Thanks for all the advice. I think it's a good idea to interview at a bunch of places to build up for a dream job. Although I'm on my third 6 month internship through school, the managers basically lied about what the jobs would entail to get me to accept (i.e. saying it's a software developer position and I'm stuck doing performance testing all the time), so there's not much I'm even proud to put on my resume. I've had to search far and wide for a reason to write some code, and that's what I always list on my resume.
Maybe one big problem with interviewing at a bunch of places is that I'm most proficient with Python and not Java. I learned to use it as my primary language because a very intelligent friend of mine was using it all the time, and he worked at Google. Although, the most technical interviews I've ever had were with Amazon where they let you use whatever language you want to come up with algorithms to answer their questions. It seems there aren't many companies that use Python.
Anyhow, I'll definitely apply around to a bunch of places even if I don't find them entirely appealing. They can't be much worse than what I've already endured through my internships, and I've learned to make the best of my time at my jobs by now anyway. I was thinking of doing the Y Combinator Common App today, so maybe I'll do that.
And you're right, it was loads of fun having an actual reason to solve some problems in OCaml. Actually, I'm not so passionate about the language, I just thought it was really cool that they were looking for sysadmins who also knew about functional programming. But I will check out that link anyway.
I like the idea of asking the recruiter what was missing, but I mostly am put off by it since I fear he'll tell me they just went with a better candidate...and I'm afraid of hearing what I did wrong, because I think I'd feel even more hopeless after hearing that. I guess I need to take the hint from this post and try harder to not fear rejection.
I've been rejected from every job I've ever wanted, and had to settle for places that I ended up hating. I was just rejected this morning by Jane Street Capital, after spending hours on the programming problems they had sent me, trying to make them perfect. I had written and sent Python and Scheme solutions along with my OCaml solutions too. I enjoyed reading this short post, but I'm having trouble using this most recent rejection to my advantage. I can't figure out what I'm doing wrong. As much as I dream of working for myself on my own ideas, it's almost become a life goal to get into an awesome company, just because I've been rejected from them innumerable times.
Any advice? I'm young, 22, about to graduate in May. Should I just try to take risks while I'm young and work for myself, or keep trying until I finally get through an interview process for a place that I like? Part of me wants to keep trying until I finally get accepted somewhere, but another part of me thinks that it won't happen and I should just try to prove myself on my own.
Maybe one big problem with interviewing at a bunch of places is that I'm most proficient with Python and not Java. I learned to use it as my primary language because a very intelligent friend of mine was using it all the time, and he worked at Google. Although, the most technical interviews I've ever had were with Amazon where they let you use whatever language you want to come up with algorithms to answer their questions. It seems there aren't many companies that use Python.
Anyhow, I'll definitely apply around to a bunch of places even if I don't find them entirely appealing. They can't be much worse than what I've already endured through my internships, and I've learned to make the best of my time at my jobs by now anyway. I was thinking of doing the Y Combinator Common App today, so maybe I'll do that.
And you're right, it was loads of fun having an actual reason to solve some problems in OCaml. Actually, I'm not so passionate about the language, I just thought it was really cool that they were looking for sysadmins who also knew about functional programming. But I will check out that link anyway.