Yeah there aren't too many other places that match that. Can you expound anymore on the rumors about being in danger of being fired?

I found this which I guess sums it up pretty well, assuming it's not all BS: https://www.google.com/webhp?sourcei...ure+slide+deck (click the first or second link - for some reason 2p2 blocks slideshare .net, weird)

I'm definitely interested, considering I consider myself more of the curious innovator type stuck at a big company where a lot of people are content just collecting a paycheck and promotions are based almost entirely on longevity.

Wish people like suzzer, adios, and goofyballer would do professional biography/ama threads

I think I like that slide deck because it is brutally honest.

It also points out many of the issues I've seen at my current a prior jobs, in particular, the idea of silos and suspicion across departments.

Silos?

****, guess some of those slides didn't load for me

Yeah that culture slide deck is what I'm referring to. The impression I got from these people was that they were getting sick of having some level of constant performance anxiety.

Honestly I'd love to work there too. They're working on really interesting, often difficult stuff.

None of this really matters if you care about your career. You are going to learn a lot more and the opportunities here are just mind blowing. There's a reason tons of smart people put up with some of the negatives of the bay area.

I know one guy there. He says \ it's a super pressure environment but they hire senior engineers and give them total ownership of projects. It sounds like a sweet place to work, at least for a few years.

I've been studying my ass off over the past few days, closing off mental gaps and getting my confidence up. I'm more driven by not embarrassing myself than getting a job, but I can't think of many valid reasons to turn down an offer. I'd probably take it just because I'd enjoy it (I hope).

I don't have any support system in the Bay Area, no credit, and very little savings. If I moved up there and got judged a dud, I'd be completely screwed. I know that if I start to fall apart down here, there are people around who would help me pick up the pieces. If I didn't give a **** either way, I'd be renting a $1500 / month room at a flop house, filleting fish heads until something popped. I just don't believe that there are jobs in SF for people with my background, and I'd be seriously frightened if I was to move up to the Bay Area for this job (it isn't in SF, but still). Career-driven and starry-eyed? I'm not so much.

DaveT,

We are your support system! The great thing about us, we aren't bounded by any location!

Re: Windows development:
So I spent 2 days straight working on C# XAML, trying to understand how to use and implement binding and commands for Windows Store apps. I reworked everything in our Restaurant POS and got the bindings/commands working finally. During this process I am simply amazed at how documentation is so fragmented. I would spend time reading an article or MSDN webpage about how to implement what I wanted to do, but only to find out that the certain class I needed was not supported on the 8.1 windows platform I wanted. Thank goodness for stack overflow.

Anyways, made me realize that I would never want to make .Net/WPF my career. Sticking to iOS and Mac development instead where there is a bigger community

@barrin6 - I am glad I am not the only person who finds MSDN tremendously unhelpful. Google and yes stack overflow are friends. When MSDN comes up in a Google search it is automatically a link I am not bothering with. I am sure people that like it though.

As far as WPF and .NET are concerned my sense is that they are gaining momentum.

Don't have any anecdotes but Netflix is definitely a top-tier employer and is well-respected for strong engineering culture - if you're going to turn them down, you better have some good reasons.

Well not wanting to uproot and move to Los Gatos or nearby is the main reason.

suzzer99 doesn't care about his career.

I was provided with a near release version of Windows 10, encouraged to install it and use it but at the end of the day I can't due to the nature of the development tools we're using. I like a lot of the things Microsoft is doing for C++ development. The new CEO is making a difference.

Yea, the new CEO is moving Microsoft in a great direction, I'm one that believes a strong Microsoft is great for the industry as well.

I don't understand, why can't you come back to where you are now, if things don't work out in the Bay Area? I understand suzzer's excuse, which is that he's already doing pretty well, bought a condo recently, etc but I don't understand what ties you to the area you're in (LA?) right now. Your stories don't suggest that you have some kind of amazing social network there that's hooking you up with great opportunities. What do you have to lose?

Edit: Just making sure, you're single and have no kids, right? I don't think there are very many valid excuses that don't involve SO/kids/house.

Can anyone recommend a good laptop? I havent owned one/followed the market for a decade and Im a little overwhelmed at how much info there as I try to make my choice.

The typical use case is having the following programs running:

- Visual Studio
- Pycharm/Python
- SQL server + Sql server management studio
- Standard browsing things


Im looking for something that will run these with reasonable performance, is comfortable/small enough to use on the couch and Im hoping to spend something in the 1k range, but I dont know if thats a plausible number.

Hey guys. Long time, no talk. I haven't been around 2p2 in a long time, glad to see the Programming thread is still thriving.

I actually stopped by to see if anyone is interested in coming to work with me on my team at Amazon (that's where I am now). I know there are a lot of smart devs that hang around here, so I thought I'd give this a try.

We're looking for someone with a pretty solid understanding of:

-Ruby/rails
-SQL
-HTML/CSS
-Javascript

Now, I know what you're all thinking -- PHP is obviously superior to Ruby in every possible dimension, as a matter of objective fact. Agreed. Unfortunately, they don't let me use PHP at Amazon, so Ruby it is (though I have been doing some stuff with NodeJS recently, just to switch it up).

You'd be working on a small team -- me, you, and our boss (who is outstanding, btw. I wouldn't say that if it were not so). We work on interesting problems in an interesting department. For ex, given billions of rows of activity, could you find the thief?

If you're interested, PM me or email me at s_e_t_h_t_u_r_n [at] the name of my employer above. Remove all the underscores from the first part.

I can also answer questions on here, to the extent permissible, if you have any.

Mods: It's been a minute since I've hung around 2p2. If this is breaking any rules, please let me know and I'll fix accordingly. Thanks.

So you need someone who's basically done the odin project?

Where is this job?

Oh god, I would never hire anyone who was responsible for odin

Wait, which odin are you talking about? haha...

There are options. Seattle is one. It may also be possible to work out of an AMZN fulfillment center, which are located all around the US. Relo is available (US domestic only, I'm afraid).

Nope...that's not what I was thinking.

Ruby devs, save me a quick grand and answer me this: is there a windows 8 option for developing?

you can probably make it work, but ruby -- in tools and community -- is definitely more friendly to mac/linux environment. if you're going to be doing serious ruby development, a grand is probably worth the frustration/time you'll save.