5 ms·

BTW, why are you applying just for internships? I checked out your (non-forked) github repos and you're definitely better than I was as an intern. It's not seni

BTW, why are you applying just for internships? I checked out your (non-forked) github repos and you're definitely better than I was as an intern. It's not senior engineer level, but you could definitely go for at least a junior eng position for sure. God knows we hire much worse junior FE engineers than that. Or are you interviewing for FAANG(-like) positions only? edit: small tip though, I would rename the App2.js etc. files to something else, having multiple files named the same but with a number difference says a lot about experience level. also: do not use regex for parsing XML (https://github.com/BlastWind/xml-leaf-highlighter/blob/main/xml_leaf_highlighter/main.py https://github.com/BlastWind/xml-leaf-highlighter/blob/main/...). That is also a common newbie mistake I hope this doesn't come across as patronizing, I didn't mean it so.

gumby 4y ago
My kid chose this approach. He had a mix of startup and bigger (not mega-) company experience and chose FAANG internship because they have the infrastructure to make an internship productive. This was from some advice he received. By "infrastructure" it's not just code (CI, tools, etc) but personnel, how they come up with projects, etc. New grads or still-undergrads may have a lot of programming experience but none on working as part of a team.
- dj_mc_merlin 4y ago
  > By "infrastructure" it's not just code (CI, tools, etc) but personnel, how they come up with projects, etc. New grads or still-undergrads may have a lot of programming experience but none on working as part of a team. Fully agreed, the code part of the job is really only 20%. The rest is learning to do so in a team and business environment, which is actually much harder than programming. I learned this in a startup however and would definitely recommend it to others. You learn less "the correct approach", but more or less get shoved into doing bigger things earlier since all the big guns are focused on some ungodly hard problem. So all the medium-hard problems get shoved to the juniors and interns. It's not the healthiest environment sure (I was doing 40hr/wks as part-time frequently), but if you can survive in it for a while you gain tenacity and a lot of skills that are hard to normally deepen until later.
- thwayunion 4y ago
  I've supervised a ton of internships, and was an academic before that. The success of internships is largely preordained by the quality of the mentor. Specifically: careful project selection, good advising particularly in the first few weeks, and political/social capital to translate internships into offers (both at the company and elsewhere). Interns can screw things up, and in rare cases heroically rescue an internship, but the liklihood of a good outcome for the average intern is often preordained. So the real advice is to find an excellent mentor. But that's really hard because you rarely know who the mentor is when applying. In lieu of better information, FAANGs and Better-than-FAANG (eg Jane Street) are a good proxy because they disproportionately pull individual contributors with significant experience mentoring juniors: PhDs, people who TA'd during undergraduate, etc.
  - dinkelberg 4y ago
    Out of curiosity, which companies other than Jane Street would you consider "Better-than-FAANG"? I am asking because I am interested in internships, too, as I am currently an undergrad (in math).
    - thwayunion 4y ago
      Financial firms and biotech firms tend to have good mentors. Other than that, it really depends on the team.
blastwind 4y ago
Ha! You're good. I'm still in uni, so I am interviewing for internships (mainly for big tech companies right now since I had a taste at a IoT startup last year). Perhaps I am underestimating myself, but I'm in no rush. Thank you reminding me about that diagramming and xml-parsing repos. Regarding the diagramming repo, that was honestly some of worst code I've written (2000 lined React class with 15 states). It's so bad that I put a warning in the repo and haven't gone back to it since. And regarding the xml parsing repo, wow, you really looked carefully! I however added a funny warning regarding this in the readme (https://github.com/BlastWind/xml-leaf-highlighter#design-decisions https://github.com/BlastWind/xml-leaf-highlighter#design-dec...). I wanted to use regex since it was just a school project. Going to add an additional warning, thanks.
- dj_mc_merlin 4y ago
  All the luck to you! You seem to have all the qualities needed to succeed in our industry, and some on top: not many engineers are this good at speaking. If you can wrestle with the technical problems well enough you'll find soft skills to be such a force multiplier it's ridiculous.
- intelVISA 4y ago
  Good luck Andrew, keep building and you'll go far w/ your attitude & soft skills
Cthulhu_ 4y ago
> also: do not use regex for parsing XML HE COMES! https://stackoverflow.com/questions/1732348/regex-match-open-tags-except-xhtml-self-contained-tags https://stackoverflow.com/questions/1732348/regex-match-open...
- bigbluedots 4y ago
  Hadn't seen that post before and it's fantastic! Thanks for linking
- underdeserver 4y ago
  I will never not upvote this link.
- unwind 4y ago
  That is truly a piece of modern techno art, appreciated by a choice few (that'd be us). Thanks for reminding me. Also, pro tip to people who haven't seen it: the "best" answer is not at the top, so remember to scroll down. :)
- throw1234651234 4y ago
  Is it bad that I know at "SO: HE COMES!"?
- sph 4y ago
  I always come back for "One whose Name cannot be expressed in the Basic Multilingual Plane"
- metaphor 4y ago
  For the unindoctrinated, context with less elitist snark[1] and discussion from 13 years ago[2]. [1] https://blog.codinghorror.com/parsing-html-the-cthulhu-way/ https://blog.codinghorror.com/parsing-html-the-cthulhu-way/ [2] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=944673 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=944673
cdkmoose 4y ago
regex is overrated, real programmers parse XML with bash. #sarcasm #seenitinthewild
- actually_a_dog 4y ago
  Bah. Real programmers use emacs and C-x M-c butterfly to eliminate the need to parse XML.
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]

gumby 4y ago

My kid chose this approach. He had a mix of startup and bigger (not mega-) company experience and chose FAANG internship because they have the infrastructure to make an internship productive. This was from some advice he received. By "infrastructure" it's not just code (CI, tools, etc) but personnel, how they come up with projects, etc. New grads or still-undergrads may have a lot of programming experience but none on working as part of a team.

dj_mc_merlin 4y ago
> By "infrastructure" it's not just code (CI, tools, etc) but personnel, how they come up with projects, etc. New grads or still-undergrads may have a lot of programming experience but none on working as part of a team. Fully agreed, the code part of the job is really only 20%. The rest is learning to do so in a team and business environment, which is actually much harder than programming. I learned this in a startup however and would definitely recommend it to others. You learn less "the correct approach", but more or less get shoved into doing bigger things earlier since all the big guns are focused on some ungodly hard problem. So all the medium-hard problems get shoved to the juniors and interns. It's not the healthiest environment sure (I was doing 40hr/wks as part-time frequently), but if you can survive in it for a while you gain tenacity and a lot of skills that are hard to normally deepen until later.
thwayunion 4y ago
I've supervised a ton of internships, and was an academic before that. The success of internships is largely preordained by the quality of the mentor. Specifically: careful project selection, good advising particularly in the first few weeks, and political/social capital to translate internships into offers (both at the company and elsewhere). Interns can screw things up, and in rare cases heroically rescue an internship, but the liklihood of a good outcome for the average intern is often preordained. So the real advice is to find an excellent mentor. But that's really hard because you rarely know who the mentor is when applying. In lieu of better information, FAANGs and Better-than-FAANG (eg Jane Street) are a good proxy because they disproportionately pull individual contributors with significant experience mentoring juniors: PhDs, people who TA'd during undergraduate, etc.
- dinkelberg 4y ago
  Out of curiosity, which companies other than Jane Street would you consider "Better-than-FAANG"? I am asking because I am interested in internships, too, as I am currently an undergrad (in math).
  - thwayunion 4y ago
    Financial firms and biotech firms tend to have good mentors. Other than that, it really depends on the team.

blastwind 4y ago

Ha! You're good. I'm still in uni, so I am interviewing for internships (mainly for big tech companies right now since I had a taste at a IoT startup last year). Perhaps I am underestimating myself, but I'm in no rush. Thank you reminding me about that diagramming and xml-parsing repos. Regarding the diagramming repo, that was honestly some of worst code I've written (2000 lined React class with 15 states). It's so bad that I put a warning in the repo and haven't gone back to it since. And regarding the xml parsing repo, wow, you really looked carefully! I however added a funny warning regarding this in the readme (https://github.com/BlastWind/xml-leaf-highlighter#design-decisions https://github.com/BlastWind/xml-leaf-highlighter#design-dec...). I wanted to use regex since it was just a school project. Going to add an additional warning, thanks.

dj_mc_merlin 4y ago
All the luck to you! You seem to have all the qualities needed to succeed in our industry, and some on top: not many engineers are this good at speaking. If you can wrestle with the technical problems well enough you'll find soft skills to be such a force multiplier it's ridiculous.
intelVISA 4y ago
Good luck Andrew, keep building and you'll go far w/ your attitude & soft skills

Cthulhu_ 4y ago

> also: do not use regex for parsing XML HE COMES! https://stackoverflow.com/questions/1732348/regex-match-open-tags-except-xhtml-self-contained-tags https://stackoverflow.com/questions/1732348/regex-match-open...

bigbluedots 4y ago
Hadn't seen that post before and it's fantastic! Thanks for linking
underdeserver 4y ago
I will never not upvote this link.
unwind 4y ago
That is truly a piece of modern techno art, appreciated by a choice few (that'd be us). Thanks for reminding me. Also, pro tip to people who haven't seen it: the "best" answer is not at the top, so remember to scroll down. :)
throw1234651234 4y ago
Is it bad that I know at "SO: HE COMES!"?
sph 4y ago
I always come back for "One whose Name cannot be expressed in the Basic Multilingual Plane"
metaphor 4y ago
For the unindoctrinated, context with less elitist snark[1] and discussion from 13 years ago[2]. [1] https://blog.codinghorror.com/parsing-html-the-cthulhu-way/ https://blog.codinghorror.com/parsing-html-the-cthulhu-way/ [2] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=944673 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=944673

cdkmoose 4y ago

regex is overrated, real programmers parse XML with bash. #sarcasm #seenitinthewild

actually_a_dog 4y ago
Bah. Real programmers use emacs and C-x M-c butterfly to eliminate the need to parse XML.
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]