How to stand out as a SDE-1/2 in the job market.

Ok younglings, y'all say you want a job that you'll do anything for a job but the truth of the matter is y'all are not even trying.

Let me just give it to you straight - spraying and praying your CV doesn't count as trying. This may or may not be a viable strategy, who knows, but are you seriously willing to go through life like this? With no intention, no plan and just depending on dumb luck to get you a job, any job, doesn't matter which job?

No. Of course you're not that guy. I know that you'd behave differently if only you knew what the correct behaviour was. In this thread I'm going to tell you the correct behaviour, so if you want to keep doing what you been doing, don't read any further. The good news is that it is ludicrously simple to stand out from the hordes. Here are the basic ingredients

- love programming
- show proof of the love.

Sounds simple? Yes it is very simple. If you can fake love. Which one can't. So it's actually only simple if you love programming. Or.....if you can bring yourself to love programming.

Which is my main grouse with the median fresher CV - there is literally no evidence of love for the job in the CV. Please remember that the best seniors that you want to work for love programming. And they are waiting to find a junior who also loves what they love.

What you're seeking, is also seeking you (or some version of you).

So many of you have this utilitarian approach to programming. And you are severely discounting how much fun it is to talk so a young programmer who does this for fun. So, how to get here?

I remember as a young man being terrified of nuclear war. I thought it inconceivable that we as a race had amassed enough destructive power to end the most unique planet in the Universe in an afternoon. It would not even be too much trouble tbh.

https://twitter.com/pragdua/status/1635839979464310784

I don't worry about it any more. Not because the risk has gone away. Rather because it was entirely unhelpful to worry about this. It was a waste of time and energy. So I got tired of waiting for the bombs to drop and literally forgot that there's 10s of 1000s of nuclear weapons

Enjoy your life!

When I was a kid I used to enjoy life. Then life happened and all enjoyment became contingent on something or the other happening.
I’ll relax when I have xxx in the bank, when my family’s future is assured, etc etc.

You relate? Well I got news for you from the halfway mark of life. It appears as though this suffering never stops. In fact it might be a fundamental aspect of life.

We seek security in property, assets, relationships and so on. But such security is not a feature of this existence.

It is of course too early to say whether he is a genius or a madman but we can try and understand if there's a method behind the madness.

A thread of some mental models to make sense of what Chief Twit is up to. # DNA
Companies have a DNA just like people do. Musk's radioactivity is a sign that he understands the most important thing is that Twitter assumes his DNA. Quickly. Shock and Awe.
Else it will treat him like a foreign body and seek to eject him.

The best time to start an emergency fund was 5 years ago. The second best time is now. The thing about financial prudence is that it can unlock the ability to take that tide when it appears.

I have a top shelf MBA (IIM Bangalore) and I can say it is valuable as a credential and nothing more. It openened precisely one door for me. Perhaps others leverage their alumni network better than I do.

https://twitter.com/ponnappa/status/1501084558950744065

I found my peers to in general be conservative if not downright fearful and when I went for my 25 year reunion I felt immense gratitude that I had disassociated from that peer group. Quite a sorry bunch they turned out to be (exceptions are there)

Ohhh....population....ohh poverty....blah blah aega toh modi hi

Bangladesh. Bhakts, Bangladesh. Vishwaguru. For comparison.

Did you know that you are already doing TDD and just don't know it? Surprised?

Let's see how you build a program. Write some code. Hit refresh on the browser. Find a bug. Try and work out the bug. Hit refresh again.

...

https://twitter.com/PratikshaDake/status/1313761665154912258

If it's some complex logic then perhaps you open up the console and type some commands. Find a bug. Make a fix. Type those same commands again. Rinse, repeat.

So you're already like kind of doing TDD. You're generating test cases. You're running them.

One like is one opinion on hard work. Mad of 100. Go! Hard work is simultaneously the most over rated and the most under rated thing.

So we all like to refer to engineering management as 'herding cats' because cats are notoriously hard to herd. But have you ever met a real cat herder?

I have. My Dad.

THREAD Some background - as kids we had between 1 to 5 cats in the house at any given time. Dad always disliked cats but he tolerated them for our sake. He tolerated most things except for one which he couldn't stand - if they jumped on the dining table. That was crossing the line.