Plans within Plans

     

Well, as Eisenhower once said “In preparing for battle I have always found that plans are useless, but planning is indispensable.” The week before last I received opportunities to interview at Steelcase, the Washington Utilities and Transportation Commission (UTC), as well as several smaller startups. Steelcase alone has occupied 16 hours of time, primarily due to the six hour round-trip commutes both of the two-hour in-person interviews have necessitated. Additionally, the WA UTC position has prompted me to revisit my studies of C#, which I’m honestly a little rusty on.

Of Happenings! and Agile

     

I know it’s Wednesday, but I wanted to wait until after election day so I could provide my own spin on the results. If you’re not politically inclined, by all means, skip to the paragraph after next for the month’s agile objectives. When populism originally emerged in the 1890’s it’s rallying cry was that “the toil of millions are boldly stolen to build up colossal fortunes for a few” (sound familiar?

Job!

     

I got a job! It’s a contract position to develop an iOS app and an Android app for a recruiting agency known as eXcell. I unfortunately can’t discuss the details of the contract proposal or the app due to a Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA) that I signed, but after hearing the pitch from the project manager I’m confident I have the skills to implement what they’re looking for. I have to say that if it hadn’t been for my time at Coding Dojo, I wouldn’t have even begun to have considered myself qualified.

2 Weeks after graduation-Completion of Career Services

     

So, I’ve finished the coding dojo career course. Here are my biggest takeaways: Know the difference between Agency and Corporate recruiters and the advantages/disadvantages of each Look up the github of the team that you’re interviewing for. See what their code style is like and try to imitate it if you’re given a coding challenge. Connect with as many recruiters and Coding Dojo alumni as possible! Roshawn had us go through 10 pages of results for ‘Technical Recruiter’ and 10 pages for ‘Coding Dojo’ and request a connection with each and every one.

Day 21-Projects & Graduation Day

     

0730-It’s the last day of Coding Dojo. I’ve got mixed feelings about it. On the one hand I’m sad to be leaving a place where I learned so much so fast. On the other I’m excited and anxious to start my job search. 0900-Another mini-scrum. I’m going for quick-win objectives at this point. Add background music. Touch up the interface. Fix bugs. My only major objective is to implement the head-to-head interface and my chances of completing that prior to presentation seem dubious at best.