I’ve been listening to the audio books when I do my 10 h drive home for vacations/holidays and I watched the show first. I’m on book 7 now.

I have to say that I thoroughly enjoyed book 1 and 2, but 3 through 6 I did find tedious to get through having seen the show and knowing what happens. I’m enjoying 7 again with a fresh story.

Personally, one of my favourite things about the series is the realism of the sci-fi setting and the use as a setting for a political drama.

Sort of agree on the filler and formulaic type writing as well, but I haven’t noticed it as much with some fresh plot development

I’m an engineer. Writing by hand I would always use a fraction. If I had to write this in an email or something (quickly and informally) either the context would have to be there for someone to know which one I meant or I would use brackets. I certainly wouldn’t just wrote 1/2x and expect you to know which one I meant with no additional context or brackets

This is literal insanity

Why are you holding it up to your face? I use speaker too if I’m busy and my hands are full but i put it down on a table. This has no advantage, you still have to hold it

They work in Sweden… and Canada…

Hi there - I am also immunocompromised and have 2 exciting autoimmune diseases. I work in an office every day (actually a lab, but regardless).

Your behaviour is not normal, and you should seek therapy so you can enjoy your life!

Not in CS, but had a similar experience in a STEM field applying right out of school. I ended up getting my foot in the door at a crappy company working a crappy job and managed to leapfrog my way up to an actually interesting/exciting position from there. It took almost 5 years but I got there.

What broke it open for me was having a contact recommend me for a position. Both my first job getting my foot in the door, and my “good” position now came from knowing the right people in the right places. I know it sounds cliche, but it does work, and is especially important at entry level. In your position, try to get involved in professional organizations or open source projects based in Seattle. You can build a reputation that way, which is worth its weight in gold. It will be more difficult without being open to relocation.

The only other advice I have is regarding your resume and cover letter. You said you used chatgpt to help write it. Well companies are also using AI and other much less sophisticated methods to screen out resumes. It is critically important that you use the same phrasing of the skills requested in the job ad in your resume and cover letter. The more you hit, the higher your ranking will be in the automated screening. Getting past the automated screening, in my experience, is the most difficult part.

I had a coworker who would copy and paste the entire job description I’m tiny white font on the bottom of his resume and cover letter to get eyes on his resume. Something always felt a little wrong about that to me, but I’ll let you make your own moral judgements.

Finally, don’t give up! If you have to work in retail for awhile, that’s fine (you can build up more contacts) but don’t stop applying. You’ll get there.