Source
r/cscareerquestions•
ShadowWebDeveloper

Currently going mad with power, AMA

Hi folks, I'm u/ShadowWebDeveloper, a new mod here. (Here are the other mod AMAs in case you're interested.)

I've been posting here for a couple of years ever since a Big N contacted me and I more or less had a panic attack. I'm currently working for that Big N, and before that I was working for a couple of much smaller startups. I'm a full stack software developer with a weird title currently. I've done a little bit of DevOps stuff with AWS and GCP as well. I live in the midwest with my wife and kids. At around 35, I might be a little older than some folks here.

I have a less traditional background: I have a college diploma (associates-equivalent) in Computer Programming but I never went the full four year bachelors route.

I'm Canadian but I moved to the US about a decade ago and was basically forced to become an expert in all things family class immigration.

I'm a long-time Nintendo fan though recently I've been playing through Red Dead Redemption 2 which is pretty addicting.

AMA!

Posted Dec 12, 2019, 4:23 PM UTC

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FelineEnigmaSWE at Google•

What was the best meal you've ever had?

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ShadowWebDeveloperOPWeb Solutions Engineer•

Ever is a long time! The meals that stand out in my memory are mostly from the events that surrounded them. Like there was one really nice meal (steak tips I think?) I had with my wife in the Skylon Tower in Niagara Falls a long time ago. The meal itself was really good but I mostly remember it for the good time we had.

I generally like Italian food or a good steak.

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[deleted]•

[deleted]

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nutrechtLead Software Engineer / EU / 18+ YXP•

Tabs or spaces?

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ShadowWebDeveloperOPWeb Solutions Engineer•

Asking the important stuff right here.

I used to be tabs all the way and honestly, if all other things were equal, I'd choose tabs again. But then I took a job doing Python and it was basically spaces or die. Seems like that's just the way the world has gone.

The world is wrong though, tabs just have more functionality since users can set their own margins. Change my mind.

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jldugger•

Change my mind.

Any decent IDE will properly indent with spaces when you press tab, and the only sorta okay ones can be configured to do so.

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ShadowWebDeveloperOPWeb Solutions Engineer•

Right but it locks in your view of what the margins should be. If you put two spaces, it's going to be two spaces on everyone's view, even if they want to increase their margin length. If you put a tab, that can be whatever length the viewer wants, configured in their editor. Day to day, I code with space margins because like I said, that's just how the world is, and ultimately it doesn't matter that much. But tabs just have that little bit of extra functionality.

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elmergujero•

I'm also Canadian with a degree in a non-tech related field (Economics). What was your experience moving to the States? Was it hard to get work authorization with a non traditional background? I'd be interested in maybe making the move to New York or some other tech hub, but I'm not sure I even could. For context I have the degree and 4 years work experience as a Software Developer, mostly in startups.

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ShadowWebDeveloperOPWeb Solutions Engineer•

I moved over on a K-1 fiance visa and all that that entails, including the USCIS petition, sponsorship, interview, medical, and thousands of dollars in filing fees. Upon activating the visa, you actually can neither leave the country or work a job until you get your green card or an EAD; I ended up getting my green card first but it took a few months. Fun times.

That doesn't really help if you're intending to come across on a work visa (or equivalent) though. My understanding is that getting TN status as a Canadian citizen is relatively easy and doesn't involve anything near that complicated, but it's not technically a dual-intent status so attempting to adjust status to a green card later can be difficult / is not intended. You can probably get TN status as long as you have a bachelor's degree and a job offer of the right type though. It's a nice benefit only available to Canadian residents (and to a lesser extent Mexican citizens as it's a bit different and might require filing first).

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