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Technophiliacs & Technophiles / Re: entry level web dev advice
« on: December 10, 2014, 12:29:36 am »Makes sense, I guess its more common to do a trial run of sorts than I thought.Well they told me to come in during winter break to do some projects and "see if its a good fit". About as good as it gets I guess. Just worried that they're expecting me to be able to make a polished rails app from scratch. I think I'm just psyching myself out. Either way I'm definitely going to try and get back in the rails game before I start - about a month. I definitely didn't lie about my skills, but I got kind of a weird vibe the way the current developer would be leaving and I would take over. I'm a nerd who spends all the time doing this stuff anyways so I think I'm in good shape - regardless of how this specific job goes, I see it as a minimum 2 weeks experience. I think they'll like what they get and they seem eager to take me on - almost off putting in itself because it's hard to get a call back these days.Being a bit nervous is totally expected - especially by them. Its just as you say - you spend time doing this stuff anyway so the main difference is that now the problems you get will be more random, but you'll also have people to pick their brains a bit.
Pay hasn't been brought up yet, I'm thinking I definitely want to negotiate this before I start my trial period of sorts. If its something insulting idk I might take it anyways, which is fucked, but I only make 11/hr now and I'd be getting much more relevant experience. I'm in a bit of a bargaining position though the way I see it if I am transitioning from part to full time - such a small company they can't just have other people pick up the slack. It would all be me and maybe one other person according to fb, but I forgot to ask about that.
Anyway how much pay should I ask for? Part time I was thinking $20/hr, full time $60k, not sure if those are high or low, not sure whether I should expect less to start and have it grow as I become a better asset - this seems naive - though people on 4chan were saying you could expect real talent to receive bigger rewards at small companies as opposed to mediocrity being the name of the game at a big company. (Cost of living is super high where I live)
I know a bunch of you's are in the industry, I'd appreciate any advice for navigating the business end of things.QuoteI cant be of much help when it comes to pay as I've consistently undersold myself. Take this with a grain of salt but I think it's better to throw a higher number there and have it brought down that throw a low number and have them accept it right away. Each company is a bit different I've changed jobs too often to know what happens after > 6 months at a company in terms of bonuses, promotions, or raises. Youve probably checked this already, but I always check salaries at glassdoor to get numbers. Im also led to believe that while youll work harder at a smaller company, you'll earn more - both money and knowledge.Yeah same I'm no good at those kind of negotiations and its always a touchy subject.QuoteOh, I remembered one more thing to add to that list of questions in reply to your pm: if you can, ask them if theyd like you to read up on something before you come in. Maybe they have some tasks in mind for you already and you get a somewhat head start. I think this might make the first few days easier and it shows that you're really eager to learn.Oh that's definitely a really good idea. Much better than just guessing at what they want. Seems like common sense, but I never would've thought to do that.
Keep us updated.
Responding to your pm about what you would have done differently at your internship (I figure I'll do it here, someone might benefit or have an opinion):
I get what you mean about asking for as much help as possible especially as opposed to struggling through something. On the flip side I know I might struggle through something because I don't want to seem stupid. Maybe you can't really answer as its something to play by ear, how would I judge when to ask for help and when to fire up google? How to get as much guidance as possible, but not seem incompetent. I guess it also somewhat depends on the the task whether it's a straightforward task or something that can be tackled any number of ways.
Sorry I couldnt get back sooner, life's been throwing some curveballs. This is my personal opinion, but I'd fire up google first thing and try different things for 15-30 minutes and then ask for help. Ive found that most tasks generally have a few tight spots and these tight spots fall into two categories:
1) a repeating error that someone with more experience has seen a couple of times, so it's 30 seconds for them to solve but for you it'll be 3 hours (it was 3 hours for them the first time as well). This also includes company/project specific stuff, as each company has a somewhat different dev process. Googling these shits solves like 85% of cases. The rest is asking other developers (including stack overflow) or putting in that 3 hours, going through documentation, digging around some 3rd party code until you get it.
2) a real problem as in sit down, scope out the constraints, think of possible solutions, see which ones fits best and code away. Usually this is the smallest chunk of a problem.
This is being pretty analytical, bordering on overthinking, kinda like describing how you drive a car to someone who's never done it before, it'll come naturally to you, especially in a place where you spend X hours a day coding and are surrounded by other coders.
