entry level web dev advice

[RustyShackleford]

So I posted this on /g/ got some good advice, but my question didn't really get answered. I interviewed for a web dev job and it went well. Though eventually they asked if I was an ios or android guy and I said I use flip phone. I played it cool, but is this an instant discard like having a felony or some shit?

They make websites and apps, I never advertised to be comfortable making apps though I'd certainly do it and don't think not using a smartphone would hinder me. I mean for testing you'd want a few offline test devices anyways.

We'll see what happens with this particular position. While I really don't want a smartphone, I do want a job. I also have an android tablet, so I guess I could play it up like thats my mobile device, but I never favor the tablet over my computer. So... should I go all out get a device get the data plan, whole nine yards. Or just get a couple second hand devices and say I have devices for testing (since I don't and haven't made real mobile apps this seems ever more bizarre honestly) or next time just say 'android tablet and flip phone for calls'.

As for why I don't I just like to get away from the net when I'm out and about. A coworker at my old job was complaining about how she couldn't check her facebook on her phone during the 2 hour rush, and she's fucking 30, its crazy to think of spending every waking minute online. FFS and I consider myself addicted to the net. Also money, nsa, thiefs, battery life, size, durability - I just see no reason to switch - besides trying to appear as a normie.

[aldra]

probably not (well, shouldn't be) a dealbreaker; they might quiz you some more about it.

many web-dev companies are run by designers, who tend to be focused more on image than practicality, so it's possible you got a wanker who immediately assumed you know nothing about publishing to mobile devices because you don't regularly use one.

[RustyShackleford]

probably not (well, shouldn't be) a dealbreaker; they might quiz you some more about it.

many web-dev companies are run by designers, who tend to be focused more on image than practicality, so it's possible you got a wanker who immediately assumed you know nothing about publishing to mobile devices because you don't regularly use one.

Ha you hit one nail one the head, it is a tiny company run by a designer. They didn't seem like wankers, but it was definitely a bit awkward afterwards. Well that's good to hear if this doesn't work out / future stuff.

[RustyShackleford]

god damnit, meant to hit edit instead quoted myself

[LiquidIce]

I don't think you should worry about this. If they don't accept, I wouldnt say it was because of the phone thing.

Btw, I didnt know this for a long time, but both chrome and firefox have some pretty sweet ass mobile browser emulation built into their dev tools. Theyre 100% legit for checking out of the design works well on a smaller screen. One word of warning though: they still use the blink/gecko rendering engines, so might get complaints that your site looks like shit on an iphone using safari 6 because some fucker is part of the <3% of mobile web users who can fucking update their phone. Same goes for android 2. The people at work should have some mobile devices to test both websites and mobile apps on to make sure of compatibility.

Also, up until now, I never had an android/osx phone. I had a wonderful cludgey nokia n900 that was a beast (running busy box, could run aircrack and a host of other linux utils) that people thought I dug up in the 90's.

[RustyShackleford]

I don't think you should worry about this. If they don't accept, I wouldnt say it was because of the phone thing.

Btw, I didnt know this for a long time, but both chrome and firefox have some pretty sweet ass mobile browser emulation built into their dev tools. Theyre 100% legit for checking out of the design works well on a smaller screen. One word of warning though: they still use the blink/gecko rendering engines, so might get complaints that your site looks like shit on an iphone using safari 6 because some fucker is part of the <3% of mobile web users who can fucking update their phone. Same goes for android 2. The people at work should have some mobile devices to test both websites and mobile apps on to make sure of compatibility.

Yeah those are handy, for some reason I'm always paranoid that things won't look the same. That's good to hear they are reliable except for outdated stuff. I would think they have

Also, up until now, I never had an android/osx phone. I had a wonderful cludgey nokia n900 that was a beast (running busy box, could run aircrack and a host of other linux utils) that people thought I dug up in the 90's.

I've considered getting the n900, I wish modern smartphones had software like that.

Anyways good to hear. People on 4chan were merciless as always, though some gave some pretty good advice. Someone suggested buying a few second hand phones which I'm considering, but having a hard time justifying being that I don't yet develop mobile apps or mobile sites and can get on fine with regular tools.

[RustyShackleford]

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.

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.

[LiquidIce]

I don't think you should worry about this. If they don't accept, I wouldnt say it was because of the phone thing.

Btw, I didnt know this for a long time, but both chrome and firefox have some pretty sweet ass mobile browser emulation built into their dev tools. Theyre 100% legit for checking out of the design works well on a smaller screen. One word of warning though: they still use the blink/gecko rendering engines, so might get complaints that your site looks like shit on an iphone using safari 6 because some fucker is part of the <3% of mobile web users who can fucking update their phone. Same goes for android 2. The people at work should have some mobile devices to test both websites and mobile apps on to make sure of compatibility.

Yeah those are handy, for some reason I'm always paranoid that things won't look the same. That's good to hear they are reliable except for outdated stuff. I would think they have

Also, up until now, I never had an android/osx phone. I had a wonderful cludgey nokia n900 that was a beast (running busy box, could run aircrack and a host of other linux utils) that people thought I dug up in the 90's.

I've considered getting the n900, I wish modern smartphones had software like that.

Anyways good to hear. People on 4chan were merciless as always, though some gave some pretty good advice. Someone suggested buying a few second hand phones which I'm considering, but having a hard time justifying being that I don't yet develop mobile apps or mobile sites and can get on fine with regular tools.

Yeah, the n900 is a great piece of hardware. Ive used gstreamer and bash to set up a simple time laps photography thing that then automatically uploaded the pics to a server and made it use imagemagick to compile the pics into a gif. Lots of tinkering around but then, it wasnt too good as an every day phone - things like getting a number down took a few seconds too long for me to bear. I still keep it around for playing around with.

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.

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.

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.

I 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.

Oh, 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.

Keep us updated.

[RustyShackleford]

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.

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.

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.

Makes sense, I guess its more common to do a trial run of sorts than I thought.

I 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.

Oh, 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.

Keep us updated.

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.

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.

[LiquidIce]

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.

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.

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.

Makes sense, I guess its more common to do a trial run of sorts than I thought.

I 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.

Oh, 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.

Keep us updated.

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.

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.

[Lanny]

An employer would have to be pretty retarded to pass on an otherwise promising dev over their choice of phone. It's about as meaningful as asking if you like coke or pepsi. Some employers really are retarded, but I think it would be a real anomaly to miss out on a job because of that, not something worth buying a phone or lying over IMO.

Btw, I didnt know this for a long time, but both chrome and firefox have some pretty sweet ass mobile browser emulation built into their dev tools. Theyre 100% legit for checking out of the design works well on a smaller screen. One word of warning though: they still use the blink/gecko rendering engines, so might get complaints that your site looks like shit on an iphone using safari 6 because some fucker is part of the <3% of mobile web users who can fucking update their phone. Same goes for android 2. The people at work should have some mobile devices to test both websites and mobile apps on to make sure of compatibility.

Getting on a bit of tangent here but if you're developing on OSX the XCode dev tools have a very good (although RAM heavy) iOS emulator. My mobile dev workflow is to use the chrome emulation to get a layout right and final testing is against the emulator. Also Chrome on android has this cool feature where over USB you can fire up an inspector of the mobile chrome DOM but the inspector front end is running on your dev machine, and force touch states and execute code and whatnot. It's been a real life saver for me, nothing worse than trying to guess why something isn't working based exclusively on what you can see on screen

[SBTlauien]

What kind of schooling do you currently have completed?

What are the job requirements?