Too many ideas, not enough time

I'm Neha, a coffee-loving, restaurant window-shopping web developer.

[nerdneha]

Getting my first software job

I quit my energy consulting job to teach myself how to program using free resources. After 8 months, 5 on my own and 3 with Recurse Center (formerly called Hacker School), I had to start looking for a job and complete my career transition. Could I get paid to program with only previously having a mechanical engineer degree, 2 years of consulting experience, and 8 months of newly attained programming experience? The answer is yes and this was my journey of getting my first software job.

Mindset

Let’s start with my mindset. How was I feeling? Terrified.

Finding my first software job after graduating from Recurse Center in 2013 was emotional and difficult. I was graduating with so many smart and qualified people who had equally amazing stories of perseverance; I was intimidated! What made me different? Why would anyone hire me?** What could possibly set me apart?

** I always hated that question: Why should we hire you? You know why? Because the only thing going through my mind is: “you probably shouldn’t hire me, you should hire someone 10x better than me. I don’t know what I’m doing! But I kind of want you to take a chance on me because I need a job and I’ll try hard? Thanks?” (My real answer was probably: Because teaching myself how to program means I’m not afraid to take chances, work hard, and be vulnerable while learning something new. Software is always changing and I’ve already given you proof that I’m invested in keeping up with it for the long term, not based on what I learned in college).

I knew step 1 was to get my foot in the door and convince someone that I was worth interviewing, but I felt so overwhelmed by figuring out how to get to that point that I felt defeated before even starting. Eventually, I fixed my attitude by repeating these things to myself:

I only need ONE job: I can get rejected a million times but that’s okay because I only need ONE job.

I can take the wild card slot: Companies might have a few beginner development “slots” a year and of those slots, they probably have one set aside for taking a chance on someone unconventional, aka the “wild card” slot. That’s the slot with my name on it! They only come once every few years so it’s just a matter of finding someone who’s willing to give me their  “wild card” slot.

Timing is everything: If I get rejected, out of the need to keep on going, I can’t assume it’s personal. I probably need more time to grow or they just might not have the right opening. Either way I need to keep a positive attitude!

The Plan

Now that I had the right attitude, I just needed to figure out how to set myself apart. So this is what I came up with. I can set myself apart by:

Showcasing my voice

Showing what I can do

Using my network that I spent so much time cultivating

And then I found actionable ways for each section.

Setting Myself Apart

Showcasing my voice: Everyone has a voice. It’s just a matter of finding it, using it to articulate who you are and what you want to say, and capturing something unique about yourself in the process. I decided to put together a blog. I didn’t post anything major on it initially, but talked about my journey and tried explaining simple programming concepts in ways that made sense to me. My blog is here: nerdneha.tumblr.com. An example of a post I wrote is here (it’s embarrassing to link but I’m already employed so why not).

Showing what I can do: To show what I could do, I put all my work on github and added documentation to the README with occasional screenshots of the features. Then I made a SUPER simple website that had my projects on Github, the blog, my twitter account, and my contact details. I was SO tempted with my website and blog to do something fancy and unique and representative of my skills but it just caused me to procrastinate. I stuck with something so embarrassingly simple that it’s almost a joke now and yet I haven’t changed it! (nehalita.com). I also put my projects and notable blog posts on my resume. It wasn’t much but it was more relevant than all of my other jobs/leadership experiences/awards combined! (In fact, showing evidence on my resume that I could produce working projects and learning quickly was probably a strong factor in getting my first job). 

Using my network: I first sat down and browsed through hundreds and hundreds of companies and listed out EVERY company I’d be interested in working in and grouped them into tiers. Each week, I’d work on a tier. I painstakingly went onto Linkedin and found every connection I had to someone working at each company (even if it meant connecting to an old college friend on Facebook; worth a try, right?). I knew that personal introductions and recommendations were better than anything else. I also went to some company events to introduce myself in person. I’ve even heard about stories of people making “hire me!” websites dedicated to the company of their choice - not something I’ve tried but an interesting approach!

Using my network, bonus track: Ultimately, there’s a lot of potential in networking! I found a mentee randomly at a meetup and have responded to plenty of people who have cold emailed me; it's just about timing. Sometimes I get back to people, sometimes I don't. Don't be afraid to introduce yourself, state your story, and state something easy and tangible that you might want help with. Just make it easy for them to choose and respond.

In reality: All of these pieces above feel like a buzzfeed article of “the best moments of my job hunting career.” In reality, I emailed a TON of companies, reached out to a TON of friends of friends, and got a LOT of “now’s not a good time”s or “we don’t have any junior developer positions open”s. It sucked. I was already so self-conscious about how little I knew and it felt like the 10 hurdles I had jumped over weren’t enough. My low during my journey was when a select few would tell me to settle for something smaller/easier/less. That hurt because I knew I was capable of being a good software engineer and I just needed a chance. Sometimes I focused on the lows like that one and sometimes I listened to my encouraging friends who kept telling me they were rooting for me and to be patient for the right time.

Landing My Rent The Runway Interview

After many conversations and tries, I landed an internship at a company that ended up being ill-suited for my skill level (I was too junior for the role) and so I interviewed during the internship and finally got an intro to an engineer at Rent the Runway through a college friend. She agreed to meet me in person and we chatted about my journey over coffee. She said she’d look over my resume (and did! even my code on github) and said she’d be happy to recommend me. I landed my first interview!!!!! I am so grateful for this moment because she not only took the time aside for me back then and looked at my code (who does that?? angels) but she also STILL has a presence in my life and is creating opportunities for me. I don’t know how I got so lucky but she saw me as the “wild card” and I seized it.

Interviewing

Interviewing is its own beast; I had been practicing whiteboarding almost every week and was doing a lot of “interview puzzles” alone and in pairs. This definitely helped me think about smaller puzzles (unlike large apps and projects) and how to explain things as I was thinking out loud. When it comes to fundamentals, I do pretty well thinking out loud so I was pretty well equipped. I also have a very positive attitude. In my own pessimistic way, I assume going in that I won’t get the job and that this opportunity is best spent getting the most I can out of it and enjoying the learning process. This puts me at ease and I can ask questions, repeat what I’ve learned, and express my interest/excitement. I think having a positive attitude does wonders. I talk about this in more detail in my job hunting and interview advice blog post.

Epilogue

I ended up doing 4 rounds of interviews for Rent the Runway and took the job! It was an amazing first job experience and the interview experience was great also. I still keep in touch with so many of my friends that I worked with at RTR today. Almost everything I had learned as part of my programming journey was utilized and built on in my first job; it’s amazing how working on small self-directed projects scale to larger projects, aka apps for companies.

Over the 6 weeks that it took to get my job, I have no idea how many companies I got rejected from. More often than not, I didn’t even make it to the first interview. Most of my rejections were due to bad fit. It was frustrating but I didn’t fault myself too much; the last thing I wanted was to be down and depressed by the time the next interview came.

In the end, it really was an emotional rollercoaster between a) wanting to be wanted and b) finding the right fit. This was coupled with me trying to validate whether deciding to quit my energy consulting job to become a software engineer was worth it, which put so much pressure on me. I cried a lot, I leaned into my friends a lot, I gave myself “email marathon” time slots, and after enough tries, it all worked out! 

In the end, it all felt worth it with my job offer in hand. I only needed ONE job.

[nerdneha]

Resources for Pair Programming!

If you’ve heard about pair programming and want to learn more or are curious about the published research on the topic, this is a beginner list of resources! If anyone seeing this knows of another helpful resource, please let me know and I’ll add it to the list!

Extreme Programming Explained: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0321278658/extremeprogrammi

Pairing is more productive than soloing: http://collaboration.csc.ncsu.edu/laurie/Papers/ieeeSoftware.PDF

Stanford Study on pairing, when and why it works: http://hci.stanford.edu/publications/2005/pairs/PairProgramming-WhenWhy.pdf

Remote Pairing: Collaborative Tools for Distributed Development is a book by Joe Kutner https://pragprog.com/book/jkrp/remote-pairing

Pair programming productivity: Novice–novice vs. expert–expert http://www.cs.utexas.edu/users/mckinley/305j/pair-hcs-2006.pdf

The effectiveness of pair programming: A meta-analysis http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0950584909000123

Evaluating Pair Programming with Respect to System Complexity and Programmer Expertise http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/xpl/articleDetails.jsp?arnumber=4052584

[nerdneha]

Teaching myself to code

I had the wonderful pleasure of speaking at Women Who Code’s Tech Talk Event yesterday at LinkedIn’s office. I spoke about the long and winding road that is teaching yourself how to program and what that transition looked like for me; complete with lessons learned. 

I’ve posted my slides from my presentation on slideshare! You can access them here or check it out below: http://www.slideshare.net/NehaBatra5/how-to-teach-yourself-how-to-program

(YOU CAN FULLSCREEN IT IF THE TEXT IS HARD TO READ :D)

I touch on a few other topics that I’ve written about in more detail. Links to those blog posts below! Quitting my job to teach myself to program How I taught myself to program Applying to Hacker School (3 times. tl;dr: #worthit) Job hunting resources + advice Python list comprehensions Imposter Syndrome and how I don't let it get in my way Imposter syndrome + Cognitive Behavioral Therapy resources (if you've ever felt like you don't belong or aren't good enough for your industry, I would glance through these resources!!)

[nerdneha]

You are not your Imposter Syndrome

If you've said...

“I don’t deserve this; I’m just lucky." "I shouldn't bother with [opportunity/this goal]; my peers are more qualified and I don't know what I'm going." "My peers are so much smarter than me, it’s only a matter of time before they figure out I don’t belong.” "I have no idea why [my employer/my program] hired/admitted me, I'm the worst one here."

...chances are it's not true but you can't help but feel like it is. And the feeling makes you feel isolated and anxious. In reality, you're not alone and this phenomenon has a name, it's called “Imposter Syndrome” and countless professionals and students experience it, especially as you climb higher in life. I definitely have imposter syndrome but, where it was once unmanageable and getting in my way, it's now something I understand and can work through. This blog post is about how I've done that.

But some basics, first: Imposter Syndrome Definition (a la wikipedia): a psychological phenomenon in which people are unable to internalize their accomplishments.

For me, this makes me feel uneasy about what I’ve done and doubt my capabilities. Basically I feel like I'm this goose and pray that no one will notice that I'm wearing a tux and I'm not a penguin (uh...metaphorically, of course...):

If you've heard about imposter syndrome before, chances are you've heard it in the context of women experiencing it in emerging fields because it's a hot topic right now. Makes sense; fields such as software development and data science are dominated by men, and women in these fields often look, think, and operate differently than the engineering or analytics archetypes. But imposter syndrome is not something women experience exclusively! It is common among high-achievers and those who internalize failures and externalize successes. I find it's exacerbated and brought out in an environment of fear, where the stakes are high (like a job).

I experience imposter syndrome on a regular basis (it's not going anywhere) and I don't like when it gets in my way. So, like the engineer I am, I analyzed my thoughts and came up with a way to rewire them so that what I feel (like an imposter) and what I do (things I never thought I was capable of) don’t inhibit each other. I found a way to beat my mental battles so I could focus on the ones that count.

I describe my new thought process in a 6 step process because I need that methodical intervention. The hope is to make this mechanical process a new habit. So here it is:

1. Recognize (omg, it's happening again) 2. Separate (distinguish facts from feelings) 3. Analyze (did you have positive feelings? the facts can help) 4. Rewire (base your decision on the facts) 5. Do it (srsly) 6. Celebrate & Reflect (yay you did it! were you being silly before?? probs)

I'll take you through these steps with a little story. About 6 months ago, my boss came to me and suggested I speak at an AT&T hackathon with Girls Who Code. It would be a 5 minute talk about my advice on building your first app. Of course, my first gut reaction was WHAAAAAT?? and then: uhhhhh........... (sounded something like Tina's uhhhh's from Bob's Burgers). That's when I regurgitated a slew of excuses, which leads me to

Step 1: Recognize the language

If you've said any of the following to yourself:

"(I'm too lucky,) I don't deserve this", "I shouldn't because I'm not qualified", "My peers can do this better than me", "I don't feel accomplished enough to do this.", Why would anyone want me to do this?", "I'm going to fail, so I shouldn't even bother"

...then join the club. All of these thoughts went through my head when my boss asked me to speak and this is all very stereotypical imposter syndrome language. The minute I hear these thoughts, I know that my gut reaction for a decision is not to be trusted and I need to move on to

Step 2: Separate the feels and the facts

You might have noticed that there were 0 facts in my above thoughts. So, when I get like this, I make myself a list and consciously put those above thoughts under "feelings". For my 5 minute talk, they were:

- This is a great opportunity - I have advice that these kids could benefit from - I could use the experience (I had a 15min talk coming up in 3 months) - It's JUST 5 MINUTES!!

Well... when I list those things out, I start to think about things differently. Which is why I have

Step 3: Analyze the facts (only!)

This step is all about expanding the facts and making sure I balance my feelings. Did I list any positive feelings above? Nope. Expanding the facts forces myself to think positively, during my 5min talk predicament, it looked something like this:

- I have done my own webs apps and I wrote them from scratch - I recently spoke with my CEO to kids about breaking into CS and it was pretty fun! The kids seemed to enjoy it - Maybe others in this audience might relate to me, also

Okay well after that, I felt pretty bamf. Nothing like a good old list to trick myself into feeling better. I think it's an important side-step to cultivate positive feelings that balance the worries and uncertainties that I have and mistake for feelings about myself. So this is finally a point where I think it's time to make a decision.

Step 4: Rewire by answering "why should I?"

Now that I have a decent fact list, I try to answer the question "why should I say yes and move forward?". Ultimately, my answer always sounds something like this: Even if the risk is high, the experience of preparing and executing, itself, is worth it. Plus, what's the worst that could happen? 

I had a meltdown at work not too long ago where I was terrified that I was underperforming. There were tears and I reacted like it was the end of the world. Luckily, I talked to a friend of mine who asked me "what's the worst that could happen"? and the answer was that I’d get fired. But honestly that’s not the worst thing in the world… I am employable, skilled, driven, and social. Walking through this hyperbolic exercise made me feel a lot better and almost silly. It'd be fine either way. Spoiler alert: My fears (unsurprisingly) turned out to be baseless. 

It's worth noting that the time between 'yes' and 'go time' feels like a scene in those cartoons where a tiny crack zooms out to be a canyon. It's very easy to get bogged down by the pressure and details and feel as though I've signed up for something I can't do. I want to cancel and I want to procrastinate so I don't feel like I did everything I could and failed. But I know it's an illusion. This is where I reach out to my friends and family to keep me on my feet.

Step 5: DO IT

Easiest and hardest step. I don't care how hard it is, I don't care what the risks are. My 5th step will always be to DO IT. I am terrified and not ready but I trust the rest of me will catch up.

Step 6: Celebrate & Reflect

This is the MOST IMPORTANT STEP YA'LL. CONGRATS FOR GETTING HERE (metaphorically in your struggles and in this blog post). Breathe. You did it and you're awesome. Hiccups, meltdowns, nervous ticks, that time you cursed mid-presentation; let yourself rest for a second. You're awesome. I make myself say that every time I accomplish something that terrifies me. It's important to take the time aside and celebrate instead of charging forward.

In the case of my story, I did my talk and it was fine! I listened to the audio and found some great improvement points that I was REALLY glad I didn't learn about in front of my audience of 200 a few months later. I took the time to celebrate and REFLECT; were my concerns valid? No.

Instead of failing, breaking down, or bringing shame to my ancestors (mulan style), I learned a lot about my work and my character and I met some cool people who were mentors during the hackathon. I even helped judge/present the awards (and took a failed selfie). The experience was completely worth it. 

Most importantly, my Imposter Syndrome voice was wrong and I'm so glad I didn't let it dictate my decisions. 

---

I presented this talk at the Grace Hopper Conference in October 2014, which was an exhilarating and terrifying experience. I hope this written form inspires others to talk about Imposter Syndrome and find their own strategy to deal with those initial thoughts and fears. Your experiences mean a lot to me; please share them with me if you can! I'd love to create a post about others' experiences and follow-up thoughts. 

Finally, a great mentor and friend made me realize how closely my personal approach was to the techniques in Cognitive Behavioral Therapy. Reading more about it has helped me create the discrete steps in this post and opened up my mind about my habits and the malleability of my behavior. Learning more about CBT can help us apply a scientific approach to our lives. We already do this with our work, don't our lives deserve the same passion and care? If you are looking for more resources on Imposter Syndrome or Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, I created a list of the sources I used/my peers recommend, here. I highly recommend a quick visit.

[nerdneha]

Notable Blog Posts

I'm putting this up mostly so that, if you are new to my blog, you can easily find the posts that others have found most helpful. One day I'll make a nice tumblr template that does this on its own but today, it's a blog post. Enjoy!!

Going Into Programming Quitting my job to teach myself to program How I taught myself to program Applying to Hacker School (3 times. tl;dr: #worthit) Thank you letter to Dropbox (for sponsoring my grant in Hacker School; talks briefly about my Hacker School experience)

Getting that Job Job hunting resources + advice Questions to ask future employers

Example of Simple Technical Blog Posts (for beginners) Data structures in youtube So you want to make a django app / django lessons (all 3 lines of it...) Python list comprehensions Python decorators

Speaking + Doing Collected advice on speaking Imposter Syndrome and how I don't let it get in my way Imposter syndrome + Cognitive Behavioral Therapy resources (if you've ever felt like you don't belong or aren't good enough for your industry, I would glance through these resources!!) My favorite ted talks (as of May 2012)

[nerdneha]

Job Hunting resources and advice -- my version

With so many companies hiring and so many lists and resources for places to look, I used to get very overwhelmed by the fact that there seemed to be 1,000 positions but 0 that I could apply for. Here are my takeaways from my first 3 rounds of job hunting. Resources first, advice is after. (If you want my journey for getting my first software job after teaching myself how to program, that’s here).

If I chose to talk about the one thing that works for me

It’s no surprise that I’m working at Pivotal Labs where I pair program for 8 hrs/day, 40hrs/week. If I did one thing to prepare that actually worked for me, it was practicing interview questions with a friend. Once I found someone I was okay being vulnerable with, I worked on a variety of problems and didn’t hold back on the questions (I’d rather ask them than the interviewer). I did this with many people; different personalities catch different thing and they all usually remembered questions they were asked a lot that stood out in their mind. It’s also great for feedback on your timing, approach, and attitude (things you can’t get answers on in a textbook). 

If I recommended just one other thing: it would be to work on a mini project to keep your skills in a language fresh. Especially without the structure and frameworks that you might have in your job or previous projets.

Resources

1) Meetups -- many meetups talk about the latest in a language or have useful how-tos and sometimes have interviewing practices! I have taken advantage of Women Who Code, Write/Speak/Code, Ladies Who Code, Girl Develop It, and Hack N’ Jill. I’m sure there are many for men also but I don’t have any from personal experience. I’d just search “interviewing” or something via the meetup search.

2) Inside Startups -- this is helpful mostly for New Yorkers; they have an awesome weekly newsletter which includes events and companies hiring and a great list of internships. I find it useful to know who's hiring and their positions aren't exclusive to tech positions! 

3) Gary's Guide -- this is also for New Yorkers; it's another weekly newsletter with a larger focus on events (and sometimes discounted tickets to events you'd likely be going to! sometimes even free passes) and a side mention of companies hiring. I find that it doesn't often overlap with #1 so it's good to have different lists out there. I also use this as inspiration to go to more events; tons to do each week. Sometimes I learn about conferences on this, too!

4) Hired.com -- (for analytics, tech, and product management only) I haven't used this resource myself yet because I haven't been on the hunt recently but several of my friends have gotten jobs off of it and are happy with the process (one was from my invite actually). It excludes current and previous employers so you're safe. Getting an invite from someone helps you jump the line -- message me if you want one!

5) One day one job -- another resource I haven't used because I just learned about it but seems like a great slow-build resource which I like because, whenever I'm hunting, I am not into doing a constant search every day to see what recently popped up.

Other places I've linked to friends but haven't fully vetted: https://www.themuse.com/ http://jobs.mashable.com/jobs/search/results?location=new+york https://www.lynxsy.com/ http://www.startuphire.com/lc/New-York-startup-jobs?s=NY http://wearemadeinny.com/made-in-ny-list/

Advice

Apply even if you aren't 100% qualified. There's a statistic out there about how men apply if they aren't fully qualified (meeting 60% of the requirements) whereas women will only apply if they are 100% qualified. (tons of articles on this, ex: harvard business review). So apply. If your biggest fear is rejection, my comforting thought is that you will likely forget about all the job hunt rejections you've had when you land a job. Worth it.

Reach out to anyone you're connected to on LinkedIn for the job. I got one of my jobs by finding a company I liked, seeing if they were hiring, then going on linkedIn to see if I knew anyone at that company. It turned out that I had two second-degree connections so I emailed all my common connections to get intros. I got 3 intros (total) to the two people and one of them replied! She met with me in person and passed on my resume after we met. I've heard from many friends that resumes passed from current coworkers are more likely to be seen (depending on the company). 

Make yourself unique. If you find the job of your dreams, find a way to stand out! Write a blog post about what you love, code up something that is relevant to them, figure out if they're going to any recruiting events, try to get invited to one of their events (note: make sure you bringing up wanting a job is welcome at the event!), find a meetup where they might be at. Better yet, don't custom tailor your work to just that company and build out your website/blog with fun projects and insights. Go to events in your interest area and tweet/blog about them when you're done (an easy trick to force yourself to process an event critically. tweeting at people and congratulating them is a great way to make friends and make someone's day!)! See if you can speak at a meetup also! Many have small lightning talks and there's always advice/insights/thoughts you have that others could benefit from hearing! Volunteer if the thought of networking openly terrifies you.

Keep yourself updated. Although LinkedIn is "sooo mainstream", tons of recruiters use it to send out job opportunities. Make sure it's up to date! I linked my mini-projects on there and got a positive response. I've seen people add some elegant form of "looking for software engineer position" in their job description before also. I also kept my embarrassingly simple website website updated (at the time) and tried to make sure all my github repos had a description w/ screenshots so they didn't have to go to the website or download the program. I would even actively tweet about your hunt and ask certain key people to retweet you!

On Interviews

Interviews are generally terrifying and I always under or overshoot my caffeine intake that day. We all get nervous. It's important to remember that interviewers sometimes dread interviews also and are sometimes as nervous as you are! They just want to have a good conversation. Being pleasant, prepared, on time, and honest makes the whole thing easier for the both of you.

Fun resource: Coding for Interviews -- I used to get this in newsletter form to see some great interview questions and sample exercises. It was nice because I'd be sitting around wasting time on my email and then get this in my inbox. So quick to read and it's fun to think about! A great resource that paces you as you go.

Here are my personal opinions on interviewing and my advice:

Do some homework. Glassdoor, crunchbase, and the google are my initial go-tos. Make sure you’ve read about them in the press (trust me, you want to know about the skeletons that have been exposed!). Have some questions ready (you can even write them down and pull it out during the interview! It's not a bad thing, it means you're prepared. I compiled a few a while ago and blogged it here). You want to come into the interview having played around with the product (if possible; sometimes you can ask for access to do it if it's blocked) and tried a few things out to get a feel for it. You'll want to know if you will be comfortable representing the product anyway. Best to get that 'recon' out of the way beforehand.

Communicate and follow up. If you’re unsure about timelines or what the next step is, it’s okay to ask in person and/or via email - no one will penalize you for that.

Be on time. Don't be late. Budget an extra half hour. Interviews are hard to schedule and reschedule. Don't be late.

Be honest. You want to get a job knowing you were yourself and you don't want to have to prove yourself to be someone you're not once you get the job. Honesty is my ticket to mental freedom.

Be helpful. If you don't have a good answer, maybe there's something else you can say that can at least help them understand you. I was once in a scenario where, in my first interview, it was glaringly obvious that I didn't have the qualifications for that job. I straightup said "I can't do any of that but this is what I can do... and have done... and this is why I think it's relevant...". So much more helpful then "uhhh I can't do that." (sidenote: it worked, I got the job).

Simplify things if you need it. This is mostly in reference to whiteboarding, a common tech interview technique where they have you solve a programming problem on the whiteboard while they watch. The problems that are complex are meant to be complex and you can totally ask if it's okay if you simplify the problem to wrap your head around it. Simplify and solve the smallest piece, and then change up some variables  and expand the scope. You do this with your programming projects all the time! Interview problems are the same. Don't let it freeze you up. If you're stuck, find a bit you can tackle. Forward progress is key. They're not going to let you go down a bad path for the whole interview anyway. Not worth it for them.

Show confidence. If you're lacking last-minute confidence, do a power pose. Listen to Eye of the Tiger or whatever song inspires you to do be awesome (mine are usually Beyonce songs like Run the World and Flawless). Watch a youtube video that will make you laugh or feel amazing (my favorite is here, SERIOUSLY WATCH IT). Trick yourself!! When you're interviewing, check in every now and then to look at your body posture. Are you maintaining eye contact (I used to forget and talk to the floor)? Are you slouched in a programmer stance? Straighten up! Are you frowning or furrowing your brow? Smile and relax. I believe that my posture and facial expressions affect my mood. If I manually change my expressions, sometimes my mood changes, too! Always good to check in occasionally and reset :). Also if you're thirsty, you can totally ask for water. Or a restroom break. They don't bite. If they do, you don't want to work there anyway.

Don't forget why you're there. Before you get frustrated, nervous, angry, or defensive during the interview, remember why you are there. You love what you're interviewing for (i hope!) and you want to get to know who you might work with. You want to know if the company is a good fit for you! Catch yourself before you psych yourself out, or worse, sound like a jerk. (seriously though, never scoff at a problem or act like it's beneath you. i've heard stories about this, wtf! don't forget why you're there!!!)

And if you're a programmer, you're there because you love programming! If you get a tough puzzle on the whiteboard, it should excite you! I treat each interview as a learning experience and often ask stupid questions to make sure I learn for the next interview. I get excited when I learn something new (not mad at myself) and roll with it. To make this as easy as possible, you should talk out loud about what you're thinking -- what you understand and what you're confused about because your interviewers WANT to help but can't if you don't help them help you (sound familiar? this is brought to you by: general life advice). It's just like pairing. If you have trouble thinking out loud, practice phrases like "Okay I understand ____" after you're given a problem, "I'm going to do _____ first, is that okay" when you're planning out what to do, and "i seem to be stuck. i get ____ but I'm confused about _____. I think I need a moment to think about ______" when you're stuck. It's mechanical but helpful. You should say what you're going to do, do it, and then recap what you did. Just like a presentation or if you're helping someone brand new who is looking at a piece of code you wrote. 

I once interviewed someone who couldn’t come up with the answer in person but asked to follow up. We read his response and strongly considered him but ended up saying no for a completely different reason. We actually considered taking him because of his follow up email with the answer and explanation to our question!

What has your job hunt been like? What tricks do you keep in your pocket to get you to calm down and perform at your best?

If you have helpful advice, please let me know! I would love to add it here :). 

--

My rant about interviews

I hate interviews. 

What do the interview rounds mean? There will be several rounds in interviewing: the zeroth one could potentially be a recruiter or engineer manager asking about what you’re looking for and just gathering information to see if your experience aligns with a position or group. Then you’ll likely have the first coding interview over the phone that tries to assess how you react with a simple problem and probably make sure you can perform at the most basic level they perceive the position is at. 

Some companies also do a second round interview over the phone with a significantly harder question involving an esoteric algorithm or data structure; I hate these and can only guess that it’s for evaluating how much you’re willing to memorize / act like a CS student and recite textbook definitions for random cases (okay but in reality maybe you like that and you’ll fit in well with that company then). 

You might also be asked to do some homework that will take “8 hours” and may or may not take SIGNIFICANTLY longer if you’re not already familiar with the language/framework/using APIs/knowing how to set up a testing framework. This is supposed to give you a chance if you’re not good with in-person interviews and also waste less time on the interviewer’s side and to let you prove that you will drop your weekend for them when they ask. 

After between 0 and 100 hurdles, you might be asked for an in-person interview which will likely involve white-boarding and you smiling while you’re panicking. This is aimed at trying to see how you might communicate and jive with your coworkers when you’re thinking through problems; I’m not 100% sure this is effective but it has helped bring out red flags in people who were downright unpleasant. Then there might be ONE last tie-breaker interview or cultural interview. Then maybe offer?

[nerdneha]

Imposter Syndrome + Cognitive Behavioral Therapy Resources

In the last year, I’ve taken a particular interest in the Imposter Syndrome. I realize that these thoughts I sometimes have (“omg they’re going to find out I’m a fraud”, “i got to where I am by luck”, “i shouldn’t do this because i’m not sure i’m the authority or that i deserve it”, “i can’t do it i’m too scared”) are something I struggle with and, as a problem solver, I am working on my own solution. I’m still working on it and I’d like to share some of the resources I’ve found particularly insightful and useful so far. 

If you have any great articles, videos, blog posts that you recommend, please send them my way! I’d love to add to this list. 

Imposter Syndrome Articles

https://medium.com/@aliciatweet/impostor-syndrome-is-not-just-a-confidence-problem-dea670e59f6e#.haq7jdqwj

http://www.paulineroseclance.com/pdf/ip_high_achieving_women.pdf

http://www.theatlantic.com/features/archive/2014/04/the-confidence-gap/359815/

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/28/opinion/sunday/learning-to-love-criticism.html

http://www.ted.com/talks/amy_cuddy_your_body_language_shapes_who_you_are

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/judith-s-beck-phd/the-imposter-syndrome_b_656252.html

http://the-toast.net/2014/01/29/everyone-imposter-syndrome-except/

http://explorewhatsnext.com/success-failure-the-imposter-syndrome/

http://www.hookandeye.ca/2013/04/academic-imposter-syndrome.html

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy Resources — an area I think we can benefit from a lot if we start to apply these techniques to our lives!

http://lifehacker.com/5980491/try-these-cognitive-restructuring-exercises-to-improve-your-mood-and-reduce-stress

http://www.getselfhelp.co.uk/docs/ThoughtRecordSheet7.pdf

http://io9.com/feel-like-a-fraud-you-might-have-impostor-syndrome-1472855315

Book: Feeling Good: The New Mood by David D. Burns, M.D. (amazon)

Maria Klawe Interviews — are awesome and deserve their own section. She has tackled this issue head on and I always get something new when I read her articles

http://www.forbes.com/sites/85broads/2011/12/12/how-one-college-president-is-breaking-down-barriers-for-women-in-tech/

http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/future_tense/2014/03/imposter_syndrome_how_the_president_of_harvey_mudd_college_copes.html

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/03/science/giving-women-the-access-code.html

Links on my list (thanks to those who have provided new resources for this post!)

http://adainitiative.org/what-we-do/impostor-syndrome-training/

http://geekfeminism.org/2009/08/23/epistemology-and-impostor-syndrome/

http://geekfeminism.org/2011/01/20/on-competence-and-tricking-yourself/

http://www.ted.com/talks/ze_frank_are_you_human

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1i8ylq4j_EY

http://themoth.org/posts/stories/the-big-things-you-dont-do

[nerdneha]

Collected Advice on Speaking

I’m about to do my first talk of 15 minutes ever at Grace Hopper Conference this Thursday! In order to prepare, I’ve gone around and asked my friends and colleagues what advice they had on speaking for the first time. Here’s what I got :)

General Advice

“You Are the UI essay by Kathy Sierra is one of the best things I’ve read about this”

"Over prepare, I always do. You never regret it because prepping heavily (going over your talk and talking through your slides/visuals) also informs how you can both deliver your talk and handle any logistical hiccups, questions or contingencies with some ease."

"Own your shit. If you’re speaking, you are the expert, the superuser, of whatever your topic is for the duration of your talk, so don’t be intimidated by the audience. People come to talks to learn and the easiest way to do that is to listen to a person who speaks comfortably and confidently. Any insecurity should be squashed in the realization that you have a duty to teach your audience about your domain."

"Talks are performances; there’s a certain amount of theater to them and a fair amount of acting. Everyone knows this, good speakers leverage this; your ultimate goal is to entertain and inspire, rock that."

"Make sure you are having fun with it. If you aren’t enjoying your talk, your audience isn’t either."

“Stories are an extremely powerful frame for technical information and help people get engaged, especially if the topic is dry. The Pixar format (slide #4) http://www.slideshare.net/powerfulpoint/pixar-22rulestophenomenalstorytellingpowerfulpointslideshare is a great start.”

"Make good use of visual explanations as well as verbal and gestures. Everyone has a different way of learning, so target all."

During the Presentation

"Find a few people and make them your eye-contact collaborators. I usually select some friendly-looking folks in the first minute and keep returning to them for mental fist-bumps throughout the talk. I rarely stare at my shoes or my slides because that can alienate your audience, and your objective is to engage."

Adding to the point above, “if you know anyone, place them strategically at three different sides of the room so you can make eye contact with them.”

"Take many deep breaths." "Put something in your slide deck that reminds you to breathe/be present for a moment every so often.”

"Test your slides on a practice projector (usually provided at the venue) to get an idea if colors are being washed out or text is being cut off."

"If you’re sharing a session with others, reach out to them ahead of time if you can to understand some of the “handoff” points where your talks might tie into each other and talk about timing so there is enough time for each speaker and Q&A.”

"Remember talking points, don’t read from index cards. Don’t feel that you need to remember the entire speech, you just need to know what you want to talk about. Nobody is born a great presenter, look at Mark Zuckerberg, over time with lots of practices he now looks comfortable on stage. For the most part you are talking to your peers and like-minded people. They want to see you succeed and want to learn from you. Be confident, someone asked you to get up on stage."

For those who may be interested in hearing an alternative, “I write out my talks and put the full text of them in the presenter notes, and I read from them if need be. I recently publicly admitted that this is what I do, and I’ve heard from several people who do the same thing. That said, it doesn’t work for everyone.”

"Pacing: most people move too quickly. Some people move too slowly. When in doubt, slow down. It builds clarity and perceived comfort/confidence with the material"

“‘Say dog, see dog.’ if you can time your words with your visuals, the result is powerful.”

"Tool tip: Presenter mode lets you see the next slide, so you can often use this to segue into your new material"

"Find a few nodders in the audience and glance at them every time you're nervous, or trying to gauge whether the audience is following and you need to slow down or elaborate."

Structure and Slides

"For science, spend more time on the intro than you think necessary. If you’re working on some tiny obscure thing that nobody has heard of or seems to cares about (for me, nobody cares about rna, much less rna binding proteins), you gotta instill it into your audience that your topic is important to the world.”

"Use the title safe area — http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Safe_area_(television)#Title-safe_area.”

"I try not to use the bottom third or so of slides, because that part tends to be blocked by people’s heads. A good venue will have the screen up high enough that this won’t matter, but not every venue is good.”

"If possible, don’t ask your audience to read anything from your slides. If you must make them read, make sure the text size is ginormous.”

"Don’t put misleading crap up there, like screen shots with too-small text, that may distract your audience from the real point you are making."

"When prepping I focus more on the transitions between slides than the contents of the slides. Once the slides are actually made I’m pretty sure of what’s on them, but the transitions are harder to pin down. Sometimes I use presenter tools to write down key words to jog my memory on transitions that are tough to nail. This *really* helps with the continuity of your delivery."

"Present the audience with the talk outline to set expectations and guide them. Reiterating something they've just heard/learned to the audience helps to mentally compact the material they've just learned before moving onto the new stuff."

"Think about the flow. You know the flow is good if the transitions from slide to side, idea to idea are effortless. Feel free to proactively reorganize the talk to improve the flow early in the prep, but stop modifying ~1-1.5 weeks before you have to present."

Q&A

"Sometimes people are asking a question, and sometimes people are trying to sound smart in front of the audience. 1)  you need to take care of the audience. the audience wants you to take care of them. so if the question-asker is being a jerk, the audience wants you to shut them down, deflect them, or call them out, whatever makes the most sense to give *everyone* in the room the best experience. 2) consider the question less a question and more a jumping off point to say an interesting or useful thing that didn’t fit into your presentation. When you start to look for this in interviews in the media it happens all the time."

"Always repeat the question before answering it."

Thanks to: Aurelia Moser, Bianca Gandolfo, Olga Botvinnik, Sonali Sridhar, Kennedy, David Kay, Lindsey Kuper, Sasha Laundy, and Aysylu Greenberg for this advice :). 

[septemberbells]

So I’ve seen this post going around in link form, which isn’t super useful to anyone who wants to read it, so I put it up in photo form. Useful for anyone who doesn’t have xkit. :3 Definitely like and reblog the OP, but if it shows up as a link, this helps. :3

[sameatschildren-deactivated2018]

need

[nerdneha]

great great post. helpful if you're starting from scratch to apply to a job that asks for a cover letter!!

[nerdneha]

Don’t Believe Anyone Who Tells You Learning To Code Is Easy | TechCrunch

One of the most dangerous things I’ve seen happen to people who are just starting to code is being told that it’s easy.

I've been meaning to write a post very similar to this techcrunch article called PROGRAMMING IS HARD and I think this is a great intro! I think that saying programming is easy means that when someone accomplishes a feat and finishes their first tiny project (like their first hello world), that person won't think it's actually as great as it is! Programming is hard and any progress should be celebrated; it's what makes those grueling impossible times worth it :). Highly recommend a quick read of the article :)

[nerdneha]

How did you teach yourself programming?

A year and 5 months ago, I quit my energy consulting job to pursue programming, got into Hacker School a year ago, and got my first Software Engineering job at Rent the Runway 8 months ago. 

Because of my weird past (which includes a MechE degree before this), I am often asked some version of: "how did you break into programming?". The short answer is that I started learning programming in high school/college through classes, but couldn't recall much after and had no idea how to build anything. After quitting, I used MOOCs (Massive open online courses) to refresh my memory and tutorials to play around and get the hang of basic simple webdev. All the MOOCs I took were free :). 

Before quitting

By the time I had decided to pursue a career in programming, I had taken a Python class in college, a Java class in HS, and a Scheme class earlier in high school (functional, the same language taught on MIT's 6.001, available on OCW). 

I also took a class before I quit my job to familiarize myself and try something new through Girl Develop It. Girl Develop It is an organization that does classes across the nation for anyone who identifies as a woman - I took their Android class (not free) (July or Aug '12).

I quit my job in September 2012, which is another conversation. I talk about the quitting decision in another blog post, here.

After quitting

After quitting I was not able to pay for a $10,000 course to whip me into shape so I tried a bunch of things, like an excellent Coursera course on Scala, and just reading tutorials and trying to program off of that. It was a lot of starting things, getting frustrated, and quitting. Eventually, someone pointed me to an amazing blog post about how, when you find something that works for you, your learning curve will hit the pace you were looking for. It's all about how you learn. 

That was a turning point for me, I had used sites like Coursera and Codecademy already, but it didn't fit my "groove" well. Then, I found Udacity, which gave me what I wanted: digestible short lectures with frequent quizzes and problem sets. There was no schedule and I could operate on my own pace, it was perfect for me. 

Classes I took:

- Udacity - CS101 - Intro to Programming (Oct '12): An awesome class that starts from scratch and gets challenging by the final exam. It pieces apart how a search engine works (which is SO cool). - Udacity - Algorithms (Nov '12, I never finished): I learned about graph theory here, but never finished because there were so may other things I found interesting, nothing bad reflected on the class.  - MongoDB - Intro to MongoDB (Nov/Dec '12, I never finished): I wanted to eventually learn about web development so I figured learning about a database would be important. They had pretty useful problem sets that showed me how things tied together in a tangible way. I caught the class late, but didn't mind, I wasn't there for the grade. 

After that, I started to learn the missing pieces to get together a webpage and program. I learned vim (vimtutor is the best), I put up my first hello world with heroku, and I created my first program called Santa Helper. At this point I could make a pretty ugly webpage, but I didn't feel ready to try for an internship; I needed more depth in a language.

This coincided with my 3rd attempt at applying for Hacker School (story, here) where I actually got in and started a year ago in February. If this is your first time hearing about Hacker School, it's a 3 month self-directed program that completely jumpstarted my career -- it's like a writer's retreat for coders. 

Hacker School

I focused mostly on web development and figuring out how to make a website and tailor it to "do what I want." Then I wanted to exercise a different part of my brain and try making my own connect four game and AI. My website has my github and a link to my crappy code websites :D. I'm proud to say that I am incredibly embarrassed to link my website because I can do better, now. 

After Hacker School

I wanted to hone my skills more and, knowing that I'm very goal-oriented, I decided to search for an internship or job to get better, but also work towards a product that I'd be passionate about. I entered a brief internship and ended up landing a full-time job at Rent the Runway soon after! (I'll go into detail in another post, promises). I've been working on the frontend for the newest features on the site, but will be switching to backend on Monday! Very exciting stuff and I am SO PUMPED to learn and soak it up over these next few months. 

The moral of the story

1. MOOCs are awesome and it's all about finding what works for you. Try them, take advantage, abandon ship if it's not working.

2. It's never too late, don't let ANYONE tell you that, anyone. ANYONE.

3. You don't have to spend all your money on ridiculous classes to learn, you just need some intrinsic motivation. 

4. I left this out in the post (pending_new_post++): set yourself up with good company, people who will encourage you and be honest with you if you've been slacking off and honest with you if you're being too hard on yourself. If they're good, they'll push you out of your comfort zone for the best. 

5. This is just what works for me. There are many more resources that are around and more that are popping up! Knollop is a great way to sort through the available resources. 

[nerdneha]

questions to ask future employers

I asked a bunch of my friends what they asked their employers when they said "do you have any questions" and I put together this list (for software related positions): 

what's the work environment for you

what do you expect out of your coworkers and those under you

what sort of training/onboarding program do you have set up?

what is a typical day like here? How much time will I spend coding, debugging, in meetings, writing emails?

what stack do you use? do you use Windows? should I just walk out right now?

how would you describe the culture here?

who do I report to? is he/she a programmer?

what is the normal work week like? 

how much after hours and/or weekends will be expected?

what would you say are the best and worst parts of this job?

how many engineers do you plan to hire?

what would you see a new hire doing in the first week there?

how do you like working here?

how are priorities decided?

how are deadlines set for big projects

how often do priorities change dramatically and why/how does that happen?

tell me about your last big crunch time

where do you see your company in a couple of years

what do you value?

how will you cultivate me as a programmer?

Hope this is helpful!

[nerdneha]

New Years Resolutions

Project Inbox Zero has been a long time coming and I came across a lovely email my friend wrote me on Jan 2 asking me about my new years resolutions this year! So, almost 6 months later, here they are! I don't think most of these goals are unreasonable and I've definitely made headway in a lot of them!!

Knowledge

 - Discover whether I like coding or not

 - Gain a new skill

 - If I like coding: get to the point where I can build my own product

 - If I like coding: do a hackathon

Career

 - Make progress in my career and stay true to my three goals: 1. learn, 2. surround myself with nice, passionate people, 3. work on a product I'm passionate about

 - After a year of quitting (sept 2013), feel as though my time off has been worth it and my career shift is well underway

 - Make sure I'm not in a situation where I feel as though my time is wasted

 - Do not compromise my career for my lack of experience; find someone who will let me stretch

Relationships

 - Don't be afraid to take a stance/stand up for myself when I feel strongly about something

 - Flake less on friendship outings; if I have to commit less, that's okay

 - Meet new people

 - Go out of my way to make someone's life better. Repeat often  - Communicate better, especially when I'm upset

 - Be less passive aggressive

Health

 - Avoid injury and overworking myself

 - Do a 5k

 - Increase my metabolism

 - Find ways to incorporate healthier eating into my diet; find new recipes!

 - Drink less; especially not feeling guilty refusing when I don't want to drink

Self

 - Feel less guilty about eating what I want

 - Feel stronger about my body, accept it for what it is, exercise for the health aspect!!

 - Make sure I am always feeling proud of my decisions and what I do; if I don't, rectify asap

 - Make a routine work

Passion

 - DIY something

 - Visit a new part of NY

 - Visit a new part of the world

 - Learn how to cook better 

 - Get more involved in the edutech community

 - Read more!

[nerdneha]

Data Structures in YT

I've always found it helpful to read about a new concept and then see it 'come alive' in a youtube video! It also helps me understand the proper terminology.

I came across the user PaulProgramming who has a bunch of videos up that explains concepts quite clearly! Here are a few of the highlights:

Hash Tables -  He just created the video so at this point, the code behind implementing this isn't up yet but it will be soon Linked List - He explains and shows how to create a linkedlist project Heaps - 3 parts: adding, removing, and making as an array Stacks - He explains and shows how to create a stack class project

Note: if you know better youtube resources, let me know! I'll be updating this as I find better videos and on more topics!

[nerdneha]

I want to work with more women.

What a great blog post by the CEO of Dwolla, Ben Milne! (which is a great product btw, I love it). I wanted to highlight the ending where he is speaking directly to women in tech:

Women of the tech world,

I know you’re out there. I see you at conferences and at coffee shops hacking all day. When you catch me looking at you working, I’m not looking for a wedding ring. I’m trying to see if you’re building something and if so, on what, for whom, so I can figure out how to find you.

I believe you have exceptional minds. You’ve continually challenged the company, held us accountable, and, personally, told me if my ideas suck. I appreciate that.

We need more of that.

We can’t find you if you’re not applying, and we want really badly to work with you. My motives are totally selfish and transparent. We know how awesome you are, what an amazing team member we think you will be, and we want to build a great company with you.

Thank you for your time and consideration.

Please! Apply.

-Ben

...I will not be applying as they are in Des Moines, IA but if they head over to NYC, I'd apply in a heartbeat. (a friend notified me that they hire remotely! girls get on it :D).

What an excellent post to start my day!!!

[nerdneha]

How to Be a 'Woman Programmer'

There is always that moment when you are alone with the prejudice: the joke, the leer, the disregard, the fact that the moment you walk through the door you are seen as lesser.

Interesting food for thought.

[nerdneha]

Lawn care, Daleks, bug zappers prove the Arduino thrives as much as Raspberry Pi.

Okay maybe I can't do any of these but ONE DAY, just you wait. 

Also, an aside, I definitely read the '3D printed quadrocopter' as the '3D printING quadrocopter' and got SO excited. Imagine having little copters that delivered 3D printed parts but they MADE THEM WHILE THEY WERE SHIPPING OVER??? Impractical? 99% Amazing? 100%

...so amazing wins. 

(pretty sure I got this off of Sasha's facebook)