Job market for software engineers in Austin? (college, live in)

[thepeeps]

Was hoping if anyone could give me some insight about the current market in Austin. I have three years experience, I'm a woman (only mentioning because I have no clue if there's more of a 'balance' in the workplace in Austin or what), and I live in New England. Is there a decent chance of getting an interview/possible job offer being out of state and with only three years of experience?

[iamwayne]

Would you yourself hire someone out of state or would you rather hire someone that lives where they want to work?

[thepeeps]

Originally Posted by iamwayne

Would you yourself hire someone out of state or would you rather hire someone that lives where they want to work?

Yeah I totally understand that, but I have gotten out of state offers before from other cities that are larger then Austin. Just wanted to know my chances and how competitive it is. My other option would be to save up enough money and move to Austin without a job and try to land something which I'm not super comfortable with.

[Austin97]

it is a job seekers market. People are desperate for good talent. If you are just ok, you might struggle. If you are top tier, companies will move heaven and earth to get you.

in an interview:

Do you know what big O notation is?
Could you on the fly write an algorithm to solve a maze?
Could you write a hash algorithm?
Build a linked list from scratch?
Transform a 3D model into a 2D image?
Easily write a recursive sorting algorithm?
Do you understand how clock cycles impact performance?
Can you write and explain various methods to ensure multithreaded performance?
Do you understand how map reduce works?

etc etc

[cento]

Austin has a relatively good job market for Software Developers. Keep in mind though that individuals are moving to Austin at the pace of 100+ a day. In addition to that, UT churns out hundreds of new-grads with CS/IT degrees each semester.

I'm a developer myself, and have served on dozens of interview panels in my career. Your interviewing skills are the primary factor that will help you stand out above the crowd. When I say interviewing skills, I mean:

- Ability to break down a problem into smaller, more solvable problems
- Ability to think out loud and talk through a solution to a problem
- Ability to explain complex details in a way that's easy to understand
- Ability to write good/clean code on a whiteboard without any references (it's harder than you think)
- Ability to think on your feet & be creative

In my experience very few of these abilities translate into the daily duties of a programmer, which is why I consider interviewing skills and legitimate development experience mutually exclusive. Crafting a solid resume is a whole other story. Anyway good luck, hope you appreciated the snippet of advice!

[rocknrollinhoneybadger]

Originally Posted by thepeeps

Was hoping if anyone could give me some insight about the current market in Austin. I have three years experience, I'm a woman (only mentioning because I have no clue if there's more of a 'balance' in the workplace in Austin or what), and I live in New England. Is there a decent chance of getting an interview/possible job offer being out of state and with only three years of experience?

I lived in MN for about three and a half years before moving to austin to take a job at Dell. Is there a possible market? Yes, there is a market. My advice is to look at one of the big employers - Dell, UT etc.

[je4xff]

Originally Posted by Austin97

it is a job seekers market. People are desperate for good talent. If you are just ok, you might struggle. If you are top tier, companies will move heaven and earth to get you.

in an interview:

Do you know what big O notation is?
Could you on the fly write an algorithm to solve a maze?
Could you write a hash algorithm?
Build a linked list from scratch?
Transform a 3D model into a 2D image?
Easily write a recursive sorting algorithm?
Do you understand how clock cycles impact performance?
Can you write and explain various methods to ensure multithreaded performance?
Do you understand how map reduce works?

etc etc

Found the game developer...

These are tricky questions, and relevant to a specific niche.

Here are some other questions you might find in a different area of focus (ex. big data analytics). I tend to ask "open ended" questions. For example:

* How would you describe Big Data, and what are the associated challenges.
* Explain map reduce to a non-developer.
* Compare Hadoop vs Spark.
* What are the pros/cons between Angular and React?
* What are your favorite design patterns and why?
* When would you choose to store non-structured data? Which nosql db would you go with?
* How would you describe the difference between Java and JavaScript, from a language point of view?
* How can you scale? What are the main challenges of scaling resources such as data size, traffic, etc..?
* Mac, Linux or Windows? - Hint: The answer is (Mac || Linux), but not Windows...

Beginner questions, basic logic questions might be asked:

* How many stacked dimes would it take to reach the top of the Empire State Building?
* How many bottles of Coke would it take to empty Lake Travis?
* How many cats would it take to kill all the dogs on the planet?

The latter are great for college students who have no actual experience. The former are from companies looking for people with specific experience. The pay grade between the two is usually slightly different.

Every niche will have its own set of tricky questions. Good luck!

[merk95]

Join Austin Startups on FB they are always posting jobs.

[austin_res]

Being in the software engineering industry myself I can say Austin (and much of the U.S. for that matter) has a very saturated market for software engineers. There are actually more software engineers in the market than software engineer job openings. Software/IT is an employer's market, and most hiring managers are extremely picky in who they hire.

[thepeeps]

Thanks for all the answers everyone

Originally Posted by austin_res

Being in the software engineering industry myself I can say Austin (and much of the U.S. for that matter) has a very saturated market for software engineers. There are actually more software engineers in the market than software engineer job openings. Software/IT is an employer's market, and most hiring managers are extremely picky in who they hire.

Wow, this is news to me. Not saying you're wrong or anything but this is the first I'm hearing that there's more SE in the market then openings.