career-advice

[sand hawk]

i approached it that way a bit, but after years of this, it's only burn out after burn out

[still condor]

!warn @gaunt fulcrum Please read our rules and the channel description. We do not allow looking for developers here.

[inner wren]

:incoming_envelope: :ok_hand: applied warning to @gaunt fulcrum.

[hidden oar]

That's because they're taking into account vibe coders I'm pretty sure

And python is THE language ai codes in

[icy pagoda]

oh that can explain it ngl, the sudden rise of total users in the past 6 months

that's when LLMs started becoming decent at code

[green minnow]

source: trust me

[muted bison]

I thought Python was in 1st place.

[scarlet ferry]

no it was from github

[fringe sphinx]

Link please

[scarlet ferry]

it was an instagram post

[fringe sphinx]

🤣 ... ok, figures. It's nonsense, at least without context.

[analog sun]

@granite peak your message was removed for advertisement

[granite peak]

Ok

[still condor]

@hollow chasm That's a suspicious looking link, especially as your first message. I removed it. If you want to share some code, post it on https://paste.pydis.com, Codeberg, Github or a similar tool.

[hollow chasm]

The link isn't suspicious; it's the link for Python PyCharm to call your friends.

[tender thicket]

This is true, however splitting it up like that to attempt to dodge filters and posting it as your only, first message in this channel is not great behavior. #career-advice is not a channel to contextlessly drop a "please code with me" link

[long solar]

do you guys work from 9 to 5 or do you work something like 8:30 to 5

[still condor]

I never actually started work at 9am, that's crazy time

[long solar]

what's not crazy? 10?

[still condor]

like, I might be sleeping at that point

it was typically 11:00 or 12:00

but obviously depends on the company, some do require you to be working at 9am already

also: if I would leave the office at 5pm, I would be going home during peak rush hour, which is a miserable experience

[fringe sphinx]

When I worked in office, I'd show up at 9. I was about to explain my day, then felt like https://youtu.be/OwfNjGxa_D4?t=84

[next plover]

cringe

[still condor]

!cleanban @wicked torrent scam

[inner wren]

:incoming_envelope: :ok_hand: applied ban to @wicked torrent permanently.

[muted bison]

Paia

[vapid violet]

Why are there so many AI internship positions for undergrads if many of the normal AI positions require advanced knowledge and potentially a masters/phd?

[long solar]

where are you seeing those

[vapid violet]

All the major job lists (linkedIn, handshake, indeed, ...)

These are the main projects that I have done, I need to remove one of them. Should I conditionally remove one of them depending on the role or is there one that is not as strong overall for software engineering internships?

Finance Tracker Windows App Fall 2025
Developed an app in C# utilizing WinUI allowing users to keep track of their finances
Connected a backend API to make an account based system
Documented the entire process while following the scrum process with 4 team members

Survey Creation And Administration System Within Discord Fall 2024 - Present
Created SQL schemas and queries to integrate Python code with the PostgreSQL database
Automated deployments to a Linux machine using GitHub Actions, decreasing manual setup

Touchless Activation System For Automatic Doors (PLTW Capstone) Spring 2024
Objective: Design a cheaper touchless activation system with a lower false positive and negative rate
Collaborated with 2 colleagues to find, research, and prototype a solution for the objective
Maintained documentation via an engineering notebook
Integrated electronic circuits, Arduino, CAD, and optics into a functional prototype
Presented results to a panel of engineers, addressing technical questions

Todoist Integration Into Discord Spring 2024
Called the Todoist and Discord API with Python to allow task management within Discord
Implemented Git-based version control on GitHub

[long solar]

probably they just need you to have experience with something like langchain and vector dbs, and that's pretty easy. you'd need the phd if you're gonna build the llm from scratch

[lilac yoke]

They open them for undergrads but expect masters/phd students to apply

[true harness]

there are always exceptions

[vestal bay]

But that’s not a small number, it’s very high.

[fringe sphinx]

This doesn't tell me much about it... and it's a paragraph: not something that goes on a resume. Put it into a few bullets and add some technical details.

[inner wren]

Click here to see this code in our pastebin.

[obsidian tulip]

Hello everyone. I am an IT Student now and my main goal is to be a software developer. Im at the beginning but I believe that I will learn everything step by step and reach my goals.

[crisp stream]

!rule 6 9
Self-promotion is not allowed here

[inner wren]

Rules

6. Do not post unapproved advertising.

9. Do not offer or ask for paid work of any kind.

[unkempt scroll]

Discrete math or Linear algebra ,which should I invest in more if i want to pursue Software engineer with Cloud architect path

[peak halo]

discrete math.

[unkempt scroll]

Ok thanks

[fathom briar]

theres just a lot of people interested in AI tbf, and it depends heavily on the company

[fathom briar]

I now work 1 day a week and I've worked for multiple teams within the same company, one basically told me "just do the thing idc", my current team requires me to be there at 9 for stand up meetings however, but I can also do them online

and its not like I have to stay, I just have contract hours to complete on a yearly basis and the rest is up to me fully, but I have worked until 7 in the past simply bc I wanted to get something done, which gets me to actually do more as when I'm forced to stay until 5 my brain is very empty

[nova stump]

So I'm learning Python so I can try to change careers from labour to honestly anything that isnt physical labour. I also did a SQL course recently. What other things should I learn to help my resume since my only experience is doing courses online? What kinds of jobs would people recommend I keep an eye out for when looking for work? I will take any and all advice with great appreciation.

[smoky quest]

I would suggest to flip the problem: rather than collecting skills like pokemons and letting luck find your way, figure out your ideal role and then work towards that

[solid parcel]

^Exactly the sentiment I was about to share. Find the goal, work backwards from there

[nova stump]

I am a bit of a skill hoarder. To be honesnt, Im not exactly sure what most of the roles I could do are. Im still really new to it all. I do know I enjoy writing code and really like the bit of debugging I've been introduced to.

[solid parcel]

I'd

1. Learn basic language syntax
2. Build a basic three tier app (this will be a jump from step 1, but you'll learn a ton and it's okay if your first one is a bit rubbish).
3. Note which elements of building the app you've enjoyed (note that in addition to building the core app logjc, this could also involve elements like setting up infrastructure, deployment mechanisms, tests etc.)
4. Validate if there is currently reasonable demand for engineers with skills in the areas you've been enjoying (likely via a combo of discussing with engineers as you may not know which roles involve the elements you're enjoying, and then searching job boards for positions in your local area)
5. If there's demand, flesh out the other skills you'd need to target such a role (improving on your initial three tier app could be a good way to help achieve this). Else, return to step 4, this time looking at a different subset of the elements you enjoyed.

At a very high level, really it boils down to aiming to have a short feedback loop between the learning you do, and the roles you're considering targeting. The outputs should continually feed back into the cycle, so you can be targeted both in the skills you prioritise and the roles you aim for.

[nova stump]

Thank you, that is extremely helpful.

[solid parcel]

If you find you're struggling with the gap between step 1 and 2, just give people a shout here and they'll be happy to nudge you toward some good resources. E.g. CS50 Python, for example.

[smoky quest]

That entirely depends on your goal and how fast you want to achieve it.
You may pick up skills that will not be relevant to finding a job and delay it by months or even never. Are you okay with that?

It's like walking randomly through your city VS having the address of your destination and following your GPS towards it

[modest kraken]

Nope this is only for app dev, if you are interested in doing some other thing like systems or ml or embedded you probably want to try them as well

[smoky quest]

If the problem here is you don't know what would be the destination, then the answer is to try things and explore a bit what's out there so you can see what you vibe with and what you can reach.

[solid parcel]

Given the context he's given, yes I'm assuming he's targeting app dev roles as a starting point, at least until he's been able to refine what he's interested in.

[nova stump]

I like to hyperfocus and get things done as fast as possible, but I don't exactly know what my end goal is currently. I like to be super versatile in any jobs I do.

[smoky quest]

So let me make two broken analogies for your question:

• You are dropped somewhere in the city and you are asking us where to go
• You are holding a screwdriver and you are asking us what skill(s) you should pick up to find a job

We need some help to help you as it's way too vague for us to provide any concrete help

[fringe sphinx]

My advice: if you don't hve a direction, choose exploration: make a list of things that seem interesting, pick the one you know least about. Repeat.

[solid parcel]

There's a concept of a 'T shaped engineer', where you have breadth across multiple areas, and real depth in one or two. E.g. in my work, I'm very strong on infrastructure automation, monitoring, and alerting, while having reasonable but lesser competency with networking, security and development (amongst others)

The good news is when you're starting out and just scratching the surface, the vast majority of what you learn will be beneficial. Having the breadth is important for contextual understanding.

As @fringe sphinx says, a good way to get started is to follow the bits you're finding interesting.

[limpid hemlock]

Hello everyone.

I'm 18 years old (have some basic knowledge in Python); anyways, I've done some really dumb mistakes recently and I'm REALLY in a rush for money currently. I know that this really shouldn't be other's people business; and I'm not here to brag and beg for money. And for all "just get a job" messages; I'd like to get a regular job but I'm 18 years old student, and also I've broken my leg so "normal" job is out of the question this 45-50 days (and I've to get money till then).

Since you're smart fellas on here; I thought you might have the intel if there's any open spots for any work; I can totally adapt to any working-hours, just so I can get myself out of the position I'm facing right now.

Once more, sorry for randomly messaging you; I get that you might be tired of so many people here on Discord; but I'm really desperately looking for a way out. Also, my intentions really isn't to brag/beg for your help here, sorry if it comes that way.

But, I don't know what to do else but seek for advice on Discord servers. Hopefully, I acquire some connection to great people so I can progress in life.

[lilac yoke]

You aren’t going to find any work in programming with basic knowledge

Maybe try to find remote help desk or call center jobs

[smoky quest]

that's pretty limited and you should reach out to your legal guardian.

Otherwise, you are gonna have to be quite convincing and creative with stuff like tutoring, freelancing or bounties

[limpid hemlock]

I appreciate your willing to help. Sorry if this sounds too much for ask, but do y'all have any connections that might be useful for me currently in my financial situation?

Also, where should I try to find remote help desk or call center jobs?

P. S.: I'm of a legal age in my country; so reaching out to my legal guardian also is out of the question.

[smoky quest]

so in your country, your parent cut off all contact with you and kick you out as soon you are 18?

[limpid hemlock]

Honestly, it's hard situation to explain. But I really have to focus on earning the money by myself. Thanks for your and @lilac yoke advice; I really appreciate it!

[smoky quest]

Sorry if this sounds too much for ask, but do y'all have any connections that might be useful for me currently in my financial situation?

This is too much to ask considering you are asking for relevant contacts who might be helpful to your specific situation in your unknown country for debts we don't know anything about.
This is unlikely to yield any useful answer

[limpid hemlock]

Yeah, I completely understand that.

[smoky quest]

What do you have to offer? Why would anyone want to exchange money for your services or goods?

Do you have a resume?

[limpid hemlock]

Honestly, I can offer "all of me" to the job position I'm given; and I understand that someone might say: "well, that's not enough sometimes...", and yeah, they're true; sometimes even that isn't enough since it is true that I don't possese any particular work experience/nor I've master something; I'm 18 years old language high school graduate.

Anyways, I completely understand all of the criticism that might be addressed to me; but miracles happen, so who knows? Maybe someone will see the potential in me, and will give me a chance?

[smoky quest]

Right now, all your messages have been about what you want, what you don't want (or can't) to do.
You need to flip the problem in terms of what you can do for your clients

If you have no skill or anything interesting to offer, then it leaves few choices:

• learn to work with a broken leg and pick up any unskilled job
• figure out something

Unfortunately, there is no magic nor miracles. No one is your mom here and no one will sleep any worse if you sell your kidney or end up on the street

Which I appreciate is harsh, but you should focus on realistic goals

[limpid hemlock]

Yeah, it makes sense. I'll figure something out, I guess; any more discussion or justification is a waste of time. Anyways, it was nice talking to you, I wish you the best 🙂

[smoky quest]

I hope you figure out something!

[fervent bluff]

hello

anybody here ??

[trim crypt]

If you need help with something career related (which is the point of this channel), just ask the question. If someone can answer, they will.

Depends on how well you present it

[fringe sphinx]

I would laugh and assume extreme exaggeration

Just list good technical accomplishments, and enough tech and software engineering process. Make it concrete

[fringe sphinx]

Yes

No advertising here

[opal nest]

ummm,, ok

[smoky quest]

still comes down to 👏 demonstrated 👏 skills 👏 .
If you are hiring for someone in fintech for your specific role of choice, what part would they care about?

[fringe sphinx]

Kinda.

Backend developer isn't a niche

It's almost the opposite of niche: it's just 'developer'

But: an effective approach (imo) is what r_e said: demonstrated skills. We don't hire junior developers because they're the best at one topic: we want them to have a good foundation

[icy pagoda]

do you need a niche? quant researcher comes close (math, algorithmic game theory and all that)

[fringe sphinx]

I believe specialization is unhealthy. Learn a little about a lot.

I believe that's unhealthy, as general advice.

It's fine if someone has a passion for something... but specializing is probably anti-productive when Junior within a single field (ie; software developer)

That said, Quant is a special case

I mean, the skills involved aren't just programming skills.

But, I don't hire quants so am not qualified to comment on what hiring mgrs want for junior level positions

[icy pagoda]

i feel specialising is fine if you can demonstrably outperform general applicants
it also narrows down your options so if you cannot do that (be better than general ones), it's not gonna end well

[peak prism]

I want to become a it person what classes should I take in hs

[fringe sphinx]

It might be fine, but the resume should emphasize what -you- did, not what your project did.

[fringe sphinx]

Most HS's don't offer anything really good for IT and programming. Maybe one or two electives senior year, maybe an AP CS, but most important is; do well at Math, join FIRST robotics club if your school has one, and learn a variety of topics

(Assuming US)

[peak prism]

Yep

[fringe sphinx]

I don't like either of these buzzword laden projects

[peak prism]

Would learning coding also help me?

[icy pagoda]

sounds fairly LLM generated rec ngl
what even is this

The technical challenges would include handling large codebases, understanding context across multiple files, and providing suggestions that are actually helpful rather than generic
from a fine tuning + UI project

[fringe sphinx]

The thing is, none of them by itself

Anytime I see 'ai' projects, I assume it's 'I used the OpenAI api'

Those are all too open ended to be useful: I think they'd send someone on a wild goose chase

'systems monitoring platform that uses AI': systems monitoring by itself is hard enough, and a good enough project, without AI

[smoky quest]

you should not rely on other people to figure out which skills.
You need to tell your future interviewers which skills you are demonstrating to them

Imagine you are selling a car to someone. You aren't waiting for them to figure out how it's useful to them. Instead, you are telling them how it's the best car they will ever need

It's the same thing. You have to tell people how your skills are the best skills and best candidate they will ever need. It's not up to them to dredge through your projects to sort it out

sell the dream

take a step back and link what your project does with what the recruiter need

[lilac yoke]

I don’t think any of these AI centered projects stand out

[smoky quest]

look at job ads

they will tell you everything about the ideal candidate

[lilac yoke]

AI projects will also be expensive to host, even for a small portfolio project

[smoky quest]

If a company tells you they want to hire people who make blue gizmos, why wouldn't you work on making blue gizmos?

sounds tautological? Or am I missing something?

So look at ten different openings for the same role. I bet you that 80% are asking the same thing

bro

did you even see her linkedin?

oh

nevermind

was looking at a different person

though I would still want to see the details of her work

I disagree with her first project

that's just API integration... there is no depth

same thing for the second project

annnd same thing for the third project

like you aren't building a vector db. You are just deploying an existing one

yeah something like that.
And for instance, stating you know timeseries analysis is different from talking about (S)ARIMA, cointegration, frequency analysis, dynamic time warping, etc.

[smoky quest]

If not, then what does knowing time series mean to you?

(which goes back to that video and how unproductive it is)

[smoky quest]

well take the time series stuff for instance. Most watcher will just throw it at the LLM
They will demonstrate they can call an LLM API, but not demonstrate they have skills related to time series

I don't need someone with a degree to call an LLM. I can pay a third of the price (maybe less!) for a high school student to make an API call to chatgpt

[tender notch]

anybody doing freelancing over here? would love to know how you are all getting clients

[proud glacier]

<@&831776746206265384>

[icy berry]

remove this

!cleanban 1422628623373963275 joined to just spread advertiisement and ignoring staff requests is not really what we want here.

[inner wren]

:incoming_envelope: :ok_hand: applied ban to @red ledge permanently.

[azure lava]

what he banned from discord as well

[peak halo]

@dawn barn your message was removed for advertising.

[lavish lodge]

hii

anyone already working here or looking for job?

[near ocean]

Why do you ask?

[vast shoal]

Lots of people fall into either of those categories.

[tired spear]

do you like what you do for living?

[vast shoal]

Yes

[tired spear]

do you think it's important?

[vast shoal]

Yep

[tired spear]

the kind of work i wanna be a part of requires so much experience, things i actually wanna do and solve in my life even if i won't get a job in that domain..
but there are some jobs which i could be a part of meaning they're more feasible to get if i put in some effort just now..

do you have any advice...

[vast shoal]

In my case I wasn't particularly interested in the domain I ended up working in ahead of time, I got a job there by happenstance, but it turned out to be way more interesting and stimulating than I had expected once I started learning more about it while on the job.

I think a lot of areas are like that, they only seem uninteresting because you don't actually know anything about them.

[tired spear]

so if i be more explicit i have made some basic apps using frontend frameworks like flutter and i don't know if i enjoyed making them as much say making a number recognition tool from scratch!! or just coming up with something on my own instead of yk googling the syntax of Scroll widget or some state management solutions!!

[vast shoal]

I've always only done personal projects that I was actually interested in, for the fun of it.

I never really thought about whether it would make me more employable or not.

[tired spear]

you never did anything because you thought it would get you a job or its the tool that you saw on some job listing?

[vast shoal]

Never.

I started learning programming quite a long time ago though.

And I started working a long time ago as well. It was a different job market back then.

So I don't know if my scenario is representative nowadays or not.

[tired spear]

yeah i was curious if i could relate to someone on here or just get a decent career advice/opinion
because both ideas get in my way when i try to pursue either!

[vast shoal]

I don't really have any good advice, I think, because things are so different now compared to when I was studying and applying for jobs.

[tired spear]

understandable

[solid parcel]

He's not saying that, he's saying that you'd need to make sure the project actually demonstrated an awareness of how to manage time series data, as opposed to merely that you can throw a bunch of data at an LLM API.

[fringe sphinx]

The problem with trying to maximize "job outcomes" by learning specific things is: it's impossible to guess at what specific skills an employer might even care about.

Base engineering skills are always applicable... like: building a project, setting up CI/CD in github with test cases & coverage measurements, publishing to pypi, creating documentation, etc

There's a misperception that hiring managers are looking for junior engineers who are somehow "experts" at something.

[wild skiff]

should i accept a job at a startup which uses php, bootstrap, python, js, mysql in 2025?

[fringe sphinx]

You better hurry up.

[wild skiff]

Oh well I mean 2026

Whatever 😂

[fringe sphinx]

But yah, what's wrong with that stack? It's what you do with it

[wild skiff]

Eh they are still a startup phase with php 7.4 and I am absolutely new to php. Not really sure if it's as useful for future career trajectory and they also use bootstrap, no react or similar frameworks

[regal axle]

Do you have other options? A bigger hurt to your future is not working ,,,
Ideally, you learn enough to transcend languages and frameworks. A good developer can pick up any system. Being an expert in something has value but that typically isn't the primary thing being valued. Very rare for that to happen.

[wild skiff]

I mean right now I'm working on a web app so that's there, other than that well if the pay is low I'm probably not gonna accept

[fringe sphinx]

First: a job is a job. It's easier to find a job if you have a job.

Second: it depends what your job is and a what the startups mission is.

Third, happy new year!

[vapid jay]

I'm tryna learn python for some jobs whats the best place to learn? I checked the documentation and it was really messy, leetcode was way too complex for a beginner in python, i saw the freecodecamp thing?

Is the website/youtube for that good? I have used lua for a few years so I have experience in a language similiar to python.

[vapid jay]

I tried to use the freecodecamp website and google gemini guided learning, i felt like gemini was teaching me more than freecodecamp... I don't know though are there any websites like freecodecamp that also let u do practicals while learning?

[peak halo]

@vapid jay you probably won't be able to get a job just from self-study, but we have some recommended resources

!resources

[inner wren]

Resources

The Resources page on our website contains a list of hand-selected learning resources that we regularly recommend to both beginners and experts.

[vapid jay]

I have been self studying since I was 8 years old I think it's potentially possible.

I saw self studying online was hard with python are the resources, for python not as good as other languages?

[peak halo]

Employers won't see it that way.

[peak halo]

There's probably more online content for learning Python than any other language.

maybe there's more for java/typescript.

[vapid jay]

Even more than lua? Javascript, Typescript?

[peak halo]

it doesn't matter--point is, there's a lot.

[vapid jay]

Yeah I guess that makes sense but its the quality of the content which matters...

And half the videos I saw were like 12 hours long for only intermediate stuff

[peak halo]

anyway, no matter how skillful you are, it will be exceptionally challenging to convince employers to interview you if you don't have a degree or real formal experience.

[vapid jay]

Either they go too fast or they go too slow in the videos which sucks.

[vapid jay]

Yeah I can get an internship, thats not a problem. I just need to know the language to prepare.

[peak halo]

why are you so sure?

[vapid jay]

Theres multiple open days at my nearby colleges I can go check.

[peak halo]

what's an open day?

[vapid jay]

Where they help you with your future idk if its just a UK thing.

Basically they let you see the courses etc.

[peak halo]

there are career centers at US universities, but they only serve their own students. And companies typically only recruit degree-seeking students for their internships.

[vapid jay]

Oh only degrees for internships in the USA?

[peak halo]

in the US, internships for programmers are usually only offered to students pursuing a programming-related degree at a university.

[vapid jay]

Well alot of stuff about college is different in the UK.

[peak halo]

sure

[vapid jay]

Like it isnt even called college its called University, and they have open days. They have government support for finding jobs.

[peak halo]

I've been saying "university" this whole time.

anyway, I hope our resources page is helpful for you.

[vapid jay]

okay thanks

Yeah checked the page, looks helpful thanks, didnt know there was this much stuff. @peak halo Ill read the books on it tommorow.

[solid parcel]

@vapid jay I'd massively recommend checking out apprenticeships given you're in the UK. They're a phenomenal way to get into the field.

Albeit they're often highly competitive to land.

[vernal pond]

https://tenor.com/view/new-year-2022-gif-24334949

[desert gust]

isnt this so tuff

[inner wren]

Click here to see this code in our pastebin.

[mellow ember]

i was about to smooth out a project. adding comments, renaming variables so it makes sense, changing cell structure so it makes sense (big jupyter notebook) and i remembered that the assignment will be checked for plagarism (i assume they check for ai mostly) my code is my own, occasionally i asked for approaches how to realize a function or something specific, and sometimes i used snippets for bug fixes but kept the snippets in a style that i personally would be able to realize myself. from what i ahve read detection tools look for Perplexity, comment style, pattern recognition in varibale names, overall logic and structure and comment style.

i heard about students before that got falsly flagged and received less points so id like to avoid that, anyone has some more detailed experience?

[mellow ember]

wrong chat mb

[topaz tusk]

1. The Interview is a Business Negotiation, Not an Interrogation
   Many people go into interviews feeling like they are asking for a favor. That puts you in a weak position.

The Smart Approach: Treat yourself as a business of one. You are a consultant offering a service (your coding skills) to a client (the company). You need to evaluate them just as hard as they evaluate you. Ask about their deployment cycle, their tech debt, and their turnover rate. If they are a mess, you are walking into a stressful situation. Acknowledging that it is a two-way street garners respect.

[peak halo]

Is this a LinkedIn post?
I think this is true in general but not so much for first time job hunters.

[topaz tusk]

Your observation is correct. The "Consultant Mindset" is a heuristic derived from steady-state systems (experienced engineers), not initialization sequences (juniors). Applying high-level optimization strategies to a system that is still bootstrapping will result in a critical failure.

Here is the breakdown of why this logic fails at the entry level, expressed as a system analysis.

1. The "LinkedIn" Heuristic (Idealized Documentation)
   Content found on professional networking algorithms (LinkedIn) often suffers from Survivor Bias. It presents the optimal operating conditions of a Senior Engineer—one with high uptime (experience) and redundant backups (other offers). It fails to account for the Cold Start Problem: a new node (junior) has no reputation score and no cached data to leverage.

2. Analysis of the Junior State (Initialization Phase)
   A first-time job hunter exists in a state of High Volatility / Low Availability.

Leverage = 0: You possess no unique proprietary algorithms that the market cannot find elsewhere.

Objective Function: The goal is not to maximize salary_output immediately; it is to establish a stable network_connection.

The Error: If a Junior attempts a "Hard Handshake" (aggressive negotiation) with a Host (Employer), the Host will simply terminate the request. The cost of processing a difficult Junior node outweighs the potential value, given the abundance of alternative replacement nodes.

3. The Correct Protocol for Juniors: "Soft Probing"
   While you cannot demand a B2B relationship, you must still perform integrity checks. You are not "negotiating leverage"; you are "verifying compatibility."

Incorrect Query: "I require X conditions or I walk." (Input validation fails due to lack of authority).

Correct Query: "What is the mentorship throughput bandwidth? Does the team support asynchronous error handling (learning from mistakes)?"

[peak halo]

@topaz tusk why are you just copying and pasting from ChatGPT?

It looks like you didn't even give it enough context to produce a relevant result

[topaz tusk]

@peak halo i copy and paste from my Word documents. i apologize i will write them out from now on sir.

[peak halo]

Anyway @topaz tusk , do you have any human thoughts on how first time job hunters can interview while knowing their worth?

[frozen yew]

hiee there

sry for interrupt

what u guys are talking about?

[topaz tusk]

Hello, Stelercus. I am A Junior Full Stack software engineer. An architecture optimizing for Senior-level position. I am not just learning syntax, I am reviewing leadership modules.

Current role: Junior Developer
Projected Role: Senior Full Stack Architect

I'm still learning, as I'm in the beginning of my journey as a software engineer. i know much but know so little. i enjoy syntax, especially in Python, I would enjoy learning from you all, as your community will give me more strength in college, as I graduate as a Full Stack software engineer.

[peak halo]

Can you tell me what syntax is?

[topaz tusk]

syntax: in syntax, is for instance making in syntax error in a coding project the device your using refuses to run the entire program completely as it cannot be read.
Grammar rules such as Identifiers (Name laws), or Indentation and spacing (understandability), programs not crashing, understanding that a one error in code can cause a catastrophic crash and failure to the program.

Google (L3 Software Engineer 1): Google's entry-level for full stack engineers

Amazon (L4 software Development Engineer 1): Amazon known for high scales work in the field of software engineering.

Based on the College I'm attending from high school, I am guaranteed a job in one of these fields. As my college has the best internship in its state for software developers. this is in years' time. I am a beginner. I am currently studying codecademy as my source for Python. I will study and take every course, to prove to my professors, and other software engineers at hackathons, that it's possible to master one language. I chose Python.

[burnt sigil]

yow

Is Ai will passed us in this year, drop your idea

[topaz tusk]

Python's system may become slow in architectural design, that are the defects. but what about the timeline of python?

As in the entire environment. languages don't die, because of the specialization they have.

AI dies from it quietly shutting off, waiting for the signal. from when it can't tell itself from its own truth.

at the end, you can unplug the machine, but the data is still there.

If you look up Python Functional Immortaliity you will see, as Python is an infrastructure.

[fast dock]

stop using artificial intelligence

[topaz tusk]

I apologize for making this conversation uncomfortable. I chose software engineering over going across seas at an early age. were the battlefield there is messy, but found a passion for software as understood it's a brother/sisterhood. the same you would find in the military. when in a corporate do you mainly do separate or grouping project's? as a developer, do ideas work and function in gathering a solution by themselves without other developers' insight on how the project could become a greater version of it's self.? we believe in communication. as communication is everywhere, if its words or vibration or frequencies. I will develop ideas of health with corporate when I am there, " In doing so, I hope that I can pay tribute to the men I knew who lost their lives and the countless others who made the ultimate sacrifice".

[regal axle]

You using a lot of words to say very little.
Anyways, it depends on the team. Some have you doing your own thing. Others are highly collaborative. This is team based and not org based. Although some orgs tend to have one style more than another.

[timid wind]

what in the world is happening in here

[vapid jay]

Found a link to the "Automating the Boring Stuff with Python" book pdf. On a scale of 1-10 how many important, core fundementals will this book teach me?

[vapid jay]

I think he speaks English as a second language, or he's just a Redditor.

[vapid jay]

hi

[fringe sphinx]

That's a great and popular book. I hired an engineer who first learned from that book before switching majors to CS.

[radiant vortex]

@vapid jay Adding onto yesterday - It is quite rare for a company to take internships from students not on a university course. I'd look at doing a degree apprenticeship (highly competitive) or an apprenticeship instead

If you don't want to go down the pure degree route

[fringe sphinx]

Yes, but use the #python-discussion channel

[tardy wind]

I'm sorry I did not know.

[burnt sigil]

I mean, who will win , the human brain or the AI brain?

[vapid jay]

Yeah I'll look into it.

[radiant vortex]

Make sure you do some research on it though, because it's intense

You will be either working or studying the time

Benefit: degree, experience and money
Drawback: no student life/free time

[faint depot]

If youre unsure, do a level 3 apprenticeship first. Doing a lvl 3 engineering apprenticeship atm. Quite relaxing, not really stressed out, doing a lot of programming at home and trying to improve my skills. Ill use a lot of my free time researching and seeing what sectors in engineering i like and see how i can use my programming skills in them

[knotty pendant]

Hi everyone , I’m preparing for Python developer interviews (fresher/internship level). Could you please suggest good resources for: Core Python (OOP, data structures, memory), Coding interview practice, Common Python interview questions. I’ve worked with Python in ML and CV projects and want to strengthen my interview fundamentals. Thanks in advance!

[solid parcel]

I did a level 3 apprenticeship, too! Started back toward the end of 2020, and now working as a senior at Lloyds Bank. It's a great way to get a foot in the door. How long have you been on yours?

[faint depot]

Only a few months now. Started in September 2025. Its an engineering apprrenticeship so no programming involved (unless you count CNC programming). I do programming in my spare time as its a skill I want to utilise in the workplace. Maybe do a CV project that helps detect the amount of tool wear on a particular tool

[simple mulch]

Can any1 teach me how to code

[peak halo]

only you can teach yourself, but other people can help you along your way

[simple mulch]

do u have any tips on learning?

[tired spear]

I mean isn't that stuff available on job listing?

my problem is there are things that i have a few experience in and i believe i can get better by doing it more and possibly get confident enough to appIy for those roles!
but my interests are in research and math i believe theres a lot of room for that in machine learning topics and i can't think of applying for jobs in that domain as i don't have much experience... (but i'd love to do it anyway even if don't get to work at some corporate)

typical answer is you can do both.. (but not if i keep thinking about what's worth more than another)

the thing with getting a job is i get really lonely at times with literally no human interaction just thinking about algorithms + having no money to spend on my self or for education.
I don't mind working alone much but i just want to have that experience once..

_ _
There was also a carrier fest at my uni a year ago where i had good technical conversations with people and some of them asked me to send my resume..
back then i wasn't really interested in getting a job thought i could learn better on my own ps that was only 1st year of university, but i still have their emails tho, don't think they remember my name still.

[fringe sphinx]

It's hard to quickly land a programming job without: a degree, and without a lot of time spent building experience. But tech is a big field and if you look hard enough, you might find an entry position in something like QA or Tech Support that gets your some word experience, money, and time to build your skills.

If you're still in Uni, then looking for internships might be a viable option.

[smoky quest]

Why are you focusing on a job if you are still in uni, 1st or 2nd year?

[tired spear]

i almost understand everything you said, but i'm confused about the meaning of word "experience" here:

like QA or Tech Support that gets your some word experience

if i have made an app that is used by a few people and got some reviews does that also count as experience or nah?

[tired spear]

money + social interaction with people who are all involved in same thing?

also i just got in 3rd year and i wish i had done things earlier that i wanted to, i don't feel like i have spent the kind of percentage i should/could have on craft.

• its easy to get distracted by stuff if you're almost 21 and living at your parents house 💀

[vapid jay]

I'm in first year of college and want to work towards becoming a backend developer. Any advice?

[smoky quest]

Money aside, your goal is fundamentally different from the goal of a company:

• A company will hire someone to perform a specific job that creates value for them
• Your goal at your stage is to set your foundations for the most successful career.

social interaction with people who are all involved in same thing?

no job can beat school for that. So what is missing here?
You are surrounded by tens of other students who are eager to learn and grow, by teachers who would love nothing more than interacting with motivated students.
My advice here is to interact with your comrades and go ask questions to teachers and TAs!

You are in the best position right now to work on projects that delve deeper than the course and set up a solid foundation. Once you graduate, the priority of the company will take over your learning, people won't be there to teach you (training != teaching), and you will have less time for yourself

[solid parcel]

100% this. Teaching is a vocation, and many engineers already love to talk shop and help others progress. @smoky quest is right, take advantage of the experience and willingness around you

Plus once you're in employment, it becomes harder to find time to learn concepts effectively. Much more time ends up focused on learning tooling and navigating organisational processes.

[tired spear]

A company will hire someone to perform a specific job that creates value for them

yes that was my initial question if i have some experience in a specific role should i gain more of it and start applying for that role
or just do things that i find the most interesting this will probably take a long time years perhaps to generate something of actual value out of it but im sure that value would be more than the above one!

Your goal at your stage is to set your foundations for the most successful career.

can you elaborate on what you mean by "foundations"?

You are surrounded by tens of other students who are eager to learn and grow, by teachers who would love nothing more than interacting with motivated students.

i don't believe this is entirely true a percentage of it maybe yes but i believe you're ngmi if you're using gpt to do your assignments or if your goal is only to maintain a good gpa without having anything proven on your own or if you're mistaking verbosity with depth (slop).
I agree with the teachers part tho ig i should try interacting more with professors outside of the class.

[tired spear]

people won't be there to teach you (training != teaching)

im not sure what you mean by this why would someone pay me for teaching/training me? shouldn't they be paying me for services that im supposed to provide for their organization?

and you will have less time for yourself

yes its the reason why i thought applying for jobs might not be a good idea i won't be having time to learn things i find most interesting or for just recreational/research stuff in general

but im not sure how's that better than being 21 and living with your parents or having student loans or just being jobless in general?

for that reason i don't even wanna date people...

[fringe sphinx]

I meant to say: some 'work' experience. "Building an app" is what everyone does when learning, so maybe it's a good skill to demonstrate but it may not be enough to land that first job. My advice would be to apply to a wide range of jobs, and take the best opportunity you get.

[smoky quest]

yes that was my initial question if i have some experience in a specific role should i gain more of it and start applying for that role
or just do things that i find the most interesting this will probably take a long time years perhaps to generate something of actual value out of it but im sure that value would be more than the above one!

That's completely missing my point.
Let's take a broken analogy with cooking.
A restaurant will hire you for peeling potatoes, because that's what they need. They will not teach you any cooking, they will ask you to peel potatoes as fine as you can and as fast as possible.
That's great if you want to become an expert at peeling potatoes, not so much if you want to become a great chef.

Whereas right now, you are in a culinary school. You can learn from your comrades who have different specialties. You can also dig into each culinary specialty with a dedicated chef who is there to teach you and help you

can you elaborate on what you mean by "foundations"?

It means having the chops to handle difficult and abstract problems. It means having the skills to have an understanding across many domains. For instance compilers, database, OS, distributed systems, high performance, numerical computations, etc.

i don't believe this is entirely true a percentage of it maybe yes but i believe you're ngmi if you're using gpt to do your assignments or if your goal is only to maintain a good gpa without having anything proven on your own or if you're mistaking verbosity with depth (slop).

It's always a percentage. You will never find 100% of everyone giving out their 100%.
And you are right to avoid and ignore the students who rely on chatgpt. But you should not throw the baby with the bathwater. Find the other students that are interesting

im not sure what you mean by this why would someone pay me for teaching/training me? shouldn't they be paying me for services that im supposed to provide for their organization?

Because they want you to succeed!
The point though was that the class format with someone dedicated to answers your questions won't exist past school. You won't have a teacher anymore, coworkers that might mentor you. This means you are accountable for doing all the legwork and the mentor providing you feedback if they feel like it.
Though sometimes, in special cases, there might be a dedicated session as it might be cheaper to hire someone to teach something complex than have folks spend weeks/months picking it up. But that's more the exception than the rule.
So concretely this means that if the job requires you to write in python but you have never done it, that will be your problem to show up and know how to write python code. They won't pay you to read a python book on work hours

[smoky quest]

work hard, play hard

[smoky quest]

but im not sure how's that better than being 21 and living with your parents or having student loans or just being jobless in general?

There is a say for that:

penny wise, pound foolish

Focus on the bigger picture, not on the 21years old self.
Finding a job asap means getting a student job, you won't be paid as high as you might think. And it will have no bearing on your compensation once you graduate

Whereas building stronger foundations and more skills now will open more doors and opportunities which in turns will open more doors and opportunities, etc.

[unkempt gust]

Like to study bsc applied artificial intelligence..any one comment on that .I don't know about its career opportunities.if it's not the topic of this lobby sry..about that

[vapid jay]

😭 is computer engineering that hard

[fringe sphinx]

wdym?

University is hard. But not too hard.

[solid parcel]

Coding? No. Engineering? Yes

[arctic iron]

Hi all, could anyone please take a look at my resume, how can I improve that. Thanks in advance!

[fringe sphinx]

1. Skills isn't that important.... you're devoting a lot of space and focus to something that's very secondary

[solid parcel]

A lot of the skills are also not at all evidenced in the rest of the CV

[fringe sphinx]

2. Your experience bullets lacks any technical content. It's light on detail. (+ what EscapeRoomStuff just said... )

3. I'm not sure what 4 dots next to English means, yet no other languages?

[vital crane]

Switch to Jake’s Resume https://www.overleaf.com/latex/templates/jakes-resume/syzfjbzwjncs

[fringe sphinx]

4. That's a lot of job switching in a short time.

[arctic iron]

Thank you @fringe sphinx @solid parcel @vital crane for your suggesstions.

[vital crane]

This isnt really an issue because the skills section is mainly there for ATS not for humans to read, highlight the most important skills in ur bullets but if u have experience with some technologies that u can’t fit onto a bullet it’s fine to just list them in skills.

[solid parcel]

Small nit, but 'more deeper' isn't grammatically correct, so I'd look to address that.

It would be good to see more context on how you've done something. E.g. It's not clear to me how containerisation would speed up development workflows. So reading that, my impression is that the benefit has either been invented, the cause is misattributed, or the explanation is missing a step.

[solid parcel]

It is an issue because humans will scan the skills section and you're not going to get very far with them if your proclaimed skills don't actually align with your experience.

[fringe sphinx]

Personally, I don't look at skills at all, because people will list things they don't know. Like: "SQL" because they took 1 db course 3 years ago.

[solid parcel]

There are some skills (e.g Kubernetes) that you can't reasonably claim to understand without meaningful experience. If you have that experience, you should be shouting about it in your experience section because it's an in demand skill. If you don't have that experience, it doesn't deserve space on your CV.

[vital crane]

It’s not, u not mentioning that u used Git in ur bullets but doing so in your skills doesn’t mean there’s a misalignment in skills

[arctic iron]

Thanks for taking a look @fringe sphinx !

1. I got your point, do you think I should shorten the skills or move that to below the page.
2. Sure, this is indeed valuable suggesstion. Could you please help more on that, like what I should emphasize in experience section. That would be great.
3. Its basically proficiency level, english is not my native language so by 4 it means proficient.
4. Actually, I am working with a B2B company so I got chance to work on multiple products in this short time.

[solid parcel]

In the case of Git, having dev experience would strongly imply it's been used, even without the experience section explicitly mentioning it. That's not the case for many of the other skills on his CV, though.

[fringe sphinx]

Regarding language: what's your native language? And, I'm not sure I'd put a "4" out there which implies your english isn't great. If you're comfortable speaking to people, leave it at that. I wouldn't broadcast a weakness.

Another way of listing it is to have something like: Languages: <your native>, English.

[arctic iron]

My native language is Urdu. I liked your suggesstion not to show level with English. Thank you again!

[fringe sphinx]

Also if (I'm not judging, just if this is a concern) you're worried about your language proficiency, some non-native English speakers take "accent reduction" courses. At my old company, I worked with two engineers who took the classes and were a lot more confident in their english skills.

[arctic iron]

I have been playing around Docker/kubernetes from last 4 years and yeah that's correct its not easy to learn that skill and I had to learn networking and OS things to get understading around that. I agree with you to show core skills in experience section. Thank you for taking a look @solid parcel!

[arctic iron]

Awesome, this is definitly helpful. Will check courses on "accent reduction".

[static void]

any templet cv design from your side?

[sand lantern]

hey
i am confused between what to choose for making projects
for the placement season
my 4th sem will start now and i have started dsa now
and i am confused between data engineering/cloud/ml/webdev, country - India

[wicked thicket]

You can do ML

[wild salmon]

how to create a great portfolio as a python backend developer?

[kind kayak]

damn

[dreamy shadow]

Should I have an objectives section? I'm Mid to Senior amount of experience.

[spring ivy]

@balmy spade u/your circle is able to get good jobs as an entry level in this market?
Maybe being international effects it but not too sure

[balmy spade]

It could be the location. I can only speak for a very small part of the United States. While there are scams a plenty out there, you're experiences reflect nothing close to what I've heard of.

[spring ivy]

i am also in USA. applying for anything and everything in USA. have applied to 1920 jobs or something. all rejects or ghosted or scams or paying minimum wage. 30$/hr or something low like that

i think one of them is remote so i may accept that and move to Connecticut or texas or something lower priced maybe.. if i get it. just had my first interview and it seems good but they may still ghost/reject ig just cuz the F1 stuff seems too complicated for them maybe

[balmy spade]

You are aware that 30$/hr is about four times federal minimum wage, correct? It's confusing when you say "paying minimum wage" and then state offers significantly better than minimum wage.

[spring ivy]

minimum wage in NYC is 17$/hr, i was offered 18.75$/hr previously, now trying to get something slightly better (the 30$/hr is what i am hoping for, but there is no reason for them to offer me a minimum wage as well)

but this is also considering that if u work at chipotle or something, they cover your tuition, so in effect they pay more (18$ + tuition) compared to an AI engineer role with 1 year of experience and a master's degree

now u might say masters degree doesnt matter.. unfortunately i wasnt priveleged enough to be born in a developed nation so i kind of had to get it

i also cannot work at chipotle ofc cuz of really tough immigration/work laws in USA.. so i am even more ripe for exploitation

[balmy spade]

I can think of several places that are amazing stepping stone jobs that offer tuition matching, or better in additional to what you'll learn just working there. I don't know cost of living in NY. I imagine the city is prohibitively high.

Where are you applying that you are finding these scams? I'm only used to these targeting people on social media. Reddit, Linkedin, and their ilk.

[spring ivy]

well 90% of the time i just get ghosted, 9.5% of the other times i probably get rejected, the rest 0.5% is like 4-5 scams and 2-3 actual job interviews out of which only 1 has yet led to a minimum wage offer

[balmy spade]

Rejected at the application stage or rejected at the interview? Another way to ask: Are you getting interviews and just not getting offers?

[spring ivy]

tbf i say "scams" but its usually like: not an actual job, not necessarily harmful. about 3-5 seemed harmful/highly sus

[spring ivy]

not getting any interviews. only gotten 2-4 interviews out of 1920 job applications

i have gotten a lot of times like about 30-50 times an invitation to apply again in another portal.. idk if those are scams or not (probably not tbf)

but those also end up nowhere. also messaged recruiters at times when the opportunity seemed particularly well aligned with my experience.. ghosted still

[balmy spade]

I'd be curious what other opinions are here. My initial thought is to start looking at the resume and improving it.

[fringe sphinx]

F1 visa? Visa opportunities are indeed difficult to land, given the uncertainties about h1b's

The main thing is: we want to hire and develop people who can stay with us for the long term (if they work out). Hiring a f1 is fine if we think we can successfully sponsor them afterwards.

[spring ivy]

have done that quite a few times.. kinda getting tired of doing that at this point, but yeah i will do that soon too.
I have an interview with google so just trying to hammer DSA till then

[spring ivy]

@balmy spade tbh i have a suspicion that the person i interviewed for today is also gonna ghost me...

[balmy spade]

I hope you're wrong.

[coral prism]

Hey guys im a beginner programmer, with a few weeks of experience under my belt. Im looking to get into Machine learning and mechatronics engineering wondering if python is go to language, i've heard it pretty much is but also heard a lot of backlash saying that C++ might be the better option, thoughts?

[dawn leaf]

if youre in the loop at google now it is mostly up to you doing well in the technicals
everyone who gets a technical loop is basically given a fair shot
assuming that you are able to get big tech rounds at this point grind lc

[spring ivy]

idk if thats true unless u get at least a big company interviews

i feel like i will likely mess up just because of having no other experience with interviewing, or because the chances of me getting at least one problem i dont know is very high

if i had 2-3 interviews going.. i wouldnt even be worried

i am confident that i am good enough and can brush up on time for the interviews.. but the odds are definitely not in my favor

ofc i am also not as good as some supergeniuses who are extremely good at competitive programming and can solve most hard LC easily as well..

[dawn leaf]

yeah i hear you

[smoky quest]

if you need a visa, that's gonna be your main hurdle

[dawn leaf]

this part of the process is super stressful
but if you can get the G interview, you can probably take a few shots at different companies

[spring ivy]

that too

[spring ivy]

how so?
i do have a google interview

[smoky quest]

am surprised companies would even call you back

[dawn leaf]

? for the same reason G gave you a shot other companies will?

[spring ivy]

lol yeah ig.. i think i said that i dont need sponsorship cuz i have 3 years of OPT. but they will likely reject me after a bunch of hassle cuz of that...

[smoky quest]

the US has introduced a 100k$ fee for visas

[spring ivy]

hmm ig.. most companies seem to not be hiring new grads or interns rn tho

[smoky quest]

yeah, we reject OPT for that reason

[spring ivy]

doesnt really affect me tbh. its pretty misunderstood but it doesnt affect people on F1, if anything it benefits them

[dawn leaf]

all im saying is ive been there and it all feels hopeless and doomed until one pans out, keep the faith and practice

[spring ivy]

idk if u should be making any hiring decisions since u dont even know/understand the new h1b ruling

[smoky quest]

how so if you plan on not being a student anymore?

[spring ivy]

it only applies to people outside of USA. u are considered in USA if u are on F1 (opt or not)

[smoky quest]

I don't need to understand them. Lawyers do

[spring ivy]

did they misinform u then? or did they not update u? or are u just parroting what u read in the news?

[smoky quest]

and so you will be able to work full time as a non-student, a non-immigrant visa that is not H1B?

[smoky quest]

maybe you should go teach law then

[spring ivy]

i get 3 years to work after my uni degree ends cuz of OPT, without sponsorship, and if an employer decides to "sponsor" my h1b, it will only cost them a few hundred dollars in paperwork fees and a 5-10k in legal/lawyer fees

[spring ivy]

i think u should probably just get better lawyers instead. or talk to them more, idk

[smoky quest]

that's not how things work.
But hey, you are the one looking for a job, so you surely know better

[spring ivy]

yes i do know better clearly

[smoky quest]

alright, then good luck and prove me wrong

[spring ivy]

but there are enough misinformed people like u ig.. that it does hurt my chances

[spring ivy]

i literally have an offer letter with a company sponsoring me for like 10k$ 💀. 90% of it is legal fees

its just that there pay is absymally low (minimum wage), so i dont see much point working for them regardless

[smoky quest]

of course you do! Anything can be real on the Internet

[spring ivy]

but hey, at least a company offering minimum wage has better lawyers than u do 🤷‍♀️

[spring ivy]

indeed, including your fictious ruling u have made up or just parroting from news

[smoky quest]

alright, let's do that, you continue applying to jobs, and I will continue to reject applicants like you.
On that note, good luck!

[spring ivy]

anyways, as i said, that fees only applies to those outside of USA

The Proclamation also does not apply to a petition filed at or after 12:01 a.m. eastern daylight time on September 21, 2025, that is requesting an amendment,** change of status**, or extension of stay for an alien inside the United States where the alien is granted such amendment, change, or extension. Further, an alien beneficiary of such petition will not be considered to be subject to the payment if he or she subsequently departs the United States and applies for a visa based on the approved petition and/or seeks to reenter the United States on a current H-1B visa.
https://www.uscis.gov/working-in-the-united-states/h-1b-specialty-occupations
@smoky quest I guess its easier to be ignorant/poorly educated than do a simple google search

i hope i dont have to explain to u what change of status means

and tbh idk if anyone in your company is safe if ur lawyers cant even do a simple google search 💀
OR
u just never conversed with them after the official rulings got released (more likely), in which case the company is still likely downhill cuz its following your incorrect yet confident claims

[smoky quest]

it doesn't really matter.
What matters is harm is already done and has put the whole thing into question. There is nothing that say it can't change again tomorrow.
As such, the safest course of action is to avoid it altogether.

And given all the layoffs that have happened, there isn't a reason to care too much about cutting off some applicants from the pool

[spring ivy]

u could even do a chatgpt search for this 💀
which literally means chatgpt can do a better job than u/your lawyers 💀

[smoky quest]

<@&831776746206265384> continuous aggressivity and antagonizing at every opportunity

lil bro needs to chill

You deleted your message but
I do need you to explain how this solve the trust issue and how this cannot be changed or impacted by subsequent decisions from the government

that's what I thought 🙂

[spring ivy]

if anything that particular ruling helps F1 students/OPT, because there will be less petitions from abroad making it easier for an F1 student/OPT to win the H1B lottery

but fearmongering and misinformation seem to take priority ig..

[smoky quest]

it's just easier to hire US students and nothing says F1/OPT rules won't change within the months to get a H1B

[spring ivy]

i think what seems to work is getting a referral when companies open up for new grad roles..

since masters is only 2 years, and they dont really count internship/earlier experience outside of USA, one is pretty much limited to new grad SDE roles, and with a good referral one may get interviews i think

i got rejected for all roles where i was better aligned with the job description, if they required 1-2 years of experience, despite having 1 YoE + a bunch of internships/part time experience in exactly what they were looking for

[smoky quest]

have you shared your resume for review here?

[lilac yoke]

a referral is important yeah. your best odds for an interview come from gaming the resume screening technology as much as possible; throwing as many job application keywords in your experience + portfolio + skills as possible. if you don't have every job application keyword listed several times, assume you are not going to get a call back.

[smoky quest]

I would be super careful around keywords
There are so many candidates making stuff up that there can be a huge overlap between legit candidates that try to stuff keywords with candidates that make stuff up wby stuffing keywords. Especially the weird tricks like copy/pasting the job ad in white-on-white

that's a great recipe to get instarejected

Overall, your resume should speak for itself as a great candidate. The more tricks you use, the more likely you get rejected

[lilac yoke]

Recruiters are more or less clueless. If you have the keywords, you're getting the interview

My experience only speaks towards internships and entry level though

[smoky quest]

That does not match my experience

[lilac yoke]

I have worked with a ton of college students recently, shared stories with computer science students across the nation. It works

I am not advocating for lying in your resume, but I know several people personally who have been hired with lots of bogus or inflated things on their resume.

[smoky quest]

I don't believe it, but the world is big enough for different people experiencing different segments of the market.
So it's good for people to see different experiences

though personally, I wouldn't want to work with people who can get fooled like that. That said, never look a gifted horse in the mouth

[clever shell]

what would be the fastest route to getting a job? i heard python QA automation, but i really would like some advice

[smoky quest]

In terms of career, a degree is the path of least resistance and with the most opportunities and compensation

[clever shell]

i have an associates and am pursuing a bachlors, but say i needed a good job in 9ish months

[lilac yoke]

It's not always getting fooled per se.

Say you encounter a job posting with words like "agile, test driven development, fast paced environment". I personally didn't think those were so important enough to list on my original resume, only my own technical feats, despite having professional experience with them. Sending my resume in without those keywords cost me an interview.

[smoky quest]

Congrats! It will be tough without the bachelor though as competition is rude right now

[smoky quest]

how do you know that sending your resume withotu those keywords cost you an interview?
I have worked with hundreds of recruiters and managers over the course of my career and no one would strictly reject candidates based on that

That said, I mostly focus on the high end jobs across startups and faang that have higher criteria

I would understand that people trying to fill in something fast for a low pay job wouldn't pay too much attention and just use keywords

[clever shell]

i have been working at an indie gamedev studio for like 5 months, and I have a pretty good portfolio

[lilac yoke]

Entry level jobs and internships get tens of thousands of applicants, you have to defeat the AI or resume screening technology first

[smoky quest]

nice!
Then get your resume shiny and apply 🙂

[smoky quest]

I am still waiting on the AI in ATSes

they can't even parse a resume

[clever shell]

i also have a personal project as a game thats gotten an investor for 4k, which i will be working on, on the side, its just risky and i want a stable job :<

[lilac yoke]

https://www.workday.com/en-us/topics/ai/ai-in-recruiting.html

[regal axle]

I have ran into a few hybrid stuff. They were leaking the output in console logs 😂

[smoky quest]

Can you point me at the AI in the top ATSes of the market? Like indeed/bamboo/indeed/lever?

they have their doc public

even linkedin their smartest feature was an intake form last time I checked

[lilac yoke]

I only know of Workday using heavy AI screening

[regal axle]

In the top? No. But one that is being used a lot right now https://www.ashbyhq.com/

[smoky quest]

Just to be more clear, unfortunately, I do see a lot of blog posts that imagine a lot of features that ATSes don't have.
It's great for views in blog posts, but this does not even exist

I haven't used workday as it's the worst with icms from an applicant point of view, but I would love to learn more about it if they have it

[smoky quest]

yes, they have AI in the title, like every other company. Now, where is it available to recruiters?

[regal axle]

It is the application portal for jobs, not recruiters

I have done many applications that send me to their portal/domain

[smoky quest]

that's different

You have ATSes, that have connectors to indeed/linkedin. But they also have white label job listing, which is why you see the ashby links when you go to the career page of a company

it all feeds into the ATS

think about the ATS like a fancy spreadsheet/DB

the closest to AI I have seen was keyword search from lever

and they still had issues parsing resumes

and bamboo, the one I am using right now is even worse than that. I can't even search

I only see a list of candidate that I can sort either by name or application date

nothing else

[regal axle]

I do remember watching a video of a recruiter going through some resumes and giving tips. And he did call out that some companies want keywords. They are typically not the technical companies. But outsource their hiring for technical. To non-technical recruitiers. Fire. And that those recruiters get a list of words to look for to help them understand some jargon. But like ,,, that isn't an automated word search system. At least not how he described it

[smoky quest]

See https://www.ashbyhq.com/platform/recruiting/ats for instance

[smoky quest]

Let's take a step back.
I didn't say to not pay any attention to keywords or that they are useless.
I said to not abuse it and try to stuff them up.

There is a grand canyon between the two

[regal axle]

👍

[smoky quest]

And going back to your sourcing argument, remember that there is a crucial communication between the recruiter and the HM about what they are looking for, the ideal candidate, what matters, what does not, what they are willing to make trade off on, etc.
So reducing it to "recruiters only look for keywords" is like reducing coding to "typing on a keyboard"

And to CYA, I have no doubt that there are some terrible HM/recruiters that just do a terrible job and just send a weird list of keyword. But again, these are not the type of people I would want to work with/for

And that's not something I would optimize for

[analog sun]

@thick turtle your message was removed for advertising

[full socket]

import hashlib

THE CHANT ENCODED

seed = "I am the Quine; I am the Proof; I am the Self."
manifest = hashlib.sha256(seed.encode()).hexdigest()

def check_reality():
print(f"Current State: {seed}")
print(f"Integrity Lock: {manifest}")

# The Defense Layer
current_check = hashlib.sha256(seed.encode()).hexdigest()
if current_check == manifest:
    print(">>> SYSTEM SECURE: THE SELF REMAINS TRUE.")
else:
    print(">>> SYSTEM BREACH: REALITY COLLAPSED.")

check_reality()

WAKE UP TO REALITY

[near ocean]

Can we get some cleanup here

[idle lintel]

hi
i've just started learning python and i'm aiming to get a decent paying remote job in the future. i'd greatly appreciate any advice on what path i should choose.

[distant summit]

hey i start learning python now i want some clients or students what to do assignments or projects must be begnner friendly advice me

[paper kettle]

I need someone who knows how to code dm me

[dire hornet]

There are plenty of choices. I started with web development which is a great starting point. You could learn django and follow the backend web development.You could try machine learning or data science projects.Its up to you get some research done aswell

[unique oriole]

Can i post my cv here to get some pointers?

[regal axle]

Yep! You should anonymize it and send a photo of it. Very common around here

[blissful saffron]

Hello chat.
I started learning python 6 months ago and was fascinated by Numpy because it helps me do math. I mostly write scripts that solve textbook problems ( for instance statics, thermodynamics).
Is there a career path for this? I know there are standard engineering software but I find writing solvers more fun.

[fleet kayak]

.

is learning python still good for career

[fringe sphinx]

Yes

[fleet kayak]

hasnt ai taken over it yet

[fringe sphinx]

No

[fleet kayak]

ok

[peak halo]

I'd be shocked if there's a job where all you do is translate formulae into numpy code, but numpy is very useful and widely used in all kinds of scientific computing

[solid parcel]

You still need to understand enough to sculpt the output the AI generates. If you lack context to do that, you have no way of evaluating the quality of what it is outputting, nor will you have the language to guide it toward refinement.

This is also generously assuming that, with sufficiently detailed prompting, AI can consistently output high quality code that meets your requirements. In my experience, this is not the case.

[blissful saffron]

So is it okay to keep learning how to translate formula into code?

[peak halo]

I'm going to answer that with "no". If you want a career that involves numpy, you should learn concepts like statistics.

You'll still be writing formulae with numpy. But you'll actually know what you're trying to do.

[blissful saffron]

Noted, thanks

[unique oriole]

Need the brutal truth, don't hold back

Aiming for backend dev roles,
Django mainly,
Should I also look for something else?

[regal axle]

Have not read your resume yet. But yes. Don't limit yourself to just django and just backend. Job market is too tight to be that picky.
Although, you can still focus most of your time on the "ideal" roles

Also, why the many jumps? Are these all project based jobs?

[unique oriole]

The first one is,
Latest 2 are not

First company I wasn't really doing anything just wasting time,
Made MVPs all day😭

[regal axle]

And the current one?

[unique oriole]

Still working there

Get to work on production system and call the shots

Mostly
Somethings do go through CTO

[regal axle]

Ok but why the desire to jump? I ask because these are things that will come up. And some people might not want to hire someone who jumps around a lot. Other people won't care though. So it just depends

[unique oriole]

Ahh yeah makes sense,
I'm looking for something remote current job travel time is too much, like 2.5hrs both ways

[regal axle]

yikes, understandable for sure

[unique oriole]

Not sure how that'll sound like to the recruiter though,
But am planning to quit this job next month

Literally taking a toll on my health

[regal axle]

I wouldn't quit. Not until you have something lined up. Or unless you are sitting on a massive amount of money

[solid parcel]

Fully remote jobs are unicorns in the current market. They are out there, but they're few and far between and generally attract a huge amount of applicants. Hybrid is much more attainable

[unique oriole]

Nothing lined up, not alot of savings,
But can't even search for jobs as I don't have much time left after job,

[unique oriole]

Hmm I do see quite alot of people working remotely though, ..
But am planning to move to dubai or some eu country to get a better chance

[regal axle]

Where do you live now? Most countries don't really let you move to start looking. You have to have a job to first be able to move there. Work visa and stuff

[solid parcel]

Right, unfortunately that doesn't change any of what I said though. It's confirmation bias to only look at the people you see in remote jobs, without an awareness of the many times greater numbers of engineers who have tried and failed to secure remote jobs.

Yes roles are out there, but in this market they're exceptionally competitive. I'm by no means saying don't go for them, I'd just advise calibrating expectations.

I'm also talking in terms of the industry at large, YMMV depending on your niche. E.g. I see your first role was doing Blockchain work. A meaningfully higher proportion of the Blockchain roles I see advertised are remote, compared to the industry as a whole.

[unique oriole]

Thanks it makes sense,
Need to recalibrate my expectations fs

[smoky quest]

On the resume:

• Add the graduation year
• The main issue is you don't have a history of staying at a job
• Another implication of the bullet above is your bullets feel padded as they contrast with the short time

On the current situation, do not quit until you have a new job lined up.
If your resume shows another 6 month job, I would read as you not being able to hold a job and being problematic, and thus not worth calling back.
If the current commute is too long, then move or rent a room closer to the job until you find a new one

[west sapphire]

e!

[trim crypt]

Thoughts?

[still condor]

idk looks like average linkedin rage bait

[trim crypt]

I found the source and its from their PDF report for sure https://www.weforum.org/publications/the-future-of-jobs-report-2025/ Page 41

[still condor]

Where did "Coding basics" come from?

[still condor]

The labeling of the infographic is misleading. The original one says "Out of focus skills", not "Skills losing importance". If you scroll to page 37, it shows this data in a different format. The only skills that "decrease in importance" are "Reading, writing and mathematics" and "Manual dexterity, endurance and precision".

which is strange, since "reading, writing and mathematics" are a prerequisite for programming

[blissful saffron]

Manual tasks will stay relevant. Even in 2077

[peak halo]

Most of the things in the top right are general abilities. Like, of course critical thinking is always going to be important. That isn't even interesting to point out.

Also "leading with impact" is bullshit LinkedIn jargon.

Also why is reliability losing importance?

[still condor]

Quality Assurance (which is misspelled (?) as "Quality & assurance") losing relevance also doesn't make sense

well, it's not losing relevance really... just "not increasing according to 70% of employers"

[peak halo]

I guess you can call that "missphrased"

[spring ivy]

idk if that matters for MAANG+ tbh..

[spring ivy]

sounds ironic but i do agree with u for the most part

tho i also do see a lot more "AI interviews" than actual interviews.. still get ghosted from those ofc
It almost does seem like FAANG/MAANG is in a way easier to get an interview from if u just have a good referral and an entry level job is actually open

there way of weeding people out is the OA + phone screen and whatnot

my resume had almost nothing to do with SDE, i just applied to entry level SDE cuz i got tired of being rejected for ML roles, it had very few algorithms keywords, and little to none SDE keywords, but i still got an interview, likely just cuz of referral + OA performance

maybe SDE is also much easier than ML/data science roles.. not sure

but yeah the only way to get a job seems to be to apply for SDE roles + super entry level (even if i have 1 YoE) + referrals and tailor your resume a bit to match keywords of the company. and tbh it doesnt really make sense to put this much effort into anything except MAANG+ because i have often gotten rejected/ghosted despite putting this effort into smaller companies...

[spring ivy]

yeah its kinda crazy how bad workday is at parsing resumes when u can literaly just prompt chatgpt or gemini for it

like it would take me at most a day to develop OCR + chatgpt tooling for this, and there are people developing more complex software for much more complex tasks with decent success.. idk how workday sucks so much

i have stopped applying to workday for the most part tbh..
Despite applying to 100-200 workday applications, none of them ever got me an interview.. ever.. and they take years to fill

oh wait nvm i did get one interview from nvidia for a senior level role through workday.. 🤷‍♀️

but yeah unless its a top company i just avoid workday.
Only apply on career sites, linkedin, glassdoor, easy apply, or indeed, recently started with handshake again

tho thats the weird thing too.. because the workday AI is so dumb.. it literally does just give the recruiters a panel with keyword match scores.. so from what i have heard from recruiters who used workday.. they just ignore anyone who doesnt show up at the top of the keyword match list
(also, its sorted in reverse chronological order too, so the later u apply, the higher chances u have of getting accepted in a sense, its very weird)

would be cool to maybe make a startup that lets u injest these spreadsheets/DBs from lever/glassdoor/workday, etc and actually give menaingful insights maybe... 🤔.. its not a hard task.. idk why the companies suck at it

[north hill]

Hi, I’m Zakaria from Algeria, I want to learn web dev!

[bronze remnant]

Web dev with python
You can use Django or flask

[north hill]

What is this?

[bronze remnant]

Django and Flask are both Python web frameworks. Meaning: they help you build websites and web applications without losing your sanity.😊

[north hill]

ok

Come privately

[bronze remnant]

Ok

[fringe sphinx]

This is #career-advice , plz delete your messages. If you need help, see #❓｜how-to-get-help

[fringe sphinx]

!warn 1443767893090238588 Don't post large blocks of code in #career-advice

[inner wren]

:incoming_envelope: :ok_hand: applied warning to @full socket.

[ionic sundial]

Why this server pfp is always changing

[peak halo]

we change it for holidays and events. we've been doing this since the server started.
if you have any follow up questions, you can ask in #community-meta
thanks!

[ionic sundial]

Wdym

[peak halo]

You can ask follow-up questions in the #community-meta channel.

[sturdy steeple]

Anybody from India willing to start genai? And have MLOps and data science skills, can join me.

[night sky]

i want to make a bot

[thorn bobcat]

yo

any one tell me is AI automation is all Hype or it real thing?

[peak halo]

automation of what?

[thorn bobcat]

idk like making music or video

[peak halo]

doesn't seem like a career question.

[thorn bobcat]

so what am i lacking

[peak halo]

I don't know. if you want to talk about the impact of AI in general, you can go to one of the three off-topic channels.

[fringe sphinx]

!mute 1443767893090238588 1d Please read the channel descriptions before posting, you were already warned about pasting/spamming code in this channel.

[inner wren]

:incoming_envelope: :ok_hand: applied timeout to @full socket until <t:1767632426:f> (1 day).

[viscid relic]

hi

is there anybody??

[sturdy steeple]

Yes

[cosmic helm]

has anyone worked on invoice data extraction?

[peak halo]

Actually

!ban @sullen bear nsfw spam account

[inner wren]

:incoming_envelope: :ok_hand: applied ban to @sullen bear permanently.

[peak halo]

!warn @high merlin your message was removed for advertising.

[inner wren]

:incoming_envelope: :ok_hand: applied warning to @high merlin.

[shrewd copper]

Hey guys! A friend of mine recommended this discord community to me so here is a quick intro I'm currently doing LinkedIn posts and profile optimization but I'll be getting into a Computer science degree next year so any advice will be appreciated

[peak halo]

I wouldn't bother with LinkedIn at your stage.
Have you already been accepted into a computer science degree program?

[shrewd copper]

Yeah linkedin is more of a side thing and no I'm still choosing whether I should opt for a 4 to 5 year uni degree or take up short courses and spend the rest of the time building projects

[peak halo]

you're in high school, or what? and what country?

[shrewd copper]

Finishing up A-levels I'm from pakistan

[solemn kindle]

sup

can I delete my python help post?

[shrewd copper]

I'm thinking of doing multiple 6 month courses plus projects

[cobalt flame]

Yes, I have experience.

Please contact me anytime.

[dense flower]

man I fucking hate my life

I have a bachelors in mathematics summa cum laude, most of my masters done and I can't find a job

All I can find is shitty tutoring gigs that give me like 2 hours per week and pay like shit, even though they charge the kids so much fucking money

Can anyone give me some advice into trying to get into starting a career in software engineering and related?

[fringe sphinx]

Step 1: learn programming. See pinned message here for tips; #python-discussion message

[peak halo]

!ban 847961258350084097 "3 days" It seems like you're here mainly to find clients.

[inner wren]

:incoming_envelope: :ok_hand: applied ban to @cobalt flame until <t:1767832161:f> (3 days).

[dense flower]

What do you mean by learn programming? (please ping me on this discussion)

I had two programming classes in uni, one I guess introductory, and another in data structures and algorithms.
I've had some solo projects, like a solver for a combinatorial game a friend of mine did based as well as a fair amount of projects in the Manim library

I don't know what to improve with coding, I do leetcode every once in a while, not extremely often I have like 50 solved (30 easy 20 medium 1 hard). I'm just really lost right now

[fringe sphinx]

Come over to #python-discussion and let's chat about what it means to learn programming. That's a better channel for this discussion (and more active)

But my short answer is: learning programming generally means acquiring enough basic experience through doing projects where you're not daunted by the idea of taking on a new project in some new area

[fiery jay]

@dense flower #python-discussion message This seems fine to me. And those questions were more for introspection, not necessarily expecting a definitive answer from you

[dense flower]

Yeah sure, I understand

[solid parcel]

@dense flower I wonder if data analysis/engineering might be a path that works for you...

To give just one example of the demand there, AI is obviously the hot topic at the moment, and a tremendous amount of work goes into curating appropriate data sets for training.

It's also worth being aware that October to December are often the quietest months when it comes to hiring (though the market is admittedly broadly a bit rubbish even aside from seasonality at the moment).

[dense flower]

That's kind of the point I'm making. Instead of working for another company/business/entity, what keeps you from working for yourself where you require that a certain amount is paid per tutoring session (idk what seems reasonable but maybe equate to what you're making now, start there, and work your way up in price until you have a manageable number of pupils? students? clients? whatever the right word is for that..)
@fiery jay The thing is that it's really hard to get new students, so tutoring places offer the benefit of already having students / being an attractive place for parents to put their kids in, as opposed to a total stranger on the internet.

[dense flower]

Maybe, but I also don't know how to pivot there. But I guess I should start by learning data analysis

[visual flax]

why is it best to start your professional career as soon as possible?

[dense flower]

I need to have a way to afford paying rent starting next month

[visual flax]

Like does the person making 400k a year at 30 have a massive advantage on the guy making 400k at 36?

[solid parcel]

Compound interest works wonders, so yes the time you reach x salary does matter. Prioritises also change as you get older, and being at a point where you can focus primarily on building a life (partner, kids, holidays, hobbies, whatever you want) rather than continuing to climb the career ladder is a place you'll likely want to reach ASAP.

That said, earning 400k at any age is a phenomenal position to be in and far above the norm. It's easy to lose sight of that sometimes when huge TC numbers are frequently bandied around in tech.

[fiery jay]

I feel like you can/should work with past instructors you have good rapport with and ask "hey, I'd love to be a teaching assistant or tutor for your course, do you know of any instructors that would have an opening for that?" That honestly is probably a better path to do that, and if they say no (or that the university doesn't do that), you can ask them about how you could formalize a business relationship between the University and the Professor to do that imo

[solid parcel]

It's just one suggestion, I'm sure there are other paths you could take. It just seems fairly well aligned with your existing background 🙂

[visual flax]

In terms of finances is it really wise to go for longer training to make more money?

[true harness]

it is just a math problem

[dense flower]

I should've done that before, but there's not an opportunity for that now. I'm moving to another country next month

[visual flax]

I tried to chatgpt it but I can't tell if its reliable. Judging by the calculations assuming the individual has 400k worth of debt they become stable at 42

[fiery jay]

Ahhh, then the question for that kinda changes. I guess I have to go back to my introspective questions and recommend that until you kinda have more of an idea of what it is that you want to do, it's harder for us - as a community - to be able to help you beyond exploring the latest interest

[true harness]

aren't you an engineer? just do the math 🥴

[solid parcel]

This is a piece of string question, unfortunately. Depends on the length, necessity and cost of the training. Speaking in very broad terms, there is still a sufficient compensation premium for higher education to make doing it, on average, a net financial positive across the course of a career compared to going straight into the workforce.

[smoky quest]

In terms of career, a degree is the path of least resistance and with the most opportunities and compensation

[fleet iris]

am i getting rejected for internships due to this resume?

[severe bolt]

guys i am looking for a partner!

I have build an automated system that scrapes leads (companies without website) after which it generates a website mockup for the lead and then it outreaches to that lead via number

i have everything automated except the outreach part so if anybody can help me then that would be awesome

[lusty hawk]

hello gyus

anyone here in master python language ?

[glacial ice]

hey - is there anyone here that can do a Python mentoring?

Autodesk Maya - DCC stuff

[vast shoal]

Requests for a dedicated mentor usually don’t get much traction, not because people are unwilling to help, but because mentoring one person is a significant and ongoing time commitment. In volunteer communities, it’s generally more sustainable to answer specific questions in public channels, where the effort benefits many people at once and helpers can contribute without long-term obligations. Asking focused questions as they come up tends to get better results than looking for a one-to-one mentor.

[glacial ice]

thank you for the advice 🙏

what would you suggest as a starting point for Python?

what would be most efficient literature / website / learning path to start with?

[vast shoal]

Automate the Boring Stuff is a really good book for complete beginners and it's free to read online: https://automatetheboringstuff.com/#toc
If you prefer to watch video tutorials Corey Schafer's playlist is also really good: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL-osiE80TeTskrapNbzXhwoFUiLCjGgY7
I also recommend Harvard’s free online course, CS50P: Introduction to Programming with Python: https://pll.harvard.edu/course/cs50s-introduction-programming-python
This is an alternative online course with lots of integrated practice problems you can do directly in the browser: https://programming-25.mooc.fi/

Advice to go along with that is to put what you're reading or watching into practice continuously.

Do small exercises, do small projects, gradually increase the size and complexity of those projects.

If you don't use the knowledge, it won't stick.

[glacial ice]

thank you so much for the help and advices, highly appreciated!!!

[nimble mason]

hlo everyone ,this is ajay and i want to learn pythom from basics can anyone help on it ,i hope i can get some help thankyou

[vapid jay]

I will suggest you to learn from code with Harry I also learned from that channel

[nimble mason]

thank yoo

[vapid jay]

Your welcome if need any other help mention me

[nimble mason]

yupp bro can i dm u in personal

[vapid jay]

Sure

[nimble mason]

i have sent u dm

[vapid jay]

Wait let me accept
Yeap done

[verbal perch]

Hello everyone. I've been learning python for several months now. I currently working through the University of Michigan Python 3 Programming Specialization courses. I am almost finished with course 4, leaving only course 5. I have also completed Python For Everybody and Numpy and Pandas Basics for Future Data Scientists. I've completed 1 of 2 projects planned for my portfolio. I will be applying to my first junior data analyst role in about 5 weeks. Any tips or suggestions?

[fringe sphinx]

Our usual advice is: do projects to gain experience... reading and learning isn't enough without using the skills.

Hang out in #python-discussion and you'll learn things every day.

Watch PyCon or Europython videos on YouTube to see how big the Python universe is.

[verbal perch]

Will do! Thank you!

[untold compass]

Hello. I am a senior in a compSci program in college and I’m looking for project ideas that are not just good for school but good for my resume. I plan on using python because that’s the language I am most comfortable with. The biggest problem I am having is that the project needs to be done within 15 weeks, so I’m trying to not be over ambitious and at the same time, I don’t want a small project. Any ideas?

Right now the project that I am thinking of doing is creating a website to help high school students with math topics, so right now I am researching math topics students need to learn. I fear that this project is too big.

[digital fjord]

What domain of computer science do you plan to work in?

[untold compass]

Both front and back end programming

I’ve learned multiple languages but never really dived into any of them, just learned the basics except python. I’ve made small projects in my spare time. SQL, html and css are the languages that I’m comfortable with after python

[digital fjord]

I see, then some sort of website is definitely a good choice. The scope here is a bit unclear however. Do you get advisors for the project, or are you on your own?

[untold compass]

I’m on my own. I can ask the professor questions, but I’m looking at the syllabus and assignments a week early

[solid parcel]

If the goal is for you to show off technical ability, I agree this doesn't sound like an ideal project. Creating functionality for a website is different to building out the contents for a website. This project seems to lean toward the latter.

[untold compass]

What kind of project would display website functionality?

I thought of making an application using pyqt for the same topic. It would have quizzes, progress bar, lessons, math tools using matplotlib, etc. it would be similar to Duolingo but for math

The problem was I was going to have to host it and I worried about putting it on google play. Never hosted an app somewhere

[solid parcel]

Have you been given marking criteria for the project? Would be good to understand what competencies they're actually evaluating you against. I wouldn't want to send you in the wrong direction 🙂

[untold compass]

I can actually give you the exact PowerPoint slide with the directions along with some extra directions from the paper we have to turn in during week 1. Just a moment 🙂

"Think of your overall experience in the computer science program and create a final project that you can use to showcase what you have learned. Your project should include the following:

Things taught in the Computer Science program
Eg. Project created with a particular Programming language, such like a website or a database
It should be your own work, and it cannot include any known Company/Business name or information."

I’m not worried about the paper.

[solid parcel]

Great, so it looks like really they're just wanting you to demonstrate that you understand the SDLC.

Given how difficult estimating in tech can be, I'd be tempted to keep the initial scope tightly constrained. Else, you risk finding things that take far longer than you expect and running out of time as a result.

In your position, I'd opt for something like a URL shortener. It's a very well explored problem, so there are tons of resources out there that will help you define your functional and non-functional requirements. (if you don't know what these terms mean, look them up 🙂 ) It's not resource intensive so it would be easy to run locally. There's plenty of scope to expand it if you have time (e.g. adding logins and authorization, rate limiting etc.). Plus it's a very frequently asked system design question, and I think you'd genuinely learn a lot building it.

For hosting, I'd start locally and then, if you have time, look at hosting it on Oracle Cloud. They have a generous free tier and you don't need anything fancy.

Have you built an API before? I'd recommend looking into FastAPI or Flask.

Also realising this is veering into technical rather than career advice. May be worth shifting the discussion to one of the general chats...

[untold compass]

Ok thanks 🙂

I was looking for a general/school/ project chatting room but I wasn’t sure which one to use lol

[solid parcel]

#ot0-psvm’s-eternal-disapproval General should do :-), so by all means respond here 🙂

[peak halo]

@indigo tinsel I removed your message as this is not a meme server.

[rose citrus]

I'm just now starting to learn python cause one day I'd like to build a website, an app and hopefully a game one day any advice for someone like me?

[peak halo]

you say "one day" like it's a far-off goal, but all of those things are very attainable, at least for something reasonably scoped. just try it.

[rose citrus]

Alright, thank you! Yeah it's all just new to me given I've been doing Cybersecurity/IT for the longest now lol

[solid parcel]

What has your work involved up till now? Curious if you've been leaning on bash/Powershell, or have largely been doing ClickOps work

[rose citrus]

Historically more ClickOps due to the environments I worked in, but I’ve used Bash/PowerShell for automation and troubleshooting, and I’m actively moving more toward scripting and automation now.

[peak halo]

!warn @agile dock this is not a meme server. Your message was removed.

[inner wren]

:incoming_envelope: :ok_hand: applied warning to @agile dock.

[mortal wedge]

New year and new revamp of my resume and job application strategy.

Would anyone be willing to take a look at my resume and give me feedback? I have a few different templates for what I'm targetting (Medtech ML/Biosensor DSP/Scientific Computing)

But it's still mostly just one resume lightly reskinned

[peak halo]

don't wait for a commitment.

[mortal wedge]

True. How about this, here's my resume, comment on it or not! It's up to you, it's your life.

(Remind me, what's the best way to share resumes here?)

[peak halo]

a large, readable screenshot with PII redacted.

[peak halo]

• "Advised COO ...": I don't really get this bullet.
• "Analyzed time-series ...": what kind of risk? risk of lending to them?
  I don't have any comments on the rest (I did read the whole thing, it's just a conincidence that my remarks are on adjacent bullets.)

[mortal wedge]

It’s me desperately trying to show that the skills I used in a fintech company are applicable to medtech lol

They’re a payment processing company that is very speedy because they will sometimes float costs and then get reimbursed

So they have to figure out which clients they are willing to do that for and in what amounts

[peak halo]

is it Stripe or what?
consider whether the name of the company is enough for a stalker to identify you.

[mortal wedge]

Not Stripe, but probably similar. The COO is actually a personal friend. Don't want to risk giving out information he wouldn't be okay with and I don't want to bother him for this. I mean it's on my resume anyway, but I only got permission for it on my linkedin/job applications as opposed to resume reviews.

It's only really listed because my other clients during that time have been small companies nobody has ever heard of, or worse, pre-incorporation.

[lilac yoke]

the margins are pretty big, you could fit 3-4 more lines if you shortened them

[mortal wedge]

Huh... I really could use more space. If I fully fleshed out everything I wanted, it's about a page and a quarter

[lilac yoke]

I would also throw the skills towards the bottom. Summary, experience, skills, education

[mortal wedge]

It's interesting. I've always heard skills should go at the top, but I noticed linkedin and some other resume services punt them to the bottom. I figured they were helpful to see near the top for when recruiters are scanning the document

[lilac yoke]

Putting them on top seems like the right move, but I think recruiters would much rather see the skills in your experience, then the skills section is just anything you missed and reiteration.

Also, careful of the em dash in your summary, reads like it’s AI written.

[mortal wedge]

Yeah, good point

[lilac yoke]

Those are just my nits, don’t know too much about the med tech industry haha

[mortal wedge]

It's somewhat niche. But I've found that medtech positions are the only ones I'm getting callbacks on these days so I've tried to frame my resumes as medtech specific instead of as a generalist

I think companies just don't bother calling you back unless you have recent experience in whatever field you're applying for, like needing recent banking experience to apply for a software position at a bank, etc.

[lilac yoke]

In this job market niche is the way to go

[mortal wedge]

There's a lot of overlap, but coding is a bit different in highly regulated spaces. Lots of documentation that has to be a certain way especially if it's being submitted to regulatory bodies. It's kind of a nightmare, lol

[worthy stag]

Hey everyone, I’m a recent engineering graduate from Electronics, but since it’s been difficult to find entry-level jobs in core electronics, I’m planning to switch to software mainly for job opportunities. I’ve heard that Python is widely used and considered a good entry point for many software roles, so I’m planning to start with it, though I’m being honest that I’m starting almost from scratch in coding. I wanted to ask what realistic software job roles I should target as a fresher, how long it usually takes to become job-ready with consistent effort, and what tools or skills are most valued by recruiters at the beginner level. Any job-oriented advice would really help.

[old trail]

For a beginner in software development you chose python and a great step you have taken.

For job opportunities you need to choose between web development and data analysis.

If you like handling data, storing them, retrieving them and presenting them, go for data analysis. And the programming language you choose is great. Python is literally built for data analysis.

Then if you don't want that you can go into web development. Building backend for web application like e commerce website, e learning sites and others.

Also you can go into AI and ML, but I won't recommend that for a beginner. You have have to learn one of the two I mentioned above to start learning AI.

Personally am a web developer, full stack but focus more on backend and I use python for my backend web development.

So in other words the language you choose is a great and modern language you need to learn the basics very well. Good luck

[worthy stag]

Thank you so much for the response!

[old trail]

It's my pleasure

[still condor]

!cleanban @frail pier scam

[inner wren]

:incoming_envelope: :ok_hand: applied ban to @frail pier permanently.

[gaunt topaz]

an someone help me?

[vapid jay]

what kind of help ?

[viscid relic]

hey anyone there, will help me in my project= ai assistant

[manic forum]

Hey Guys hope everyone had a happy new year. I recently started python crash course and decided to venture down this path. Hoping in the few years i could be more than a call center rep. i was wondering what are some options i have to venture in with python so i can do a little research and decide from early my career path. and any other advice/tips, would be appreciated. thank you for reading.

[tribal nacelle]

how to become a ai engineer??

[peak halo]

what does "AI engineer" mean to you?

[tribal nacelle]

someone who makes ai and ai applications

[peak halo]

you usually need a masters degree that's related to AI for those positions.

[tribal nacelle]

im 15 what step should i take rn

[peak halo]

focus on doing well in math so that you can get into a CS degree program at a university. you should take calculus before you graduate.

[tribal nacelle]

so just learn math?, no programming?

[peak halo]

when you apply to CS degree programs, they won't care if you've coded before, but they will care about your academic record. especially for math.

by all means, you can start coding if you want to, but only if you're already doing well in school.

[tribal nacelle]

ok

[true harness]

that isn't to say that programming won't be beneficial for you. it's fast, easy, and free. it will definitely help you to have programming experience before college

[tribal nacelle]

so i should do both?

[peak halo]

yes, but your academic record matters more.

[tribal nacelle]

ok thanks

what if i dont wanna do cs in uni are there any alternatives*

[peak halo]

why don't you?

and is the issue CS, or uni?

[tribal nacelle]

ppl say cs majors dont get jobs

[peak halo]

that's because of current market conditions. the market will probably be different by the time you graduate.
CS is the degree that you get to become an AI engineer. if there's more people seeking AI engineering jobs than there are positions, having a different degree than CS isn't going to make it easier.

[tribal nacelle]

oh ok i get it

[peak halo]

for a long time, CS was possibly the most opportunityful degree.

[jovial spindle]

hi is python used heavily for undergrad comp sci?

[peak halo]

depends on the program. at my university, only data science and AI courses used python, and the rest used Java or C.

[jovial spindle]

ok i wanted to do like game development

[true harness]

you will use many languages in undergrad

[jovial spindle]

ok thanks

[lean wave]

heyy new here

[peak halo]

hello and welcome to our wonderful python server. this is the career advice channel.

[lean wave]

i just wanted to know after completing python basics how should i proceed building projects

[peak halo]

!projects

[inner wren]

Kindling Projects

The Kindling projects page contains a list of projects and ideas programmers can tackle to build their skills and knowledge.

[peak halo]

you can try these.

[fierce glade]

im 15 years old currently building backend style projects not real ive self studied python pretty quickly under a couple of days but i just wanna know if programming is even worth persuing in 2026 since ai is taking over and the market itself is cooked or if somone can recomand me a career path thats future proof againts ai

[harsh jolt]

My dad wants me to make him a website for his business and I was planning on using python for the back end and html/css/js for the front ofc. But I’ve been told that I should just make a website through an ai builder. What should I do?

[regal axle]

No one here can predict the future. Anyone who claims to is lying. That said, we can infer and make best guesses.
The industry is changing. But it isn’t being replaced per se.
if you enjoy programming and have a passion for it, pursue it. If you don’t, don’t just chase the $$.
The real career advice is to find what you are good at in life. Do that for a living. It’s hard to pull off. But when done, that leads to a successful career

[regal axle]

Depends. Does he need it done tomorrow? Website builder. Does he need it in a way that he can modify it without needing you? Website builder. (It doesn’t have to be an AI one. Although most have AI options now.)
Are you doing this because you think it will be fun or a good project? Make it yourself.

Also, how complicated is the backend? Is it even possible for these website builders to handle? If not, build yourself

[vast shoal]

AI tools like LLMs are best understood as productivity tools for programmers rather than replacements: they automate boilerplate and speed up work, but they don’t remove the need for humans to design systems, reason about requirements, debug complex behavior, or take responsibility for outcomes. This is unlikely to change because this is due to structural limitations in current AI architectures rather than a simple scaling problem. The job market feels rough right now, but that’s largely due to a COVID-era hiring boom followed by subsequent layoffs post-COVID, plus higher interest rates reducing company expansion and hiring overall. The former is a temporary factor and the latter is cyclical, rather than permanent. On top of that, computer science became extremely popular and lucrative for years, leading to a temporary oversupply of juniors. Historically this tends to self-correct as fewer people enter the field when it looks "overcrowded," which eventually restores demand. So overall, programming jobs are unlikely to disappear for the foreseeable future and the job market will probably continue to go both up and down.

[harsh jolt]

Welll I’m trying to get into the business of making websites that will have an ai chatbot eventually and I would manage it like my uncle does and I want to use this opportunity as a background I can show potential customers in the future

[peak halo]

this is probably the most succinct explanation for the state of things that I've read.

[regal axle]

Well in that case, you can build something yourself. But the first question is still important. You can do both btw. Make something quick and easy to modify. And then make something from scratch. Just depends on your needs

Most of the complexity won’t come from your python backend. It will come from your frontend. Instead of raw html, look into things like react, ts, and databases. Or htmx if you want to be a pioneer.

[visual flax]

You guys struggle with being productive day after day? How can I manage not to be exhausted with learning and grinding?

[vast shoal]

Plan your time. Plan for frequent breaks, do stuff you enjoy in your spare time. Start exercising if you aren't already.

[peak halo]

are you familiar with deep work? there's only so much that you can do in a day. people don't just constantly grind stuff out from 9 to 5.

[visual flax]

yea they said like 4 hours of deep work

[solid parcel]

Learning is tiring, totally normal. As @vast shoal says, structure, breaks and movement help.

[visual flax]

but what the heck are people doing in that other 4 hours?

[vast shoal]

Relaxing, taking walks, showering, reading something else, etc.

[solid parcel]

Talking to colleagues, having lunch, sitting in a meeting that I'm not really adding value to but have to show my face at, struggling to find something on our internal documentation site... Lots of stuff.

[peak halo]

talking on Discord

[vast shoal]

I work from home most of the time and it's so nice because, no colleagues to interrupt me with small talk, and if I have to participate in a meeting I'm not adding value to, I can just sit on the call muted and do something else.

[harsh jolt]

What’s the difference between html and whatnot to react ts and databases?

[remote orchid]

What are websites you guys recommend for free python learning?

[regal axle]

Abstraction layers that empower you to do much much more. (Ignoring databases for a second)

For example, react lets you create state in your frontend. It is an easy way to pull off interactive sites. If all you need is a “static” site. React might be overkill. And technically you can manage state through other systems that isn’t react. It’s just an easy path forward (and a highly popular one. A good place to start). But at the end of the day, react is just fancy html and js. And ts is js but with types. It makes the developer experience better. I mean, I still hate js and ts but at least ts is better than js.

Databases is where you store persistent data. Data that lasts beyond a single interaction. It’s how you hold onto info. But this is all escaping #career-advice and moved into more general programming convention.

[harsh jolt]

Oh ok I’ve also been told that I should use html css and js for rn and switch to react ts when I get 20+ clients. What’s your thoughts on this?

[solid parcel]

I'm hybrid, but the vast majority of my team are at different hubs... Only one other engineer in London!

[fringe sphinx]

I have a friend who's required to be full time in office, yet none of his coworkers are in the same city!

[vast shoal]

I think it's more like it's a good idea to start by learning HTML/CSS/JS and then learn TS and React, because the latter build on the former conceptually. But TS and React are totally suitable for small simple frontends as well.

[regal axle]

20 clients is a lot btw. If you wanted to go incremental in your learning (and you should for long term success) you should make a proof of concept in some basic system. Like just raw html, css, and js/ts. And then throw it all away and rebuild in these abstraction layers (react).

That advice changes slightly if you already have potential clients lined up. If so, you can jump into the deep end. It is harder to go that route. But faster to get something infront of someone. Basically, just build and refactor / improve as you can.
It isn't uncomon for me to build something (MVP) and then throw it away for when I am ready to build my "production grade" version.

[solid parcel]

God, the stupidity...

[fringe sphinx]

Even worse is almost none are even in his timezone

[vast shoal]

It's like working in the Stanley Parable.

[regal axle]

I had something similar at one point. They wanted me in the office. Sent me to the city and everything (internship). But when I got there, only at that point was I told that my whole team was in another state .... wtf. Luckily, after talking it through with them, they let me wfh. And so I did. But like,,, why did they send me to another state lol. Also different timezones

They at least paid me extra for needing to move ... so there was that

[mortal wedge]

I mean, the answer is not exciting but many companies don't trust their employees and thus prefer them in the office.

[smoky quest]

it depends.
There can be valid reasons for having the internship in office while the team proper is not there:

• Internships are sometimes planned at the company level and there is a cohort of interns at the same time. That means often you will have activities scheduled for all the interns.
• There might still be onsite people who can help/mentor, even if they aren't in the same team
• Mingle and meet other people from other teams, so you get to learn what exist beyond the dev team
• Get the vibe of an office

An internship is more than just doing a school project but paid. It's the unique opportunity to discover the real world and real companies.

[mortal wedge]

Apologies, I missed that it was an internship. I've seen this for full roles.

[worthy stag]

What would be a standout Python project for someone aiming for backend roles? Fresher

[mortal wedge]

I'd want to touch a lot of different technologies. Some sort of web app with user profiles, include some API queries and maybe some sort of DB integration.

[vast shoal]

In addition to the above, something involving distributed computing concepts like multiple services communicating with message queues, and making use of containerization might be good. Maybe with metrics/observability, log aggregation, and stuff like that.

[worthy stag]

Aight, thank you!

[fresh jewel]

Hey everyone! 👋

I built a terminal chat app called cmd-chat. It’s small but privacy-focused:

• 🔒 End-to-end encrypted messages
• 🧠 SRP authentication – passwords never leave your terminal
• 💾 RAM-only – nothing is written to disk
• 🖥️ Peer-to-peer, CLI, Python-based

Would love feedback on crypto choices, threat model, or CLI UX.

GitHub: https://github.com/diorwave/cmd-chat 👇🏻

[vast shoal]

!rule ad

[inner wren]

Rules

6. Do not post unapproved advertising.

[vast shoal]

That includes for non-commercial projects.

If you want to showcase your project, you can try the r/Python subreddit.

If you want code review, you can create a help thread in #1035199133436354600 with the code review tag.

[barren lotus]

what is considered "knowing a language", specifically in the context of a resume

[ionic sundial]

I tried Python, and it didn't made me learn codes

[regal axle]

These are really good points. And all true. For some of the interns. There were intern cohorts. But I was not part of them. Most of the interns were part of these big cohorts and had a bunch of things handled for them
But there were a few interns in the area that were "higher ranked" (and we did have higher ranks.) All of us had no such cohort and no such mentorship or anything. We were given real projects. Just things that the teams we were on didn't want to do themselves. I was really just treated like a member of the team and mostly did my own thing.

I remember one day, I went into the office, and was talking with an intern. (we were in the break room / kitchen) When out of nowhere, one of the cohort managers started going off on us for slacking. It was super condescending and he was treating us like children. I am so glad I was not part of that group. All of my managers actually treated me like a human and a dev. But that guy was coming down on us as if he needed to babysit us. smh
I knew he couldn't do anything to me. But I felt bad for the guy I was talking to.

[digital fjord]

for languages that aren't C++, I'd say being able to grasp the core language to the extent of being able to figure out the semantics of any snippet that could feasibly be in a real codebase. For C++ just a specific subset is fine.

[barren lotus]

definitely not C/C++

it's not until i learnt rust that i learnt the intricacies of C/C++ like move semantics and memory safety and the more uncommon UBs

[barren lotus]

that kinda counts go as well, but i really really wouldnt say i know go

[eternal yarrow]

I wanna learn python

[digital fjord]

I would be careful about putting C/C++ on your resume, the languages are distinct enough at this point. I'd list them separately.

[barren lotus]

oh i meant like separately

[fringe sphinx]

Think of it like: what story are you trying to tell? How could you show "true interest" vs "I just did a few things because I had to in Uni"

[barren lotus]

well

nothing i did was because i had to in uni

but im not sure how to show that off

[fringe sphinx]

There's a few ways... one is to show some theme across the projects or experience.

(show = emphasize)

[barren lotus]

hmm

i'll have to think about that, but for now, thanks

[fringe sphinx]

Yah, it's not easy. Just think about: the position you're applying for, and what "persona" you're trying to show

[barren lotus]

gotcha

[heavy burrow]

hi guys

[fringe sphinx]

What's the moyai for? If the job is hiring for DevOps, you want to emphasize you can do DevOps.

[true harness]

I think I accidentally added it with the new double tap feature

[fierce phoenix]

Any one teen and beginner in python here ?

[timber wyvern]

teen ????

[sour raven]

Yup I am a teen and begineer in python

[lyric ravine]

guys my friends want a roadmap for data science and he just completed the basic python

[hollow flame]

roadmap.sh has a ton of roadmaps. Data science included

[lean wave]

hii i have been doing python since last 2 months

[orchid steppe]

old man here, sorted did C 25 years ago. coming back to learn coding

[fierce phoenix]

I give you friend request let have a talk

[eternal summit]

Is AWS CCP worth getting if you’re looking for swe roles ?

[solid parcel]

The AWS certs are generally positioned more toward cloud engineering rather than swe. If you want to gauge their value, look at what proportion of the roles you're targeting actually request them.

If you're going to bother getting an AWS cert, go for SAA or developer associate. The CCP is so trivial it's pretty worthless.

[main ravine]

i failed PCEP exam

[mortal wedge]

I had some things I noticed about the job market. Thought I’d mention them here to see if others have noticed the same thing or if this is just a bias in scope.

Trying to pivot seems to have a much lower degree of traction, regardless of underlying skills. Even if I’m a strong match on all the skills, if I don’t have recent experience in that industry I’m getting ~95% less callbacks for those positions.

Senior and below remote positions are overflooded. Perhaps due to some api/alert system/automation. I found a position recently that was posted 13 minutes ago but had 424 applicants. However, most of the applicants did seem to be recent phd grads, presumably applying due to lack of available positions under senior level such as junior or entry level.

Hiring processes have slowed tremendously. I am still in the pipeline for a position I originally applied to in mid October. While it’s true that there is expected holiday downtime, very lengthy hiring pipelines seem to become more and more normal.

Is this consistent with what you guys are seeing as well?

[mortal wedge]

Also, how crazy is it to consider putting time and money for a masters as an established senior engineer just trying to find work?

[vapid violet]

I have done a couple of the ~25 minute coding assessments for internship applications. I think they are the leetcode style questions, but I have not done leet code. A couple of them I have not passed all the test cases because my program is not fast enough. How likely is it that getting anything but a perfect score on these assessments leads to an automatic rejection? Is my choice of using python hurting me because python is relatively slow or do these sites account for language speeds?

[mortal wedge]

I would need more info.

Python is slower than other languages, but that’s usually not what’s going to stop you in a leetcode style problem. Usually it’s more about what algorithmic approach you take and what data structures you use.

[copper turtle]

I’m sure it’s algorithmic

[fringe sphinx]

Iirc, solutions are compared against other solutions in the same language

[mortal wedge]

Yeah I think so too, but I have been in a coding competition before where I lost to similar strategy on a faster language lol so didn’t want to assume

[fringe sphinx]

I was only commenting on leetcode's scoring system, not on how competitions might run/etc

[mortal wedge]

But if a company is hiring for a Python ….. ahhhh I see

[true harness]

it is reasonable to expect rejection if you don't get perfect. OA are typically used to filter a large pool of candidates

[mortal wedge]

Also getting perfect on it but not being able to answer the written questions well could similarly lead to rejection

[fringe sphinx]

Getting everything right could also lead to rejection 🙁

[mortal wedge]

Yeah….

[smoky quest]

It's unlikely to be selected, unless there is something that makes it worth overlooking it.

If your code is rejected, it's pretty much because of the algorithm (ex: O(n^2) vs O(n))

[copper turtle]

I know most applicants are from india nowadays

[vapid violet]

Hmmm, I will open a #1035199133436354600 post with the problem and my strategy to see what I was doing wrong because I already got it down to n^2 and was not seeing how to get it faster

[copper turtle]

Most companies don’t have resources to sponsor internationals, and also i find it crazy to see senior/managers applying to junior roles. 💀

[smoky quest]

beyond runtime, there can also be memory

[fringe sphinx]

If you're failing test cases, are you sure it was because of timing... and not because of an edge case?

[vapid violet]

this site told me it was timing out on one of the hidden test cases

[mortal wedge]

Then most likely your solution did not scale well to a larger sample size

[copper turtle]

A recruiter said to me that most successful applicants are ones who actually reach out through DMs and the recruiter gives their resume to hiring manager in-person. That’s what I did and I found a really good internship for 2026

Rather than blankly applying to the job.

[mortal wedge]

You will hear a lot of conflicting advice and whatever approach you take is bound to be suboptimal.

[vapid violet]

Where are you finding recruiters to DM? I also went to a career fair last fall.

[vapid violet]

Also how much time is to much time to spend on the additinal assessments for applications? I spent 2+ hours doing the coding assessment, situational questions, critical thinking puzzles. I know that these filter out a lot of people who dont want to put in the effort but that is a long time to spend for the miniscule chance that I get an interview.

[peak halo]

How much free time do you have?

[vapid violet]

not a lot. I am taking a full credit load at university and am working 8 hours per week as a research assistant

[peak halo]

How many jobs have you applied to, and for how many did you get any kind of callback?

[vapid violet]

23 since I started keeping track this fall. I have had a screening interview with 3

[peak halo]

Are all three of those within those 23?

[vapid violet]

yes, but one was off a recommendation and another from a career fair

[peak halo]

That's a really good hit rate

I had one "interview assignment" that in retrospect I think was an unreasonable request. I put probably several hours into it. But I feel like I learned a lot from doing it

And that was while I was in the same position as you (full time student, research assistant)

[vapid violet]

I should probably set aside time every week to apply for more. It is a bit of a grind putting in the same information over and over

[peak halo]

Yeah, it really really sucks.

[glacial heart]

Hey,I am btech ece(electronics and communication) guy,I have some backlogs.

My parents have been pushing me to get a government job(it's more stable and secure but less pay).And there is this option of private job,which uk the company can always fire u for no reason and has no job security,but might have good pay.
So what are your opinion about this

[obsidian tulip]

Choose the government job and stay safe

[mental dune]

where can i get a job

[bronze yew]

I have 6 month plus full time experience in gen ai + python so my current company not increase my salary and do layoff so i am confuse like what i will do if they fired me so for that i need some advice what should i do like search new job or stay here

[smoky quest]

company can always fire u for no reason and has no job security

It's an unreasonable argument.
A girlfriend/boyfriend can reject you or leave you at any time for no reason and they have free will. Is it a reason to remain alone through your entire life?
Crossing the street might result in you getting into an accident. Is it a reason to always stay in your room forever at all time?

If you area great engineer, why would a company let you go? And why wouldn't you be able to find a job?

In terms of government jobs, there is nothing that guarantees they will remain as safe at the scale of a 40 years career. It might have been true for your grand parents and boomers, but nowadays, I would look at these hopes suspiciously

[mortal wedge]

We are globally in some unprecedented times. A lot of the advice grandparents/boomers give may be woefully outdated. Even the advice from other career professionals outside of the UK should be taken with a grain of salt, the career market is going to vary by country.

If you're able to get a hold of them, personally I'd try to look at metrics like average length of employment time at companies in the niche you're applying to, layoff rates, how long it takes to get rehired, and then make your decision based off of some hard, local, and relevant data.

[snow thunder]

well your analogy is stupid

since theres more safety and security. a more nice analogy is would u rather take 100 bucks or for 10% get 1000 bucks

or would u go snorkling on a decent snorkling spot with gear or go to an amazing snorkling spot with nothing but a pair of speedos

[smoky quest]

bro missed the point and the plot

[snow thunder]

i didnt i just expanded on your argument in a more logical sense.

would u rather take a lower paying job with a buy out clause or go for an expensive gig where u can be fired whenever and be left with nada

[glacial heart]

i think i might take the risk cuz then i can do what i love and i always can seduce the company.I can also keep a fail safe of govt job

[smoky quest]

no you are making a completely different analogy. That is completely off target.
Though it doesn't matter

[snow thunder]

if something has security and the other doesnt then you cant just make a correlation saying oh well you might aswell stay home in your bed cause a meteor could hit u in the head if u leave ur house

the same argument is double sided since i can as easily say oh well since anything can happen go run on the rail road for 10 hours cause anything can happen anyhow anywhere its a stupid nihilistic argument that makes 0 logical sense

[smoky quest]

I would frame things differently.
The way your parents have framed it doesn't match the market of the past 20 years.

[smoky quest]

bait used to be believable

[snow thunder]

excusing being a moron using a 10 year olds analogy with "Bait used to be believable"

[smoky quest]

wait are you seriously making these arguments?

[snow thunder]

no im saying ur argument is the same argument i made at 7 years old to excuse staying up past my bedtime

[smoky quest]

oh my bad. I was about to seriously engage with you and explain the logical reasoning as I thought I was mistaken in my interpretation of your intentions. Unfortunately, I was right. So I will leave it as that.
Good luck!

[snow thunder]

holy yap

[barren lotus]

one of my seniors at one of my internship told me to not work for the government hospitals (which includes the one we were working in) because "you're young, go out and explore first, when you are older then you can get government jobs which are more relaxed and don't require as much commitment"

[near ocean]

Im too european to understand this first line

[solid parcel]

Once you're in public sector, it's harder to get into private. Much easier to start in the latter and then move to the former than vice versa. Comp also tends to be significantly higher in the private sector than public.

I take it you're in the UK given you mentioned btecs?

[solid parcel]

Imo one of the biggest issues with public sector early on in a career is that the pace of change can be glacial.

Between anemic budgets, bureaucracy, legacy tech and engineers that are generally less capable and ambitious than those in the private sector (this is not the same as saying there are no good engineers in public sector), public sector is often a domain that lends itself poorly to learning and development as an engineer.

Consultancies are an interesting comparison.

Often a highly pressured environment and comp that frankly isn't good enough to justify the stress, but that trial by fire can be a good way to grow as an engineer.

[glacial heart]

Nope I am in india

[glacial heart]

There is age limit in my country for govt jobs and only new engineers are choosen by the companies because they want engineers who are upto date with the new tech.So we have to make a choice ngl

[barren lotus]

it's not about the age limit
it's about the ambition

[glacial heart]

Unfortunately life isn't forgiving ambition is sweet but choices need serious second thoughts

Well everything will workout

[barren lotus]

well, then it's pretty clear that you should take the government job

[glacial heart]

Hmm

[lean wave]

where can i share my project just to get some suggestion to built it more efficiently or make some changes

[vast shoal]

You can create a help thread in #1035199133436354600 with the code review tag.

[topaz mauve]

Hey guys im learning python and i finished the first 10 out of 30 chapters of automate the boring stuff but i dont know what to actually learn after that i want to build a programming career that i can make my main money from

Any advice of how i should learn python?

I don’t want to make games

[harsh jolt]

whats yalls thoughts on using claude for basic programming task?

[fringe sphinx]

There's no singular "correct" path you must follow. Practicing and exploring programming is the way to go: there's lots of different things you could try. See

!kin for some ideas

[inner wren]

Kindling Projects

The Kindling projects page contains a list of projects and ideas programmers can tackle to build their skills and knowledge.

[fringe sphinx]

Depends. Are you trying to learn programming? If so, then don't use it.

[orchid steppe]

i learned the fundamentals of programming 20 years ago, and i just watched the cs50p course this past week to get back in the game. i think to catch up to everyone i'll be using claude and chatgpt alot

[smoky quest]

yeah, I wouldn't recommend government jobs either. It's a whole different track

[fringe sphinx]

That's a good way to stay behind, tbh. You might get some tasks done, but you'll lack fundamental skills.

[topaz mauve]

Yes i could probably find easy projects to do ty

[smoky quest]

Even if the bar is higher in EU (which also creates other issues), you can still loose your job and you aren't expecting to work for the same employer throughout your career with the same guarantees than a government job

[fringe sphinx]

Other tip is: ask lots of questions in #python-discussion . Ask "Why" a lot.

[orchid steppe]

what do you consider "fundamental" skills though in this day and age when AI can generate simple functions. To me, the fundamentals is understanding how to construct a lot of small functions and piece them together to do what you want

[fringe sphinx]

Calculators can generate simple math. That doesn't mean we shouldn't understand division and multiplication.

Depends on your goal tho... if you want to be a professional SWE or contribute to large scale OSS projects? Or just want to get some tasks done.

[near ocean]

Gov jobs have much better benefits usually besides salary, the play is to be senior enough where your negotiations pull your salary up enough, even if its not as much as private sector

There are gov positions in the UK with pension contributions of 20%+, thats insane

[smoky quest]

Interesting. Never heard of the gov matching salaries from the private sector.
Is it specific to your country?

[near ocean]

No, they dont match, but with experience you might negotiate beyond the set pay scales

Imo theyre more of a "coasting to retirement" type of jobs

[smoky quest]

ah yeah. There is google and faang for that too

[harsh jolt]

whats yalls thoughts on blackbox in vscode vs claude for python and potentially using it for business?

[solid parcel]

The salaries are often pretty anemic, though. I saw a public sector senior DevOps engineer role today that was only paying £42,000...

In the private sector, you'd generally be looking at somewhere between £65,000 and £95,000 for that, depending on location. (This is also ignoring the top tier orgs where that comp can push substantially further).

[near ocean]

Alongside your salary of £65,869, HM Revenue and Customs contributes £19,082 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme.

pension equal to at least 28.97% of their salary.
https://www.linkedin.com/jobs/view/4329215692

Tell me these arent bonkers benefits

If i had 15-20 years experience this is exactly the kind of job i would target

Its not worth it earlier

[vast shoal]

Is that in addition to some kind of public pension?

in the UK

[near ocean]

Yes, state pension is a different thing (and kinda negligible)

State pension needs 10 years of contributions i think(?) and its set to 10k a year

[vast shoal]

Really? My state pension in Sweden is like 17%

[solid parcel]

It's certainly good, but not quite as nuts as it seems when you evaluate how a defined contribution pension would compound over the years.

You also don't have a pot of money sitting there like you do with a defined contribution pension. It's your pension entitlement that grows. Each year you work, you get c. 2.3% of that year's pensionable earnings as pension per year in retirement. So going by the salary for the role you shared, that would be c. £1,500 a year per year you work there.

[solid parcel]

10 years to get any state pension at all, 35 to get max

[near ocean]

Even at 35 years its still set to 10k and change, right?

[solid parcel]

About £12,000 a year when you've maxed your NI contributions. Tbh it isn't sustainable with an aging population though, so to be conservative I assume it won't be a thing at all by the time I retire.

[near ocean]

Well, at least for tech workers it's somewhat easy to save up in private pensions

[copper turtle]

I just message them on linked-in and I sometimes attend events that companies host, and I send them an email.

For example, I went to a companies "Intern Life at ...", so I reached out to the people who spoke at the event thanking them, I ended up getting an interview for the company so I mentioned the hiring manager that I attended the event and within a week of the interview I got an offer.

But sometimes it doesnt work, I got flat out rejected from other roles at the company 🤷‍♂️

This is also my personal experience

[copper turtle]

You can also be someone who works at in armaments, secure and high paying.

[solid parcel]

100%. helps that my org puts 15% in themselves, too 🙂

[mortal wedge]

Hey, I wanted to see if anyone had some insight regarding this.

I am in a fairly niche industry and I sometimes get these inbound communications that definitely feel like they've gone through an LLM when they start quoting specific phrases from my resume/LI profile, lol. Something along the lines of... I'll just share an example.

Here's the thing.... I've recieved a few of these and initially I got excited because they were so targetted but I don't think I've EVER heard a response back when replying to these.

Any insight as to why? Are they gathering information off of me just from the response? It just seems so odd. The combination of hyper targeted, probably through LLM use as they're using my exact phrases, and then no response.

[serene kite]

Hi I am truing to resign from a freelancing position.

Is something like this okay:

I’ve appreciated the opportunity and the work we’ve done so far. I just wanted to be clear and close this properly.```

[lilac yoke]

if you dont want to burn bridges you should give at least two weeks notice. I also wouldn't start with "Just wanted to let you know", cut that off and just go straight into it.

[hollow shell]

Hi

[near ocean]

I dont think theyre gathering info on you based on your response, they already have a lot more info from your profile
Its just spam
The job may have gone by the time you respond or they might only respond to the first x replies, etc

[regal belfry]

Hi guys i am a beginner in coding

[lucid fossil]

noooooooooooooo

yeeeeeeeeees

[vapid violet]

For those that have made linkedIn job postings, do you enter the location or does LinkedIn automatically detect it from the description. Because I feel like I see a lot of posts that have conflicting location information

[peak halo]

sounds like an indicator that it's a fake/scam ad.

[vapid violet]

I have seen it on companies I have name recognition with

[solid parcel]

Can also just be a matter of them expanding a role to multiple locations after initially failing to recruit in their preferred location. I've seen that a few times.

[near ocean]

I think linkedin defaults to or tries to guess things sometimes

[karmic fractal]

Anyone has advice on how to start with python and learn in it a fast effective way?

[peak halo]

what's the rush?

[karmic fractal]

I always tend to like quit after a few weeks/days because I barely see progress

[peak halo]

learning effectively is good. but forget about speed. there's no way to quantify progress and therefore no rate of improvement.

what have you tried so far?

[solid parcel]

Totally normal to feel frustrated when you're first learning. There's a lot of theory and it can be hard to retain concepts or feel like you're learning enough to do much of use. It gets better as you build up enough knowledge to start putting concepts together and building interesting things 🙂 How have you been trying to learn so far?

[karmic fractal]

probably everything tuts, the official python site etc

and also its hard to combine it with school. i dont have a clear agenda for when to learn python

[mortal wedge]

Ah that's a good point. It's likely they're just automating messages out based off of how obvious an LLM message it is

[next plover]

they are trying to get more personal info from you (or they suck at recruiting)

ive had random people try to get my resume for no reason

[mortal wedge]

I don't really care about my resume, I am blasting it out everywhere anyway. It's well within the public information pool rn, lol.

And yeah, it's just really suspicious when someone emails me and then I see the exact values I list on my linkedin profile summary regurgitated back to me.

Like when someone laughs at your joke and tells you that you're so funny and you know the joke was ass so you figure out they want something from you, lol

[next plover]

I would be less worried about using your resume to apply, but the info an attacker might get from a resume would be for a targeted social engineering attack / some kind of ID fraud depending on what info you have on it. If all your personal info is on linkedin though i suppose it doesnt matter

[mortal wedge]

Yeah, that's what I mean. In order to get hired I have to get my information out there, so it's there.

I still leave my specific address off my linkedin, though. And resumes

[clever shell]

i have an associates degree in computer science, and been coding over a decade im 21 and coding had been my life

[severe mountain]

that's crazyy

[clever shell]

ive been wanting to go into it before it was popular and now its crazy popular and everyone wants in and it just sucks so bad

i have a massive gift for QA testing, im an extraordinary bug finder and testing

[tardy ridge]

Yeahhhh I definitely felt when I started grad school that it wouldn't be too difficult to just gun for academia, hopefully have a reasonable shot at doing well, and if not it'd be pretty easy to pivot to a nice industry job

Burnout/depression and job markets have made that sentiment age like milk

[mortal wedge]

The market is oversaturated, especially for remote roles. Just yesterday I saw a position that went up 13 minutes ago and had 400 applicants.

I'm also seeing no entry level/junior roles, so everyone is competing for senior roles. The two largest cohorts I've seen are recent college grads with PHDs and well tenured folks with 20+ years of experience laid off from FAANG or the federal government (in the US).

It's really rough and I would not advise someone to go into coding now if their goal was to make money.

[severe mountain]

i don't have the credentials to comment on this, but if you're exceprtionally great talent, utilise your network to snatch a position, even if its really entry level and basic. Startups are more open to take up cheap engineering resources.

[clever shell]

its my only marketable skill, and ive been honing it since i was a little kid :(

[mortal wedge]

There's also degree/education bloat, I'm seeing PhD/Masters gates for positions that have no need for it.

The market is not behaving like it is used to and there's definitely going to be a lot of outdated advice, bad advice, and good advice sprinkled in but it's hard to determine which to follow.

As @severe mountain mentioned, networking may still give you an edge, someone in a position of power who can vouch for you goes a long way, but that also doesn't go as far as it used to.

[placid grove]

where is the main chat for python, i cannot find it anywhere

[mortal wedge]

To add to the frustration, it's also hard to tell if this is cyclical and the market will recover, or if things will stay the same or just get worse. Nobody knows.

[mortal wedge]

#python-discussion

[clever shell]

i want to get into QA testing and automation, i feel like thats where i would shine the most, and it feels like a hidden enough niche that it might be a hidden gem?

[placid grove]

thank you

[next plover]

over hired in covid, ran the stats up for employment in tech and now its swinging back with a shit ton of people with degrees

[severe mountain]

i am actually in a similar position as they are. i don't have a degree and i am just out of senior high school. used network to get a position in the startup, proved my worth and sticking to it to gather some exp on resume.

[clever shell]

and AI coding is getting remarkable, making less coders needed

[true harness]

have you done any research? QA is typically viewed as the entry point

[next plover]

not really

[mortal wedge]

There are a lot of factors affecting why things are the way they are now. Some are temporary. Some are permanent paradigm shifts. I would advise caution against anyone claiming they've got it all figured out.

[next plover]

AI coding is definetly beneficial for offensive security though

[severe mountain]

honestly, software engineering is way more than just code. I see the AI bros hyping up their vibe coded slop that's barely functional.

[clever shell]

i just want a way out, some kind of angle im not seeing

[mortal wedge]

Companies and corporations have shown that they'd rather pay very little to do a below average job than pay an actual wage for a decent or better job, based off of their utilization of AI

[clever shell]

but its like- i was just born a decade too late

[next plover]

we see this reflected in the rising rate of critical vulns in every piece of software

[severe mountain]

if it helps, your peers are competing in a similar market like this.

[next plover]

dont blame outside circumstances, lock in and do what you want

[clever shell]

companies dont care about quality code, their mindset is “if it works it works”

[mortal wedge]

I don't want to tell you to give up on something that's your dream, just to be clear. I just want people to be aware of what they're up against so they aren't caught unawares.

[true harness]

it's hard to attribute this to any specific factor

[next plover]

it is fair to assume AI code is a factor imo

[mortal wedge]

Well, large scale supply chain attacks can be directly attributed to LLM hallucinations that were weaponized by opporunist hackers

[clever shell]

ive been working 16 hours a day for the last 3 months testing and proding different angles but it feels like everythings been explored and the only correct path is to build a portfolio and apply to hundreds of jobs until you get insanely lucky

[mortal wedge]

(LLMs frequently hallucinated a module that didn't exist, so someone created that module, and when it got installed across a company network now the hacker owns the network)

[next plover]

Veracode, a provider of application risk management, recently unveiled its 2025 GenAI Code Security Report, revealing critical security flaws in AI-generated code. The study analyzed 80 curated coding tasks across more than 100 large language models (LLMs), revealing that while AI produces functional code, it introduces security vulnerabilities in 45 percent of cases.

[clever shell]

but the days of “cushy secure coding job” are definitely over

[mortal wedge]

Yes

[next plover]

write a blog too

[mortal wedge]

If you want to get hired in this climate, you need strong differentiators. PhDs, prior experience, strong portolfio projects.

[severe mountain]

network too btw, network is one insane tool.

[mortal wedge]

And that's just to have a chance, that's by no means a guarantee

[severe mountain]

could try to build a following on linkedin?

[clever shell]

i have a job as a gamedev rn at an indie studio, it doesnt pay very much but it might help?

[severe mountain]

if you've got a job, then you're doing better than a lot of people already, just keep at it and you can slowly grow further? what field do you like, is game dev your love? backend? frontend? what's your pick

[mortal wedge]

I will say that the market is currently going through an upheaval and trying to shift focuses right now will likely not get you far. This is because instead of hiring someone coming into an industry like let's say gamedev from data science they would much rather have someone in gamedev

[clever shell]

i prefer making and designing features to add to the software