I've linked to my actual site, becuase while the blog posts are central to it, I'm also using the site itself as promotion. When I contant folks via cold outreach, apply for a job, or meetup with someone I can direct them to check it out. It's pretty simple for now, but the right people will appriciate how much work goes into getting something like this up and running.
I actually ended having 4 practive interviews. I'll be having my first actual interview this week...
My first interview session I was pretty nervious, for no reason really. I did ok at the 'soft' questions like, 'Tell me your story', did a little worse at the technical questions, and kind of struggled with the coding challaneges. By the 4th interview I had at least improved a little at each of these, especially the coding challanges.
For me the best practice I can give myself, aside from preparing for the interview, is to go in with a 'I don't care' attitude. Obviously I do care, but this how I calm my nerves. It helps with everything else.
I'm continuing to practice at it all. Studying up on the fundimentals, practicing coding challanges, working on my process, etc.. I think the thing that surprised me about the practices more than anything was how different each person gave it. Some were really chill and laid back, while others were far more stern. Guess I should be ready for that in real life too.
-
Design a 40-hour "work week" This is hard to put a definite answer on. My experience so far has been that each of these gets prioritized based on what's currently happening. I've had weeks where all I did was outreach and meet with people and I've had weeks where I was mostly coding and doing research. Knowing me I'll be filling up 40 hours pretty easily. For reasons I don't want to share, I have a lot of motivation to find a job.
-
Backwards planning: What is your cut-off for ending the job search? When do you want to receive and sign an offer by? Ideally I'd have an offer before graduating. Could happen... Otherwise I've always told myself three weeks after graduation is my ideal end time.
-
Based on what you outlined above, create monthly, weekly, and daily goals in order to reach your big goal.
- Daily goals:
- send at least one email
- find at least one open job
- do at least one practive code challange
- Weekly goals:
- meet or phone talk with at least one new person
- meet or phone talk with at least one known person
- post at least one blog entry
- spend at least 8 or more hours on personal projects
- Monthly goals:
- have two or more actual interviews
- What "barriers" tend to hold you back in the job search? What steps will you take to overcome those "barriers"?
- My main barrier is finding people or companies to outreach. I don't really have a problem with actually making contact, but I just want to make sure I'm making a useful and time worthy contact.
- How I get over this is mostly by spending more time figuring out what I want and how this person might relate to or be interested in that. If I can't connect with a person on some level aside from jobs I feel like the conversation just falls flat.
Where do you want to go in your career?
- Imagine that it's 5 years from now - what have you accomplished during that time? How is your life different? What steps did you take to achieve your goals?
- I didn't get lazy or complacent and maintained energy in coding and making cool things.
- I became an expert in (some area) and can speak publicly about it and people come to me for technical advice on it.
- I made something that I'm proud of and can show people.
- Create a vision statement for these longterm goals.
- I will be content, able to focus on family and friends, and always have options for what I want to do next.
- Reference what you outlined in your Flower Exercise -- what preferred level of responsibility do you want to move to? Do you want to start your own company? What kind of work do you see yourself doing longterm? In your first year on the job, what skills do you want to develop to work towards your longterm goals?
- I'm not sure yet. I've tended to fall into leadership roles in other things I've done, so I expect I'll want to move up there someday. For the short term I want remain on a team, become more valuable, and get really good at the things I'm doing.
- I'm open to developing what ever skills I need to in order to get the job done. With that said, I love the challange of making games. I don't actually play them all that much anymore, but they offer the ultimate outlet for creativity, making my brain hurt, and tangible results.
You're encouraged to pick one of the below options to work on in addition to the previous two. However, these are both completely optional.
I have two major side projects.
- My blog site, which is always evolving and alows me to work on a fullstack app.
- My ruby phsyics engine. This is mostly fun, but people seem to be impressed by it. It's also going to offer me a chance to make a wiki and a really good readme, since I want other people to use it. Then I can make it a gem.