#jrwebdev

[gintsugi]

Order x Chaos

There’s been a lot going on still, so I’ve hardly found the time to write an appropriate blog post recently. Challenges and interviews from different companies are coming which is great, but I’ve been tackling some financial problems (yes, still) for the past while. Just because it’s not really worth the time to completely explain what’s going on right now, let’s just say that the financial problems take priority - by a long shot.  At least I found this gem of a mix today, check out the song at 5:09. https://soundcloud.com/complexion/the-future-beats-show-098

[gintsugi]

BB in a week or so.

I thought I’d only have the challenge I had due last friday and the one that was due this past Tuesday, but things are picking up once again (in a good and bad way). I literally have had 4-5 more assignments thrown at me this week, so I’ve had something to do everyday.  It’s great and all, but I’m also lagging behind in taking care of myself. By that I mean, I need to get my finances taken care of and also continue exercising, dancing, and eating more. Going to be a busy rest of the week! I’m lucky I can’t really grow facial hair right now, cause I’d come out of this week looking like a lumberjack of sorts. Song of the day: Stay Here by Alfa & Emmavie https://soundcloud.com/alfamist/stay-here?in=alfamist/sets/alfa-emmavie-epoch

[gintsugi]

Carry on.

HYeah so I’m late with the blog post, I know. I’ll do the pushups and situps..soon. But I will, cause exercising lately has been super refreshing lately despite the smell of sweat. Seriously though, sunshine is great, especially when you’re able to get a full dose of it on Karl’s days off. I have a lot to write about, but I’m just going to talk a little bit about my interview experience and process for cold calling /emailing companies. I would talk about the hiring mixer, but I’m still working with some people from the event in a way so I’ll write about it in due time. I wrote a quick post about 2 weeks ago about keeping your head up. Moving forward with the job hunt adventure, it’s super important to give yourself advice that you can really take to heart, because the job hunt can really be emotionally, mentally, and physically draining. I won’t deny that I’ve been a little bit bummed, but for me, I find myself being able to treat each experience as a learning experience. So what happened? Well, I interviewed with Playstation Network a few weeks ago, that’s what stemmed my other blog post. It was crazy how it all happened, and the fact that it even happened still blows my mind. It turns out that my resume was found through a recruiting site. How did my resume make it to that recruiting site?  I met up with a recruiter, who I owe a lot to and whose name I will not mention for his privacy, who I essentially cold called. His energy was amazing, and he wore a hawaiian shirt to boot. You kind of know you’re in for a good experience when you’re with someone who is wear a hawaiian shirt. Long story short, he gave me a tour of his company and kindly let me know that they weren’t hiring at the time. Let me just pause real quick. In a lot of cases, from what I’ve seen and heard at least, people basically drop the ball here.  NO. That’s not what you should do, ever! As long as you’re still on the court that is the job hunt, you have to keep on dribbling. Go for rebounds, follow up, and see things through to the end. That’s an analogy/metaphor that I literally just came up with on the spot.  Is it hard to maintain interest? Sometimes, but you really ought to make the MOST out of every opportunity. Because who knows what’ll happen down the road. Don’t be the kind of person who says “Hey are you hiring?” and leaves upon hearing “Sorry, we’re not hiring juniors right now.” The key phrase in that response that you just got is NOT “not hiring,” it’s “not right now.” That basically means, maybe later.  So what do you do? Keep on shooting and be the person who shows that you’re still interested, because you’ll end up being the person to leave a lasting impression. Now do I think that I’ve left lasting impressions? I don’t know to be honest, but I’ve been generously connected with other recruiters from VC’s and companies by the people that I put the effort into maintaining a relationship with (not sure if relationship is the best word to use in this case). The thing about networking, is that the whole idea of it can be very distasteful to some people. I’ll admit, I sometimes think it is. But something that’s been driving me forward lately is the mentality I have when I go about it. What’s really worked to my advantage is the fact that I’m not actually from the Bay, I’m from the East Coast. That, and I’m REALLY trying to stay out here or get a job that I’ll enjoy, not a job that simply helps me pay off my loans.  I treat each person I meet here as a potential friend really, and that’s really all there is to it. I don’t agree with asking people for introductions if I don’t really know the person I’m even asking the favor from (grammar check please). Seriously though, in a lot of cases, people treat other people as tools when it comes to networking, and that’s just not the way to do it. Why? Cause there’s this thing called karma and it can really come back to kick ya in the butt later. Anyways, I digressed. A lot. Playstation Network. So, I basically made it to the second round after having a great initial phone call and technical phone screen, and received the coding challenge. It was extremely fun and rewarding for me, because I got to practice my Vanilla JS. I won’t go into details about the challenge, but I basically learned about making XHR requests using Vanilla JS which was awesome. That, and I also flexed a bit of my creative sense which they really liked.  Come judgment day, I found out that I didn’t make it to the next round. But for me, the response I received wasn’t informative enough, and by that, I mean that I didn’t know where I fell short.  So I asked for feedback, and that’s where things really turned around for me. I was told that they were looking for candidates with a bit more experience and a stronger sense of code. I took that well, because I know darn well that I’m new to all of this and well, I was simply glad that I completed their challenge. But they also noted that they liked my design sense! That honestly was enough for me, although I would have liked a bit more feedback so I could know how to improve my code. At the end of it, I was still able to make a new LinkedIn connection, and hopefully manage to keep my resume in their system for potential candidates. Actually, they posted more jobs recently and I’m trying to get back in touch to reapply. That’s just one of the experiences I’ve had so far, and to write about every other one will honestly take forever. So in short, based off of my experience, I encourage all junior devs, especially bootcamp grads, to keep looking for opportunities, and when you can’t find them, make them. Perseverance seriously goes along way, but even more so, being genuine has its benefits. Make sure you stay true to yourself as you carry on with the job hunt, because it really can be a dog eat dog world out here. Just keep your head up and carry on, and walk along confidently with a clear head and pure heart. I felt like I just threw up a bunch of the cheese from that poutine I just had from dinner (which was for celebrating one of my best and first friends from DBC accepting his job offer), because that last line was suuuuper corny. I also don’t even feel like I really got around to writing about what I meant to write about, but hey, I wrote a lot. Anyways, here’s a song that my friend from the NYC Bees cohort just shared with me, check it. By Surprise by Allure https://soundcloud.com/allureproduction/allure-by-surprise

[gintsugi]

My Coding Rap Parody of “It Takes Two”

Lately, I’ve been thinking of how to really grab the attention of recruiters and companies that I really want to work for. My friend said to just go all out, post a video, do something different, do something that people wouldn’t expect. And lately, I’ve been looking into companies that work with music and video, and so, I’ve stumbled upon 8track’s frontend engineer position.  So what did I do to hopefully catch their attention? I wrote a coding rap parody of Rob Base and DJ E-Z Rock’s “It Takes Two”! So, here’s to hoping that I catch their attention! I just wonder if they’ll actually ask me to send them a video of me rapping... Here’s the rap!

Not sure why the copy pasting turned out funky, but here’s to hoping for a call!

[gintsugi]

Overdue, but worth it.

At least, it will be. If I don’t write a blog detailing everything that’s been going on over the past 2 weeks by Saturday night, I’ll do 200 pushups, 200 crunches, and something else. That’s actually not a bad punishment, I should do them anyways. But I’ll be writing about the hiring mixer from a little while back, interviews/phone screens I’ve had, my experiences at 2 meetups, and just life in general (which is being completely owned by Citi Bank’s horrible retirement service).  Hopefully they’ll be good reads. For anyone that happened to actually be waiting on the posts (though I’m pretty sure I have 0 followers, and am oblivious about any potential stalkers), I hope that they’ll end up being worth the wait. Kind of like the new Disclosure album. Yeah, check it out, cause you should. Album of the week (like, internationally though): Caracal Minimix by Disclosure ft. A BUNCH OF REALLY GOOD ARTISTS https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bih0r16UnMk

[gintsugi]

Keep Your Head Up.

Note to self. I’ll explain later, but for now, just do what you’re telling yourself to do now, Harvey. Song of the day:  Keep Your Head Up (Junior White Remix) by Kirk Franklin https://soundcloud.com/jrwhite-dj-gospel-project/kirk-franklin-keep-your-head

[gintsugi]

Slow & Steady.

That’s how I plan on taking on the rest of this week at least. I spent Monday and Tuesday easing my way into the week by catching up with college friends who were in the area. Treated myself to some ACTUAL food for once. Delish. I should treat myself more... once I get a job. Quickly summarizing the week so far, I received a coding challenge on Monday and another one today, both of which I find interesting and fun. I’m not sure if I’m allowed to really talk about the challenges here or anything..even though people post them on GlassDoor and whatnot all the time. Playing it safe haha. Besides that, I’ve FINALLY faxed my 401k related forms so I can breathe a little better now. More like a lot better. Been touching up the final project from Phase 3 with my buddy Chris a little bit in preparation for the hiring mixer on the 15th. Other than that, it’s going to be a week of taking it easy looking at companies and whatnot and working on projects and challenges. Yup yup.

Mix from Soulection & Ta-Ku https://soundcloud.com/soulection/soulection-radio-show-221-w-ta-ku

[gintsugi]

sleep needed.

like, badly. It feels pretty weird being done with DBC right now to be honest - not having a set schedule anymore. There’s all of the things I should be doing, and there’s all of the things that I could be doing. I’m focusing on the shoulds, but even then, each day is still a struggle. I think the main reason I’m finding myself struggling a bit is because this job search is a VERY different experience in comparison to my college job hunt experience. The main reason being, I’m still new to coding whether I want to admit it or not, which isn’t a bad thing when you think about it. That just means there’s a lot more room to grow. But when it comes down to the whole process of searching and applying for jobs, I find myself checking in with others to see what their strategies and tactics are, and ultimately questioning myself at the end of the day. It’s kind of like, “Oh dang, you’ve been applying to 10 companies a day?” Or, “Oh wow, I guess I should be practicing algorithms, too.”  At the end of the day, I really need to just be comfortable with my own approach, which I am still figuring out. That’s not to say that I’m not pleased with my own way or that I’m trying to compete with my classmates and friends. I’m just nervous, really. But hey, the past 2-3 days have been great. I’ve been practicing my Vanilla JavaScript and having fun with CSS animations, and have been getting some sound advice from other DBC alumni and peers. One thing I learned about while watching some Frontend Masters videos was how in JavaScript, variable and function declarations are hoisted - or ‘brought to the top’. That’s my way of putting it really. More importantly, although JavaScript is widely treated as an interpreted language, it also kind of acts as a compiler language in that the JavaScript engine compiles the source code on the spot, and that’s why if you run your code with an invalid line somewhere in it, you’ll immediately get an error. Basically, the engine goes through to try and understand all of the code before executing anything (think “think before you act”), and if it doesn’t understand something, it’ll say, “Hey wait a minute, what’s this mean?” JavaScript is basically a prime example of a non-’Vegas’ coder. Again, this is just what I’ve come to understand so far. Regardless, Kyle Simpson’s videos are pretty sweet. Regarding my actual progress so far with the job search, I’ve actually gotten responses from I’d say..80% of the companies I’ve reached out to so far. I’ve only reached out to like 6 or 7. I kind of need to start keeping better track of that..note to self. I’ve got a few phone calls/coffee dates next week, so I’m looking forward to that, but I’m definitely going to step up my game come next week. Today was just great though. Yesterday I started up a miniature Super Mario card flip game, which I shared with a DBC alum who currently works for a company that I really want to work for. It was my first real introduction to a company out here in California since I’ve attended DBC, and I gotta say that I’m even more determined right now to work my butt off. I got mostly positive feedback on the code that I showed, but also received some really helpful constructive criticism and learned more about best practices and some tricks in the process. I’m super glad that I was able to connect through DBC’s network, and just have the opportunity that I was graciously given today. As of right now, I’m most likely not qualified to apply to the company I visited today, but I THINK that based on how things wrapped up after my introduction, that I can try to seriously apply within a month or two. Oh, and I finished my card game (though I’ll look into other features/bugs later) about an hour or two ago thanks to learning about the CSS3 pointer-events property. Check it out here.  I’ll be working on more mini-projects and most likely a large scale one by next week. Things are getting real now. “But I’m definitely going to take it easy tomorrow,” he thought to himself. Song: Wander with Me by Tom Misch ft. Carmody https://soundcloud.com/tommisch/wander-with-me-feat-carmody -dang, I wrote a lot today.