Job that makes decent money that doesn’t suck one that leaves you time to pursue your passion & doesn’t leave you too exhausted at the end of the day

[TheSloth]

https://www.reddit.com/r/cscareerquestions/comments/o6kc3n/_/h2u0eai

This is person has summed it up really well. You need to go the sub comments and check the GeerBut response. He said :

When I ask how the work life balance is, the response is “it’s generally good”.

Similar to having a conversation with someone, don't ask the other person yes/no questions. That always leads to a dead end.
You asked "How is it?", the answer is not going to tell you much, even if they answer it honestly. You tell me, what is a "Good" work life balance? That could mean literally a million things, and "Good" is extremely subjective. One persons "Good" is 9 hour days and weekends, another persons "Good" is 5 hour days and unlimited vacation.
Ask them specific things about the work life balance that aren't yes/no. Things that are important to you specifically. Things that indirectly tell you if the work life balance is good to you.

• How often do developers work weekends?
• How early would you say most people come in, and how late do they leave?
• How frequently are people taking vacation? What's the vacation approval process like?
• What's the production deployment process?
• Do developers do production support? What is that process like?
• Is there an on-call schedule? What's the rotation?

The answers to all of those questions can tell me a lot. About far more than just the WLB. Even a dodge of one of those questions is a valuable answer in and of itself. The question about when people come in/leave not only gives me an idea of how many hours are in a work day, but it also tells me how flexible their hours are. If everyone comes in at 8am and leaves at 5pm, that's super rigid. If some people trickle in at 5am, and some people roll in at 11am, that's super flexible, and what I'm looking for.
Now extend that same "Don't ask yes/no questions" concept to everything that's important to you. Your set of questions is going to be different than mine.
My favorite 2 open-ended questions are a softball followed by a hardball:

• What's your favorite thing about working for the company?
• What's your least favorite thing about working for the company?

I usually get pretty interesting answers to those questions, that are super telling. SWE's/hiring managers usually don't give BS answers, so will be honest to you. Even if they're not, the question in particular is pretty easy to tell when someone's feeding you a BS line.
I remember one HR person said their favorite thing about the company was getting coffee in the break room. That says a hell of a lot about the company. That, among other red flags, made me not continue that interview process.

Hope this helps you in finding right job for you. But foremost is, what everyone already said earlier in this thread, you need to be really good at what you do, to reject jobs. It is hard in India to find jobs and when there are only few opportunities or only few companies are willing to offer job, ones loses the confidence and eventually goes for the company with biggest package, which turns out to be a bad team or have bad leaders who are constantly breathing down your neck. So study hard for now. Once you reach certain level of knowledge and start cracking all the interviews you have attended, you WILL gain confidence and then you will be able to interview the interviewer, as GeerBut said on reddit.

 

[pkkumarcool]

How to get jobs at product companies even when you're not from a tier 1 college?

 

[TheSloth]

^Are you in your last year or a experienced person?

Top/Good product companies generally don't care about college. Some of the startup in Bangalore have this mentality to hire only IIT/NIIT-ians, probably to appease clients for more projects or for funds but I would suggest to avoid such companies.
Generally product companies have their interview questions set around algorithms, data structure and logic based questions. So try to improve these as much as possible.
Service based companies mostly interview based on skill set like Java, Ajax or whatever you have mentioned in your resume.

 

[rhitwick]

If its a product based company, they would focus on skills around the product itself.

Get familiar on the technologies used in that product, do some voluntary certifications, courses, build a good resume so that urs one stand out among all other.
Then, if got chance of interview on your knowledge.

 

[Nerevarine]

^Are you in your last year or a experienced person?

Top/Good product companies generally don't care about college. Some of the startup in Bangalore have this mentality to hire only IIT/NIIT-ians, probably to appease clients for more projects or for funds but I would suggest to avoid such companies.
Generally product companies have their interview questions set around algorithms, data structure and logic based questions. So try to improve these as much as possible.
Service based companies mostly interview based on skill set like Java, Ajax or whatever you have mentioned in your resume.

Not always true, it depends on the manager who is hiring. Also, there would be a massive discrepancy in initial salary between a tier 1 college candidate and tier2/3 even if skill is same. It's just how it works in india, unfortunately.

HRs and Managers are sometimes hypocrites, they will preach about equal opportunity employment, but wouldn't flinch when doing this sort of shit

 

[quicky008]

i had a job as a web developer at a small company in kolkata in 2016-due to shortage of funds,i did my masters from a distance based university(IGNOU) and they didn't organize any sort of campus placements in the final year of our studies and thus i found myself in a very trying situation once it ended.

I applied to many MNCs like TCS,Cape gemini etc but my application was almost always rejected citing the fact that i'd done my post graduation via distance learning mode as opposed to a regular course.This was extremely frustrating to say the least-despite the fact that IGNOU is an AICTE affiliated university ,most software companies in India have a strict policy of not recruiting freshers who have graduated from such universities. Not just me,many of my fellow classmates also found themselves in a very similar situation once they finished studying.

I had no idea that such restrictions existed in the first place,otherwise i would not have wasted 3 years of my life studying in such an university where my career would hit a dead end the moment i reached the end of our curriculum.Some of my friends who had enrolled in regular courses were successfully placed at various companies by their colleges/institutes and they didn't have to struggle like us to find some bottom of the barrel job after graduation.

Also i think its really unfair of these so-called MNCs (slave camps) to not hire freshers that have gone for distance education as opposed to a regular course.These students have had to work very hard to complete their studies,and thus are in no way inferior to those that have gone for regular courses.

If these distance universities are banned at MNCs,why does the govt grant affiliation to them in the first place,and end up ruining the lives of so many students who join them unsuspectingly?!!

Anyway,unable to land a decent job after my masters,i was forced to work for a grimy web developer in Kolkata for literally peanut skins (not even peanuts).
However the job was so stressful that i was forced to leave after 12 months had barely elapsed.Later,I applied to some MNCs and was even able to attend some interviews,which went well (atleast from my perspective)-but i was still not selected for reasons unbeknownst to me.

Therefore my point is unless a student is able to join an institute with a good overall placement record ,his career is most certainly doomed.Most of these so-called MNCs tend to hire freshers via the campus drives that they conduct at well known colleges only (usually they are paid by the authorities of such institutes to recruit their students).

Getting selected via off-campus interviews is nearly an impossibility in such cases-in all likelihood your application will be instantly rejected by these companies(unless you have loads of experience or happen to be exceptionally talented,that is as i have learned myself the hard way).

 

[pkkumarcool]

i had a job as a web developer at a small company in kolkata in 2016-due to shortage of funds,i did my masters from a distance based university(IGNOU) and they didn't organize any sort of campus placements in the final year of our studies and thus i found myself in a very trying situation once it ended.

I applied to many MNCs like TCS,Cape gemini etc but my application was almost always rejected citing the fact that i'd done my post graduation via distance learning mode as opposed to a regular course.This was extremely frustrating to say the least-despite the fact that IGNOU is an AICTE affiliated university ,most software companies in India have a strict policy of not recruiting freshers who have graduated from such universities. Not just me,many of my fellow classmates also found themselves in a very similar situation once they finished studying.

I had no idea that such restrictions existed in the first place,otherwise i would not have wasted 3 years of my life studying in such an university where my career would hit a dead end the moment i reached the end of our curriculum.Some of my friends who had enrolled in regular courses were successfully placed at various companies by their colleges/institutes and they didn't have to struggle like us to find some bottom of the barrel job after graduation.

Also i think its really unfair of these so-called MNCs (slave camps) to not hire freshers that have gone for distance education as opposed to a regular course.These students have had to work very hard to complete their studies,and thus are in no way inferior to those that have gone for regular courses.

If these distance universities are banned at MNCs,why does the govt grant affiliation to them in the first place,and end up ruining the lives of so many students who join them unsuspectingly?!!

Anyway,unable to land a decent job after my masters,i was forced to work for a grimy web developer in Kolkata for literally peanut skins (not even peanuts).
However the job was so stressful that i was forced to leave after 12 months had barely elapsed.Later,I applied to some MNCs and was even able to attend some interviews,which went well (atleast from my perspective)-but i was not selected for reasons unbeknownst to me.

Therefore my point is unless a student is able to join an institute with a good overall placement record ,his career is most certainly doomed.Most of these so-called MNCs tend to hire freshers via the campus drives that they conduct at well known colleges only (usually they are paid by the authorities of such institutes to recruit their students).

Getting selected via off-campus interviews is nearly an impossibility in such cases-in all likelihood your application will be instantly rejected by these companies(unless you have loads of experience or happen to be exceptionally talented,that is as i have learned myself the hard way).

Have you done bachelors from regular college? The company only saw your masters for eligibility?


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[quicky008]

Yes it was from a regular college,but still i was rejected.

I attended some interviews where i concealed the fact that i had a masters degree from a distance learning university(out of fear of getting rejected)-but then i was asked to account for the year gaps that existed from my time of graduation to the present date and i couldn't give them a convincing explanation for that.

 

[pkkumarcool]

^Are you in your last year or a experienced person?

Top/Good product companies generally don't care about college. Some of the startup in Bangalore have this mentality to hire only IIT/NIIT-ians, probably to appease clients for more projects or for funds but I would suggest to avoid such companies.
Generally product companies have their interview questions set around algorithms, data structure and logic based questions. So try to improve these as much as possible.
Service based companies mostly interview based on skill set like Java, Ajax or whatever you have mentioned in your resume.

I have completed my bachelors but still a fresher not able to clear the placement interviews and still giving it.
Sadly I applied to many product based companies but I don’t get response from them at all.Most of the companies I think they only care about IIT/NIT or similar top institutes in india otherwise they would blacklist you.I think I have good command over Data structures and algos
Nerevarine is right even with similar skills in india college is given much more importance than skill.


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[pkkumarcool]

Not always true, it depends on the manager who is hiring. Also, there would be a massive discrepancy in initial salary between a tier 1 college candidate and tier2/3 even if skill is same. It's just how it works in india, unfortunately.

HRs and Managers are sometimes hypocrites, they will preach about equal opportunity employment, but wouldn't flinch when doing this sort of shit

I guess you are working in product based company right?


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[quicky008]

I have completed my bachelors but still a fresher not able to clear the placement interviews and still giving it.
Sadly I applied to many product based companies but I don’t get response from them at all.Most of the companies I think only care about IIT/NIT or similar top institutes in india otherwise they would blacklist you.I think I have good command over Data structures and algos
Nerevarine is right even with similar skills in india college is given much more importance than skill.


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That is exactly the point that i was trying to make-despite having a decent academic background i couldn't get a job at any reputable company as i had made the blunderous decision of studying via distance learning mode for my masters.

And if you have graduated from any institute that doesn't organize campus placements for their students on a regualar basis,finding a job all by yourself is nothing short of a nightmare(atleast based on my experience here in this city of (non-existent) joy called Calcutta).Most good companies wont even entertain your job application and they will treat you as an outsider or an inferior person when you approach them via off-campus placement programs.

Thus you will have no choice but to take up a low paying job at a small company eventually,and spend the rest of your life cursing your luck and planning elaborate strategies for committing suicide! (all the while getting reviled for being stupid/incompetent by your peers/siblings etc who are happily employed at big companies).

 

[pkkumarcool]

That is exactly the point that i was trying to make-despite having a decent academic background i couldn't get a job at any reputable company as i had made the blunderous decision of studying via distance learning mode for my masters.

And if you have graduated from any institute that doesn't organize campus placements for their students on a regualar basis,finding a job all by yourself is nothing short of a nightmare(atleast based on my experience here in this city of (non-existent) joy called Calcutta).Most good companies wont even entertain your job application and they will treat you as an outsider or an inferior person.

Thus you will have no choice but to take up a low paying job at a small company eventually,and spend the rest of your life cursing your luck and planning elaborate strategies for committing suicide! (all the while getting reviled for being stupid/incompetent by your peers/siblings etc).

Yeah i am experiencing that Its a complete nightmare to find jobs.Other options you have is to go away from your core branch and give govt exams.
Btw what options would you suggest me to do as per your experience.

 

[quicky008]

I am certainly not the right person to ask for career advice(As my own career is in shambles unfortunately)-but i think as you are still quite young you can certainly try for govt exams.But succeeding in those exams entails preparing with utmost dedication-if you are the sort who tends to give up easily or gets distracted after a while then you will find them extremely difficult to crack.

Depending on the situation and type of exam,it may be slightly easier to crack if you have a SC/ST/OBC certificate as the cutoff marks for these categories happens to be somewhat lower than what they are for the gen. category.

 

[Zangetsu]

@pkkumarcool : Choose a path as per your Ambition & Dreams and follow that one. Don't get confused on choosing which one ? Since, there is always a Dilemma on to which Career path to choose.

 

[pkkumarcool]

@pkkumarcool : Choose a path as per your Ambition & Dreams and follow that one. Don't get confused on choosing which one ? Since, there is always a Dilemma on to which Career path to choose.

Want to be a software engineer but i am unable to find much interviews

 

[Zangetsu]

Want to be a software engineer but i am unable to find much interviews

Depends upon the location also. Which City you live ?
If you are okay to relocate then Bangalore/Mumbai and other IT Hubs Cities are good option to start with.

 

[TheSloth]

@pkkumarcool
If you are already attending interviews then then try to clear them by fixing things which you did wrong in last interview. I see that you are a graduate and not a experienced person. The scene is quite bad for freshers in India because no one wants to hire freshers. I really hate this! I learnt this hard way when I was not placed through college and had to look outside world for job. It was scary and depressing.
As a fresher, don't look for status of the company such as MNC, product etc. Try to find small startups and attend interviews for them also. Any small company is fine to get experience. For now, apply on indeed, angel list. Like Zangetsu mentioned, relocating will most definitely help in getting more interviews. So if possible, try to attend online interviews for places like Bang/Mum/Pune/Hyd/Chen and later relocate to these once they call you to office.

Just a headsup, any company who pays in cash or doesn't have Form16, strictly avoid. Usually freshsers falls for these kind of companies and struggle again when they try to find their next job without above mentioned things. They must pay salary through bank transfer every month and provide Form16 every financial year. You can ask them in the interview about these two.

 

[pkkumarcool]

Depends upon the location also. Which City you live ?
If you are okay to relocate then Bangalore/Mumbai and other IT Hubs Cities are good option to start with.

I am in Bangalore only The situation of freshers is not good here too I did got a developer job but it was for 2 years bond which meant that I have to submit my all marksheet and certificates to them for 2 years atleast so I didn't take it.I did give interviews in service based company like tcs,Infosys,wipro cleared Infosys test and did interview but idk I wasn't selected.
These companies have 6 months timing to attend interview again but idk due to covid their notification didn't came.


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[pkkumarcool]

@pkkumarcool
If you are already attending interviews then then try to clear them by fixing things which you did wrong in last interview. I see that you are a graduate and not a experienced person. The scene is quite bad for freshers in India because no one wants to hire freshers. I really hate this! I learnt this hard way when I was not placed through college and had to look outside world for job. It was scary and depressing.
As a fresher, don't look for status of the company such as MNC, product etc. Try to find small startups and attend interviews for them also. Any small company is fine to get experience. For now, apply on indeed, angel list. Like Zangetsu mentioned, relocating will most definitely help in getting more interviews. So if possible, try to attend online interviews for places like Bang/Mum/Pune/Hyd/Chen and later relocate to these once they call you to office.

Just a headsup, any company who pays in cash or doesn't have Form16, strictly avoid. Usually freshsers falls for these kind of companies and struggle again when they try to find their next job without above mentioned things. They must pay salary through bank transfer every month and provide Form16 every financial year. You can ask them in the interview about these two.

Well I attended some assignment interviews but all have different requirements Some required python webscraping some web development jobs some ios developement with cocoa pods.
They don't teach these things in college at all.Everytime I get such assignments it's very new to me everytime.

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[Zangetsu]

There are many programming languages and Libraries. Try to Focus on one path. Don't get confused and divert with new technologies.
You will learn with Experience. Don't worry about 2yr bond on Freshers. As, you will get a good experience in 2 yrs and will get better hike in next companies.

This 2yrs bond is a joke in India. The Companies cannot sue you for breaking the bond. So, that is why they keep the original certificates of Freshers to keep them restrained for 2 yrs otherwise Freshers jump companies more often and it becomes a headache for them to hire new one in short span of time.

All you FOCUS should be on gaining experience now and nothing else. Once you enter the Corporate world you will learn about its Dynamics gradually.