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

ShakyJake

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Well, my wish came true. The company sold our ASP.NET WebForms application to some unsuspecting company. This came with a large reduction of the engineering staff since we're no longer developing two products. Fortunately I wasn't one of the devs let go. Now, the other product is actually based on Silverlight and, as many probably know, is itself a dead technology. Fortunately for me I'm probably the only one that actually has a firm grasp of Silverlight and the XAML markup language (the primary dude that worked on the UI was let go due to behavioral issues apparently). I'm hoping my value to the department just increased exponentially. At this point no one will have any desire to learn Silverlight and I don't blame them.
 

Deathwing

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Why did they sell off that product? And what makes you think they won't do the same with the other one as a roundabout way for management to 'cash out'?
 

ShakyJake

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Why did they sell off that product? And what makes you think they won't do the same with the other one as a roundabout way for management to 'cash out'?
Well, years ago, our (now) parent company bought two little companies that produced the same type of product. The application I had been working one had the smallest user base (and was mostly oUS) but had to be kept alive due to existing contracts. Contracts have now expired for US clients and they can now move users to the other product (or say 'bye').

They could very well sell the remaining product in the future but I feel like I'm safe from that for at least a couple more years. At that point I will have completed my degree and feel pretty confident I can easily find something else.
 

Noodleface

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They've been cutting out engineering staff too. I don't really agree with the direction they're headed and I'm sort of worried..
 

Tuco

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Just an Update as this thread was originally my questions about majoring in CS. I am now a Junior and will hopefully graduate in a year or so.

Today I begin another round of CS classes. Discrete Math, Software Dev, and another Data Structure and Algorithms class. I've already taken one data structures class, I think this one is more theoretical and will deal with analyzing more than implementation of data structures. As mentioned in another post, I did some research over the summer (internship) and will be continuing it this semester. I am also taking 2 other classes (full load 18 hours ugh) so hopefully this semester doesn't crush me. I hope after this year I can get an internship out of state, or at least something outside my Uni. Need to beef up my resume and skillset before graduation. /cheers
congratulations on your progress. Those three classes can be heavy hitters, don't take them lightly!
 

Cad

scientia potentia est
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Discete math was one of the hardest classes in undergrad for me, but I had an overalls-wearing GRRM-beard wearing perfectionist for a prof. Have fun with that shit.
 

Noodleface

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Weird I had the same professor, but he was skinny.

I didn't find discrete math hard, per se, but I found it absolutely boring as anything. Probably one of the worst classes I've ever taken as I felt it related to my major about 1%. My motto for discrete math was "simple topics made infinitely difficult for no goddamn fucking reason."

My worst was taking numerical analysis as an elective. Yes.. one of my electives and I take one of the hardest math courses ever. It was a grad class on top of that (500 level), and I was the only undergrad out of the 4 students in the entire class. Dude was cool and gave me an A, we had no tests, but that shit was hard to comprehend for me. He took us out for lunch during the final, since no tests and all, and I legitimately thought I may be raped by the man as he was gay and gave off a creepy/stalker vibe to males.
 

Asshat wormie

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Almost all computer science programs should be renamed computer/software/whatever engineering. No respect for math
frown.png
 

Asshat wormie

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I like math, I don't like putting toothpicks up my dick (numerical analysis)
That class really should not be taught before students are exposed to the basics of analysis. Most programs do not do this and let you take it with typically worthless calc 1-2 background. This leads to experiences like yours which is too bad.

Also its weird to like math but find discrete math boring. Then again, computer science departments offering a math class is usually pretty worthless so maybe thats why.
 

Tenks

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I know a ton of people said discrete math was rough on them but I'm not even that good at math and I found it a bit of a breeze. Maybe because it is more logical instead of memorizing equations and when to use equations it made more sense to me. I actually really enjoyed the class and found it pretty fun.
 

Asshat wormie

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I know a ton of people said discrete math was rough on them but I'm not even that good at math and I found it a bit of a breeze. Maybe because it is more logical instead of memorizing equations and when to use equations it made more sense to me. I actually really enjoyed the class and found it pretty fun.
Yeah discrete math is usually an introduction to actual mathematics instead of the bullshit you get taught in k-12.
 

Noodleface

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That class really should not be taught before students are exposed to the basics of analysis. Most programs do not do this and let you take it with typically worthless calc 1-2 background. This leads to experiences like yours which is too bad.

Also its weird to like math but find discrete math boring. Then again, computer science departments offering a math class is usually pretty worthless so maybe thats why.
I'm computer engineering, so I don't know much about the comp sci curriculum. We were forced to take Calc 1-3, Differential Equations, Discrete Math, Statistics and Probability, as well as Physics 1+2, Circuits 1 and 2 (2 featured a lot of calculus), etc. I took numerical analysis because I'm stupid. The only math classes taught by the engineering school were calc 1-3 and circuits/physics, everything else is taught in the math building and not geared specifically at engineers.

Discrete math was just really boring.
 

Asshat wormie

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I'm computer engineering, so I don't know much about the comp sci curriculum. We were forced to take Calc 1-3, Differential Equations, Discrete Math, Statistics and Probability, as well as Physics 1+2, Circuits 1 and 2 (2 featured a lot of calculus), etc. I took numerical analysis because I'm stupid. The only math classes taught by the engineering school were calc 1-3 and circuits/physics, everything else is taught in the math building and not geared specifically at engineers.
Thats typical for most computer science programs as well. Those classes are almost always taught in a computational manner instead of a theoretical one and are well suited for engineering programs but certainly should not be offered to science programs. Science programs should teach those classes with a theoritical approach instead.

Discrete math was just really boring.
Sadly true when taught by the CS department. The approach is also very computational instead of theoretical. I dont understand why CS departments are afraid to expose students to proofs.
 

ShakyJake

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Have any of you guys heard of testers writing unit tests for the developer? There's a team here that does this and it just feels wrong to me. It's as if the developer is too lazy to write tests so he's getting someone else to do it.
 

Vinen

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Have any of you guys heard of testers writing unit tests for the developer? There's a team here that does this and it just feels wrong to me. It's as if the developer is too lazy to write tests so he's getting someone else to do it.
The team I am on has been distancing itself from anything which can be deemed as functional. That is the role of the developer.

Our QE team is now focused on real testing: Performance, Scale, Integration, etc (i.e. System Testing)
 

Noodleface

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Hah if we do one thing right here it's testing. My boss wants everything tested thoroughly enough that qa isn't finding corner case holes we miss but actual bugs in our product or code.

We had this really awesome arch Linux server hosting our servers (about 30 in total.. It's loud in there), but to accommodate qa we are migrating to a Windows server. Slightly worried about issues with this. Guess we'll see.

Still gotta poop out a resume, kids been keeping me busy.

Another guy just got promoted to senior and he started a year before me. Hate this shit.