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Back to your resume and cover letter you’ve been working on: What other next steps do you want to take to make these two components stronger?

As of now, my cover letter is designed with a specific job in mind. I think I would like to make a little bit more of a generic one, to deploy to multiple jobs. I will no doubt be using heavy influence from the one I previously created. I was also wondering, as I stated in the previous PD, should I make an "eye catching" cover letter for more UX/UI or design jobs? Or should this, in general, be pretty straight forward, and "professional" to the person I am reching out to?

Outreach Brainstorming: Either explore the company you wrote a cover letter for or find a new company to explore this week; Go to their company LinkedIn page and start to explore the employees. Who are a couple people you could reach out to? Why?

The company I chose to write a cover letter for was Microsoft. I currently have a firend who works there, who has recommended I apply. This friend also me

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Dear Microsoft, (change to hiring manager's/team-lead's name)

My name is Ian Holladay, and I am applying to a Software Engineer position in your company. As a company that is on the forefront pushing the limits of human technology, I would like to add my skills to your business. I have a friend who works for your company, AJ Carvajal, who describes MicroSoft as, "A peek into the future". Currently I am learning the newest technologies in the frontend developement field, such as JavaScript, React, SCSS/SASS, and HTML. In this field, I have studied how to create applications that focus on UX/UI and audits for accessibility, preformance, and SEO. With this education, I would like to build technologies with you that create better futures for users. Please consider me as a viable candidate to help your company grow our world. Thank you, Ian Holladay

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React Router Prework

This gist contains a short assignment I'd like everyone to complete before our formal lesson. The prework involves reading some of the React Router documentation, and will allow us to keep the lesson more hands on.

Instructions

1. Fork this gist
2. On your own copy, go through the listed readings and answer associated questions
3. Comment a link to your forked copy on the original gist

Questions / Readings

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Find a position or use a position you’ve put on your Huntr board and write a cover letter for that position in a Google doc or gist. Reference these cover letter resources as well as the session to complete your cover letter. Post the link to your cover letter here

https://gist.github.com/holladayian/2c0ee8cf3cb5fda7bd6267dd5032a045

Review your cover letter with a peer some time this week. What feedback did your partner give you? What next steps will you take to make your cover letter even stronger?

https://gist.github.com/holladayian/1d25163b52999c86dd1a7d38649302e4

If you were to apply to this position (and you should!), how will you customize your resume for it? What other next steps would you need to take here?

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Refine your career vision: What are the values that will drive your job search?

I think some of the minimum values are: >= 70k, remote (at lease until covid is over), =< 40hrs/week, and the general "no child-labor/manufacturing death/irresponsible pollution". Other than that I have started to realize that conservation might not be an industry I can get into right off the bat. I think in this time, I need something stabe that can support me and my needs, and as I recover from student loans/take a breath after Turing I will be able to aim into a field that really suits me.

What are your goals for your job search?

I would like to find 2 jobs per week to at least send a mock-application to. I know I need to get a resume up and running before I do this.

What kind of role do you see yourself pursuing in your job search?

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Please list the top 3-5 industries and companies you'll pursue in your job search as of right now.
When I first got into programming I thought I would eventually take it into something along the lines of conservationism. Now that I've had the time to reasearch a bit, I haven't found many, if any jobs in this field. Some are kind of there, most of them are philanthropic. I think this means I need to redifine my direction. Perhaps I will look less at an industry itself, but more at the values of companies, with directions such as using renewable energy, AI, and machine learning. I still plan on applying to as many jobs as I can, and probably will take the first one that fits. From there I will be more comfortable to search for that exact, right job for me. I might also consider looking into health care, however I want to aviod pharma.
Currently I was referenced a job at Pandora, and this is something I would like to follow through on. I don't believe I have the credentials (yet) for either positions that are o

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Create a GitHub gist to answer these questions in as much detail as possible. Imagine someone is asking these questions in an interview (these are popular interview questions).

What is a "data model", and how does it relate to the DOM in a front-end application?
A Data model is what holds onto the state of an application. From this state, the Document Object Model (DOM) is updated to display a visual representation of the application. 

What is a "framework?" And how does it differ from a "library?"
The main difference between a library and a framework is that with libraries, you have the ability to call the code, whenever you like, where as a framework calls your code, instead. This is known as "Inversion of Control".

Why should we consider using a framework over vanilla JS like you have been doing in mods 1 and 2?
Frameworks are based on components, have a strong community, have plenty of third party libraries, can utilize browser extensions that help with debugging, but most importantly they keep the UI 

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Mod 2 Week 5: Outreach & Networking I
(remember to reflect on what you have control over, what you want to try differently this week, and what habits you can utilize to get back on track):

Review your habit tracker: how did you monitor your habit(s)? What does this tell you about your overall progress becoming the person you want to be? In general, how satisfied are you with how you spent your time this module? What could be improved next module?
This last week was rough. We had a retro where we were asked to share things that I did not feel comfortable sharing. Thankfully, my project team is awesome and our project was completed early and with ease. Becuase of these (and other) wild swings in my emotional state, it has been harder for my to put time into my PD goals. Unfortunately, this week leads up to finals and solo projects, and I will have even less emotional capacity to invest in this. I have set myself a couple of dates, after the last Friday of this inning, to come back and review some of the PD thi

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In week 4, you'll have a job experience activity with employers. The next two prompts are designed to help you both prepare and reflect on that experience:

*I had this file almost completed, but I lost it before I could save, so some of the questions/answers might not be as accurate.

Prepare for Job Experience: AEIOU
Activities: what questions do you have about the activities that a software developer does on a daily basis?

What percentage of your time do you spend "writing actual code", and what time is spent talking about ideas, pseudocoding, project directions, etc.? 

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Assess your habits from week 2: how did you spend your time this past week? What was effective in your habits? What could be more effective? What steps will you take to make that happen?

Unfortunately most of my time last week was taken up by project time. I would have liked to have done more divide & conquer as I feel this is a faster/better way to learn, and is more akin to real world prgramming. I suppose something I would like to work on for the future is speaking up about this sooner in my DTRs.


Reflect on how you’ve spent your time so far at Turing to gauge your engagement and energy:

When have you been excited, focused, and enjoyed your work? When have you felt bored, restless, or unhappy? When do you feel energized in your work? When is your energy drained?

Honestly, lately I have really enjoyed having a few (too many) drinks and coding. It puts me in the mood, and I can code for hours, while having a blast until 3-4 in the morning. I want to be able to have this enjoyment without needing a drink