It has now been about 2 months since graduation and I’ve only heard back from 4 companies I’ve applied to, all who were reaching out to let me know I was being rejected. It’s very hard working on your skills everyday just to be told “nope!”, but I’m trying to remember that I just need one “yes!”. However, CoVid-19 is not helping the situation, in fact it’s causing many people to lose their jobs. During my time at Flatiron, I connected with hundreds of people via LinkedIn and Twitter and it’s devastating to see how many people have been laid off from work in not only the tech industry but the countless other industries being hurt by this pandemic.
Meanwhile, I’m trying to help in ways that I can which is supporting local businesses when I need something, offering to grocery shop for the elderly, and am soon going to offer to babysit for people who still have to go to work while schools are closed. When I am not out doing those things, I’m practicing social distancing which is very important so we can flatten the curve!
But enough about the pandemic, let’s talk about software engineering! In my two most recent blog posts I’ve discussed my Real Estate project and how I used the MVC pattern in it. Most of what still needs to be done with my project is CSS, small tweaks to forms and fixing a minor bug with my login system. While I haven’t worked on my app much this week, I’ve still been practicing coding, whether it be reading blogs, watching YouTube tutorials, or completing challenges on HackerRank. Also, Udemy is having a pretty big sale during this time so I was able to get Ruby on Rails and JavaScript courses for super cheap and I bought a book called Cracking the Coding Interview which has been awesome so far. I’m pretty new to HackerRank but I wanted to talk a little bit about how it works and how it can be helpful for beginners or people like me who have been coding for a while but want to practice. When you go to their site, you make an account, choose the languages you are learning or are wanting to learn, and choose your skill level. After that, you can work on code challenges that will help you succeed in interviews and/or just work on your problem solving skills in general. I’ve found it helpful because sometimes when you’re learning to code at a bootcamp or self-teaching, it can be either boring or overwhelming to just constantly read. With HackerRank, you can jump right into challenges and use what you’ve already learned to actually code, which is a nice break from reading and great practing for learning your programming language.
As far as job hunting, I’m still applying despite CoVid-19. Flatiron School’s method of making connections by reaching out to specific people who already work at the company you want to work for and keeping track of all your applications seems great, so I am hoping consistency will be my key to a job soon.
I’d love to connect via Twitter or LinkedIn and as always, happy coding!
Peace,
Nica