Title says it all. I said i wish i could dissappear after discussing issues at work with copilot. It gave me the suicide hotline.
How much of this does management know
I’ve been a software engineer for about 8 years but hate it and don’t find it enjoyable. What are some alternate career paths I can take?
Hey folks, I got an interview last week for the SDET role based in NJ.. I was extremely excited and nervous because 3 leaders and a director was next to me watching and I struggled. Even though I had an idea of what collections and how I can itirate but to be honest, I totally panicked and did not perform well.. technical interview was the last step of the hiring process
Its been 3-4 business days and I sent a follow up to HR asking any feedback that can help me and also when to hear back for the final decision. They havent replied yet but I was wondering if you had similar experience with Verisk. Any feedback from you guys will help me a lot keeping my mind clear.
This was a dream job so I am so excited to hear back. Even if it is a rejection, I would prefer a reply rather than ghosting. HR really seems to be nice so hoping to get a decision from them soon(I hope)!
I’m looking for some advice on how to reset my path and land an entry-level CS role. I feel like I ruined my resume and being a first-gen college grad with no real tech network, I could use an outside perspective.
I graduated from the University of Michigan last spring with a Bacholer's in Computer Science. In college, I had 2 small internships. One as a Project lead for a non profit, where we designed a software for another non profit. One as a "Power BI" intern, where I worked with maufacturing data to create PowerBI dashboards.
I started applying to full time postitions around early 2025. Because I didn't have many CS peers, I had no idea how important LeetCode/DSA was. Every time I managed to land an a potenital job, I bombed the technical portion.
Right as I graduated, my father got major health issues. I had to move home and prioritize my family and support them. To support my girlfriend (currently in school) and I, I took an IT Help Desk job because it was easy and availible.
A year has passed, family health is stable, and I am ready to push for a better career. My current IT job is stabl, but it is moving me into IT, which I don't want do.
I have a solid programming foundation from my CS degree However, I have a 1-year gap of "no professional coding."
How do I frame a year at an IT Help Desk followed by a CS degree to data recruiters?
Should I spend my time on LeetCode, certificates, applying, or a personal portfolio project?
Appreciate any brutally honest feedback or steps if you were me. Thanks
This one really hits home because I have made this mistake a lott before I figured out how it all works.
Here is what nobody tells you. The first person reading your resume is not a person. It is a bot called ATS and its only job is to match your resume to the job description word for word. Word for word bro.
So if the job description says cross functional collaboration and your resume says worked with different teams, that is a keyword miss. Same meaning, but completely different outcome and YOU"RE GONE
Here is the three layer framework I use for every job description I actually care about. Save it and apply it, cause it took me forever to come up with this system.
Layer 1 is required skills. These are listed under requirements or qualifications. These exact words need to be on your resume, not synonyms, the actual words.
Layer 2 is preferred skills. Most people skip this and that is the mistake. These are the differentiators. For Verizon I had one semester of agile workflows from a class project, used the word agile twice on my resume and got the interview. Everyone else probably left it out thinking it did not matter.
Layer 3 is cultural and soft language. Phrases like fast paced environment, ownership mentality, drives impact. These are not filler, they are telling you exactly how the team thinks. Put them into your bullet points naturally (you can use AI for this, don't know why people are afraid to as long as you read over it. Oh and also use XYZ format)
Then rank your keywords by two rules:
- Frequency - where if a word shows up more than once in the description it matters more.
- Placement - where words in the top third of the job description carry more weight with ATS scoring. Bro science I know
I went from basically zero responses to a 10% response rate just by doing this. If you didnt know, 10% is insane. This includes things like OAs, recruiter screens and full blown interviews. Same experience, same projects, just the right language and the results are insane.
Do this for every application you actually want and you are already ahead of like 90% of people applying for the same role.
If you want a full guide on exactly how I do it step by step, I break it down in this video with cool COD gameplay :)
Let me know if you have any questions but give me your thoughts on this strat too or what you guys do to get more callbacks.
Need honest career advice: Deloitte USI BTA vs TCS Digital (CSE fresher) 🙏
I’m a CSE graduate deciding between 2 offers and would really appreciate honest advice from people working in these roles.
Offer 1: Deloitte USI - Business Technology Analyst (BTA) - 7.6 LPA
Team mention: USI Tax.
Location: Hyd (No relocation needed)
What’s making me anxious is the interview experience...
Both my technical round and managerial round were mostly non-technical:
Very little hardcore technical discussion.
Then I checked my interviewers’ LinkedIn profiles only to realize that all (from other panels as well) had started as SAP consultants 😭and are now managers & senior managers at Deloitte.
This really has me worried that I might get pushed into SAP .
I'm not really aware of SAP opportunities but am highly worried that it might be too irrelevant to my BTech degree .😭
I know that it has technical and functional sides, but my concerns:
- It might narrow down my experience or field to just SAP and hence the opportunities. I would not have much to put on my resume unlike other tech roles.( Getting locked into one ecosystem too early)
- I wont have much to learn. In SAP, only ABAP has coding. **No offense to anyone into SAP🥲
- Worst part is getting into functional. I'd rather leave😭🤧( totally non-tech)
Also, I might go for MTech / higher studies after 1–2 years (not fully sure yet), so I don’t want to end up in a role that doesn’t help my technical profile.
Offer 2: TCS Digital - 7.09LPA.
Location: Not confirmed( Likely relocation)
I honestly know much less about what freshers actually get here
What I keep hearing: -
“Deloitte is better, go for it. It's difficult to get in there and you got it😑
“TCS growth is slow”
“TCS could also give you SAP. How could you be sure?”
But I’m wondering if people are just reacting to the Deloitte brand 🤷♀️
My actual dilemma:😩
Deloitte: What if I assume SAP / non-dev and reject it… but they might’ve actually given me an SE / technical role? (I’ve seen seniors from my college, placed similarly through campus, later getting software engineering roles.)
TCS: What if I choose it assuming better dev chances....and still end up in SAP / support / non-dev work there?
Questions:
I know it’s in demand, but I’d love to hear from people in SAP - does it offer career growth and exit opportunities comparable to mainstream dev roles, or does it get too niche over time? 🥲
Please especially reply if you’ve worked in Deloitte USI / TCS Digital / SAP 🙏
I’m currently in healthcare (15 years) and have gotten to the point of complete burnout. I’m currently working from home for an ortho office, which is nice, but I’m just…done. I’ve been looking at Computer Science degrees at my community college; cybersecurity, web design, and system engineer tech are the three that I’ve really been interested in. I don’t mind going further with the degree (bachelors/masters) after I’m able to get an associate’s and get in the field, and money isn’t a huge motivator (~45-50k/year is fine) my big questions are: what is work life balance like? Are you able to work remotely? Are these jobs that transfer well to other countries? (We plan to retire in another country) is it hard to get your foot in the door?
I don’t really know how to start this so I’m just gonna be straight up.
I’m a CS student at Boston, graduating in December, or at least that’s the plan. My GPA is sitting at a 2.4 right now, and honestly I think it’s about to get worse because I’m likely failing some classes this semester. So by the time I walk, it might be even lower than that.
If you look at my degree audit it’s kind of ugly. 13 W’s. Some F’s. A lot of C’s and D’s scattered throughout. I also had to switch from a BS in CS to a BA in CS at some point because I couldn’t keep up with the requirements. And I had to delay graduation by a full semester because I was hospitalized for a month during my degree. so that whole semester of my life was just… gone.
Here’s the part I’m most ashamed to admit: throughout a big chunk of my CS degree, I was dealing with really bad anxiety and depression, and I leaned on ChatGPT heavily to get through assignments and classes. Like, heavily. And now I’m sitting here at the end of my degree realizing I don’t actually know a lot of the core stuff I was supposed to learn. OS, data structures, systems. I can talk about it surface level but if someone sat me down for a technical interview I’d probably blank.
No internships. No real projects I’m proud of. No experience. Nothing on my resume that would make a recruiter look twice.
And right now, with the semester ending, I have zero motivation left. Like I genuinely cannot make myself care about finishing strong. I’ve kind of just given up at this point and I’m going through the motions.
On top of everything, I’m an international student, which adds a completely different layer of pressure to all of this. If I don’t land a job after graduation, I can’t just take my time and figure things out. I have a limited window to stay in the country, and if nothing works out, I have to go back home. There’s no gap year option, no “I’ll just apply again next cycle”. it’s either I find something fast or I’m on a plane. So while other people in my position might have the luxury of taking a breath after graduation and regrouping, I genuinely don’t have that. The clock starts the second I graduate, and right now I don’t feel anywhere close to ready.
And the worst part is I don’t even know what direction to go in after I graduate. Like, I can’t figure out a single path that actually works for me right now. I can’t get a job because I have no internship experience. I can’t get an internship because it’s too late in the season and I haven’t applied anywhere. I can’t apply to a master’s program because most of them have GPA cutoffs and mine doesn’t qualify. And even if somehow an opportunity landed in my lap, I genuinely don’t know how to code well enough to pass a technical interview like I mean that literally, not just imposter syndrome talking. I have six months until I graduate and every door I look at feels either closed or like it requires something I don’t have. I feel completely trapped in a circle where every option needs a prerequisite that my current situation doesn’t allow for. I don’t know what the first step is supposed to be, or if there even is one at this point.
I’m not posting this for sympathy. I just want to know is there any realistic path forward from here? Has anyone been in a spot like this and actually turned it around? What would you even do first? Do I grind Leetcode? Build projects? Be honest on applications? I genuinely don’t know where to start or if it’s even worth starting.
Hey all,
I’ve got ~6 years in QA automation/SDET (CI/CD, some backend testing).
I’m planning a CS (systems/cloud) or Cybersecurity master’s and trying to figure out what roles I should actually target where I have a real chance at getting interviews.
Main goals are remote work, solid pay growth, and something more engineering-focused long term.
Right now I’m thinking stuff like:
Backend SWE
SRE / Platform
DevOps / Cloud
Security / AppSec
For people who’ve made a similar jump what should I actually focus on applying to first, and what’s been realistic for getting interviews?
Also curious what companies/titles worked for you.
Thanks.
ETS is coming up and I’ve been looking into tech as a career. I’m currently a 19D so no tech experience there, but did some college back in 2017-2020 where I got my associates in computer science.
I am scheduled for the vocational track class next month as I know SFL TAP offers help with this but just wanted to see if any prior service or currently in service guys/gals had any personal experience with this that wouldn’t mind sharing, any advice is appreciated!
I’ll have a Cobb salad with a Diet Coke.
Hi everyone,
I wanted some honest advice.
I have around 5 years of experience and took a maternity break after leaving my job in 2024. Now I’m trying to restart my career and move into Python backend development.
For the past several months, I’ve been studying DSA, SQL, FastAPI, APIs, backend concepts, and building Python projects on my own. I’ve also solved 200+ LeetCode problems and have been practicing consistently.
But honestly, the job market feels very discouraging right now, especially with a career gap. Sometimes I feel worried that recruiters may reject my profile because of the break before even checking my skills or projects.
I just wanted to ask:
Is it realistically possible to get a backend/Python job after a maternity break?
Do personal projects and DSA prep actually help in getting interview calls?
What would you focus on if you were in my position?
Would really appreciate honest advice from people in the industry.
Thanks.
I just got an offer for a SWE 3 year fellowship role. I'm a new grad from a school in Boston.
Some info on the role
AI focused SaaS startup in the public sector(~25 employees with history of over 100 clients)
Location: New Orleans (I would need to relocate) (can work fully Remote after the first year)
Salary: 70k with potential 10k yearly raise based on performance
Work hours: 60-80 hours per week is the standard
The company highlights how the fellowship would be a major career accelerator and provide access to mentorship from CTO and chairman.
However I’m very hesitant to take such a demanding role given the compensation. The hiring manager explicitly mentioned how most developers work till 9/10pm and work most weekends too. 60-80hrs a week at 70k translates to around $18/hr.
Any advice on whether I should take it or not?
And does anyone have any advice or experience working in a high intensity SWE environment?
Comment with any questions and I’d be happy to share more context.
TLDR: Would you take a 70k/60-80 hrs for a potential 3 year career launch, or should I grind more applications for a more standard offer?
I recently graduated from college this month and i’ve been applying to lots of entry level tech roles specifically software engineering and software developer bc my degree is in computer science. however, I didn’t do an internship in my time in college, all I have is 1 yr of undergraduate research and a senior design project where we worked with industry sponsors on solving a specific problem as well as a course project to show my skills in both frontend and backend. I also was a part of a club for like 3 months where I collaborated and helped organize events. That’s pretty much what I have in my resume and I’m not sure if I have a chance in this market with that or not. I kind of want some tips or advice on how I can increase my chances, and what type of niche roles I could apply to or what steps I may have to take to improve from my current experiences if they’re not strong enough
What a great future I ended up at. Getting a job is a pipe dream ig. God knows what's happening to my student loans
I'm a freshman in Software Engineering university and i have a big dream of landing a job/internship at these top FAANG companies but i'm not sure in what field to get best in. Currently i'm programming in C#, learned the basics of c# as well as i'm learning the OOP right now. I learned it this year and i like it, now the problem is i don't know how to create projects with it, i want to do so much but i don't know how to start, with what to start, and so. I want to make projects so i can attach them to my CV and eventually getting a job/internship at those companies, my goal is to work as a back-end developer. Also i'm looking for a developer in this field who is open for connecting. Any suggestions for how should i continue developing myself, building projects, and any other suggestions y'all have.
I recently went through the Roblox SWE Game Developer interview process and wanted to understand if others have seen something similar.
For some context, i’ve done a lot of Roblox development work (freelance games, a few reaching millions of plays, developed my own games which got 200k+ total plays, and up to 1.5k peak CCU).
I applied in April and went through OA, recruiter call and interviews. The role included a portfolio review and a technical interview.
In the portfolio review, things went well and the interviewer seemed positive. In the technical, I solved the first problem and made progress on the follow up but half way through, the interviewer accused me of cheating because I was looking “left and right” and asked me to share my screen which I did, and had nothing. I clarified that I was only looking at the question and my previously written answer since it was a follow up but he didn’t seem to care. In the end I ran out of time and didn’t finish but the interviewer said I was moving in the right direction. The next day I received an email from my recruiter stating they didn’t want to move forward.
About a month later, my recruiter reached out again saying the hiring manager was impressed by my portfolio review and experiences and wanted to move me forward to a behavioral round. I completed that recently which I thought went pretty well and the hiring manager seemed satisfied but was again told they won’t move forward.
I’m trying to understand how common this sequence is:
Rejected after technical
Re opened by hiring manager
Rejected again after behavioral
Does anyone have an idea why I would be rejected again even though it seemed like everything went well? Could it be caused by the technical interview?
Has anyone seen a situation like this turn into an offer later, or is this typically just a final decision even after re-review?
Lastly, is there any point in following up with the recruiter or is this situation just closed?
I have a BS in Agricultural Economics from a university outside the US. I'm now in the US and trying to figure out the best path into tech/IT/CS — ideally landing an industry role, with the longer-term goal of possibly applying to a CS PhD program down the road.
Due to location constraints, applying to in-person MS programs (which would give me more flexibility on acceptance odds) isn't really an option right now. So I've been looking at affordable, well-regarded online options:
- Georgia Tech OMSCS (~$8.5K total)
- UT Arlington online MS CS / Data Science (~$10K)
My questions:
For someone with a non-CS undergrad from abroad, is one of these online MS degrees a realistic investment to break into tech in the US?
Would it actually help me get interviews, or would I still be screened out without CS undergrad/work experience?
If a CS PhD is a long-term goal, does an online MS like GT OMSCS carry enough weight for PhD admissions, or do I need on-campus thesis research for that?
Anything I should be doing alongside the degree (open-source, internships, projects) to make this actually work?
Any honest takes appreciated — including "don't bother" if that's the real answer.
Hey guys, I’m looking for honest opinions about my situation.
3 years ago, I did a 10-month web dev bootcamp. Out of 25 people, only 3 of us ended up finding a job.
I got an internship after the bootcamp, which turned into a 3-month internship, then a fixed-term contract and finally permanent contract. I’ve now been at the same company for almost 2 years.
My stack is mostly full stack JS:
React, React Native, Node.js.
To be completely honest, I initially oversold my skills to get my first opportunity. But once I got in, I worked hard during the internship to close the gap between what I claimed and my actual level. And it worked.
Now I’m wondering where I realistically stand in the European market.
I don’t have a formal CS degree. My fear is:
Did I genuinely break into the industry, or did I just get lucky once and slip through the cracks ?
My son is graduating with a CS degree but is struggling to secure a position or internship. I suggested he enroll in a graduate program to further his skills while waiting for the job market to stabilize following the recent AI disruptions.
I'm also asking him to take courses outside his primary CS graduate program to build an interdisciplinary skillset. Electrical Engineering, Accounting, maybe even learn to be an electrician as a side hustle.
Do you think this is sound advice?
Hey everyone,
I’m a college student and I need to pick my track this year, and I’m honestly stuck between Software Engineering, AI, and Cybersecurity.
I get the basic idea of each one:
But I feel like the real differences only show up once you’re actually working in the field.
So I wanted to ask people actually in these areas:
I want to choose software engineering, because i really like to build (Apps, websites, backends ...etc), but i want to know the real differences between these specializations, and what you do in each of them
I like coding and problem-solving in general, but I don’t want to pick something just based on hype or salary posts.
Would really appreciate honest opinions (even if it’s “don’t choose AI unless you love math” type advice).
Thanks 🙏