get things done and connect teams together. With the housing market the way it is, many of us can't relocate even if we wanted to pay the higher cost of living. Why are so many companies still stuck in the industrial mindset of butts in seats?

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• Software development company business plan

  - by Navi

  I apologize in advance if this is the wrong forum for this question, so please forward me to the right place. I have about 10 years professional experience as software developer. Mostly on the Java platform doing server side programs. I have picked up a bit of Linux skills on the way as well. I know HTML and Javascript, so I can make a website that would not be too ugly, but I am not going to win any prizes with it. In fact I think I am pretty terrible in the user interface department. My initial plan is to do Android development. I read a few Android books and tried making a few apps. Since it is Java based I think I got the technical side down. Lately I have been thinking about iphone and Mac development, because of the relevant app store/development programs. The trouble is I don't know Objective C. As a side question, how long would it take me to become proficient in Objective C? Considering that I am working on my own and could hire somebody to help me for a short time for low wages if necessary what are my options? What are the pro and cons of the development programs app stores of Android and Apple? Which development/app stores are out there beside the ones I mentioned? Do you think it is necessary to find funds to get me started or should I just use my savings? If you have positive/negative experiences in a similar situations can you please share them? Thanks for your help.

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• SQL Saturday 27 (Portland, Oregon)

  - by BuckWoody

  I’m sitting in the Seattle airport, waiting for my flight to Silicon Valley California for the SQL Server 2008 R2 Launch Event. By some quirk of nature, they are asking me to Emcee the event – but that’s another post entirely.   I’m reflecting on the SQL Saturday 27 event that was just held in Portland, Oregon this last Saturday. These are not Microsoft-sponsored events – it’s truly the community at work. Think of a big user-group meeting – I mean REALLY big – held in a central location, like at a college (as ours was) or some larger, inexpensive venue like that. Everyone there is volunteering – it’s my own money and time to drive several hours to a hotel for the night, feed myself and present. It’s their own time and money for the folks that organize the event – unless a vendor or two steps in to help. It’s their own time and money for the attendees to drive a long way, spend the night and their Saturday to listen to the speakers. Why do all this?   Because everybody benefits. Every speaker learns something new, meets new people, and reaches a new audience. Every volunteer does the same. And the attendees? Well, it’s pretty obvious what they get. A 7Am to 10PM extravaganza of knowledge from every corner of the product. In fact, this year the Portland group hooked up with the CodeCamp folks and held a combined event. We had over 850 people, and I had everyone from data professionals to developers in my sessions.   So I’ll take this opportunity to do two things: to say “thank you” to all of the folks who attended, from those who spoke to those who worked and those who came to listen, and to challenge you to attend the next SQL Saturday anywhere near you. You can find the list here: http://www.sqlsaturday.com/. Don’t see anything in your area? Start one! The PASS folks have a package that will show you how. Sure, it’s a big job, but the key is to get as many people helping you as possible. Even if you have only a few dozen folks show up the first time, no worries. The first events I presented at had about 20 in the room. But not this week.   See you at the Launch Event if you’re near the San Francisco area tomorrow, and see you at the Redmond SQL Saturday and TechEd if not.   Share this post: email it! | bookmark it! | digg it! | reddit! | kick it! | live it!

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• Should I go back to the same company ?

  - by vinoth

  Hi , I quit the company I was working for(lets call it XYZ) and joined another company . When I quit the company I had very little Software development experience . I thought the rest of the world is a better place . So I complained about the word quality and all that while i quit . One year has taught me a lot of things and I feel XYZ is a much better place (in terms of freedom and decision making in work) . Is it ok to go back ? I am thinking a lot whether to go or not because I quit complaining the nature of work and now I am going back for the same thing . Also I am kind of not very sure to go to other places because , the work and quality are not predictable (I am might become disappointed again ) . Have any of guys been in the same situation before ?

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• Getting started on Large Projects

  - by Mercfh

  So I just graduated from my College with a B.S. in Comp. Science (although it was a good school, we're the only accredited CS department in our state.....for w/e that means lol) I feel like im a decent programmer, not amazing....but not terrible. Anyways I got my first job about 2 weeks ago, it's a pretty entry level job: firmware development/tester (I know I know people look down on testers...but I gotta start somewhere). Anyways there isn't a whole lot of coding to be had right now (mostly simple stuff) but here soon I have the option of helping out with development (which is what I want to do) Thing is....I have NEVER worked on a huge project. I mean in school sure we had "group" projects but nothing really big. So I'm not super familiar with HUGE classes and such (main language was C++)....Is this something I'll just get used to with time? Some fellow students were used to that with internships and such...but I never got that chance. My job was mostly a "one man job" kinda thing. Mostly little things. Plus in class we never did huge projects anyways. So how do you guys I guess "plan" out these things? Do you use a whiteboard and plan out classes and such....or what. Also...another worry of mine is that I have to use google......ALOT for examples of code, because sometimes I just don't get how something works. Is this normal? It makes me feel sorta.....stupid I guess. I mean "technically" i've had 4-5 years coding experience......but it really only feels like I had 2 years of REAL experience. If that makes any sense? Thanks

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• Crappy school, what to do? [closed]

  - by zhenka

  I started programming fairly late. I am 24 years old and about to graduate from a local public university with a really poorly designed curriculum and teachers. Most of the work felt like busy work, and no matter how much I try, it all feels like a waste. I know what a good curriculum looks like. I know what books I should read, but alas it's not so in my university. There is no way at this point that I can catch up to those graduating from places like MIT. My question and this is a serious one: what do I do? Do I just postpone learning the theory I would have learned until later and focus on software engineering skills? How important is the theory in terms of landing a job in New York? Any particular things I should focus on to land a software engineer job? I am very motivated and I just wish someone would give me the time and a chance.

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• How to stay creative when going through tough emotional times (divorce, family death, etc)? [closed]

  - by gaearon

  Hi everyone. I believe this is not a duplicate of motivation question because I want to especially emphasize the emotional breakdown. You may conquer lack of motivation by working harder and getting through the dip, however this was not the case when I was separating with my girlfriend. I actually liked the project, it was (and it still is!) my first programming job at an amazing workplace and I wasn't being pressured in any way but I found myself absolutely unable to code, blankly staring at the screen, my thoughts disorganized, the feeling of emptiness all in my chest. I could perform some straightforward coding but anything that involves creative thinking, designing abstractions, solving new problems and, worst of all, fixing bugs in legacy code, completely wiped out my brain to the point I started avoiding work, which I never have done before. Coffee only used to make it worse. Eventually I got over that, and I remember the happy day I solved a problem elegantly and thought—hell, first time in a month! Thankfully the project wasn't top priority and I had the time to catch up. I wonder now, was there any other way to boost my productivity back then? I bet people would say I should've taken a break—and I think I really should have—but what if I needed the money? Didn't want to lose my job? Are there any ways to trick your brain into being creative despite emotional losses? From your experience, would it be worth talking to my boss, collegues?

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• How do you make your applications looking more sexy?

  - by Roflcoptr

  The other title of this question could also be: How to improve my creativeness? During the past years I noticed that a loot of my small applications that I write in my free time to ease my life could also be useful for some of my friends. They asked me to get them a copy. Even if the applications are working as they should I feel a little bit embarrassed because they GUIs are all looking really ugly. The problem is, I always used standard and default-looking Buttons, TextBoxes etc. Now I thought about how to improve this. And yes I know it is possible to use themes, ImageButtons, ColorBrushes and so on. And now the real problem is: I can't really see which colors fit together and make a good design. Are there any techniques, books, other resources that help to improve to get a feeling for good designs, color combinations, UI element choose?

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• How to avoid being an API programmer only?

  - by anything

  I have almost six years of experience in java. I have developed many projects which used frameworks like Struts, Spring, Hibernate, JQuery , DWR, Ajax etc. I have used these technologies in almost all the projects I have worked on. Projects were very simple mostly with crud based apps. My everyday tasks involves creating few screens, writing queries, testing etc. After all these years I feel like I have turned into an API programmer who just uses these above mentioned frameworks which is not giving me any satisfaction of being a programmer. Is this normal or is it just me who is feeling like this?

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• There are 2 jobs available - which one sounds better all round [closed]

  - by Steve Gates

  I am currently employed at a company where we scrape by each year breaking even, sometimes having a little profit. The development environment is very relaxed and we have a laugh. My colleagues are not interested in improving their knowledge unless they have to, so trying to get them to adopt things like TDD is a non-starter. My development manager is stuck in .Net 2 land and refuses to use things like LINQ. He over complicates architecture and writes very unreadable code, heres an example SortedList<int,<SortedList<int,SortedList<int, MyClass>>>> The MD of the company has no drive and lets the one sales guy bring in the contracts. We are not busy all the time and this allows me time to look at new technology and learn. In terms of using things like TDD, my development manager has no problem with it and can kind of see the purpose of it, he just wont use it himself. This means I am alone in learning new things and am often resorting to StackOverflow to make sure I get things right. The company has a lot of flexibility, I can work from home if needs be and when my daughter was born they let me work from home 1 day a week however they expect this flexibility in return often asking me to travel occasionally on a Friday afternoon for the following week. Sometimes its abroad. We are also pretty much on call 24/5 as we have engineers in various countries. Also we have no testers so most of the testing is done by us developers and some testing by engineers. Either way no-one likes testing! I have been offered a role at a company I worked at 5 years ago. They were quite Victorian in their working practices but it appears to have relaxed now although I suspect still reasonably formal. There is a new team of developers I don't know and they are about to move to new offices. The team lead is a guy that was there when I was and I get the impression he takes his role seriously and likes his formal procedures and documentation. I think some of the Victorian practices may have rubbed off on him. However he did say if things crop up then as long as I can trust the person they can work at home although he prefers people in the office. The team uses SCRUM, TDD and SOLID design principles so they are quite up to date in technology. They are reasonably Microsoft focused. It appears the Technical Director might be the R&D man and research new technology on his own not allowing developers to play with new technology. He possibly might be a super developer and makes all the decisions that no can argue with. They are currently moving to Entity Framework away from NHibernate based on issues that their queries seem to fail sometimes and they feel NHibernate is stagnant. They have analysts and a QA team. The MD is focused and they are an expanding company making profit each year. I'm not sure what the team morale is and whether they have a laugh. When I had a tour around the office they were there in dead silence. I'm really unsure which role is the best for me and going with my gut instinct is useless as I'm not sure what my gut is telling me. Based on the information above which role would you choose and why?

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• Positive reinforcements @ work [closed]

  - by nurne

  I found out that what fuels me to do well at work are positive reinforcements From bosses, colleagues, and customers My current job at a startup is very demanding My boss doesn't have time to give positive reinforcements, and also i'm always behind schedule so maybe i don't deserve positive reinforcements On the other hand i don't get any negative reinforcements, so i guess that as long as this doesn't happen - what i'm doing is ok How is your relationship with bosses colleagues and customers @ work? Do you need positive reinforcements? Do you get them? How do you make them happen? Is there some kind of standard for developers? For hi-tech? Thanks

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• Expected salary for software engineer? Am I under or over paid? [closed]

  - by Asdasd Asdasd

  I work for a reasonably large tech company in Boston, MA. My company has about 1.2 billion in revenue and around 3500 employees. I have 6 years of industry experience and my current pay package is as follows: Base salary: 97,000 bonus: 10,000/year (everyone always gets 100% of this... i don't know why they bother call it bonus) RSU stock: 8000/year at present day valuation. My vesting schedule covers me for the next 5 years. that brings my total pay to ~ 115,000/year Given that, would folks say I am under/average/over paid? I read so much about how engineers at google and facebook are making ridiculous sums of money (almost 200k with bonuses included) and it makes me question my pay package. thanks

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• How to decide if I should take a profit sharing offer or insist on hard cash

  - by Icode4food

  I am currently the sole developer at the very beginning stages of what I think could be a successful startup. My question is simply how to go about determining if I am interested in accepting a permanent stock in the enterprise or if I should insist on hard cash. This startup is seeking venture capital and it is looking likely that they will get something, I don't know how much. I know very little about the business plan or financial operations at all. The founders have experience with other startup type devours that have been successful. From a business perspective I have a reasonable amount of confidence in them. However, I have never met them face to face. They have offered me a partnership in the project but I'm fairly confident that I don't want to do that. I have done some work for them and they really like me so I'm not to afraid of loosing the position all together. I am a young developer with no experience with this sort of thing and need some experience to point me in the right direction. How to I begin to evaluate how much stock or what percentage of the profit should I ask for? Any suggestions at all would be appreciated! P.S. Any suggestions for better tags?

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• Stuff to read up on pricing applications

  - by tux91

  I'm about to release an app and I have no idea what would be the ideal pricing point. I'm not sure how pricing high and selling few copies will compare in revenue to pricing low and selling lots of copies in my case. Can somebody point me to books/articles/blog posts/etc that elaborate on the subject, preferably taking into account stuff like competition, number of features, being the first one to the market, research if this kind of app is even needed, etc?

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• Should I give up my cushy job to be tech lead for a startup? [closed]

  - by Katie

  I'm in my mid twenties, and I'm in a safe, comfortable job as a Software Developer. The work environment is great, I'm well paid, the benefits are good. I enjoy my job. Some friends passed my name on to some guys starting a new company. I had some informal chats with them and they liked me. They've asked me to joint their start-up as tech lead, designing and building their product from scratch. They're fully funded, and they know what they're doing. Taking the job would require giving up my safe, enjoyable, relaxed job for a risky, stressful, hard one, albeit with the potential to be really great in future. Should I take the job?

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• Will an online degree get you a job that requires "CS or equivalent 4-year degree"? [on hold]

  - by qel

  I'm a nerdy slacker type who didn't get my life together till I was 30. I've had a real job for a couple years doing C#/SQL. I've gotten several raises, but I'm making less than most developers, and the atmosphere is ... not positive. Looking for a new job, I think my applications get thrown out because I don't have a degree. And I want to finish a Bachelor's just to feel like less of a loser. I have a lot of college credits from 1996-2003 and a low GPA, so I don't know if that's worth much. An online degree looks like a good option, but I just don't know what I should be looking at for online schools because they all look like fake degrees. If they had programs equivalent to a real Comp Sci degree, I don't think they would have weird sounding names like they do. University of Phoenix has a B.S./Information Technology-Software Engineering. DeVry has a B.S./Computer Engineering Technology program. But that's not CS, and most other things I see have even more fake-sounding names. Are these useless degrees? Some people say DeVry and UoP are acceptable, some people say they're a joke. I have enough experience now, though, that maybe all I'm missing is being able to check the box that I have a 4-year degree. Harvard Extension seems like a real degree, even if it isn't a real Harvard degree, but I'd have to live there at least 3 months, which kinda defeats the purpose of an online degree fitting around work.

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• How should an undergraduate programmer organize his time learning the maximum possible?

  - by nischayn22

  I started programming lately(pre-final year of a CS degree) and now feel like there's a sea of uncovered treasure for me out there. So, I decided to cover as much as is possible before I look out for a job after graduation. So, I started to read books (The C++ Programming Language, Introduction to Algorithms, Cracking the Coding Interview, Programming Pearls,etc ) participate in StackExchange sites, solving problems (InterviewStreet and ProjectEuler), coding for open source, chatting to fellow programmers/mentors and try to learn more and more. Good,then what's the problem?? The problem is I am trying to do many things, but I am doubtful that I am still utilizing my time properly. I am reading many books and sometimes I just leave a book halfway (jumping from one book to another), sometimes I spend way too much time on chatting and also in getting lost somewhere in the huge internet world, and lastly the wasteful burden of attending classes (I don't think my teachers know good enough or I prefer learning on my own) May be some of you had similar situation. How did you organize your time? Or what do you think is the best way to organize it for an undergraduate? Also what mistakes am I making that you can warn me of

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• My internship mentor doesn't allow me to do anything my way [closed]

  - by naveenk903

  When I started my internship, I was assigned a project. My internship mentor told he would just guide me if there was any problem. I started reading research papers and other works related to my project and completely understood it. But, when I started to implement my design, since then my mentor always order me to do things his way even though his method is crap. There are some things which can't be done but he wants results using his method (not possible). Because of him, I have lost all my interest from project. What to do?

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• What should I think about when switching from Python to Java?

  - by Nick Rosencrantz

  I was a Java developer in the early 2000s, switched to Python in 2008 and now Iäm working in Java again. Is there anything special you think I should keep in mind when going back to a Java environment? I used to work with EJB 1.0, I didn't work with EJB 2.0 and now we have JPA instead. I'm comfortable programming in Java and my new job with Java is much better than my Python job even though Python is my favorite language the tools and others things about my Java job makes it much better. I found when I searched jobs that demand for Java developer was much greater than demand for Python programmers- do you have a similar experience? Thank you

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• How to tackle an experienced C# Programmer?

  - by nandu.com

  I am a noob in c# and asp.net developing. I have spent 6 months in design and another 6 in sql and asp.net programming. I just know the basics of asp.net and C#. I was programming as per the instruction of my tech leads and all good things changed in a day. :( All my tech leads (2+ experienced) left the company complaining about salary. And instead of those, company has recruited a 5+ experienced programmer cum tech lead (who is very strict), he is expecting me to code anything he says. Previous seniors of me, would say 'use ajax for this, use query for this instead of coding' and so on. I will do it exactly. I am not experienced enough to perform it myself. Now I am in a dilemma. I want to stay in the company and learn some more, but this new tech lead is expecting me to learn everything myself (he is telling me to learn jquery, javascript menus, session and chart in .Net, and so on and do things myself without asking him anything...I mean anything) :(((( PLease suggest to me some good tips to handle him. I think all programmers world wide would have faced a similar problem atleast once in the big programming life. So please..help .. 911

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• When does a programmer know when a new job is not right?

  - by Mysterion

  I believe that the interview process is a selling of both parties - what can the employee offer the employer and vice versa. Assuming an individual has been careful in selecting their new employer (via thorough questioning in the interview process), however when they arrive at the job they find the employer has not been honest about certain aspects of the job. Examples of this dishonesty could include: The employee making it clear that technical excellence is an important factor, which is promised by the employer, but is not fully delivered or a good technical structure does not exist. The employee states they want to work on well architected and short (lets say less than 1 yr) long projects, yet when they start they find they are placed on a poorly architected older project. The employee being told of a pair programming environment to get him up to speed on the project, but being left to his own devices/questioning on arrival. The employee is promised a culture that encourages innovation and technical excellence but finds that this is not the case (eg. using technology for knowledge retention is laughed at). I know that a lot of famous developers feel that you make the place you work at. Is it realistic for a new employee with limited experience in the industry (say less than 5 years) to be able to join the company and change attitudes or even challenge the employer on the perceived dishonesty? Should they stay in this job or cut their losses?

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