IT/Software career thread: Invert binary trees for dollars.

Foler

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Noodleface said:
So here's where I am after researching this. Keep in mind, information is scattered and the people who are POC's just don't respond to emails.

So my work reimburses $10k/year in educational costs towards a higher degree/cert. There's an advanced study program where they select a few applicants per year to go to Northeastern (or a couple other schools) for a MS/GEL like I listed above.

The big issue is my boss told me two days ago about this, application was due Feb 9th. So I can't apply to this until next year. Kind of a bummer, but I knew it was there the whole time, just never thought about it. So what goes with that, is I can still use $10k for this next year anywhere I want really.

Do I apply to Northeastern and try to go part time? I'm pretty sure the costs are SIGNIFICANT at a private school. Do I apply to my alma mater into their grad program? It'd be $10-12k per year for a part time education there, so some out of pocket costs. However if I do that, I'd need to transfer to Northeastern and I'm not sure that would fly.

Not sure if Northeastern would let me just take one-off classes and later pull them into a degree program in a year.

What would you guys do?
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Did you compare their programs? Maybe take a look at any research their doing relative to your interests as well.

Ain't undergrad and you're working professional so name doesn't mean everything imo. Just weigh out the financial cost versus opportunity
 
wormie

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Noodleface said:
So here's where I am after researching this. Keep in mind, information is scattered and the people who are POC's just don't respond to emails.

So my work reimburses $10k/year in educational costs towards a higher degree/cert. There's an advanced study program where they select a few applicants per year to go to Northeastern (or a couple other schools) for a MS/GEL like I listed above.

The big issue is my boss told me two days ago about this, application was due Feb 9th. So I can't apply to this until next year. Kind of a bummer, but I knew it was there the whole time, just never thought about it. So what goes with that, is I can still use $10k for this next year anywhere I want really.

Do I apply to Northeastern and try to go part time? I'm pretty sure the costs are SIGNIFICANT at a private school. Do I apply to my alma mater into their grad program? It'd be $10-12k per year for a part time education there, so some out of pocket costs. However if I do that, I'd need to transfer to Northeastern and I'm not sure that would fly.

Not sure if Northeastern would let me just take one-off classes and later pull them into a degree program in a year.

What would you guys do?
Click to expand...
Non-Degree Students - Northeastern University College of Science
 
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Noodleface

Noodleface

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Foler said:
Did you compare their programs? Maybe take a look at any research their doing relative to your interests as well.

Ain't undergrad and you're working professional so name doesn't mean everything imo. Just weigh out the financial cost versus opportunity
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The Northeastern program absolutely blows away UMass Dartmouth's program. Cost is about 1/5th though, and it's down the street from my house vs driving into Boston.

A plus for Northeastern is they have an agreement with my company so I know things would be taken care of and partly tailored to me.

Also because my undergrad was at UMass I don't need to take the GRE

Edit: Finally talked to the program lead. She recommended that if I take 1-2 classes before applying to the program (using the wormie link) i'd be a much stronger candidate. Probably what I'll do. Not sure how far $10k gets me though. I might be able to get two classes for that.
 
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Noodleface

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Another wrinkle. Was talking to an old colleague at dell emc and he's forwarding my resume for a principal engineer position there.

That should mildly please vinen
 
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Foler

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Noodleface said:
Another wrinkle. Was talking to an old colleague at dell emc and he's forwarding my resume for a principal engineer position there.

That should mildly please vinen
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Dooo it. Gtfo of DoD bud! Keep us updated.
 
Vinen

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Noodleface said:
That's what I was waiting for

As for why. Since I'm on radar I've been looking into signal processing and the DSP course sort of whetted my appetite. Originally I was.going to do a five year bs+ms in college but something got screwed up with my timeline and I lost out.

I don't have some grand thought that I'll demand a higher salary with it, but there are definitely promotion stop gaps here. There are things like you cannot be a technical lead here without one (on stuff I'm working).

I'd be interested to know how your dad feels about you calling his career a waste of time. I have plenty of bad things to say about defense contracting but you have some very negative views considering you only interned at one and apparently with a yellow badge at that.
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I worked at a Defense Contractor for 3 years post college with a Red Badge. :shrug:
If you'd read what I posted before I did get my clearance. It just wasn't at Raytheon.

My father and I have vasty different views as I am a Massachusetts Republican and I generally see our military as a waste of space. It's really just a jobs program at this point.
 
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Foler

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Well just finished an interview. Thought I did pretty good. Made a careless mistake once or twice on memory allocation but coded this motherfucker up a doubly linked list in like 30 seconds and even asked him if he preferred it sorted (integers). Then haji starts asking me C++ questions when he said C was fine. Asked me something pertaining to deconstructors, I reiterated I don't know c++ so can't be sure. Asked me, "well what about in Java?"

Tried to not make him feel retarded. "Uhh Java doesn't have deconstructors last I checked but could be wrong." Got denied via email 8 minutes after the call. What the fuck. Dude why the fuck would Java need deconstructors, you have a MS in CE and you don't fucking know that Java has "garbage collection," Jesus fucking Christ.
 
Foler

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Vinen said:
I worked at a Defense Contractor for 3 years post college with a Red Badge. :shrug:
If you'd read what I posted before I did get my clearance. It just wasn't at Raytheon.

My father and I have vasty different views as I am a Massachusetts Republican and I generally see our military as a waste of space. It's really just a jobs program at this point.
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What company (or industry) did you move to after DoD? Trying my hardest to make the shift and trying to make sure I've applied to all possible options.
 
Deathwing

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Foler said:
Well just finished an interview. Thought I did pretty good. Made a careless mistake once or twice on memory allocation but coded this motherfucker up a doubly linked list in like 30 seconds and even asked him if he preferred it sorted (integers). Then haji starts asking me C++ questions when he said C was fine. Asked me something pertaining to deconstructors, I reiterated I don't know c++ so can't be sure. Asked me, "well what about in Java?"

Tried to not make him feel retarded. "Uhh Java doesn't have deconstructors last I checked but could be wrong." Got denied via email 8 minutes after the call. What the fuck. Dude why the fuck would Java need deconstructors, you have a MS in CE and you don't fucking know that Java has "garbage collection," Jesus fucking Christ.
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He might have been asking what the garbage collectors calls when it destroys the object.

That said, I would have answered that messing with constructors and destructors, even though they do exist, is bad business in languages with garbage collection.
 
Foler

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Deathwing said:
He might have been asking what the garbage collectors calls when it destroys the object.

That said, I would have answered that messing with constructors and destructors, even though they do exist, is bad business in languages with garbage collection.
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Nah, he was asking specifically on programmed invocation in regards to class hierarchy. But who knows. I dont know C++ so I can't say shit about deconstructors. Ya I know free in C. O well fuck this.
 
alavaz

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I've been in interviews where they just want you to answer a question the same way they would answer it and correctness is of little concern. I wouldn't want to work with people like that anyway, so I'm usually glad when they don't offer me the job.

I had a dude ask me all kinds of bullshit VI questions one time. I basically told him that I could pretty much google VI as needed or SCP a large conf down over to windows and edit in notepad++. His co-workers actually laughed a little, but I think it pissed him off. Ironically, I wound up using VI a shit ton and now am pretty fast with it.
 
ShakyJake

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Foler said:
Tried to not make him feel retarded. "Uhh Java doesn't have deconstructors last I checked but could be wrong.".
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Pretty sure it does but would be rarely used. So rare that most developers probably don't know they exist because of that reason.

alavaz said:
I had a dude ask me all kinds of bullshit VI questions one time.
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Are you kidding me? VI? Fuck that shit. Sure, I know, people who are good with it can be fast as hell, but that's like a tiny percentage of the developer community uses it.
 
Noodleface

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Yeah I'm a VI wizard now and it's not something I imagined I'd be doing.

What was the deconstructor question? I'd just say hey dude I don't know c++ but I fan pseudocode it or just fucking Google it like a normal human being.

I have a different opinion on military and I don't think it's a job farm, at least not the engineers. Middle management for sure is a waste and needs to lean out. I would prefer we spend a lot on military spending and mission advancements rather than not. Besides radar is cool fucking shit
 
Foler

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ShakyJake said:
Pretty sure it does but would be rarely used. So rare that most developers probably don't know they exist because of that reason.
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No, you're wrong. There is no Java equivalent to deconstructor, free etc. Java is non determinant in that sense, why do you think they don't use it in things like autonomous cars or drones?
 
ShakyJake

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Foler said:
No, you're wrong. There is no Java equivalent to deconstructor, free etc. Java is non determinant in that sense, why do you think they don't use it in things like autonomous cars or drones?
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You're right, but they do exist in C# though. Figured since the two languages are so similar that Java would have it as well.
 
Noodleface

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Java has finalize but no destructors. I had to write Java for two years so I'm somewhat an expert on that shit language
 
Foler

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Noodleface said:
Yeah I'm a VI wizard now and it's not something I imagined I'd be doing.

What was the deconstructor question? I'd just say hey dude I don't know c++ but I fan pseudocode it or just fucking Google it like a normal human being.

I have a different opinion on military and I don't think it's a job farm, at least not the engineers. Middle management for sure is a waste and needs to lean out. I would prefer we spend a lot on military spending and mission advancements rather than not. Besides radar is cool fucking shit
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Not even worth analyzing the specifics at this point. It's all moot. Everyone wants you to know 857474 languages 8495 frameworks, 8574 different tools and how to solve P=NP while you're at it.
 
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Finalize is roughly equivalent to a deconstructor, I think the main difference is that it isn't called until the object is GC'd, though I haven't had to write C++ in a decade.
 
Foler

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Noodleface said:
Java has finalize but no destructors. I had to write Java for two years so I'm somewhat an expert on that shit language
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And finalized is not the same as deconstructor or free, so you're wrong
 
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