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#Incoming Grad SWE Advice
vernal shoal
viral stream
I'm not matched with a team yet. So they probably won't be able to give a good answer yet.
silk roost
I'm confused. Do you have a job offer that you accepted?
viral stream
Correct
silk roost
And you are nervous you aren't qualified?
viral stream
I'm nervous that I'm going to get rusty over the summer if I don't practice. But since I have finite time, I want to know where to focus my practice.
silk roost
I assume you can't start during the summer?
viral stream
Correct, unfortunately. But yes an earlier start date would've been a nice solution.
silk roost
That sounds kinda odd. I think if I were you I would hedge my bets with LC practice on the off chance your offer is revoked. I don't know the specifics, but I can't think of a good reason a company would want you to start several months out outside of financial issues.
viral stream
I was an intern. I actually had this job lined up before I even started my third year at university (so over 5 months ago).
silk roost
What did they say when you asked to start sooner?
viral stream
They have a specific hiring cycle for grads. They all join around the same time of the year.
I suppose I could insist to join earlier, but I'm not that nervous.
silk roost
Ok. I think a personal project might be fun. I don't think you need to worry too much about forgetting everything over a couple months.
My real advice is to not worry about it and to enjoy the summer, but if you are so inclined, I think a summer long personal project is what you are looking for.
viral stream
Yes that sounds sensible. I should think of some project that involves postgresql/networking.
solar bough
I'm nervous that I'm going to get rusty over the summer if I don't practice. But...
You think they won't expect this from an incoming fresh SWE?
vague berry
It’s prob a good idea to keep interviewing skills fresh in case the company does smth crazy like rescinding the offer. Not out of the question considering economy is going into recession
viral stream
You think they won't expect this from an incoming fresh SWE?
I added 2 assumptions to my OP, related to your point.
solar bough
those are bad assumptions, given you don't know what team you're joining
Cart before the horse.
viral stream
Well I suppose assumption 1 is invalid, since in theory I could join a team that's already way out of my league. But assumption 2 holds regardless.
silk roost
I actually think your main assumption is that knowledge is what will make you succeed. But experienced developers lack knowledge all the time. Wisdom and experience are the key. Gaining that is difficult to do outside of the job itself.
solar bough
Well I suppose assumption 1 is invalid, since in theory I could join a team that...
assumption 2 holds only if you know how to prepare..
I mean, if that's what you're asking about, you could probably throw darts at a board filled with tech stacks..
viral stream
I actually think your main assumption is that knowledge is what will make you su...
I think "wisdom and experience" are synonyms (in this case) for "pattern matching over the shared set of skills common to developer tasks".
So I think the only real solution is in fact an in-depth personal project, since there's a better chance of gaining this "wisdom and experience" that's more generalizable.
reef knot
do you have any info on the company culture etc
viral stream
Relatively chill. But filled with high performers, PHDs, etc.