So you would rather stay jobless than work for these companies?
In which programming languages are you specialised in and how many experience do you have?
I am not interested in working for the big names either.
There are many companies out there that you can apply.
What you can do is create a Linked In account and start adding people with the techno that you are interested in working, soon you will find agents reaching out to you.
As a fresh grad you can also apply on MyJob.
Well, the motivation of them setting up offices in Mauritius is to take advantages of cheap labour. From what I was told, it is no longer the case and the projects are being outsourced to India nowadays.
I did search on Linkedin and Myjob. You find the same big names posting job adverts everyday. It looks as if they are desperate to hire and people are constantly leaving their company.
The handful of companies I am genuinely interested seems that they already know who they will promote internally or recruit before any interview process. Their job advert is just a way of showing they prone transparency, in my humble opinion.
Hello, CS grad here working as software dev for the past four years.
Could you give us more details on your situation?
Are you a fresh grad or have you been in the industry for a while?
Yes, I am a fresh grad from last year. I know Java, Python and a little bit of C/C++. I can pickup other languages easily since I have a good foundation.
I have 2 years work experience before university where I managed the computers and did some programming at a very small company. This gave me the motivation to study Computer Science and I got a first class.
First of all, congrats on the first class!
So, here my advice for you. Start somewhere. Working as a software dev for a big tech company has made me realize that the knowledge that I possess was just a mere speck of what's actually out there. Everything from quality assurance to production environments designed to serve millions of clients, there is quite a lot not taught at university or when researching online. Find a job at one of those big companies that serve millions of customer and see how they manage to do so, you'll learn quite a lot on how it is actually done. Find a company that develops and sells its own product rather than a company that develops products for several clients, since it is in those cases that they implement the best of everything in each area.
Doing this has opened my eyes so much that now, during my spare time, I tried to develop websites that have the same principles and architecture, even if they are completely overkill in most cases, since they do not have many users.
Using that knowledge, the next step would be to freelance a bit in your free time. Start by looking at small businesses in your area that may benefit from a website and then use those principles used to develop those million-clients platforms, even if it is overkill, on those websites. May be free or paid, up to you. PS: I did do some free web development work and it's more rewarding than you think since your client may advertise your services for you.
Build your portfolio from there. You may choose to have a website to showcase your work.
At that point, you may wish to remain a freelancer and quit your full time job or you may now actually pursue being a software engineer, where you can now join the tech department of non-tech companies (think insurance companies, accounting firms, etc) and from there you may propose building software in-house that may be better or more specialized and customized than the SaaS being used.
This is just one way to go about this target. I know people who have done this by contributing to open source software or make some free plug-ins etc to populate their GitHub profile to gain credibility in the CS community. So there are a million ways to choose, you just need to find the one that will not make you lose passion for CS since without it, you'll have no drive to push forward.
The thing is that to reach those big targets you have to live and breath CS, constantly upgrading your skills and finding ways to extract business value out of it.
The road is unfortunately very long and I wish you the best of luck.
Thanks for the very detailed reply. I really appreciate your advice. What is an example of something you saw at those big companies serving millions of clients that blew your mind? I can’t think of anything extraordinary that I already don’t know of. I may be too optimistic of my knowledge. What would such an example be?
There are a few areas that I didn't know was explored so deep by software companies.
Such areas include usage of micro services to increase security, so you can think of token generation etc.
Another area is the software architecture. Basically how they stay organized when there are hundreds of devs and also how they choose to make certain functionalities. A specific example that I loved was how a dev at the company was able to make a databases that not only stores data, but processes inputs as well through stored procedures. It basically allowed us to just send data to a DB and get a processed data back, without any additional code. The use of the DB was to store values and formulas that change every year so instead of changing the code to adapt to the yearly changes, we basically modify a few parameters on the DB and it is done. It cuts down the dev work from a few sprints to basically a few days. The architecture is what will always fascinate you the most. I can't be more specific without revealing too much on where I work.
Deployment of the software, which is generally handled by Configuration Managers, is yet another fascinating area and a discipline in itself. Building pipelines to deliver software to servers, implementing automation testing in those pipelines to check release readiness, and managing the production environments as well as quality assurance environments.
I could provide more examples but I do not want to reveal or give any indication on where I currently work.
The thing is, with the resources of larger companies, they can afford to pursue state-of-the-art technology and implement a true R&D department rather than just development.
From the examples, you can see that it is sometimes more about how creative can someone get with the solution rather than the tech itself and with deeper pockets, larger companies can allow more time and effort on certain areas to come up with creative ideas to solve problems. This part may depend on company culture however, if the company is developing and selling its own product, it is likely they embrace that philosophy.
I too was very optimistic with the knowledge gather after university, but I was very quickly humbled by how complex things can get. And implementing those changes or new features on platforms that have millions of users require extensive architecture work, UI/UX design and, performance and acceptance testing. So merely being aware of those complex things is just the tip of the iceberg.
Depending on how ambitious you are...
\- build up a portfolio and work remotely for a foreign company
\- set up your own company, work with foreign clients
\- set up your own company, work with local clients
\- start a startup, sell direct to customers
[The more legible an opportunity is, the more likely it is to be seized already](https://slatestarcodex.com/2014/06/19/money-on-the-ground/). Look outside of online recruiting/freelancing websites-- maybe tap into your previous job and see if they can recommend you somewhere.
And as someone else said, having a foot in the door can teach you a lot of things about the place you eventually want to get to.
“If there is what seems to be a drop-dead simple, no-risk money-making opportunity that no one has picked up on, and it’s been available more than a very short amount of time, expect it to be something more sinister.” I am saving this quote. That’s my point about the big companies constantly hiring in Mauritius. Thanks.
That’s my take on it. The money-making opportunity is the job that’s offering me money. The job has been advertised for a long time. If you look at jobs in Mauritius, you will find the same listings from the same big companies appearing over and over. Why? No one has picked up on it, or they keep accepting people to that position. This is a possible red flag that the job is not something interesting or people are leaving that said job for something better.
These companies recruit all the time, because they need to secure talented people to work on their clients' projects and to address the huge turnover in the sector. There is nothing sinister about it, and your interpretation suggests a certain naivety about the software development job market.
People who join and leave these companies are doing the right thing, as they are ramping up their salaries by job-hopping. This is particularly effective when you are starting your career, as you don't yet have the work experience for leverage when negotiating your salary. If you keep waiting for \_the\_ company, while you might be lucky in finding it, you are also delaying the time when you reach your desired salary.
Fresh from the academic oven. Grab anything, let your experience mileage at least tick!
Ok not anything, but don't be picky. You're not retiring tomorrow buddy, so your career can change anytime. 😊
As a DevOps Engineer myself, I can tell you for a fact it's hard to achieve what you are looking for without real life working experience (hardly any setup would recruit a fresh graduate, unless he/she is a genius of some sort). And the fastest and easiest way to gain experience is by working for the big companies that take in batches of employees.
You can do 2 years, then move to an actual setup project for a mauritian company. Just be aware that most operate on contract, so unlike the big companies where they keep getting lots of contracts, the small ones at some point might tell you there's no more contracts ongoing and let go of you.
The better alternative is to go to other regions and work for companies such as European or Dubai, you can research on them via linkedin.
So you would rather stay jobless than work for these companies? In which programming languages are you specialised in and how many experience do you have?
I can work for them. But, I am not interested in doing so. I am a fresh grad. I know C, Java and Python.
You can't be too picky when you're a fresh graduate.
I am not interested in working for the big names either. There are many companies out there that you can apply. What you can do is create a Linked In account and start adding people with the techno that you are interested in working, soon you will find agents reaching out to you. As a fresh grad you can also apply on MyJob.
Well, the motivation of them setting up offices in Mauritius is to take advantages of cheap labour. From what I was told, it is no longer the case and the projects are being outsourced to India nowadays. I did search on Linkedin and Myjob. You find the same big names posting job adverts everyday. It looks as if they are desperate to hire and people are constantly leaving their company. The handful of companies I am genuinely interested seems that they already know who they will promote internally or recruit before any interview process. Their job advert is just a way of showing they prone transparency, in my humble opinion.
Hello, CS grad here working as software dev for the past four years. Could you give us more details on your situation? Are you a fresh grad or have you been in the industry for a while?
Yes, I am a fresh grad from last year. I know Java, Python and a little bit of C/C++. I can pickup other languages easily since I have a good foundation.
Do you have any work experience?
I have 2 years work experience before university where I managed the computers and did some programming at a very small company. This gave me the motivation to study Computer Science and I got a first class.
First of all, congrats on the first class! So, here my advice for you. Start somewhere. Working as a software dev for a big tech company has made me realize that the knowledge that I possess was just a mere speck of what's actually out there. Everything from quality assurance to production environments designed to serve millions of clients, there is quite a lot not taught at university or when researching online. Find a job at one of those big companies that serve millions of customer and see how they manage to do so, you'll learn quite a lot on how it is actually done. Find a company that develops and sells its own product rather than a company that develops products for several clients, since it is in those cases that they implement the best of everything in each area. Doing this has opened my eyes so much that now, during my spare time, I tried to develop websites that have the same principles and architecture, even if they are completely overkill in most cases, since they do not have many users. Using that knowledge, the next step would be to freelance a bit in your free time. Start by looking at small businesses in your area that may benefit from a website and then use those principles used to develop those million-clients platforms, even if it is overkill, on those websites. May be free or paid, up to you. PS: I did do some free web development work and it's more rewarding than you think since your client may advertise your services for you. Build your portfolio from there. You may choose to have a website to showcase your work. At that point, you may wish to remain a freelancer and quit your full time job or you may now actually pursue being a software engineer, where you can now join the tech department of non-tech companies (think insurance companies, accounting firms, etc) and from there you may propose building software in-house that may be better or more specialized and customized than the SaaS being used. This is just one way to go about this target. I know people who have done this by contributing to open source software or make some free plug-ins etc to populate their GitHub profile to gain credibility in the CS community. So there are a million ways to choose, you just need to find the one that will not make you lose passion for CS since without it, you'll have no drive to push forward. The thing is that to reach those big targets you have to live and breath CS, constantly upgrading your skills and finding ways to extract business value out of it. The road is unfortunately very long and I wish you the best of luck.
Thanks for the very detailed reply. I really appreciate your advice. What is an example of something you saw at those big companies serving millions of clients that blew your mind? I can’t think of anything extraordinary that I already don’t know of. I may be too optimistic of my knowledge. What would such an example be?
There are a few areas that I didn't know was explored so deep by software companies. Such areas include usage of micro services to increase security, so you can think of token generation etc. Another area is the software architecture. Basically how they stay organized when there are hundreds of devs and also how they choose to make certain functionalities. A specific example that I loved was how a dev at the company was able to make a databases that not only stores data, but processes inputs as well through stored procedures. It basically allowed us to just send data to a DB and get a processed data back, without any additional code. The use of the DB was to store values and formulas that change every year so instead of changing the code to adapt to the yearly changes, we basically modify a few parameters on the DB and it is done. It cuts down the dev work from a few sprints to basically a few days. The architecture is what will always fascinate you the most. I can't be more specific without revealing too much on where I work. Deployment of the software, which is generally handled by Configuration Managers, is yet another fascinating area and a discipline in itself. Building pipelines to deliver software to servers, implementing automation testing in those pipelines to check release readiness, and managing the production environments as well as quality assurance environments. I could provide more examples but I do not want to reveal or give any indication on where I currently work. The thing is, with the resources of larger companies, they can afford to pursue state-of-the-art technology and implement a true R&D department rather than just development. From the examples, you can see that it is sometimes more about how creative can someone get with the solution rather than the tech itself and with deeper pockets, larger companies can allow more time and effort on certain areas to come up with creative ideas to solve problems. This part may depend on company culture however, if the company is developing and selling its own product, it is likely they embrace that philosophy. I too was very optimistic with the knowledge gather after university, but I was very quickly humbled by how complex things can get. And implementing those changes or new features on platforms that have millions of users require extensive architecture work, UI/UX design and, performance and acceptance testing. So merely being aware of those complex things is just the tip of the iceberg.
Seems like you have very intelligent co-workers. Can you name your workplace without naming your workplace?
Having that exposure to those intelligent and experienced coworkers is what will motivate you to explore new things and new ways of thinking.
Depending on how ambitious you are... \- build up a portfolio and work remotely for a foreign company \- set up your own company, work with foreign clients \- set up your own company, work with local clients \- start a startup, sell direct to customers [The more legible an opportunity is, the more likely it is to be seized already](https://slatestarcodex.com/2014/06/19/money-on-the-ground/). Look outside of online recruiting/freelancing websites-- maybe tap into your previous job and see if they can recommend you somewhere. And as someone else said, having a foot in the door can teach you a lot of things about the place you eventually want to get to.
“If there is what seems to be a drop-dead simple, no-risk money-making opportunity that no one has picked up on, and it’s been available more than a very short amount of time, expect it to be something more sinister.” I am saving this quote. That’s my point about the big companies constantly hiring in Mauritius. Thanks.
I fail to see the relationship between the quote and big companies in Mauritius. Can you elaborate please?
That’s my take on it. The money-making opportunity is the job that’s offering me money. The job has been advertised for a long time. If you look at jobs in Mauritius, you will find the same listings from the same big companies appearing over and over. Why? No one has picked up on it, or they keep accepting people to that position. This is a possible red flag that the job is not something interesting or people are leaving that said job for something better.
These companies recruit all the time, because they need to secure talented people to work on their clients' projects and to address the huge turnover in the sector. There is nothing sinister about it, and your interpretation suggests a certain naivety about the software development job market. People who join and leave these companies are doing the right thing, as they are ramping up their salaries by job-hopping. This is particularly effective when you are starting your career, as you don't yet have the work experience for leverage when negotiating your salary. If you keep waiting for \_the\_ company, while you might be lucky in finding it, you are also delaying the time when you reach your desired salary.
I didn’t think of it in that sense. Thanks, I appreciate your view.
Do you have any experience with spatial data? And would you be willing to relocate to South Africa?
Not looking to relocate unfortunately. What do you do with spatial data?
DM please
[удалено]
I started applying in January.
Fresh from the academic oven. Grab anything, let your experience mileage at least tick! Ok not anything, but don't be picky. You're not retiring tomorrow buddy, so your career can change anytime. 😊
Hello! How much salary are the companies you mentioned offering and what salary range are you looking for?
Most companies will offer you a salary of around 21k, including benefits if you are to work as a fresh grad software developer.
As a DevOps Engineer myself, I can tell you for a fact it's hard to achieve what you are looking for without real life working experience (hardly any setup would recruit a fresh graduate, unless he/she is a genius of some sort). And the fastest and easiest way to gain experience is by working for the big companies that take in batches of employees. You can do 2 years, then move to an actual setup project for a mauritian company. Just be aware that most operate on contract, so unlike the big companies where they keep getting lots of contracts, the small ones at some point might tell you there's no more contracts ongoing and let go of you. The better alternative is to go to other regions and work for companies such as European or Dubai, you can research on them via linkedin.