What a lonnnnnnnnng break it's been huh? I don't want to get into specifics about my situation, it's a well beaten horse, but I am stable and in a safe place and can continue to work towards another software job.
The times, they are a'changin'
It's a brutal market for us techies. I don't think I've ever seen anything like this, even 2001 seemed less terrible than the past three quarters. It is infuriating, not just because I was laid off, but it seems that everyone is, was, and it is hard for tech workers to get back into the field.
Also, it isn't just the slackers being given a pink slip; tenured engineers with awards are being shoved out the door of Google and Microsoft at will and opening up LinkedIn is an exercise in not wanting to jump off a bridge.
This is just some thoughts on life and tech and how having a routine helps stave off burnout.
I have a 17 Day Streak on freeCodeCamp which is . My longest streak was 4 and I am really proud of how I’ve stuck with it; I don’t always put in more than one challenge or algorithm, but I and .
Another year is gone and everyone is doing their retrospectives; goals they did or didn’t accomplish in 2018 and what they plan on doing in 2019.
I wrote such a piece in the beginning of December and I thought I’d go through some things I didn’t mention in that post.
Some Letdowns
I was not offered a position at DEV. Simply put: I did not perform well. I did initially, but after a month or so, I began to have lapses in judgement that cost me. I couldn’t navigate VS Code with just my keyboard, I wasn’t taking notes so the things I was instructed on doing I would forget.
Just a heads-up: I’m an egghead.io instructor now! My profile is pretty barren of content but I have some things up my sleeve. The link is in the footer if you want to check it out later.Stay tuned.
I am currently working on interviewing with a pretty great company and this means preparing for technical interviews.
Sorry about collecting emails and then not posting anything for a while! This newsletter will explain some things and hopefully give some insights to new developers as well.
Last year around this time I was looking for work and getting some nibbles on the things I put out there. The end of the year ended with an internship at dev.to. I had a blast working with the team despite my shortcomings. I figured by the time I moved, sometime in the summer, I’d have work. I didn’t think that here, in November, I’d still be looking for a permanent, full-time mid-level developer job.
Interviews with Automattic and Microsoft
This summer I had interviews with both Automattic, makers of WordPress.com and Microsoft within a couple weeks of each other.
A collection of the best React, JavaScript, and front-end development links for the month of September.
This segment of the newsletter is being named what it was originally called eons ago: Critical Linking. I got the idea from Book Riot a couple years ago and decided to use it for my newsletter. If you’ve read it’s essentially the same thing.
I am just beginning to write documentation for my open source projects. I have had some stumbles along the way but I am still learning how to communicate what each app/tool does.
Here are some of the basics that I am learning while drafting my docs:
Have a good and sections to get a user up to speed on installing the tool/s on their local machine for testing and development.
In order for React to be as fast as it is, it only needs to update the parts of the DOM that need it. You really don’t need to worry about doing this yourself, but understanding how setState() in React works could be beneficial.
It’s been a bit of a week! From snow to 90°? Wild.
If you haven’t noticed I have switched from TinyLetter to Buttondown.email as they allow writing in markdown as well as other necessary features for free for the first 1000 subs. I am nowhere near that so I am happy to be a part of this.
There’s not much to say except that I moved, back to my tiny hometown because . The place is technically barren so there are no dev jobs here, especially cutting edge web dev jobs…or…cutting edge dev jobs…or…cutting edge . I hate this place but it is what it is. I digress.
Like many developers, I have used many an open source library/framework for my projects.
And like many newer developers, I haven't actually contributed anything meaningful to the open source communities whose code I use so regularly.
This year, I have made it a goal to contribute to open source more, about once a month. I figured this is a way to give back to the community as well as making me look attractive to potential employers.
The problem?
I really haven't contributed much of anything before.
Searching for Welcoming Repos to Contribute To
I got lucky in that I found an interesting repo in an article I was reading. The library is called Toast UI Editor. This library is an incredibly useful one for me as I try to build out Check Yo Self and am in need of a markdown editor.
I went through the issues and found this one:
Of course, the issue creator could have been nicer, but I felt like this was something I could do.
The maintainer made a few comments and because he said that helping out would be welcomed, I chimed in:
The other nice part about this is that their Code of Conduct encourages kindness and welcomes diversity.
Make sure you read the contributing doc and make sure their Code of Conduct makes sure the environment is not toxic and is welcoming to new programmers or programmers new to the open source community.
Contributing is Fun
I have forked Toast UI and set up the dev environment and made a new enhancement branch. I am digging into the css now and having fun.
Have you contributed? How'd it go your first time?
A few days ago there was a lot of chatter about a 'keylogger' built in CSS.
Some folks called for browsers to 'fix' it. Some folks dug a bit deeper and saw that it only affected sites built in React-like frameworks, and pointed the finger at React. But the real problem is thinking that third party content is 'safe'.
It's safe to say that we should be checking our third party CSS as well.
From the React Blog on web performance for user experience
On the first demo, Dan says: “We’ve built a generic way to ensure that high-priority updates don’t get blocked by a low-priority update, called time slicing. If my device is fast enough, it feels almost like it’s synchronous; if my device is slow, the app still feels responsive. It adapts to the device thanks to the requestIdleCallback API.
There is a video of React dev and Redux author Dan Abramov demoing two different facets of React 16 that effects perf for a better user experience. Definitely worth the 30 or so minute watch.
Unlike typical software engineer job interviews, front-end job interviews have less emphasis on algorithms and have more questions on intricate knowledge and expertise about the domainâ—âHTML, CSS, JavaScript, just to name a few areas.
While there are some existing resources to help front end developers in preparing for interviews, they aren't as abundant as materials for a software engineer interview.
I am glad for this resource as I gear up to get a full-time position this time after moving day.
I decided that I wanted to study for these interview questions on the go, during commutes or while sitting in doctor's offices. So I made some flashcard decks in popular formats. Thanks to Yangshun's Front-end Interview Questions Handbook for the material. Will be updated as more info is pushed.
I will be trying to hack out a Python script to update the csv file automatically when new info is pushed. It will be a challenge but a fun one.
Lots of Great Content Out There
I am going to source what I find interesting an bring it to you for you to peruse at your leisure. Hope you enjoy! ð ð¤ ðªð¾
It has been a while since I've written one of these "tiny letters" to my small group of subscribers. Let me tell you now, that these will be more regular than in the past, hopefully. And hopefully you enjoy them.
The last time I wrote one I was going through a nervous breakdown that took a while to get over. In the years since, great ups and downs have happened. There are still some uncertainties but I am more prepared to handle them.
The Good
I had the opportunity to intern at The Practical Dev, an awesome and fast growing developer platform for sharing ideas. The stack was totally unfamiliar to me (Rails) and it was fully remote.
Seeing that it was remote, in a stack I wasn't familiar with, and was the first time I wrote production level code on a team, I did well. But not well enough.
The Mistakes
I didn't take notes. I just didn't feel like breaking out Quiver.app or my iPad to jot things down. That was a fatal mistake because while I had fantastic momentum at first, building useful and complex features, I got hit with the news that I needed to move as my building decided they weren't going to renew my lease.
Understandably I was panicked. I began to forget simple details. I stopped being able to use the keyboard properly with shortcuts, etc. I didn't remember how to bring up the command palette in my editor or use fuzzy search. I kept stumbling. Then I got the performance review and I was crushed. I expected it. But not like that.
I didn't feel like I could face my team. My perfectionism got the best of me. I hold myself to high standards, much to my downfall. And because of this, I failed to perform for the latter half of my internship, which meant they didn't end up offering me. And to be honest, I was glad. I just wanted to forget the mess I made.
Learning
The exit interview was the best thing that happened to me throughout the whole experience. It gave me perspective. The team also said I seemed completely self-aware and we agreed on the place where I started to fall off. I was a bad communicator and it got even worse when I felt like I had failed them.
Some takeaways:
Keep Slack open but keep keywords on.
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Be an active participant in the conversations there.
