28 April 2016

Finding A Job

So far so good. Initial efforts have been good on my journey to find employment as a junior dev. Some things I've learned so far...

1) LinkedIn is terrible, it's about as useful as a pair of chocolate oven gloves...

2) Tech-tests are cool & a great way to show companies how you structure your code, although they make take up a considerable chunk of your week!

3) A lot of companies don't advertise their vacancies, instead it's up to you to go and find them.

What I'm doing at the moment...

Secondary to looking for a job, I'm currently building my first proper API. I had played around with the Github & Facebook API's & also created my own for an AirBnB clone I made at Makers. However the latter never had authentication via the API. It was just handled through sessions on a Rails ERB page. Now it's time to try OAuth!

My idea is social media platform for DJ's that consumes the Discogs & ChewTv API. It's going to take me a while to do but it's something to do whilst my search for a job is ongoing.

I'm also currently trying to learn a bit of Python, I have an interview with a company that specialises in Python next week & if it goes well, it's more than likley I'll have to write some Python for a technical test or similar!

Is there such thing as being ready?

During your time at Makers imposters syndrome will probably creep in. It's the feeling that you've gotten to where you are today by blagging your way through. You start to believe your a fraud wheras the reality is your probably not. Going to interviews & submitting tech tests can cause this feeling to affect you pretty much everyday. Even as I'm writing thise I'm questioning whether or not I'm good enough to be a junior dev.

Because of this, going for inteviews, tech-tests or even just talking to someone about code can quickly go from being a simple task to a big hairy, scary issue that you have to deal with... Im starting to learn how to put those fears aside & get stuck in, the fact of the matter is I don't think there is such thing as being ready!