600 rejections I want you to feel that
for a second 600 rejections and still
not able to find a job that's hard
that's tough that's that's difficult hey
thank you for the five gifted Subs
appreciate that the tech industry is
kind of a mess right now it's becoming
increasingly hard for people to find
jobs in Tech and it's particularly hard
for any software Engineers trying to get
into Tech right now like boot camp grads
or recent computer science graduates all
of this I do think being a computer
science graduate is much easier to find
a job and one of the big reasons why
it's much easier to find a job is that
typically you're going to have a career
fair I I I mean for me Career Fairs were
widely consequential for me to be able
to get what I needed to get and I was
very very very happy uh that's how I got
my job a lot of people here will talk
about the value of a career fair and the
big reason why Career Fairs are so nice
is that you get a chance to talk to
human and you you get a chance to at
least interact with one person career
aairs have sucked in my opinion I think
it's because you're not good at talking
to people right like Real Talk career
Affairs are amazing you walk up you get
to talk to the person you get to tell
them how excited you are about this that
and the other and like this is your one
chance to not be an application in a
system but for somebody to take your
application right like oh that guy was
pretty interesting and then set it down
you know what I mean like you actually
get a chance to get filtered by not by
not job recruiter and not computer
system you get filtered by another
engineer it's very very good that for me
that was one of the best ways for me to
get a job was the career fair I thought
it was really really good made me think
of a time in my life when I was
struggling to get a software engineering
job where my happiness my direction in
life and the speed up and him breathing
makes him look like he's having a panic
attack it's talking about this direction
and everything and look at him Direction
Just dude he the man's the man's having
a panic attack as we talk okay this
isn't actually sped up this is real life
normal speed um also this is really bad
for your neck okay you know you know I
know people that had to go to PT for
quite some time because they actually
shifted the connection point between
their spine and their neck like right
here and it like shifted forward and the
amount of like PT you have to go through
by looking down like that is actually
really bad tech neck it's real don't do
it like really don't sit like this when
you're young it's easy you you can do it
but like I hate to tell you this but
everyone becomes 30 or you die really
young but mostly everybody becomes 30
you should try to embrace the neutral
spine you know what I mean you should
try to embrace that neutral spine 30 or
death your choice your choice and my
sense of selfworth were at an alltime
low this is the story is pain of finding
my first software engineering job my
journey through it and my advice to
anyone stuck in the same situation okay
let's go to get a grasp of the situation
we have to get a small glimpse of what I
was like in college depending on which
version of Kevin you encountered during
his college Years you would have found
vastly different mindsets dur absolutely
right I mean you're going from 18 to 22
if you're like a traditional college
person the level of stupid I was at 18
versus 22 is so vast it's impossible to
possibly put those two things together
hey jety how you doing buddy I hope
you're doing well my first year of
college I was primarily career focused
my main goal was to get a job at
Facebook by the time my 4th year had
rolled around though guy clearly watched
The Social Network he saw whatever that
actor's name get backstabbed and he was
like hell yeah I'm getting a job at
Facebook honestly I guarantee that's
probably that's probably what happened
and honestly that movie also inspired me
to make my first startup in 2008 or 2009
whenever it happened I watched that
movie and afterwards I came out so
horned up to make my own startup I did a
startup it was awesome it was fantastic
it actually got me so good at
programming because I got not Andrew
Garfield the other one the Mark
Zuckerberg's character whatever his name
is I got so horned up to do a startup
that it actually gave me all of the
abilities that I got to be able to get a
real job and when I went to go to a real
job and talk to people man people were
so stoked because I actually had some
sort of idea of like how to build big
software at that point I hyperfixated oh
yeah of course I hyperfixated yeah was
the one that the shed significantly
laziness and procrastination those were
the themes of my fourth that is so funny
this is like he literally has the exact
oppositive story of me I went into
college and failed out due to drug usage
I went back to college failed due to
drug usage and then I went back to
college again and then I didn't fail out
due to drug usage I actually became a
star student you know and I became more
and more motivated and as I was able to
start doing classes that were like the
actual computer side of things it made
me so much more excited by the time I
was being by the time I was done with
school I wanted to be in school more
when I first started out it was like all
those stupid High School classes I hated
high school class classes right college
classes are just harder High School
classes just the worst but then you
actually get into it did you ever go
back for master's degree yeah I was uh I
was partly into my Master's Degree
before I started working at uh Netflix
um J gen EDS and college or scam they're
they're absolutely I was getting my uh
degree in ml I was or really AI like
traditional AI because at that point
reinforcement learning was just starting
to come around and I handworked and
built a lot of like models and all that
I've shown this a couple times but you
know I wear this as both a uh as a badge
of honor and as a
uh and also as a uh as a badge of shame
I wrote an entire nural network in Old
JavaScript you can see this this is
entire look at that you got that get
calculated Sigma radial Bas this
function initialized feed forward back
propop air hidden uh this is for a
certain specific one with an RBF Network
because there's not really that kind of
stuff we got an Fizz Network adaptive
neural fuzzy inference systems you know
like I was building all you we were
building all the things you know what I
mean building all those things look at
all that Matrix bonanzas look at that
Matrix multiply but why JavaScript
because I was just learning
JavaScript and so you know I've always
carried this mentality which is you do
the thing that you're trying to learn
about right like for me I always build
whatever I'm supposed to build in
something that I'm trying to learn and
so it's like I did all this in
JavaScript because I was just trying to
learn JavaScript I didn't know
JavaScript I didn't know how any of
these things work so I was trying to
learn it and so you can see like this is
me learning it right I had no idea what
I was
doing prototype assign like I'm I'm out
here assigning prototypes my learning
rate learning rate effed me over and
over again I'll tell you that much I
used you know but you got to remember
this was 11 years ago yeah this was 11
years ago when I was getting my masters
you know these are old days remember the
land of of neural networks has has
genuinely changed okay MLPs was the ways
to be okay and MLPs you know you're just
doing like a little bit of back prop
little back propagation of error rate
and it's just like pure calculations you
know what I mean require cluster
yeah there yes there was that wherever
that was there was cluster that was
a real Library okay that was for doing K
means right for or clustering yeah for
doing all them sweet clusters uh all
right let's get back to that thing
anyways I just had the exact opposite
experience my attention was all over the
place and I didn't take time to plan my
postc col life instead I was distracted
by other things like
socializing or making friends and I act
did he just do two groups of socializing
and making friends as if those were
different yeah socializing or making
friends suspicious uh no but anyways
like I mean I totally get this because
you you you college does give you this
this illusion of being very
meaningless but by the way WTF no really
this is how you get a job is you
socialize and make friends you just got
to make friends in your group I think
there's this thing that happens to a lot
of people where they go into programming
and they're not dorks does that make
sense they're like they're not dorks
they're not people that are like really
into computers and so then they're
around other people that are dorks and
they're like ew I want to go make real
friends right and then they go off and
they make they they don't even realize
like you just make friends with the
people that are interested in the same
things as you and it actually makes
first off you get friends for life but
two you actually create like great
networks where you guys can help each
other get jobs I think it's crazy like
you know you should make friends with
people who are like who just are around
you trying to go out of your way to be
like oh these guys are stupid while
you're that person also it's it's not
going to help I don't think he did this
I don't know if he did this I'm not
saying he did this I'm just saying I've
seen this happen I watched it happen I
watched quite a few friends started off
as really great students and then they
quit being our friends and been other
people's friends and their grades were
all suffering and they're trying to be
like too cool but you're getting a
computer science degree dog you're
dork you
literally you're like Bill Gates jumping
over a chair okay you're not awesome
that's it's okay and it's okay not to be
a dork like socializing is how we got
funding for your projects it really is
like that's okay be Bill Gates jumping
over the chair and just just like just
own it man no the thing is is that the
thing that's worse is people who try to
pretend like they're not
that right going there armpits sweating
yelling something yelling something
about like developers and just being
okay with it like that's 10 times better
than the person that's really trying not
to be that person right you're drinking
your coffee before it was cool you're
hipster out of your mind right get out
of here I heard a great oh I can't tell
you the joke never mind I can't tell you
the joke I can't tell you the joke until
the 21st I'll tell you the joke then
actively put off thinking about the
future until it was too late I didn't
have any real software internship
experience I didn't know any web
Frameworks I didn't know how to
interview for software companies by the
way that's a huge mistake if you're in
college like that's the goal of your
junior year your sole goal of your
junior year is not to get the best
grades your sole goal is not to be the
most social your sole goal is to find
that effing career fair talk to every
last person you know and you try to get
that internship for three 3 months and
if you can't get an internship for 3
months at some company go to your school
try to do an internship for one of the
grad programs because there's they're
always looking for people to build
software for some sort of research
project there's like so many ways you
can go about doing that but you got to
go like you got to go hard and you got
to find that because that's going to
make such a big difference in your
life this is not so so I I I hate this
honestly I hate this I guarantee you he
was told 900 times to do these things
there wasn't a class that didn't go by
my junior year where teachers weren't
saying do these
things it's not school that fails people
it's it's people that fail people like
90% of the time like you're right
there's some institutions that aren't
good but my guess is if you're at UCLA
you probably have really good teachers
that are there trying to tell you how
like how to do things yeah he just told
us he failed himself yeah I feel bad for
the guy CU you know what so many people
do this so many people do this school is
extremely outdated though you know what
I actually disagree with this take
generally the reason why I disagree with
that take generally is that every single
person that's coming out of a boot camp
is immediately useful they come out they
have all the skills to pay the bills you
know why because they know react they
know Tailwind they're on Facebook theyve
built the mongod DB right they've done
it all I get it they're immediately
useful but they have no direction and no
Foundation other than just building like
these apps that are just immediately
practical so they have a lot harder
thing to learn they they have to
literally go outside of work and learn
extremely boring awful topics like
compilers like compilers is fun but it's
also really awful like it's a hard it's
arduous once you get Beyond any sort of
amount like you really have to be
committed you have to go out there and
learn what operating systems it's hard
you really have to think about these
things oh you want to learn like
computer languages again you have to go
out there and really like read about how
these things work it's difficult okay
and so to grow as a post boot camp grad
is really really really hard I'm not
saying it's impossible it's just really
really hard a software engineer coming
out a CS student sure you're absolutely
right they're coming out the gates not
nearly as useful but you know what they
do have they have data structures down
they can tell you exactly why the HTML
is the way the shape it is and why
General trees make sense and how to walk
General trees and how to do all those
things right they get it they get the
time space trade-offs that are happening
okay oh they understand JavaScript why
is it operating The Way It Is Well I've
done a compilers class I can tell you
why this is not so efficient I can tell
you why these things happen sure they're
not as efficient but they can tell you a
lot more about the system of course they
can tell you about a general tree of
course they can tell you about compilers
of course they can tell you about these
things they just don't know how to
practically apply them one year on the
job and they've applied a lot more
knowledge and it's easy to catch up like
this is not hard to be this is not hard
to do this is why you can come out in 6
months this is hard to do this is why it
takes many years I'm not saying it's
great I'm not saying it's perfect I
think they should teach some more
practical like there it'd be great to
have industry standard experience
classes absolutely fantastic it just
makes it a lot easier to grow because
you have Foundation whereas I think
these people come across without all
that Foundation it makes it a lot harder
to grow like this Gap is huge this Gap
is hard you know what I mean a dude a CS
student that went through a boot camp is
going to come out pretty animal like
they're going to they're going to be
ready to kick some ass they're going to
come out pretty op because they have all
of that Foundation plus like here's a
bunch of Modern Standard things that you
know startups are looking for what about
boot camp grads going to college uh
honestly I worry much more about boot
camp grads going to uh College just
because the first couple years are going
to be really boring definitely try to
test out out and challenge courses like
you don't want to skip data structures
you don't want to skip discret math or
Advanced data structures or any of those
things but you also have like a bunch of
you know what I mean you also have a
bunch of steps that you need to take
that I think is going to be really
difficult that that you're just going to
find extremely boring right as a boot
camp gr I 100% agree here that's why
I've worked super hard to fill the gaps
yeah I think you just have to work
harder because I was stupid and someone
just told me what to study and I passed
a class right it means I just
accidentally got lucky it doesn't mean
that you know the schools fails them uh
in that they aren't getting practical
experience they used to no no actually
that that is that is absurdly incorrect
college has always been for the rich
person to be to learn how to Leisure
well it's only recently changed so no
school is not failing people school has
become more practical than it's ever
been I personally think like a good
2-year boot camp is like where things
should be like if you could have a good
2-year boot camp camp that really like
Hound like really hounds the data
structures pushes a good compiler course
that really makes people learn a you
know you know like learn Linux well like
and makes them actually like useful like
trade school I actually think computer
science should be more of a trade school
than it is uh a a university thing I
think a trade school would be a lot lot
a lot a lot a lot a lot a lot better uh
I don't want to start a two-year boot
camp honestly uh the problem I have with
that is that I mean I do want to start
those kind of things of course I do I
think it'd be great and I think I could
be very successful at it but I also
think that it's really really difficult
uh it would be very very hard to do it
successfully and I'd want to do it the
best as possible and to do it the best
as possible it would just be it would be
like a life's work right I'd have to
take like a year and a half off just to
focus on like how we need to set this
thing it just take a long long time to
get it done well and I wanted to be able
to do it well you know what I mean you
need a team of people it'd be very hard
two years sounds good I think that's how
long it takes to do a CS without all the
boring yeah exactly that's why I'm
saying like you could do the Practical
mix like I would want someone coming out
of my boot camp to have built some sort
of redus like clone to have built HTTP
to have built git that understands like
these basic things that have built
servers that have done stuff right but
that also understands compilers that
have built their own DSL that has
executed it because here's the thing if
you have built your own DSL and your own
compiler when you're at work and someone
says we should make a DSL for this you
can say first off slow down you don't
know anything about compilers let's take
a step back okay do we really want a DSL
I've made a DSL and I can tell you right
away that they're extremely difficult
they're hard to maintain and they can be
emotionally painful so maybe we should
really think about this decision before
we do it and if we do do it I have the
experience at least to do something with
it I suggest if we truly need something
let's consider some sort of alternative
such as Apple's new configuration
language Lua and anything dsls are
probably not the way to do it just
thrown that out there what is a a DSL a
domain specific language like dsls are
great I get it dsls can solve problems
uniquely but it can also be a huge pain
in the ass an example of a DSL is the
following I can go like this uh I can go
set you know uh what is it what is it
something inside here right so I can set
something in here this is actually a DSL
set is a keyword that sets a property in
Vim for you to do something it also has
the exact same thing you can also do all
those things via uh Lua now Lua is
really really nice Lua is a language I
can look up how to use Lua has lots of
documentation Lua has been well
supported vimscript well you better hope
that you can find your problem you
better hope that you're not experiencing
some weird Edge case you better hope
that it's not poorly thought through
right like that's the problem about dsls
and Vin script is going to be a much
better DSL than anything you write I
just want you to know that in Vim script
is horrible and it's better than
anything you will create vimscript it's
zero and one indexed why because
you
programmer I don't know that's why all
right let's keep on going sorry that was
a long tangent and I hadn't studied a
single question of lead code or cracking
the coding interview this lack of
foresight by the way that is um that's
one thing that's really good about
college because you should have gotten a
really intense data structure classes
doing good at data structure classes you
will always be able to do most lead code
questions just off the rip because you
can most lead code questions most
cracking the coding interview questions
are just things you studied in college
they're just like you know they're just
that and so the only thing that I think
really is good about lead code questions
by the way is going to be DP questions
which you don't typically study in
college or you do very little uh and two
you using arrays to solve problems often
you're not using like arrays to store a
graph uh you know you most people use
like an adjacency list they don't lean
into the adjacency Matrix and sometimes
it's really really difficult to use a
bunch of arrays like cityscape is just
an exercise in how well you understand
arrays not really anything else and so
you know that's one of those like leak
code nice things is that when you get
onto a whiteboard you're just like oh
yeah I can do arrays really easily i'
like I've used them a whole bunch I'm
pretty good at this stuff
you know what I
mean it all came back to haunt me on the
day graduation several
times for most people graduation is a
moment of Triumph it's like the cination
of years of hard work and I felt very
sad
graduating I felt like as I you know
when a
Frodo comes back to the
Shire it's just not home
anymore it's an end of an era it's an
end of an era and I I felt really I felt
really sad about that you know what I
mean cuz I knew it was
over yeah if you get a paper you don't
get a job and so for me that was like
hard you know it was really it was
really it was really hard CU I knew that
I I'm CH there I don't know what the
next era is but it is the next
era and that was hard that was a hard
moment for me moving on to the next
stage of your life but for me that day
was the saddest moment I had experienced
up until that point in my life looking
back I realized that so I do have to say
one last thing the the fact that saran
was Sharky I I still to this day I can't
believe there's a bad guy named shy and
Lord of the Rings I just felt like that
was kind of weird okay that's all I'm
saying that's all I'm going to say about
that we're moving on I had barely
changed since the first day I walked
onto campus my my work ethic was still
terrible my social skills were terrible
and I hadn't achieved the goals that I
set out to achieve and worst of all I
was not ready for this next phase in my
life and I knew that I was about to be
forced into a deep dark time before
anything got better for me personally or
professionally I moved I do think a lot
of I
mean I do think our society in general
at least Western Society does encourage
more adolescence longer and I do think a
lot of these a lot of these issues are
extended adolescence issues um you know
I I I I I had the greatest Misfortune
and the greatest Fortune to be able to
grow up
fast and I do think that that helps is
having some of that growing up fast
because you know you skip 10 years of
dinking around till you realize what you
really want to do and I I I do think
that that helps a lot again I I
attribute a lot of it to being in the
right place at the right time you know
but self-drive and discipline is
incredibly important
absolutely home from college about 3
months after graduation and at the time
I had not even begun to understand the
weight of the position that I was in I
had yeah no job prospects lined up and
even worse I hadn't even made an effort
to secure one my resume unimpressive to
say the least but I remember hearing
about the intense demand for software
engineers at that time and all the years
previously I one in the chat if you're
kind of in this guy's shoes I'm actually
just curious one in the chat if you're
in this guy
shoes damn
y'all well you're currently a student so
learn from this mistake right Twitter's
dead Twitter
died picked myself into believing that
my computer science degree alone would
be enough to land me a job I mean I
spent four years in college right surely
that was enough to secure my future a
piece of wisdom I've learned in the past
few years there are only two ways people
change people either change after deep
self-reflection and self-improvement or
they are forced to change by
circumstance and this circumstance was
about to hit my life very very soon at
the time Bas take base take you know the
number the point one on his take is
wisdom right the ability to make those
self-reflection those the ability to
make change before disaster happens is
really like that that is the mark of a a
wise person I unfortunately have rarely
been a wise
person I've had a few moments in my life
where I have done number one but for the
vast majority I've done number two
unfortunately I'm that guy I learn best
by uh getting into horrible situations
you're still wise if you can learn from
a mistake if you can learn from your
mistake you're still wise you're wisest
if you can learn from others mistakes
you're wise if you can learn from your
own mistakes you're a fool if you keep
making them I looked around at my
friends and classmates and saw them
getting jobs at top tech companies and I
thought that I could do the same I
wanted to work for a unicorn startup
because in my head that's where I
belonged and it couldn't be that hard to
get in could it but as I started
applying to jobs I realized just how
misguided I really was I submitted like
by the way he also has that
UCLA like hopefully that really puts
things into perspective I had Montana
State University okay I I I do I do want
to throw something out there when people
think of
prestigious schools oh yeah UC Irvine
okay whatever he had a
school that people think tends to be a
little bit more impressive than Montana
State University just to be real there
okay no one thinks Montana State
University is going to be uh Montana
Ain't Even Montana's not even a state
that exists okay there's California
California Texas and New York City like
that's the three states in
America and credentialism did not help
him here so like that is really
something you should uh you should
really think about Montana mentioned
let's go like you should really think
about that that credentialism is not
going to help
you I even think the day of graduating
from you know MIT and these top schools
I think that that in itself is also
falling apart I think that that that it
doesn't get you anywhere anymore right
credentialism is gone and so you should
really you got to you know we are more
towards a meritocracy in some sense
because we're dropping that
so 10 applications my first week to
compan I'm not saying by the way I'm not
actually saying that's good or bad I
think there is something that's good
about credentialism because we should
have a place we can look to to say
people that come out of this are really
really good
and if that's falling apart there's
something kind of sad about tradition
and that kind of stuff right there is
something sad about that and I I do mean
that that that is that is there there is
a sad part to it it's not 100% whenever
someone says no that's 100% bad I'm like
not all things are 100% bad there's
always there's there's sometimes a good
part to that I'm not saying it's great
as a again as an average Montana nroy
enjoyer I did not get to enjoy a
drop of credentialism you know what I
mean
Snapchat Pinterest Yelp thinking that
they were easy targets while I worked o
Yelp Yelp might just be the single worst
tech
company okay like I I mean I under I I
understand there's some really shady
tech companies out there but Yelp just
might be like top three most evil
companies like dude the extortion that
they do on on small businesses is
crazy
okay it's
crazy they extort companies like they
genuinely
do oh Yelp is like a um Yelp is like a a
like a local rating service right you
know how when you go and you search up a
restaurant and it's like this restaurant
has 3.5 Stars that's either like Google
ratings or Yelp ratings and Yelp is a uh
it's pretty bad Better Business Barrel
also like anytime like the thing is is
anytime you find a rent Seeker you also
have found something that's likely hyper
corrupt anything that sits in between
two things often can be quite corrupt
worked my way up to big companies and
then like yeah same so I applied a few
more jobs that I thought were in my
skill level like Dropbox Groupon into it
but remember Groupon the results were
the same nothing for someone so naive so
deluded and so used to getting what I
wanted this came as a surprise my degree
was not enough to get me hired I even
remember this one instance 2 months
after moving back home I managed to
secure an interview with a company in
Southern California and the whole time
going through the interview process and
the recruiter screens I thought getting
the job would be easy I didn't spend any
time preparing for this interview and
instead I focused on learning how to
negotiate my salary and as you
can I mean at least he's coming in with
confidence you know like one thing can
be said in life being confident is a
good thing you know what I
mean hey yo yo yo I I do I do want to
say I do want to say like I'm not here
to knock on this guy this guy is like a
bunch of kids this guy represents an
entire class of people
right I don't I I'm not here to dunk on
him I think this is fantastic right
like dude I thought you could just drop
LSD and smoke a little bit of meth and
and also have a great family life at
some point okay I'm not saying I'm not
Mr I'm not Mr outstanding okay I I I it
took me a while to get here okay I was
just as deluded as this guy just
happened to be a different set of
delution you can't you really can't like
you genuinely can't do those
things it it could I mean genuinely you
could be right it could be it's one of
the it's one of the things that I think
about all the time which is uh kids
growing up in a situation in which they
have money right sometimes it can delude
them to think that life just comes
easily right but this is great I
actually I really like this story expect
I didn't get the job and in fact I
wasn't n even
close I remember hanging out and talking
with my friends afterwards grabbing a
beer I was talking about my interview
downplaying the situation talking about
how I didn't want to work there anyway
and as I wrapped up my story by the way
the didn't even matter
bro that is literally the the sorry bro
for the person dude it's cope it's pure
copium it's
beautiful my friends just quietly
acknowledged it changed topics
and then we moved on I couldn't really
understand at the time why my friends
were so quiet in response to my story
but now I can see how clueless and
delusional I was and just how badly I
struggled with self-awareness and
humility I see now by the way uh I would
I would just throw it out there not
necessarily good friends you know like a
good friend will be honest with you yeah
rotating p you literally right right as
I'm saying a good
friend
will like you know like a good friend
won't do it in front of people a good
friend the next day will talk to you
right like if you're in a group of
people you should never call out
somebody unless if it's like that
egregious um but generally a good
one-on-one conversation if you actually
think someone's being diluted like a
good friend will take the time to be
like yo dog like this is this ain't this
ain't this ain't good you know what I
mean this ain't good okay Benjamin
[Laughter]
Franklin okay Aristotle with your
friendship
definitions Mr Aristotelian guy over
here now how I came off to them here was
this kid who hadn't paid his dues in
life he didn't have a job he hadn't
worked hard or accomplished anything of
note and he had a right to complain
about job prospects no one was going to
tell me how misguided my thinking was it
was up to me to Fig by the way someone
should have again good friends would
tell you that you're goofing up
okay I mean for me in fact that
statement right there is actually more
of a
condemnation of the people he was
surrounded with and himself right you're
equally diluted if you think friendship
is just about having good
times like that's no real
friend it just isn't that's not a real
friend that's a Chum
that's that's a bud right that's not
it's not that's not that's not real
Facebook friends act this way exactly
you're a Facebook friend in real
life figure it out on my
own in the next few months my job search
became increasingly difficult I was not
aware that most companies tend to slow
down their hiring process at the end of
October in preparation for the holiday
season this was
that caught me completely off guard and
the true welcome to the real war I
mean that does happen it's very very
true typically you don't want to change
a lot right before the holiday season
new pressure of the situation began to
set in it had been nearly 5 months since
I graduated college and I wasn't even
close to getting a job I found myself
submitting dozens of job applications
per day I wonder if he was building
things I he hasn't addressed it I don't
think he's talking about the low I
wonder if he was like building things
like how was he preparing or what was he
doing to change I hope that he covers
that CU that's like my big thing I keep
thinking about was what was the moment
while going through online forums Reddit
or just any someone is asking curious
about real friends dude just go Arista
tilian on it right you got to have
location proximity of things you enjoy
and ability like an ability to have
tough conversations right it's pretty
simple like it's really hard to be
longdistance
friends it just is it's just simply like
if you don't live near each other if you
can't see each other it just it it does
become harder if you don't have shared
interest it becomes even
harder it just does like that's like
just like I mean dude some dude 2,000
years ago with a beard and and marble
statue said that he's probably he's
probably right good friends aren't
common anything to look for advice on
how to get a job I was told to Elite
code to learn web Frameworks to build
side projects to network with other
people for referrals and I just began to
get completely overwhelmed by the number
of things I needed to do to get a
software job and I realized there were
people out there preat that studed 10
times harder for 10 times longer and
still were unable to get a job and
despite this I mean I say this all the
time which is like if you're not willing
to go really deep and really
hard w
like just remember there's always
someone that's willing to work harder
than you now you don't have to be the
hardest worker you don't have to be the
most aggressive learner but there's
always somebody that is willing to go
harder than you that their life
circumstance is more desperate than
yours and Desperation will make people
work much harder but you just got to
understand that when going into it which
means that you have to be willing to put
in some hours I 100% couldn't be the
engineer I am today without the
countless weeks of 80 hours I'm not
saying it's great I'm not saying it's
perfect I'm not saying it's the way life
should be but there's also a reality to
the situation me submitting hundreds of
applications I received very few
responses in the month of December I was
able to secure two on-site interviews
with startup companies in San Francisco
in one of the interviews the interviewer
ended my technical screen early probably
because of my performance and
as someone who's given many
interviews many many interviews
including many at Netflix hundreds at my
previous
job you just got to understand when
someone says hey you know I'm not too
sure about this why are you using that
or some phrase like that right what
they're saying to
you is hey
man you aren't doing this right let's
take a step back let's try to think of a
new way to approach the problem current
way skill issues okay you're skill
issuing hard right now and I'm giving
you like a little Waring a little red
flag that your skill issuing let's walk
back a little
bit instead opted into having a friendly
conversation with me he asked me the
question so what did you do in school
I knew what he was asking
me failing interviews it was painful but
that was nothing compared to seeing the
disappointment in my parents' eyes I
couldn't help but think of the
sacrifices they made to immigrate to
this country working hard to attend
school
here Asian moment people talk about yeah
people talk I've heard many people talk
about this
you know that's one thing that I I love
about my mom she was so proud of me that
I just that I I wasn't using drugs right
like that was like she was so
happy you know there there's something
magical about having a parent that just
loves
you you know even even when you're still
a disappointment they still love you you
know what I'm talking about there's
something very very nice about that to
find a job here and to leave everything
behind to make a better life for the
their children and as I struggled to
find a job as I submitted 600 job
applications to almost every company I
could find in the state of California I
couldn't help but feel like I was
letting them down and at the same time
letting myself
down people don't change unless they go
through a heavy amount of
self-reflection or they are forced to by
circumstance ironically this whole
situation about me not being able to
find a job it was jarringly similar to
an experience I had just 4 years
previously instead of a job search I was
in high school and I was trying to get
into top colleges I had spent most of my
high school years procrastinating
neglecting my grades I typically like to
brag that I did one day of homework in
all of high school I got a 2.16 not a
big deal not a big deal NBD there's
reasons why I may have gone to Montana
State University just throwing that out
there I had a mediocre at best college
application and yet I thought I had a
chance to apply and get into top
colleges because that's what my friends
were doing and when the time came to
receive College acceptances I found
myself rejected by almost every school I
applied to I remember one of my SAT
tutors sat me down and told me to never
put myself in a situation where I wasn't
preparing for the future ever again and
while some of that message might have
stuck with me for a bit obviously none
of it stuck long term people don't
change unless they are forced to
change there's so you know it's funny
that he remembers that statement isn't
it funny how sometimes you'll have those
moments with somebody where they say
something to you and you know it's good
advice but it like there's this old
adage that says the greatest distance in
the universe is the distance between
your head and your heart
and sometimes it's true you know
sometimes it takes you know like
sometimes you can hear the exact thing
you need and it's just so long before it
actually makes it to the right
spot it's
crazy is that a phrase from Romeo and
Juliet maybe I can't remember where I
heard it but it is it is it is actually
it's an extremely good phrase you know
what I mean it's an extremely good
phrase because I know besides for the
people that are like witch
head like I know you guys are meing but
I'm just trying to be real here for a
second twitch chat can you get your can
you get your your ass off the top of
your head
anyways I would like to tell you after
this point how I completely transformed
how I studied like 18 web Frameworks
until I became the perfect candidate but
none of that happened truly what
happened came down to numbers and luck
applying for jobs it will always be a
number game this by the way this this
ending and the morale the morale of the
story part of it is a little
disappointing just throwing it out there
like I was really hoping the change was
that like you know he really embraced
the suck he really crushed it as he
continued to apply when it says just
like gosh you got
lucky was no honest though it's honest
though I had spend months trying to
create side projects to put on my resume
trying to learn react trying to read
through cracking the coding interview
and finally in January of 2017 I
received a call from a tiny five person
startup located in San Diego I was Lu
enough to be asked technical questions
in fields that I had prepped pretty well
in the last few months and even luckier
nothing's better when you get asked a
direct question word for word out of
cracking the coding
interview so let's just pretend you had
a singly linked list and you wanted to
find a cycle in it and you're just like
oh really I've never heard heard this
tell me about
it well if I were a thinken man which
clearly maybe I am I would assume that
you'd probably want like it's almost
like I could Envision like a tortoise
and a hair and like one thing being able
to speed fast while something else goes
slow and at some point if there is a
cycle it's going to
intersect gosh dang I am
smart never even heard of this question
before in fact I'm not even sure what a
tortoise or a hair is I just know they
exist and I manifested this
wisdom in the
interview this company was looking for a
very specific profile of software
engineer someone who was a new college
grad someone who could code and figure
out problems and someone who was willing
to take a low salary and so this was my
I took a low salary so far removed from
my original delusions of working for
Facebook or some startup unicorn but
after the months of failure nothing was
Sweeter Than This sense of success I had
in the Moment by the way this is a great
reminder that the pull yourself up by
the
bootstraps though obviously everyone's
going be toic yeah okay shut up there is
something also really amazing about
accomplishing something yourself being
able to like get out there and do it and
persist and get that W and know that
you're the one that is trying to really
push for that W there is something about
that that's really good like it really
has made me feel like those are some of
the things that makes me feel very good
you know what I
mean sometimes I think of the scenario
of if I didn't get that job offer I
wonder how long I would have been
searching before I finally found one a
couple more months 6 months a year a
couple years would I have just given up
it's difficult to tell but it was
definitely one of the first lessons in
my life about how incremental progress
every day helps you to reach your goal
if I wasn't studying leak code learning
web Frameworks applying to jobs little
by little every day even this random
Stroke of Luck it wouldn't have panned
out if you found again it's not because
it's luck it's opportunity okay that's
hard
work meets an
opening and you're already ready for it
okay I don't I it's hard for me to call
it you know like I understand that
there's luck involved the fact that you
saw
but luck is not always just luck you
know what I
mean luck is when preparation meets
opportunity exactly it's just like you
see these things and it's just like I
love this part this last part right
where it's just like the perceived value
of Daily Grind isn't really there but
what really is happening is you're
growing up and you're actually getting
better faster and like so much of this
is just all that hard work coming
together it's beautiful found my story
relatable in any capacity you need to be
the reason to make a change for yourself
in life at a certain point no one will
push you no one will say anything to you
no one will force you to do anything you
will have to do it yourself willingly or
be forced to by painful
circumstance that's a thumbs
up oh I must have already watched a
video by him great video by the way
created by Casey that was a great video
anyways the name you know what the name
is okay hey guess what what the name is
the world's hard and I absolutely love
that we have the ability that we have
and you know what software engineering
has been one of the greatest
distributions of skills and pay to
people you know the fact that I can be
just some small Montan kid and be able
to go work at Netflix I think is
absolutely fantastic I love the fact
that people who have no ability like no
Legacy no Rich parents no super also
awesome amazing everything upbringing
all those things that they can actually
make a real imp act in an industry and
get to be paid well at least in America
like that is pretty freaking awesome
right that is like that that that is
incredible the fact that we even have
that as a potential opportunity is is
incredible and so I absolutely am 100%
very thankful for the fact that I got uh
to be able to go in software engineering
I got to be able to try to make things
that I want to make I want to be able to
do what we're doing now like that's a
huge privilege and I'm very very happy
about that cuz you know what 97% of the
world used to be Farmers there was one
thing you you would do and that was what
your dad did which was farming and if
you just happen to be one of those
extremely lucky few percentage that
didn't have to do that you probably died
cuz someone stabbed you or raped you
then stabbed you or raped your wife and
then stabbed you and also killed your
kids cuz that was like most the world
average age like 32 or some crap and it
was absolutely horrible and everybody
kept stabbing each other like oh man man
you looked at me sideways I stabbed you
that's why butter knives exist because
they used to use just regular knives and
people kept stabbing each other at the
dinner table okay we had to round our
effing knives to quit killing each other
okay was wild back then and to
pretend like somehow we live in a
horrible day and age is crazy okay I
haven't tried to stab a single person
while eating a meal with them I live in
a golden age of humanity I don't die
from accidentally cut myself on a little
rusty nail get tetanus and die a
you just got bit by that thing you're
dead oh you just got cut by some metal
you're dead oh you played in the dirt
and you had an open wound and you ACD
got tetanus from the ground which does
happen you're dead oh my goodness
Raiders happened you're dead oh brigand
you're dead oh you're walking on the
street cuz you wanted to go visit your
neighbor neighbor five miles away and
there was a thief you're dead like oh my
goodness like how crazy were those
times a Jen